Source: http://www.baynews9.com |

“There could be signs of a housing market turnaround across the country, but it could be short-lived.

A new report reveals in April there was a decline in the number of homes foreclosed upon.  According to RealtyTrac, home repossession fell 7 percent from March and fell 26 percent from April of last year.

“Rising foreclosure activity in many state and local markets in April was masked at the national level by sizable decreases in hard-hit foreclosure states like California, Arizona and Nevada.  Those three states, and several other non-judicial foreclosure states like them, more efficiently processed foreclosures last year, resulting in fewer catch-up foreclosures this year,” said RealtyTrac CEO Brandon Moore.

“In addition, more distressed loans are being diverted into short sales rather than becoming completed foreclosures.  Our preliminary first quarter sales data shows that pre-foreclosure sales — typically short sales — are on pace to outnumber sales of bank-owned properties during the quarter in California, Arizona and 10 other states.”

But the promising sign could be short lived.  Data at the state-level may indicate that more home repossessions are coming in many of the 26 states that require courts to sign-off on foreclosures.”

Find the full story here…

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com |

“The Florida Legislature’s attempt to speed building permits and kickstart construction has inadvertently put the state’s homeowners in jeopardy of being booted out of the National Flood Insurance Program.

Without flood insurance, you can’t get a mortgage in much of Florida. The impact on housing, construction and the state’s fragile real estate market would be devastating.

But state officials have a fix in the works. They say Florida simply cannot afford to be excluded from national flood coverage.

“Florida is a low-lying peninsula with a lot of land at or below sea level. It’s got to have flood insurance,” said Eli Lehrer, an expert on flood insurance at The Heartland Institute, a free-market think tank in Washington and Tallahassee. “And right now, the National Flood Insurance Program is the only game in town. It’s not realistic to think that Florida could withdraw from NFIP tomorrow.”

The problem stems from a bill passed by the Legislature last month with little sign of controversy.

Since then, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has warned Gov. Rick Scott that the bill contains a provision that could make the state ineligible for federally subsidized national flood insurance. Scott plans to review the bill before deciding whether to sign it, a spokeswoman said this week.

The provision says that Florida communities are no longer required to get approval by any federal or state agency before issuing building permits. But FEMA says it cannot provide flood insurance to communities that do not meet certain conditions. Those include observing federal flood-plain management rules that exclude development in some flood-prone zones and require buildings to be elevated on higher ground or foundations in other risky places.

The new Florida legislation could impede enforcement of such requirements “and may jeopardize the state’s voluntary participation in the NFIP,” FEMA regional administrator Major P. May told Scott in a letter last month.

May noted that Florida is especially dependent on the program. “There are 459 communities participating in the NFIP in Florida,” he wrote, “and there are 2,059,371 flood insurance policies in the state with just over $471 billion in flood coverage.”"

Find the full article here…

By The Associated Press

“The Florida Supreme Court is hearing oral argument in a mortgage foreclosure case that could have far-reaching consequences.

Thursday’s argument focuses on whether lenders or other plaintiffs can avoid penalties for filing forged documents with courts simply by voluntarily dismissing their cases.

Palm Beach County homeowner Roman Pino accused the Bank of New York Mellon of submitting bogus documents in its foreclosure case against him.

A judge, though, denied Pino’s request to penalize the bank by prohibiting it from again trying to foreclose.”

Find the full article here…

By SHANNON BEHNKEN | The Tampa Tribune

“A woman who says her homeowner’s association wrongly took possession of her home lost her first court bid to get it back Wednesday but plans to try again.

Joanne McCarn may have expected too much of the hearing, which covered the narrow issue of whether the Bridgewater Community Association had the right to evict her tenant from the home.

But she hoped one victory might eventually lead to another. Her disappointment left her in tears.

“I can’t believe it,” McCarn said. “I thought we were going to win. Homeowners everywhere should be upset.”

McCarn was booted from the house as part of Bridgewater’s controversial legal strategy, first reported by The Tampa Tribune and now the subject of news coverage nationwide.

Her house is one of six in Bridgewater that the association is seeking to rent out on its own. That’s why legal experts from across the state are paying close attention to her case, saying it could set the ground rules for homeowner’s associations statewide.

The association had no comment on its actions in the McCarn case until Wednesday, after the ruling in its favor by Pasco Circuit Judge Robert P. Cole.

In an email statement sent by a public relations firm, association president Mark Spector said, “The ruling today is a win for people in every community who live as compliant property owners. It is a victory for people who refuse to bow to those who do not pay their debts, while benefiting from the compliance and hard work of their neighbors.”

McCarn has said she has tried to get an explanation from the association about what she owes, and even made payments as directed by a court. Still, she said, she hasn’t received a complete answer from the association and cannot get back into her home.”

Find the full article here…

By Nick Carey

“Half a decade into the deepest U.S. housing crisis since the 1930s, many Americans are hoping the crisis is finally nearing its end.

House sales are picking up across most of the country, the plunge in prices is slowing and attempts by lenders to claim back properties from struggling borrowers dropped by more than a third in 2011, hitting a four-year low.

But a painful part two of the slump looks set to unfold: Many more U.S. homeowners face the prospect of losing their homes this year as banks pick up the pace of foreclosures.”

Find the full story here…

By Mark Puente, Times Staff Writer

“It’s going to be tougher to get a government-backed mortgage on Monday.

Next week, home buyers with ongoing credit disputes over $1,000 will no longer be approved for a mortgage backed by the Federal Housing Administration. Buyers with collection accounts will either have to pay the debt off or enter into a documented payment plan.

Buyers will also have to show that three payments have been made toward the debt. The payment will be factored into the buyer’s debt-to-income ratio, which could lower the amount that can be borrowed.

Andy Wood of American Mortgage Services in Tampa doesn’t expect a drop in mortgage applications because of the new rule. He expects that buyers with disputed accounts will rectify them before applying for a loan.

“It will make people wait longer to apply,” Wood said. “It will also create more paperwork.”

Before the new rule, an underwriter could determine whether the collection accounts would impact the approval of a mortgage. The new rule comes as belt-tightening for the federal agency, since it had no earlier requirement that disputed credit accounts be paid off.

Since the housing market tanked and banks tightened lending standards, more buyers have sought government-backed loans because they only require a down payment of 3.5 percent.”

Find the full story…

Posted by Robert Trigaux | tampabay.com

“Wake up and good morning. Florida and Tampa Bay are hardly strangers to mortgage fraud. But the latest federal report on mortgage fraud suggests Hillsborough County leads the way nationwide in potential mortgage fraud, a disturbing No. 1 status given the hype and promise from mortgage fraud “task forces” that claim to be cracking down locally.

The data, out this week from the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, says Hillsborough County was tops on a per capita basis (but 8th in total volume) among larger counties in the United States for mortgage loan fraud (MLF) suspicious activity reports (SARs) in the fourth quarter of 2011.”

Find the full article here…

By Eric Sollman, Reporter | baynews9.com

“Bank of America wants to help speed up the process of selling thousands of homes facing foreclosure.
The bank wants to get someone in those homes in 20 days through short sales.

Marcia Goldstein just went through the short sale process through her realtor and Bank of America.

She was helping her father, who couldn’t make payments on his large Sarasota beach house.

“He is at an age where he won’t be buying any more homes, so the only thing we could really do is short sale it,” Goldstein said.

Realtors such as Lynn Robbins are seeing more and more short sales.

“A short sale means that the people who own the house have a higher mortgage that the value of the house,” said Robbins, who has been a realtor in the Sarasota area since 1973.

Short sales have historically taken a long time to go through.

Marcia Goldstein says her dad’s was ultimately worth it, but there was a lot of back and forth with her bank.

“The contract was written for 45 days and it took seven months,” she said.

Bank of America wants to speed up the short sale process, but not everyone is sold on the idea that it can be done in 20 days.

“It would be ideal because I think they could move a lot more houses, but it was really difficult,” Goldstein added. “If they say they can do it in 20 days that would be great, but it took seven months for me.”

Bank of America spent a year reworking a slow process they hope goes faster in the future.

A spokesman for Bank of America said the bank has been working with a real estate software company to develop a faster program for short sales.”

Find the full story here…

Column by ADAM LEVIN, Credit.com |

“Maybe you’re reading about it less and less. It doesn’t seem to be the lead story on many national news broadcasts anymore. But it’s still there, festering away like an untreated wound.

The foreclosure crisis and the morass of other problems surrounding persistently problematic real estate prices, unwise loans made to now-bereft homeowners, and predatory mortgage products and practices isn’t going away. But this week, at last, there was some news. Unfortunately, the news by and large is that there is little news.

The New York Daily News just published an Op-Ed noting that 85 days after President Obama announced its formation in an impassioned speech, the new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group (RM-BSWG) had done virtually nothing. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who the Co-chairs the group with Colorado U.S. attorney John Walsh, admitted earlier this month that the RM-BSWG had no office space and no staff. So… No one works there yet. (The piece was written by Arnie Graf, co-director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, and Mike Gecan, an IAF trustee. IAF was founded by Saul Alinsky and works as a coalition of nonprofits, in a model similar to Nader’s PIRG network.)”

Find the full story here…

By The Associated Press

“Earnings reports from two major banks Friday painted a picture of a healing housing market, with more Americans taking out mortgages, paying them on time and taking advantage of low interest rates to refinance.

At JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in the United States, income from new home loans set a record from January through March. The bank issued 6 percent more mortgages than a year ago and got 33 percent more applications.

Wells Fargo, which issues the most home loans, booked the most mortgage fees since 2009. It issued 54 percent more mortgages than a year ago and took 84 percent more applications.

A healthier housing market is welcome news. Housing has been the biggest drag on the economic recovery, while other segments, such as manufacturing and consumer spending, have held up or grown.

Home prices are still falling, though more slowly than in the past several years, and more than half a million American homes were in the foreclosure process at the end of March, according to RealtyTrac.

Still, stronger mortgage business helped JPMorgan and Wells Fargo beat Wall Street expectations for first-quarter earnings. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon boasted that the bank had originated 200,000 mortgages in the quarter.

Two key factors helped:

• The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 3.87 percent in February, the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s. Rates have stayed low: This week, the average is 3.88 percent.

Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf said the housing market is close to a “tipping point” at which it can take off.

“When you have the dynamics of higher rental rates and lower home values at great financing rates, there’s a point in time where the market’s going to clear and you’re going to see improvement,” Stumpf said.

Some markets, he said, like Texas, Northern California and Washington, D.C., have already reached that point.”

Find the full article here…