News About Properties

Mortgage-aid plan limping along

Struggling homeowners were given hope when a federal housing initiative to help millions avoid foreclosure was announced by President Barack Obama in Mesa four months ago.

The key part of the $75 million Making Home Affordable plan was a loan-modification program that compensated lenders for lowering the mortgage payments of borrowers who were making less money because of the recession. The government offered banks and borrowers bonuses for making loan modifications work. Most of the big lenders agreed to participate.

So far the plan isn’t working as anticipated. Many eligible Valley homeowners can’t reach anyone at their lender who will work with them. More people are losing their jobs, which makes them ineligible for the government-backed program. For many of those who did get a modified payment, there was a harsh discovery. Modifications often were made on a three-month trial basis, and now lenders are revoking the terms – sometimes even when payments are met – and leaving some homeowners with the old payments they can’t afford.

Lenders’ latest foreclosure strategy: waiting

Across Florida, tens of thousands of foreclosed homes are being left in limbo, between homeowners who have abandoned them and banks that have not yet taken possession of them.

Over the past year, banks and other lenders have canceled up to 50 percent of foreclosure sales in some parts of the state, adding to a growing stockpile of unclaimed homes.

Experts fear the trend could slow the recovery of the housing market and pile more problems upon condo and homeowners associations that depend upon fees to keep up common areas and other facilities.

“It’s another facet continuing the downward pricing pressures on the housing market,” said Jack McCabe, a Deerfield Beach-based real estate consultant who was one of the first to predict the housing downturn.

4 families rebuilding finances post-foreclosure

Even after a sheriff’s sale, the financial and emotional strains that surround a foreclosure are rarely over.

For the past six months, the Associated Press has followed four families who lost their homes in the past year. Three of them are regaining their financial footing, but one has sunk deeper into poverty and depression.

There have been more than 1.6 million foreclosures since the beginning of 2007, according to RealtyTrac. Today, a record 12% of American homeowners with a mortgage are either behind on their payments or facing foreclosure. And that record is expected to be broken repeatedly for another year, depending on how many people lose their jobs in the recession.

Job or income loss remains the No. 1 reason people fall behind on their mortgages, followed by excessive debts and illness in the family, according to a survey by Freddie Mac.

Tampa entrepreneur’s mortgage lending gamble paying off

What are the odds of winning in a ravaged industry like mortgage lending, especially when you name your fledgling company after one of the biggest lenders to melt down in the Southeast?

For longtime banker and avid thoroughbred racehorse owner Jerry Campbell, that gambit has paid off like a glorious day at the track.

Since buying rights to the HomeBanc name out of bankruptcy court and raising $45 million in a public offering two years ago, Campbell’s Tampa-based institution has been on a tear.

The new HomeBanc’s assets have jumped 84 percent since January, from $100 million to $184 million, and the company is on track to pass the $200 million mark by year-end. This year, it opened two more bay area branches — in Westchase and Belleair Bluffs — giving the bank four branches in Tampa, one in Orlando and one in Sarasota.

Q&A with Jared Dalto

For Jared Dalto, West Palm Beach’s true deals are in the short sales, where investors and owner-occupants are snapping up properties faster than ever.

Dalto sees the current market as a once-in-a-lifetime period to buy and says that people will look back at this time and wonder what they didn’t purchase more.

BS: What’s the market like in West Palm Beach these days?

JD: A lot of investors are buying, and a lot of people who couldn’t afford to purchase when prices were so high are buying. The average median sales price in April was only $230,000. I’m getting a strong sense from clients that now is the time to buy, and the waiting is over. When people see a property they like, they aren’t staying on the sidelines anymore. They’re coming in with strong offers because there’s a lot of buyers on the market and a lot of competition.

BS: What sort of properties are moving on the market?

JD: At the $230,000 range, you can find a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home from, depending on location, 1,300 to 2,000 square feet. There’s even some newer homes that will fall within that range. Some of these homes may even have pools. The new construction prices are coming down in price as developers realize they have to meet market value, like short sales and bank-owned properties that undercut the builders’ prices. The price has to come down to move inventory.

First-time homebuyers want to take advantage of tax credit in 2009

Q: My husband says we can get that first-time homebuyer tax credit, $8,000, for any house we buy this year, whether it’s new or old. I said I’d double-check. Is that for sure? — L.

A: The tax break isn’t quite this year. You’d better get moving. Whether a new house or an existing one is purchased, the closing must take place before Dec. 1.

These days, careful lenders may require extra time to approve a mortgage loan, and in addition, legal problems sometimes surface and hold up closings. You need to get the whole thing done — selecting the property, negotiating terms with the seller, arranging financing and arriving at the actual closing, settlement, transfer of title, by Nov. 30, 2009. That’s assuming, of course, that you meet the requirements.