All told, the three-county region stretching from Manatee County to Charlotte County, registered 3,376 foreclosure filings last month -- a 15 percent increase from February and a 57 percent increase from March 2009.

But the number of filings representing the start of the foreclosure process was down 10 percent to 1,538 from a year ago. At the same time, the number of filings that represent a bank seizing a property from a defaulting borrower was up nearly 300 percent from March 2009 to 622, according to data from California-based RealtyTrac Inc.

That could be a signal that foreclosures have been working their way through the system in much the same way that a rat is digested by a snake. By that analogy, the rodent bulge during March was a lot lower in the abdomen than it was last year.

The same trend appears to be occurring on the national level, albeit in a less exaggerated way.

Data provided by RealtyTrac show that foreclosures across the country rose sharply in March, but the foreclosures in the system were more tilted toward the final stage of the process than they had been in the past.

There were 257,944 REOs -- banking parlance for when a lender seizes a property -- during the first quarter, a 9 percent increase from the previous quarter and a 35 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

"This subtle shift in the numbers pushed REOs to the highest quarterly total we've ever seen in our report and may be further evidence that lenders are starting to make a dent in the backlog of distressed inventory that has built up over the last year as foreclosure prevention programs and processing delays slowed the normal foreclosure timeline," said James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac chief executive, in a statement.

Other observers of the region's market have noticed a similar trend in Southwest Florida.

"It looks like banks are aggressively moving forward with foreclosures," said George Huhn, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Venice. "They are realizing that demand for foreclosures is good. The bottom is in and people are stepping up to invest."

Huhn expects total foreclosures to increase in the months ahead, but he said demand for those properties will rise and soak up the excess inventory.

Perry Corneau, who runs his own Sarasota real estate firm, sees a similar scenario.

"Banks have driven down prices to the point where people can't ignore them any more," Corneau said.  (Herald Tribune 4/15/2010.)

Mike Federau, Curtis Mellon, and Dan McKinney, with the "mlsDetectives" in Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, and the North Port area have also seen a similar trend.  Our clients are having to place 3-4 bids in order to obtain on property.  Foreclosures typically get multiple offers and properties are seen to sell on average of 97-99% of the properties last list price. 

Mike Federau advises that our clients are getting frustrated of having to go through the process.  It is difficult to convince them that in most cases they have to bid over asking price in order to secure the property.  We recently placed a bid on a $134,000 at $148,000 and still did not get the property. Even at that price, they are getting an excellent buy. 

At this pricing level these properties do not last!