The real estate analysis firm RealtyTrac has released its foreclosure data for the month of August. The outlook is not good for South Florida.
About 1 in every 28 South Florida homes is now in the foreclosure pipeline and it'll get worse before it gets better.
New numbers from RealtyTrac show that more than 9,000 South Florida homes either entered the foreclosure process or moved further along last month.
That's up from a year ago and a big reason why August was the eighth straight month of year-over-year foreclosure increases for Florida, according to Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac.
He said, "If you'd have looked at the numbers last year you'd have thought things are doing great - foreclosure activity down 50 or 60 percent."
All an illusion, says Blomquist.
Through 2010 and 2011, banks in Florida slowed down on foreclosures following some high-profile issues with sloppy paper work and robo-signing.
What we're seeing now is that banks are moving on properties again.
The good news, says Blomquist, is that the slowdown a year ago gave the market a chance to stabilize.
"And even with these additional foreclosures coming online, I think the market is strong enough to take those on and absorb those without a huge impact to home prices going forward," said Blomquist.
Blomquist says if the Florida housing market were a hospital patient, it's finally coming off life support.
Although, there is still this nasty pill to swallow: Blomquist's best guess is that it'll be another year-and-a-half to two years before the foreclosure crisis in Florida has run its course.