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Florida experienced the first year-over-year decrease in foreclosure activity since July 2006 – down 4 percent, year-over-year, in October, according to RealtyTrac.

Still, the state posted the third-highest foreclosure rate in the nation, with one in every 168 housing units going into default.

October saw 51,911 Florida properties file for foreclosure, down nearly 6 percent from the previous month, according to the Irvine, Calif.-based online marketplace for foreclosures.

“It’s not that the economy is so much better and that everyone is getting jobs, it’s that the banks are more willing to work things out,” said Scott Coloney, who leads the

Foreclosure Response Team in Fort Lauderdale. “I don’t think the banks want the houses back, and that’s probably why it’s going down. It’s like hot potato.”

Coloney said his company has been working with lenders’ loss mitigation departments, which are granting extensions, giving homeowners who face foreclosure the time to conduct a short sale.

And, while at first blush it might appear that the foreclosure tide is turning, RealtyTrac CEO James J. Saccacio said in a news release that “the fundamental forces driving foreclosure activity in this housing downturn – high-risk mortgages, negative equity and unemployment – continue to loom over any nascent recovery.”

In the tri-county area, Miami-Dade County saw 7,741 homes, or one in every 126, fall into foreclosure last month. In Broward, there were 6,797 homes, or one in every 118, going into default. Palm Beach fared best, with 3,350 homes, or one in every 191, going into foreclosure.

Only Nevada – which experienced a 26 percent decline in foreclosure activity month over month – and California – which experienced just a 1 percent month-over-month decline – had higher foreclosure rates than Florida.

Nationwide, 332,292 homes fell into foreclosure in October, down 3 percent from the previous month, but up nearly 19 percent from October 2008.

The decline in foreclosure rates follows Tuesday’s news that sales of existing homes and condos rose in the third quarter, both in Florida and nationwide.

Still, prices remain significantly depressed. A report released Monday by Zillow found that South Florida homeowners continued to drown in negative equity, with more than 46 percent, or 387,157 of all single-family homes, under water at the end of the third quarter.

Even there, however, was a glimmer of hope, as the number was down slightly from the 47 percent, or 393,473 homes, under water in the second quarter.

Last week, President Barack Obama extended the first-time homebuyer credit, leading to speculation that it will help to push more potential homebuyers off the fence, stimulating home sales even further.

South Florida did not fare very well on this year’s Best-Performing Cities index, complied by the Milken Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., and Greenstreet Real Estate Partners in Miami’s Coconut Grove.

The report is considered to be a scorecard for the economic vibrancy of metropolitan areas.

Florida’s metropolitan areas tumbled as the economy took a toll on jobs and the depressed housing market.

The Miami metropolitan area fared the worst, falling to 179 in 2009 from 117 last year. The West Palm Beach metropolitan area was No. 175, tumbling 70 places from No. 105 in 2008. The Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area also fell 70 spots, to No. 131 in 2009 from No. 61 a year ago.

“One glance at the list of metros recording the biggest declines reveals the extent of the housing bust in Florida,” the report noted.

Twelve of the 20 metropolitan areas experiencing the biggest declines were in Florida.

“Much of the economic growth through mid-decade in these metros was driven by residential and commercial construction activity, and this sector has ground to a halt. Several of these metros are also dependent on travel and tourism, which plunged late last year,” according to the report.

The Pensacola area fared the worst, not only in the Sunshine State, but nationwide – falling 124 spots to No. 157 from No. 33 last year.

Nationwide, the Hartford, Conn., metropolitan area fared the best, climbing 101 spots to No. 48.

The good news, according to the report, is that the economy appears to have bottomed out. The question, however, remains: When will there start to be a recovery?

Click here to see the full report.

Chase, the U.S. consumer and commercial banking arm of JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM), will boost its lending to small businesses by up to $4 billion in 2010, it said Monday.

The move will increase expected new lending to a total of about $10 billion. It also will provide businesses with increased access to working capital, term loans for expansion, commercial mortgages, lines of credit, and business credit cards, Chase said.

While the $4 billion in additional credit will be available to qualified businesses with annual sales of less than $20 million, the majority of new loans will be targeted to companies with sales of less than $10 million.

Chase said it has $29 billion in outstanding balances in loans, lines and credit card balances to businesses with annual sales of less than $20 million.

Chase also will hire 325 additional small business bankers.

“We will provide more credit and more one-on-one advice to small businesses at this crucial time because they are so important to the U.S. economy,” said Charlie Scharf, head of Retail Financial Services at Chase, in a statement. “We urge small businesses owners to use the additional capital to expand and create jobs, and spur economic growth.

Spiking unemployment, falling demand and growing competition from condo investors-turned-landlords is draining tenants and profits out of South Florida rental apartment complexes.

In September, occupancy levels at apartments in Palm Beach and Broward counties bounced along at lows not seen in a decade. Rents there and in Miami-Dade also continued into another year of decline, according to data from Carrollton, Texas-based apartment research firm MPF Research.

Broward’s occupancy rate of 92.4 is just 0.1 percentage points above a mid-1998 low. Year-over-year rents fell 4.1 percent to an average monthly rate of $1,103.

Palm Beach County’s 91.9 percent occupancy was 0.7 percentage points above a mid-2003 low. Average rents fell 4.6 percent to $1,039.

At 94 percent, Miami-Dade occupancy was the strongest in the region, but average rents fell 2 percent to $1,004 a month. Miami-Dade’s occupancy is 4.7 percentage points above the county’s all-time low of 89.3 percent in early 1998.

“The biggest thing you see this year is rent cuts,” said Greg Willett, VP of MPF Research. “Operators are essentially buying occupancy.”

Free rent now defines dealmaking for many complexes.

In metropolitan Miami, 40 percent of the apartments dangle concessions, MPF data shows. In Broward, the concession rate jumps to 48 percent, and in Palm Beach County, nearly 60 percent of all units are discounted.

At the new Satori in downtown Fort Lauderdale, renters can get up to two months of free rent.

“The concessions drive production,” said Joel Altman, chairman of the Boca Raton-based Altman Cos., developer of the upscale 279-unit Satori. Altman’s strategy: create a niche with green features such as solar roof film to generate power for common areas; super-efficient washers, dryers and HVAC; and luxury finishes inside units.

Rents are among the highest in the area, starting at $1,715 for a one-bedroom unit and going up to $2,700 for a three-bedroom unit.

In downtown Fort Lauderdale, where 781 new units are coming online, competition is particularly intense. Satori competes against two other upscale complexes, 4 Forty Flagler Village and Alexan Solmar, for renters

“The lease velocity is good, the pricing is poor,” said McCallum Parrott, senior managing director for Trammell Crow Residential, developer of the 284-unit Alexan Solmar. In addition to two months’ free rent, base rents were lowered before leasing started to reflect market conditions, he said.

Similar to for-sale housing, apartment leasing and rent growth are tied most closely to employment strength, so rental income isn’t likely to bounce back quickly, experts say.

“The trend is still declining,” said Paula Poskon, a senior research analyst with Robert W. Baird & Co. “I think 2010 will be the trough of the NOI [net operating income] decline.”

Weakening fundamentals and depressed values have trampled South Florida’s once-robust apartment sales market, even though financing is easier to get, due to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac underwriting.

Apartment sales have plummeted more than 80 percent since 2007 when nearly $2 billion in transactions had occurred by Oct. 31, according to Real Capital Analytics.

“What we are seeing is sellers with a choice choosing not to sell into this market,” said Brad Capas, a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield. “Buyers are looking for deals.”

But, conventional apartments could be setting up for a big rebound in rents by 2012, experts say. That’s because after the current wave of units hit this year and next, few projects are in the pipeline.

Tight vacancy and strong rental growth is in store a few years down the road, said Jay Jacobson, a partner with Wood Partners, which is finishing up a 381-unit complex in Miami.

Wood owns sites in Delray Beach and north Miami-Dade County, but has no immediate plans to develop due to financing challenges.

Lenders filed an average of 272 foreclosure actions in South Florida each day in October, an 8 percent increase from the same time last year, according to Condo Vultures report.

The October activity is also an 86 percent increase from 2007, which could mean more trouble for the residential real estate market.

But, the overall pace of foreclosures is slowing for the year, said Peter Zalewski, managing principal of Bal Harbour-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures, which tracks sales activity in the tri-county area.

Condo Vultures projects that 2009 will log 98,000 actions this year based on the pace of foreclosure filings to date. The high volume of activity earlier in the year put the tri-county area on pace for 102,000 foreclosure filings.

“Foreclosure filings are up from last year, but beginning to slow in volume compared to a quarter or two ago,” Zalewski said.

Looking at the first 10 months of the year, lenders filed foreclosures against 75,000 properties in 2008 and 33,000 in 2007. Foreclosures through the end of October this year represent a 28 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

Broward is leading the pack, with a 21 percent year-over-year jump – with 4,002 foreclosure actions filed in October. Miami-Dade saw its foreclosure activity grow by 10 percent, and Palm Beach actually saw its numbers drop by 9 percent.

The rise in foreclosure activity does not coincide with a rise in inventory, as would be expected. In fact, South Florida’s residential resale inventory dropped 1.1 percent on a week-over-week basis on Nov. 2, to 69,342 single-family houses, townhouses, and condominium units, according to the report produced using Florida Association of Realtors data.

After a long period of planning and deployment, Miami Beach (Florida) has launched its citywide free Wi-Fi service. The network provides free Wi-Fi access with 95% outdoor coverage and 70% indoor coverage up through the second floor of buildings. The city is also using the network for public safety and other municipal departments, allowing employees to use laptops and handheld devices to perform tasks that include building inspections, public works and code compliance.

Miami Beach is one of the few cities that offer free citywide Wi-Fi service. Others have abandoned their projects after private companies such as EarthLink left the business. Municipalities, such as St. Cloud in Florida, are struggling to maintain free Wi-Fi access in the face of budget cuts. St. Cloud’s city council had initially voted to shut down the public access side of the network, but fierce opposition from residents, many of whom use the network because they cannot afford to pay for Internet access, has forced the city to keep the network open.

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Report on the WiMAX Band (2.5 GHz) after the FCC auction is now available. Click here to find out more and to purchase the report.

The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area ranked dead last on Forbes list of the safest largest cities in the U.S.

The rankings are based on a city’s levels of violent crime, workplace fatalities rates, traffic death rates and natural disaster risk.

America’s southernmost metropolis ranked among the six worst in all four categories earning it the lowest overall safety ranking the list, according to Forbes.

The S. Fla. area ranked No. 35 for violent crime, No. 34 in workplace fatalities, No. 35 in traffic deaths and No. 40 for natural disaster risk.

Minneapolis-St. Paul ranked No. 1 scoring high in all categories. Portland, Ore., ranked third, and Boston and Seattle tied for fourth in Forbes’ rankings.

Click here for the full report.

A study by financial services firm Fiserv predicted that U.S. home prices will continue declining through the middle of 2010 – with the Miami area suffering the steepest drop among major markets.

Using the Case-Shiller Index of home prices, and calculating in data such as foreclosures, Fiserv predicted that median home prices nationwide would fall 11.3 percent – to $154,336 from $174,000 – between June 2009 and June 2010.

Fiserv chief economist David Stiff said the forecast is based on the gap between home prices and incomes, which was distorted during the boom years and is now correcting itself. The study also factored in the amount of foreclosures.

While this would be a disaster for many, it could create opportunities for people looking to buy.

“Because prices dropped so dramatically and they will continue to drop in Florida, affordability is being restored quickly,” Stiff said. “People who were priced out of the market two or three years ago should be able to afford houses.”

The glut of foreclosures and vacant units means even greater woes for South Florida. Fiserv predicts Miami home prices will drop an additional 29.9 percent during that period. That mean median home prices will fall to $150,715 from $215,000 – below the expected national average.

If that happens, expect another wave of losses for banks as they write down the value of their loans. It could also spur even more people to walk away from homes that are worth less than their mortgages. The decline in home values would cause more holes in city and county budgets, as well.

Things will be nearly as bad in Fort Lauderdale, Fiserv predicted. It said home prices there would fall 26.2 percent during the period. That means the median home price would drop to $160,884 from $218,000.

In West Palm Beach, Fiserv forecast that home prices would decline by 21.7 percent, to $179,307 from $229,000.

Fiserv also predicted that home prices in South Florida would decline in the low single digits between June 30, 2010, and June 30, 2011.