Developer of stalled hockey arena is out of time [South Florida]

Developer of stalled hockey arena is out of time [South Florida]

Yet the multimillionaire and former president of the AFLAC insurance company is probably best-known here for one of the most visible development flops in the region: the unfinished hockey arena in Lakewood Ranch.

Now, as a July 28 foreclosure sale of the land approaches, Diaz-Verson is repeating his oft-made claim that he can, and will, complete the partially built structure now standing near Lakewood Ranch Boulevard and State Road 70.

But is it more talk? After all, most expect him to lose the property to Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, the developer of Lakewood Ranch and the property mortgage holder in the foreclosure proceeding.

Diaz-Verson has also been making this renewed claim for the past two months, repeatedly insisting that a very important announcement is just weeks away.

Novato the mortage meltdown epicenter of Marin [Northern California]

Novato the mortage meltdown epicenter of Marin [Northern California]

Kids romping on lawns and workers trimming hedges belie the gloom that hovers over the sprawling Parkhaven complex bordering Miwok Park in northwestern Novato.

“For sale” signs are plastered in some windows as 10 residences in the 104-unit development are on the market as foreclosures or “short sales” in which property is offered for less than its mortgage. Five of eight Parkhaven sales this year were distressed properties at a median sales price of $332,000.

The complex, where median sales prices have dropped more than $125,000 in two years, is part of Marin’s foreclosure ground zero. On the other side of town at the Crossroads 2 townhome complex, also plagued by foreclosure trouble, median prices have plummeted more than $200,000 in two years.

Marin’s foreclosure rate has doubled in the past year. There’s no end in sight, with 706 properties in various stages of foreclosure in the past four months, according to ForeclosureRadar.com. Nearly half of those properties are in Novato. In the first six months of the year, about 656 Novato properties have courted foreclosure trouble.

Glut in housing, lack of tenants mean better deals | news-press.com | The News-Press

Glut in housing, lack of tenants mean better deals

It’s a good time to look for an apartment.

Lee County landlords have begun slashing rents and using other incentives to boost sagging occupancy rates brought on by a limp economy.

“It’s a smorgasbord of concessions,” said David Malt, broker for Malt Realty, a Fort Myers-based manager of multi-and-single-family home developments and homeowners’ associations.

A tenant pool hit by people leaving the area after job losses and a glut of available single-family homes have combined to decrease demand and create a renter’s market. Property managers and rental market experts say it’s a market that should linger through 2009 and perhaps beyond.

Foreclosure defense buys homeowners time

Foreclosure defense buys homeowners time

Homeowners facing foreclosure are hiring lawyers to defend them in court against their lenders, during which time they can stay in their homes without paying a cent.

As foreclosures continue to mount, borrowers who have run out of options are turning to attorneys to fight back — and they’re living mortgage-free for months in the process.

Although the chances of ultimately keeping a foreclosed home are slim, for $1,500 to $3,000 some lawyers are offering to defend borrowers in court, causing the wheels of justice to turn more slowly.

Duking it out can add months and sometimes years to a foreclosure process that in Florida already takes an average of seven months to complete. Homeowners can use the extra time to save for a move, sell the house or mull other options.

Investors Hunt For Bank-Owned Property Bargains In Packs

Investors Hunt For Bank-Owned Property Bargains In Packs

One man’s castle is another’s commodity.

Investors, alone and in groups, are negotiating volume deals to buy bank-owned homes and defaulted first mortgages at deep discounts.

It’s a new twist in an upside-down real estate market. Forget negotiating with a bank for one repossessed house — too slow, too pricey. Investors now buy whole subdivisions or bundles of 10, 20 or 50 defaulted loans for pennies on the dollar.

Some in real estate call this the best market for investors since the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s, when the government took over property owned by failed banks and sold it at huge discounts.

This Real-Estate Rout May Be Short-Lived

Bottom’s Up: This Real-Estate Rout May Be Short-Lived

A few years ago, an acquaintance sent Wellesley College economist Karl “Chip” Case a T-shirt depicting a cartoon of a smiley-face house surrounded by soap bubbles, called “Mr. Housing Bubble.” But it was the words captured in a comic-book cloud on the shirt that gave this otherwise goofy image its bite: “If I pop, you’re screwed!”

The dark humor hardly was lost on Case, co-creator along with Yale economist Robert Shiller of the now-canonical S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. In pairing recent sale prices of U.S. homes with the prices those same homes fetched previously, the index is substantiating what every sentient American knows: The U.S. housing market is in a deep funk, probably the worst in 50 years, according to Harvard’s respected Joint Center for Housing Studies.