Economist Sees Hard year ahead for Sarasota region

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BRADENTON - Economist Hank Fishkind predicts 2010 will be "an ugly year for foreclosures" in the Sarasota-Bradenton area and across Florida, putting further pressure on home prices, and that new housing starts will be "miserable."

Fishkind told a gathering of the Manatee Economic Development Council on Thursday that thousands of more jobs were likely to disappear this year in Southwest Florida.

But the economist with Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates predicted that the situation on those fronts would improve in 2011, and that signs of recovery may begin to take place later this year.

Fishkind joined a growing chorus of economists who expect a surge in foreclosure filings this year that they say will eclipse the large numbers for 2009.

Collectively, Southwest Florida finished 2009 with 27,129 properties in some stage of foreclosure, a 20 percent increase from 2008, according to data from California-based RealtyTrac Inc.

A flood of new foreclosures could further weigh down the market with increased housing inventory and thus continue to put pressure on home values.

Fishkind said the largest concentration of foreclosures will take place in the early part of this year.