|
Florida cedes top spot for mortgage fraud
There's good news and bad news on the mortgage-fraud front, says Charles Kovaleski, president of Attorney's Title Insurance Fund in Orlando. The good news is Florida is no longer the mortgage-fraud leader. Utah is tops, according to the Mortgage Asset Research Institute. The bad news is that Florida only slipped to No. 2, just ahead of California and New York. Kovaleski notes that Miami-Dade and Broward counties are hot spots with schemes that often involve phony appraisals, doctored loan documents and forged deeds.
Shifting gears
Looks like Holler-Classic Automotive Group has changed its taste in foreign cars. The longtime Central Florida dealership group is buying Bill Bryan Hyundai World on U.S. Highway 17-92 in Winter Park. The dealership group also closed its Mitsubishi dealership on State Road 436 in Winter Park.
One way to avoid foreclosure: Just ask
Home foreclosures are up, in part because of defaults on riskier subprime loans, putting many communities at risk. But if past surveys continue to prove true, many financially troubled homeowners will never contact their lenders to work out a way to keep their homes. Foreclosure filings, which include default and auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were up 7 percent in March from the previous month and up 47 percent from a year ago, according to the website RealtyTrac, which follows foreclosures. California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and Ohio had the most foreclosure filings, accounting for 50 percent of the nation's total foreclosures, RealtyTrac found. RealtyTrac says that when you exclude mortgage defaults among subprime borrowers -- typically people with past credit issues -- foreclosure filings nationwide are at normal historic levels.
Home foreclosures affect more than just borrowers
Home foreclosures are up, in part because of defaults on riskier subprime loans, putting many communities at risk. But, if past surveys continue to prove true, many financially troubled homeowners will never contact their lenders to work out a way to keep their homes. Foreclosure filings, which include default and auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were up 7 percent in March from the previous month, and up 47 percent from a year ago, according to the Web site RealtyTrac, which follows foreclosures. California, Florida, Texas, Michigan and Ohio had the most foreclosure filings, accounting for 50 percent of the nation's total foreclosures, RealtyTrac found. RealtyTrac says that when you exclude mortgage defaults among subprime borrowers - typically people with past credit issues - foreclosure filings nationwide are at normal historic levels.
Home safe home?
Across Florida, the American dream slips away from once-hopeful homeowners. The state led the nation in mortgage foreclosures for February, and has the second-highest ratio of subprime loans, which often target people with poor credit or allow buyers to take on more house than they can afford. Meanwhile, the industry that once serviced these high-risk and often predatory loans is crumbling, perhaps deservedly so -- but the collapse is taking hundreds of Florida jobs with it. As the state's stock of unsold housing mounts, the homebuilding industry struggles, wiping out even more construction jobs. Lost jobs mean even more Floridians struggling to make mortgage payments. A mess this size wasn't created overnight. And fiscal experts say the trouble is just beginning. Foreclosures increased 42 percent from 2005 to 2006, says RealtyTrac, a homebuying data service.
Rising defaults on homes bad sign
WASHINGTON Home foreclosures are up, in part because of defaults on riskier subprime loans, putting many communities at risk. But, if past surveys continue to prove true, many financially troubled homeowners will never contact their lenders to work out a way to keep their homes. Foreclosure filings, which include default and auction sale notices and bank repossessions, were up 7 percent in March from the previous month and up 47 percent from a year ago, according to the Web site RealtyTrac, which follows foreclosures. California, Florida, Texas, Michigan and Ohio had the most foreclosure filings, accounting for 50 percent of the nation's total foreclosures, RealtyTrac found. RealtyTrac says that when you exclude mortgage defaults among subprime borrowers - typically people with past credit issues - foreclosure filings nationwide are at normal historic levels.
|
|
