Coastal Florida Real Estate

Florida's courts tackled 398,825 foreclosure cases in 2009, an 8 percent increase over the previous year and a glut that led to a new statewide mediation rule aimed at reducing the overload.

Palm Beach County's foreclosure court cases appeared to level off some in 2009, growing about 4 percent to 30,227.

But that number is a huge increase over the county's foreclosures before the real estate bust. In 2004, Palm Beach County courts handled 3,250 foreclosures. In 2005, there were just 3,049.

"I hope we're not leveling off long term at that high number," said Circuit Judge Peter Blanc, chief judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit. "As hard as everybody's working, we're still not quite treading water with the foreclosures."

Blanc said Palm Beach County has about 55,000 backlogged foreclosure cases.

The statewide foreclosure numbers were released by the Florida Supreme Court, which in December issued an administrative order requiring mediation on all homesteaded properties before a foreclosure hearing is held. The order aims to settle cases before they clog the courts.

The counties with the highest foreclosure cases in 2009 were Miami-Dade with 63,522, and Broward, which had 49,640.

St. Lucie County saw an 11 percent decrease in foreclosure court cases with 8,217 in 2009, while Martin County's cases grew 20 percent last year from 2008 to 2,129.

Blanc said judges have been pulled from the civil division to help with Palm Beach County's foreclosures.

That means other cases such as business disputes and commercial litigation suffer, Blanc said.

Experts differ on whether another flood of foreclosures will occur this year as unemployment continues and adjustable rate and interest-only mortgages reset.

"I've got news, there are a bunch of properties coming," predicted Jack McCabe, CEO of McCabe Research and Consulting in Deerfield Beach.

Blanc said he's working on several options to help alleviate the foreclosure caseload in Palm Beach County but wasn't ready to speak about them.

"I think we're doing a pretty good job right now, the numbers are just so overwhelming," Blanc said.