Reading foreclosure tea leaves

Last year's foreclosure activity on the Gulf Coast suggests that any real estate recovery this year will be uneven.

In areas such as Cape Coral-Fort Myers, foreclosure fever is abating, according to the latest data from RealtyTrac. In that area, the number of properties in some stage of foreclosures dropped nearly 30% in December compared with the same month in 2008.

The number of Cape Coral-Fort Myers homes in foreclosure for all 2009 was just 4% higher than 2008, RealtyTrac reports. Still, nearly 12% of all homes in Lee County — 42,734 homes — were in some stage of foreclosure last year, the second highest rate in the country.

Other areas of the Gulf Coast showed slowing foreclosure activity too. While the number of homes in foreclosure in the Tampa Bay area rose 17% in 2009 over 2008, the month of December showed a 19% drop on an annual percentage-change basis.

Despite the December drops in the Tampa Bay and Fort Myers areas, other parts of the Gulf Coast showed increases. In the last month of the year, the number of foreclosures rose 15% in Naples and 12% in Punta Gorda compared to December 2008.

In the Sarasota area, Manatee County saw a 42% drop in foreclosures but a 49% jump in Sarasota County in December compared with the same month a year ago. Overall, in 2009, the Sarasota-Manatee area reported a 19% increase of homes in foreclosure over 2008.