Jacksonville FL Market

[Jared Wild]

Has anyone seen an uptick in foreclosures in Jacksonville?

[Sarah Shockley]

So this is a fairly common misconception...... in short, No.

The foreclosure process takes a looooooong time. Assuming foreclosures start happening this year (which is highly unlikely), best case scenario it will be 2022 before that inventory begins to trickle onto the market.

Florida is a judicial foreclosure state, which means that foreclosures are processed through the legal system. In 'normal' circumstances it's not unusual for this process to take over two years - often up to 4 years. 

First of all, usually a homeowner has to be over 6 months behind in their payments before the foreclosure process begins, and the recent government 'pause' on evictions and foreclosures will delay the process further. Even once it starts property owners are given many opportunities to catch up on payments and stop the foreclosure, and recent legislation will ensure that more assistance is available than it was during prior recessions.

Recent unemployment numbers in Florida are pretty alarming - but the data indicates that most who have lost jobs recently were making less than $40k/year. These are not people who own property; for the most part they are renters so they don't own any properties that could be foreclosed on.

That being said, I don't have a crystal ball. It is certainly possible that foreclosure activity could increase in the future, but regardless it will take time before we see any effects in the market.