In the Tampa Bay area, nearly 1 in 10 mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration is in default.

As of December, 3,913 out of 41,361 FHA mortgages in our region are in default, meaning homeowners are at least 3 months behind on their payments. That gives us a default rate of 9.46 percent, worse than the December 2007 rate of 6.44 percent.

As easy-to-get mortgages dried up in 2006 and 2007, many buyers turned to the FHA, which requires cream-puff down payments of only 3.5 percent. In December 2007, 33,136 FHA loans were on the books locally.  A year later the sum had ballooned to 41,361.

The FHA cautions that 60 percent of its mortgages in default will not slip into foreclosure. But the current housing crisis is erasing plenty of old certitudes.  

As lousy as our default rate is - we were 44th worst in the nation - we're a relative winner in Florida. Thirteen other metro areas in the state are harder hit.

Here's the dishonor roll: Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, Sarasota, Ocala, Naples, Melbourne, West Palm, Miami, Jacksonville, Fort Pierce, Lakeland and Daytona.

It's looks like Orlando was the only major Florida market with a lower default rate than Tampa's. The full report is here, but most interesting is Page 13: Download HUDdefault