South Florida: Top 20 Places to Buy Foreclosures

Topping a list of 20 metropolitan areas is Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, the Irvine, Calif.-based real estate data firm said.

RealtyTrac looked at four criteria in tallying the “best places”: the supply of foreclosure inventory; foreclosure sales as a percentage of all transactions; the average percentage discount on foreclosures; and the annual percentage change in foreclosure activity in 2012 compared with 2011.

Also among the top 20 metro areas for buying foreclosures are Lakeland (No. 5), Tampa (No. 6), Jacksonville (No.7), Orlando (No. 9) and Miami (No. 12), according to RealtyTrac report.

The No. 12 ranking for the metropolitan area of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach was based on the area having a 29-month supply of foreclosures, with foreclosures accounting for 28.7 percent of all sales during 2012. The average price discount on a foreclosed home in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area was 31 percent in 2012, when foreclosure activity rose 36 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said.