In many neighborhoods in Florida and the rest of the country, homeowners are avoiding the possibility of foreclosures by engaging in short sales of their property.

A short sale happens when a lender allows a struggling homeowner to sell his or her home for an amount less than what is owed on the mortgage. Despite selling a home for less than the mortgage, a borrower is more likely to qualify for another home mortgage over someone whose home has been foreclosed, which is positive news for the homeowner.

Short sale homes typically hold onto their value better than homes that have been foreclosed on, and tend to sell at a lesser discount than foreclosed homes, allowing lenders to cut their potential losses. They also avoid the costs incurred by conducting full foreclosures.

Nationwide, 12 percent of all homes sold have been made under short sale terms, which is up from last year when the figure was set at 10 percent.

The number of short sales of homes especially rose in states like Nevada, Michigan, Georgia and Colorado. In California, short sales accounted for 25 percent of homes sold in the state. Short sales in Colorado were also high, coming in at 17 percent of all homes sold.

Bank of America, which is the country's largest servicer of home mortgages, anticipates completing in excess of 100,000 short sales in 2011. This is more than twice the number of short sales than were processed by the lender in 2009. A spokesperson for Bank of America said that short sales are a positive solution to the current mortgage situation.

One of the challenges to short selling is the amount of time it takes to process the short sale transaction, which now averages 245 days. At times, short sale efforts fail because the homeowner doesn't qualify or because purchase offers are too low.

For more information about short sales, talk to an expert in your state.

Source: USA TODAY, "Number of short sales on the rise," Julie Schmit, Aug. 28, 2011.