Help fight fast-track foreclosure bill

Posted on May 17, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments The fast-track foreclosure bill needs only the signature of Gov. Rick Scott to become law, having been adopted by the Legislature on the very last day of the 2013 session. If you’ve struggled to make a mortgage, been threatened with foreclosure, or are currently fighting a foreclosure on your home, you’re probably worried about what the bill means for you. So are we. The bill is supposed to...
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Pushing the clog through the drain

Posted on Apr 30, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments The Florida House of Representatives approved the fast-track foreclosure bill this week, bringing it only a vote in the Senate away from reality. Stay tuned. The 2013 Legislative Session ends this week. The bill is expected to make it easier for banks to use “show cause” orders on non-homesteaded properties. In those cases, homeowners would have to prove why the judge shouldn’t enter an...
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Housing Bubble 2.0 upon us

Posted on Apr 24, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments It’s a sad reality that about half the foreclosures across the country are people falling into mortgage default for a second time. But that’s what happens when the only modification the lenders were offering weren’t loans that really matched the borrowers’ realistic ability to pay. But if you were offered one lifeline, you’d take it – even if it saved you for just a little while. Many...
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The check is in the mail

Posted on Apr 15, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments That’s the word out of Washington this week to victims of some of the worst foreclosure fraud in the country.  A handful of people will get $125,000, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. But most who receive checks won’t get anywhere near enough to fairly compensate them for the plethora of fraudulent foreclosures...
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Banks make bad neighbors

Posted on Apr 15, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments Recent news reports say Palm Beach County has 25,702 homes that are empty, bank-owned, but not on the market. The so-called shadow inventory is 78 percent higher than it was during the first quarter of 2012, according to RealtyTrac. Banks are holding the properties off the market so they won’t have to record their real value on the books when the sale is considerably lower than the recorded...
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Foreclosures may ease shortage of homes for sale

Posted on Mar 21, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments More than 56,000 homes in Palm Beach and Broward counties make up a so-called shadow inventory – properties in some stage of foreclosure that have yet to hit the market, according to RealtyTrac Inc. That’s an increase of 55 percent from a year ago and offers hope to prospective buyers frustrated by a persistent shortage of homes for sale. Local Realtor boards say listings have dropped by...
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Foreclosure cases slow road is a good example of “justice denied.”

Posted on Feb 15, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments There’s an adage that says “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.”  That is absolutely applicable to defendants in foreclosure courts whose cases are sound based on the rules of law but who fall victim to the prejudicial belief in society and our courts that the lenders must be right because if borrowers simply would pay their bills they wouldn’t be in foreclosure. A Feb. 13th story in the...
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Affordable housing once again unaffordable as wealthy investors become landlords

Posted on Feb 5, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments At the height of the housing bubble, communities across South Florida worried about how its workers – its teachers, clerks and truck drivers – would find housing they could afford. How ironic that the same problem exists today for earners with limited income. But just as the high real estate prices that squeezed people out during the boom were based on abnormal market conditions, so too might...
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Where’s the milk from the foreclosure cash cow?

Posted on Jan 24, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments For most people, the closest they ever get to a courtroom is traffic court. South Florida’s foreclosure courtrooms operate very similar to traffic court, with each case getting its few minutes before a judge, a whirlwind of quick motions and quicker decisions. And yet they’re dealing with dispensing justice for what is most families’ most significant asset. The speed is necessary, some say,...
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HB 87 – The panacea Florida Foreclosure Bill

Posted on Jan 17, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments For the third time in three years, a bill has been filed in Tallahassee to change the rules governing foreclosures in Florida. Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican from Naples, once again is proposing the legislation as a remedy to the backlog of foreclosure cases in Florida. The Palm Beach Post’s Rhonda Swan wrote in an editorial that ran Tuesday, Jan. 15, that the legislation should undergo...
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New Florida bill would speed up foreclosure process – benefit who?

Posted on Jan 8, 2013 in Blog | 0 comments The Miami Herald is reporting that for the third year in a row, a bill has been filed in Tallahassee to speed up Florida’s foreclosure process. Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, filed the bill last week. Not surprisingly, it immediately drew immediate outcry from consumers. The Herald quotes Passidomo as saying the process needs to be efficient while giving borrowers their due process rights....
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Federal Government seeks solutions to underwater mortgages

Posted on Dec 18, 2012 in Blog | 0 comments According to Bloomberg News, the Obama administration, along with several members of Congress, is looking for ways to help additional homeowners who are underwater in their mortgages – even if they’re not behind on payments. The Dec. 17th article says a program being considered by the Treasury Department for owners of loans that were packaged into securities would provide government funds to...
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