Foreclosure Help | Miramar Florida

Following the example of Chase Bank, Bank of America, the nation’s largest mortgage servicer, is offering Florida homeowners up to $20,000 to short sale their homes in an effort to get them off their books.
This offer from bank of America was sent out via email to select Florida Realtors earlier this week outlining basic details of the plan.
There are some strict conditions, however, regarding eligibility and investor participation.  The  short sales must be submitted for approval to Bank of America before Nov. 30 to qualify. The homes must have no …

Jean Feingold hoped that her vintage bungalow in Gainesville, FL, would be worth about $140,000, considering that her whole neighborhood was undergoing gentrification, with new homes sprouting and old ones being fixed up.
But local appraiser Joe Foy was not swayed. The lack of air conditioning would undermine the appeal of the bungalow to almost any buyer, he thought. And, though the house is in good condition, it’s small, with only a single bathroom and a modest kitchen. He appraised the bungalow for $115,000.
Feingold’s rationale was good enough to make her …

by Kim Miller
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is dedicating $10 million nationally, including $463,462 for Florida, to help residents avoid foreclosure with legitimate loan modification assistance and housing counseling.

The money will be doled out to regional and local counseling agencies. Florida received the most money from the local allocation, with California earning the second highest amount at $367,433.
“The funding announced today is specifically earmarked to provide counseling assistance relating to mortgage modification, avoiding potential mortgage scams, and assisting victims of scams,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “It …

Trulia and RealtyTrac Survey Reveals 54 Percent of American Adults Now Believe Housing Recovery Remains Unlikely Until 2014 or Later Sign In | FREE TRIAL | Subscribe | Help Home My RealtyTrac Stats & Trends Learning Center Services …

Pre-Foreclosure Sales (Short Sales) Jump 19 Percent From Q1, REO Sales FlatAverage Time to Sell Pre-Foreclosures Down, Average Time to Sell REOs IncreasesIRVINE, Calif. – Aug. 25, 2011 — RealtyTrac® (realtytrac.com), the leading online marketplace for foreclosure homes, today released its Q2 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report™, which shows that sales of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 31 percent of all U.S. residential sales in the second quarter of 2011, down from nearly 36 percent of all sales in the first …

TransUnion recorded the largest percentage drop in delinquencies since the end of the recession two years ago.
According to TransUnion, mortgage delinquencies improved 5.98 percent during the quarter.
Information and risk management company, TransUnion, compiles data from 27 million consumers randomly sampled each quarter.
The rate of homeowners 60 or more days delinquent declined to 5.82 percent in the second quarter of 2011.
TransUnion predicts delinquencies will continue to decline throughout the year.
“While relatively low home prices and high unemployment continue to exert upward pressure on delinquency rates, they are more than offset by …

Closing costs on a property in Florida have gone up 30 %  from 2010, or $1021 on a $200,000 home.
This is considerably more than the national average which was 8.8%.  New York is the most expensive state with fees averaging $6,183,  according to the survey by Bankrate.
Closing costs includes a range of fees including appraisals and  title insurance, but does not include taxes, property insurance, association fees, interest and other prepaid items.

Recent sales of single family homes in Broward County, south Florida show an 11% increase for June.  So, has the market changed?
Unfortunately, this is more likely due to families relocating at he beginning of the school year than a market change.
Unemployment is still around 9% (unofficially it’s probably much higher), stricter lending rules and continued delays in processing foreclsoures, all suggest it is going to take quite awhile before we see any real change in the market.

Banks Took Back More Homes in Palm Beach County
1,113 homes were taken back by lenders in Palm Beach County in May. This was 56% higher than in April and 38% higher than at the same time in 2010.
Why this increase? Judges don’t want to cancel foreclosure sales because there is such a backlog of foreclosure cases, according to a recent report in the Sun-Sentinel.
In Broward County, lenders took back 733 homes during the same period.
So what are the trends in foreclosure filings? Palm Beach …

Hundreds of thousands of South Floridians are underwater on their mortgages, which could have profound impact on the region’s economic recovery, or lack of.
By TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA
tolorunnipa@MiamiHerald.com
Wesley Ulloa bought her first condo for $230,000 in 2007, and watched helplessly as it lost two-thirds of its value during South Florida’s historic housing market tailspin.
The 24-year-old real estate agent has been selling units in her Coconut Grove building for $80,000, a figure that makes her shudder each month as she makes her mortgage payment.
She’s one of hundreds of thousands of South Floridians …