Foreclosures are on the rise again.

New filings reached a record high in Lee and Collier counties in October.

In Lee, they grew to 2,603 — the most in any month.

In Collier, they surpassed 800 for the first time. That was up from a record 751 in September.

Dwight Brock, Collier County’s clerk of the courts, said there’s no way for him to know whether filings will continue their upswing.

“Someone stole my crystal ball over the weekend and I have been lost all day,” he joked.

His office was still working Monday to come up with a final count for last month.

“The only thing that this means to me is we are having to work more and more with fewer and fewer resources to get it done,” he said.

Charlie Green, Lee County’s clerk of courts, said while total filings reached a new high last month, the average number per day is down. He takes that as a good sign.

In February, the number of filings per day in Lee reached 123. In June, it was at 120. In September, it fell to 117. In October, it dropped to 113.

“The average is trying to come down, but it hasn’t dropped significantly yet,” Green said. “We are still at the top of the bell curve. But if anything, it’s kind of flat.”

In Lee, there’s a backlog of about 29,000 foreclosure cases because so many are filed per month. But efforts are under way to speed up the process.

“What we are doing is holding more hearings. We are also looking at going to online auctions,” Green said.

Naples real estate expert Ross McIntosh, founder of The Bidder’s Broker, said new initiatives by banks and the federal government should help stave off many new foreclosure filings in the coming months.

JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, temporarily halted its foreclosures Friday, saying it would renegotiate $110 billion in mortgages.

Last month, Bank of America agreed with state attorneys general in 11 states — including Florida — to offer relief to nearly 400,000 troubled Countrywide borrowers. The move is expected to result in $8.4 billion in interest rate and principal reductions.

Bank of America acquired Countrywide Financial in July as it faced collapse from its exposure to the riskier sub-prime mortgages.

Meanwhile, the federal government is looking at backing $500 billion in mortgages. The plan could include loan modifications.

“There is a belief that if we can keep enough people in their homes, that will stabilize housing prices,” McIntosh said. “We don’t know that to be true yet.”

It’s difficult to predict how far the rate of foreclosures must fall before they’re no longer a drag on the market, he said.

In September, the median price for a single-family home dropped 39 percent to $141,400, from $231,600 a year ago in the Fort Myers-Cape Coral market, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. The median price is the price at which half the homes sell for more and half for less.

In the Naples area, the median price dropped to $240,000 in September, down from $366,000 a year ago, according to the most recent report by the Naples Area Board of Realtors.

“If the spigot of foreclosures is not turned down, then the supply will continue to overwhelm the market in the absence of drastic price reductions,” McIntosh said. “We are flooding the market with these things. That is the problem.”

Naples News