Florida Foreclosure Help in Hollywood, south Florida short sales

The median sales price for homes in Hollywood FL for Oct 10 to Dec 10 was $121,000. This represents an increase of 5.2%, or $6,000, compared to the prior quarter and a decrease of 6.9% compared to the prior year.
Home Sales prices have depreciated 56% over the last 5 years in Hollywood.
The average listing price for Hollywood homes for sale on Trulia was $271,812 for the week ending Jan 12, which represents a decline of 0.7%, or $1,818, compared to the prior week and a decline …

I don’t know how many articles I’ve read about the failure of loan modifications to help homeowners who are facing foreclosure.
The latest is a story in the Daily Business Review of Laver Nicholson whose car accident left him out of work and unable to pay his mortgage.
Laver spent 18 months trying to get his loan modified and the best the bank could do was lower his payments by $124 a month.   This left him with a mortgage of $1585.71.
He could only afford $1,000 a month so the bank foreclosed and …

What effect are short sales and foreclosures going to have on house prices going into 2011?
Currently, prices are still sliding, despite the lowest mortgage rates in almost 60 years and prices that are back to 2003 levels – at least in south Florida.
Nationally, 23 percent of mortgage borrowers are under water, that is they owe more than their house is worth.  In south Florida, that figure is even higher 30 to 40 percent depending on the report.  No wonder so many people are doing short sales or letting their home …

Due to the issues surrounding the handling of foreclosures by some banks, many home buyers are keeping away from distressed properties. Do you blame them? Who wants to buy a property that could be the subject of future lawsuits?
According to a report from http://realestate.bryanellis.com , 14 percent of home buyers and 6 percent of real estate investors refused to even view REOs (foreclosed properties) during October.
When it comes to short sales, another category of distressed properties, it is naturally hard to find buyers as the process can be long and drawn …

Everybody seems to want to get a lawyer and fight the bank with a foreclosure defense case. I have written about this before but yesterday’s article in the Miami Herald throws new light on the issue. I am not a lawyer and can’t give legal advice but here are a few questions to consider.
Firstly, what is your goal in foreclosure defense? If it’s time in your house without having to pay the mortgage, then you have a pretty good chance. However, I would be concerned about what is going to …

In the news this week have been stories about those who have been working on loan modifications with their lender but getting their homes sold out from under them at the foreclosure auction.
The case of Stephanie Lulko loan modification from Oklahoma City is particularly disturbing.  JP Morgan Chase agreed to a trial loan modification under the HAMP program.  She made monthly payments for 6 months and then the bank said she earned too much to qualify and will have to pay $5000 or the bank will foreclose on her home.  She …

Is sloppy paperwork  a valid foreclosure defense?  ? Due process is important.  Bank of America, GMAC are moving to restart their foreclosure sales against homeowners in Hollywood that were suspended temporarily.  They are reviewing their documents and claim that they are finding very few flaws in their documentation.
An increasing number of lawyers in Hollywood are arguing technical issues as a foreclosure defense, saying that the papers were not verified properly by these clerks who signed thousands of foreclosure cases.  This is a valid argument and banks should be verifying the …

It is staggering to think that the foreclosures in Hollywood have been continuing at such a high rate for three long years and could continue for several more, still. Some numbers to consider:
Lenders reclaimed 102,134 homes nationwide in September.
In Miami-Dade County only there were 2,082 reposessions in September – nearly three times as many as a year earlier.
Currently, there are more than 150,000 foreclosure cases pending in south Florida.
Broward and Miam-Dade Counties have each been averaging about 3500 new foreclosure filings every month since mid-2007. During 2009 it was more like …

Oct 3, 2010 Half the local governments in Broward County are raising their taxes and half are staying the same as last year. According to The Sun-Sentine,l 31 out of 38 cities will be collecting less tax revenue due to continued declines in property prices. This is the third year in a row that cities have faced declines in property tax revenue.
The Proposed Budget for Hollywood in 2011 totals $352,596,054. This represents an increase
of 2.7% or $9,320,568 from the FY 2010 budget. To do this, the city is running at …

Sep 27, 2010
If you‘ve been keeping up with the news, you’ll have heard that more and more banks are in trouble. This should be no real surprise – it was the big banks that got the bail out money. 279 banks have collapsed in the two years since Washington Mutual went under. Gerard Cassidy of RBC Capital markets was quoted by The Sun-Sentinel as saying that the impact has been “far more severe” than the savings-and loan crisis.
Nearly three-quarters of Florida banks lost money last year. Their combined losses totaled …