Another 7,216 home foreclosure cases hit the courts in the Tampa Bay area in June, but the mortgage crisis appears to be easing a bit locally.

Compared to June 2008, the number of foreclosure filings rose 12 percent last month in the region.
That’s a tentative cause for celebration: Year-to-year rises in foreclosures had been running between 33 percent to 48 percent from January to May.

The nation as a whole didn’t benefit from the same mitigating trend. In the United States, the 335,176 foreclosure filings in June represented a rise of 33 percent from June 2008. Florida’s year-to-year foreclosure increase was 31 percent.

RealtyTrac, a California real estate company, provided the numbers: Download RealtygtracJune09

Relatively brisk home sales locally have helped clear financially distressed homes from the market. According to the Greater Tampa Association of Realtors, home sales in June were the highest of any month since December 2006.

By my reading, Florida might help lead the nation out of the housing crisis, hewing to the first-in-first-out theory. We can only hope.