Florida foreclosures remain at high level

There is a law school urban legend (which may be true at some schools) that, during orientation, students are told, look to your left, look to your right, one of you will fail and won't make it through the semester. Looking at recent data concerning foreclosures, I can't help but think that the same visual applies in many neighborhoods in Miami-Dade and Broward County.

In a recent report by RealtyTrac, it was reported that Florida retains one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. This is hardly news as it has been reported in numerous forms. But the newly released data is still troubling. The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area ranked 14th nationally, with one in every 28 homes -- 3.54 percent -- in foreclosure. Florida's west coast, one of the most hard hit areas, is faring even worse. One in every 14 homes, or 7.2 percent of total housing units, was in some stage of the foreclosure process in the Cape Coral area.

This data was published almost simultaneously with President Obama's report that the economy has stabilized. This might be the case, but even Obama admitted that it would take a while for the economic recovery (which has yet to happen) to filter down to the individual level.