The Housing Bubble

The Orange County Register reports from California. “As the sub-prime mortgage crisis reverberates across Orange County, the Pufpafs and other Ladera residents are adjusting to a new housing reality: falling prices. Ladera Ranch resident and Realtor Sherrie LeVan represents Dyer as well as interior designer Toni Blackman, a resident in nearby Coto de Caza, who’s been flipping her homes every two to three years since the ’70s.”

“‘This is the worst I’ve seen it [the housing market],’ Blackman said.”

“Blackman bought a 3,100-square-foot home in Dove Canyon in September 2005, at the height of the housing bubble, for $1.45 million. ‘I knew I bought high,’ Blackman said.”

“When she put the house on the market in July 2007, it sat for six months until Blackman decided to lease it for $4,000 per month, $100 more than Blackman’s monthly mortgage payment. The $4,000 rent doesn’t cover the Mello-Roos taxes, homeowner’s association fees, pool maintenance and gardening fees that cost Blackman about $1,500 a month.”

“Blackman said she is hopeful that she’ll be able to recoup her losses by hanging onto the home for two more years. In the meantime, she is looking for full-time employment in sales or marketing and trying to keep a perspective on her situation.”

“‘I have my sanity. I have my kids and my health. And I have a lot of faith,’ Blackman said.”

From Bloomberg. “Angel Gutierrez, based in San Diego, buys bad mortgages a dozen at a time for a fraction of their face value from lenders overwhelmed by the highest number of defaults in 23 years. When he goes door to door to negotiate lower payments for homeowners or pay them to move so he can sell the house, he’s speeding up the recovery by establishing a price for the homes and flushing out the least reliable borrowers.”

“‘You buy the mortgage for pennies on the dollar, carry the big stick, tell the homeowner how it’s going to be, then double your money very easily,’ Gutierrez said.”

“In San Diego’s Encanto neighborhood, where median home prices slid 38 percent in March from a year earlier, according to DataQuick, Gutierrez pulled up in front of an L-shaped, one-story stucco house. The grass was tall enough to hide a broken child’s swing in the front yard.”

“The homeowner was $365,000 under water after buying the house with no money down in June 2005. If Gutierrez bought the note for 20 cents on the dollar, or $73,000, he could probably get the owner to leave by giving her $5,000 for moving expenses, then sell the home for about $150,000, well below even the neighborhood’s declining market value, he said. That would leave him a profit of about $70,000.”

“‘I like the fast nickel,’ he said. ‘You buy them cheap, you sell them fast and you get paid. I’m considered a bottom feeder.’”

“On a sunny day last month, Gutierrez knocked on doors in Imperial Beach, an arid, hilly town just south of San Diego. In Imperial Beach, 15 homeowners lost their properties to foreclosure in the first three months of 2008, compared with four in the same period last year, according to DataQuick.”

“At a one-story, L-shaped stucco house in Imperial Beach with four-foot-tall rose bushes and an American flag hanging from the garage, 62-year-old Armida Leos answered the door. Her 73-year-old husband, Gilberto had to quit retirement and get a job as a security guard when their monthly mortgage payments jumped to $3,200 from $2,400, she said.”

“Gutierrez’s spreadsheet said the Leos family owed $455,000 on their mortgage. Leos said she and her husband spent $50,000 fixing up the house when they moved in three years ago. They had just received notice from San Diego County that their property tax was being reduced because the house had been assessed for $193,000.”

“Back in his pickup truck, Gutierrez said he was prepared to offer Leos and her husband $5,000 to move out. He made note of the town’s falling home prices and how the house didn’t seem to be that big.”

“‘I feel really bad for my husband because he worked his heart out to get us into this house and now we’re losing it,’ Leos said.”

The New York Times. “The pain in the condo market, mostly in urban areas, may not only be deeper than in the rest of the housing market during this downturn but more prolonged.”

“Bargain hunters say they are reluctant to buy into a building even when the upfront cost seems low because they might have to pay unexpected fees as distressed neighbors default on their mortgages or just stop paying the association fees.”

“Condo owners across the country are trying to ride out the slowdown. Since 2004, when Mark Mills bought his two-bedroom apartment for $622,000 in the 210-unit GasLamp City Square condo in downtown San Diego, 10 of his neighbors have succumbed to foreclosure. The building now has a $115,000 shortfall in its budget because residents failed to pay their condo dues.”

“He resents neighbors who have rented units they cannot sell to 20-somethings, who leave beer bottles in the lobby and hold late-night parties. He is tired of the constant beeping of a smoke alarm in a vacant unit, indicating a battery needs to be replaced. Still, Mr. Mills is staying because he expects he could get only about $550,000 for his home.”

“‘We couldn’t sell it for what we bought it for,’ he said. ‘I’m in it for the long haul.’”

The Merced Sun Star. “Nearly 20 years after they were proposed, plans for the largest housing development in Merced County’s history hit another delay Wednesday. Dubbed the Villages of Laguna San Luis, the 16,000-home development could eventually bring 45,000 people — or more than half the population of the city of Merced — to the county’s Westside.”

“It’s one of four massive housing developments in the works on the county’s Westside, though only one has broken ground. ”

“The Planning Commission was slated to vote Wednesday on whether to recommend Laguna San Luis for approval. Instead, the commission delayed its vote to allow the county more time to consider new input from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”

“At Wednesday’s meeting, a handful of people spoke against Laguna San Luis. Most cited concerns about wildlife, water and the excess housing that already exists in Merced County. ‘We have a surplus on the market right now that will take us 15 years to get out of,’ said Maureen McCorry of the Valley Land Alliance.”

The Modesto Bee. “More than 6,000 properties received at least one foreclosure-related filing last month in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties, according to RealtyTrac.” “Merced had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in April, followed by San Joaquin at No. 2 and Stanislaus in third place.”

“Lenders repossessed 2,228 properties in April in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties. California posted the second-highest state foreclosure rate in April, behind Nevada — with…a total of 64,683.”

“‘Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad news in most areas of California,’ said Daren Blomquist, the company’s marketing and communications manager. ‘The good news is that this isn’t something that will go on forever. It’s just hard to predict where that end is going to be.’”

“The trend is pretty clear here in the valley: When the economy booms, people flock to the sexier, more lucrative private sector jobs while public agencies struggle to get qualified applicants.”

“When the economy tanks and the private sector quits hiring, the stability of government work suddenly becomes pretty doggone appealing. Want evidence? During the recession of the 1990s, government in general continued to hire.”

“In 1996, 585 people applied to work for the Modesto police. But as we climbed out of the recession on the back of the dot-com economy, those numbers declined: to 463 applicants in 1997, 166 in 1998 and only 98 in 1999.”

“By 2000, government agencies — the cities, the county, some school districts — had trouble filling jobs. They couldn’t compete with the private sector in pay and benefits.”

“Now, some experts say, we’re in or are heading into another recession. If the valley’s housing market isn’t totally in the gutter, it’s right on the edge of the sidewalk next to your Gilton’s bin on pickup day.”

“Owners of homes built in the last five or so years are having their property values reassessed because their home values have declined so dramatically. Thus, the property tax revenue is declining as well. School enrollments are down.”

“Needing to cut up to $20 billion, the state again will balance its budget by gutting funding to local governments and schools.”

“So job seekers are again turning to the public sector. But it’s different this time around. Local governments aren’t hiring, either — certainly not as much as they did in the 1990s. In fact, they, too, are freezing jobs or sending out layoff notices.”

“That hasn’t discouraged people from applying for government jobs, said Jody Hayes, Stanislaus County’s deputy executive officer for human resources.”

“‘We’re seeing large numbers of applicants from the real estate industry — people who are in career changes,’ Hayes said. They include applicants with master’s degrees, who are highly overqualified for the few available entry-level clerk jobs that start at $14 an hour.”

“‘In the last couple of years, we had to start a continuous recruitment process to fill positions of entry-level clerk,’ Hayes said. ‘We had to stop that. We have over 500 applicants on an eligibility waiting list for an interview that may never happen.’”

“It’s enough to make your average job hunter yearn for the good ol’ days. But who’d have thought the good ol’ days would include the recession years of the 1990s?”

The Novato Advance. “For all the talk of avoiding a recession, Robert Eyler, Ph. D., Sonoma State Economics Department, said the current economic slump practically qualified, and wasn’t over yet.”

“‘If you define recession as two negative quarters back-to-back, it’s possible we’ll avoid (a recession),’ said Eyler. ‘(But) we also have to recognized that having two quarters in a row of negative growth is worse than anemic … it’s going to feel like a recession to a lot of people.’”

“‘When you hear the government is talking about purchasing a large amount of foreclosed homes to salvage the housing market, that’s a signal we’re not through this problem,’ said Eyler. ‘(However) in Novato, if you’re a homeowner, or looking to buy a house, there is unlikely to be a bad time. The worst is behind the local real estate markets.’”

“Russ Ketron of Ketron Financial in Novato (said) the credit crunch has a few more painful rounds of foreclosures and business closures left in it.”

“‘I still think we have one more leg down,’ he said. ‘I think that the credit markets haven’t worked out all of their pain yet. The marketplace hasn’t totally come to grips with unwinding debts. This was a major, major correction—biggest in our entire lifetime.’”

Palo Alto Online. “Homeowners unable to afford their mortgage payments can sometimes negotiate an agreement with lending institutions to sell their home for less than their mortgage debt.”

“Lanny Danenberg of Keller Williams, Palo Alto, said though she has not yet seen short sales in Palo Alto, she does receive calls ‘on a regular basis from people on the Peninsula, from all over — from San Mateo to Sunnyvale.’”

“‘I find that they are scared. They have no idea what their options are, for the most part. They are sitting on their hands waiting because they have no idea where to start,’ she said.”

The Daily Times reports from New Mexico. “The San Juan County real estate market continues to be its own animal; active, healthy and stabilizing. That’s not, however, to say it’s an ideal market. ‘Listings are probably up by about 25 percent,’ said Elizabeth Tafoya, president of San Juan County Board of Realtors. ‘It’s the most I’ve ever seen. Today there are 12 new listings, and we’re averaging at least 10 a day.’”

“Tafoya said quite a few sellers are dropping their prices by as much as $20,000 in the hope of attracting buyers. ‘Prices are coming down,’ she said. ‘People want to unload their homes and get into a nicer place.’”

“Along with the high volume of sales is a growing number of foreclosures, Tafoya said. Tafoya said it’s the highest number she has seen this year. ‘I’ve seen eight of them,’ she said. ‘My sellers can’t make their payments. They get in, they refinance and they get in over their heads.’”

“Two changes may be contributing to the increased number of failed transactions, she said. One is the AmeriDream program run through the Federal Home Administration, which allows sellers to contribute to their buyers’ down payments.”

“‘If they don’t have any money of their own in the home, do you think they care very much if they lose it?’ Tafoya questioned.”

Your West Valley reports from Arizona. “The Valley’s median home price dropped to $210,000 in April, compared with $265,000 a year ago. That’s the lowest median recorded since February 2005 at $200,000, an Arizona State University report shows. Year-to-date through April, sales totaled 16,975, compared with 19,045 last year”

“The Sun City median sales price decreased to $176,500 from $210,000. Resale activity in Sun City West increased from 40 to 50 sales, and the price decline was less severe than in Sun City - $222,000 to $205,000.”

“While home sales in Surprise were stronger than they have been in months, sellers took a hit in the pocketbook as the median price plunged from $246,060 to $200,250. Sales in El Mirage increased from 55 to 85 and, like Surprise, sales prices plummeted, $199,000 to $140,170.”

“In Glendale, sales increased from 330 to 385, and prices dropped more than $50,000 per sale, $245,000 to $189,000.”

“The beleaguered economy continues to play a role, however, in some individuals’ reluctance to buy, said Jay Butler, who heads up ASU’s Realty Studies department. People are worried about getting laid off, salary cutbacks, high gas prices and other costs, he said.”

“They’re saying, ‘Now may be a great time to buy, but maybe we need to be a little bit more cautious,’ Butler said.”

The East Valley Tribune in Arizona. “Population growth in the Valley appears to have slowed to the lowest rate in at least 35 years, and maybe at any time since the Anasazi civilization flourished in the Southwest, according to a prominent economic analyst.”

“Peter Ewen, chief economist for Arizona Public Service Co., told the Economic Club of Phoenix on Tuesday he was basing that assessment on a steep decline in the pace of new residential electric hookups in the utility’s service area.”

“‘Growth is to Phoenix what the auto industry is to Detroit,’ he said.”

“Ewen said the supply of unoccupied housing units is also continuing to rise because construction is still outpacing demand. He said there appears to be 25,000 unoccupied units in APS’ service territory, based on a comparison of building permits with new hookups, and there could be 60,000 units if Salt River Project’s service area and Pinal County are included.”

“‘Just for our territory, this number represents a 30-month supply of vacant housing relative to current growth rates,’ he said.”

The Arizona Republic. “More than a dozen wannabe homeowners are camped out in northeastern Mesa for a chance to buy a Blandford Home in one of the last open patches of pristine desert in the area.”

“Potential buyers must wait at the home sites with their numbers or have a representative wait for them or risk losing their places in line. ‘People stand in line for (Sony) Play Station II,’ said Scott Needham, a 27-year-old first-time homebuyer.”

“‘And a home is a much bigger, better investment,’ added Tim Pinosonneault, who is holding the No. 2 position to Needham’s No. 1.”

“The two are among the first waiting till 9 a.m. Saturday to buy the first homes in the 1,200-home master planned development.”

“The developer plans to release at least 75 home sites Saturday morning and possibly more ‘if there’s enough latent demand,’ said Joannie Flatt, a spokeswoman for the development. The homes range from $239,950 to $790,950 depending on the model, location and square footage.”

“‘I guarantee you those prices are not coming down,’ she said. ‘The latent demand for homes in Mountain Bridge is quite likely huge.’”

The Review Journal from Nevada. “Clark County had 4,426 preforeclosures in April, more than double the 2,029 preforeclosures in the same month a year ago. The number is down from a record 6,152 preforeclosures in March.”

“REOs, or real estate owned by the lender through foreclosure, declined to 1,911 in April, compared with 1,937 in March.”

“Thomas Love, broker in Las Vegas, said he put about a half-dozen foreclosed properties in escrow in April after closing none in March. ‘We can’t get them to close,’ Love said. ‘The banks are so slow to act that buyers go down the street to another bank-owned home that’s a better deal, all because of the lack of action that banks take.’”

“The inventory of bank-owned properties in Las Vegas came about by investors hoping to jump on the ‘appreciation train,’ which has virtually stopped in the lower- to middle-housing market, Love said.”

The Las Vegas Business Press from Nevada. “A souring economy and a housing market downturn helped lower vacant valley land values in the first quarter of 2008, reports Applied Analysis. Median vacant land values were $598,700 per acre at the end of March, marking a 24.6 percent drop from a year ago.”

“‘The first quarter vacant land valuations reflect the impacts of the economic slowdown that was prevalent throughout most of 2007,’ Applied Analysis principal Brian Gordon said. ‘The number of properties being sold has reached a new low, which has the potential to place further downward pressure on pricing.’”

“Only 90 parcels totaling 252 acres changed hands in the first quarter. It marks a 71.6 percent year-to-year decline in activity.”

“‘Those with development plans are now questioning the feasibility of their projects as vacancy rates are increasing and rent growth is essentially flat,’ said Applied Analysis principal Jeremy Aguero. ‘On the residential side, reduced sale prices and carrying costs on underperforming communities are shrinking profits.’”

The Reno Gazette Journal from Nevada. “A penalty imposed on properties in areas considered to be ‘declining markets,’ such as Reno and Sparks, can result in a 10 percent down payment becoming 15 percent.”

“‘The days of simply stating your income are over,’ said B.J. Perez, mortgage broker in Sparks. ‘You have to be able to prove income and prove that you have money in the bank.’”

“‘When borrowing becomes too easy and you have enough people buying houses beyond what they can afford, then that can put the system in trouble, which is exactly what happened with the housing bubble,’ Mark Pingle, a professor of economics at the University of Nevada, Reno.”

“Lenders now ‘go through everything with a fine-tooth comb,’ requiring such documents as bank statements, pay stubs, employment verification, even tax returns, said Ken Wiseman, broker-owner of Reno Rancho Realty.”

“Appraisals have especially become a sticking point. ‘Underwriters are scrutinizing appraisals much more,’ said Kim Fleischmann, senior loan officer of Indymac Bank’s Reno office. ‘They’re asking for additional comparable sales in the neighborhood, additional listings. And you’re seeing that across the board.’”

“Instead of the traditional one to three comparable sales, underwriters are now asking for four to five comparables, plus one or two property listings, Fleischmann said. Underwriters are also more apt to request changes on appraisals, Wiseman said.”

“‘Banks are just picking apart the appraisals on houses right now,’ Wiseman said. ‘I’ve seen several cases where the bank doesn’t accept the appraisal and the loan just tanks.’”

“Another increasingly popular option involves ‘down payment assistance’ programs such as those offered by Nehemiah, AmeriDream and the Nevada Rural Housing Authority.”

“‘Are we creating another mortgage crisis on a smaller scale?’ Wiseman said. ‘At the same time, about 50 percent of my current deals would never happen (if it weren’t for down payment assistance programs). That means we would see an even further decrease in home values because we can’t get rid of housing inventory.’”

“‘It’s not like banks aren’t lending money, they’re not just giving it away,’ Perez said. ‘Back during the housing bubble, people bought multiple houses and just made up anything you could imagine in their applications.’”

“‘Now, lenders want proof of income, proof of how much money you have and proof of where that money is coming from. Now, they’re only making loans that make sense,’ he said.”

The Daily Herald from Utah. “Utah County saw a dramatic slowdown in new home construction in the first quarter from a year ago, as skittish builders took out fewer permits due to a severe glut of unsold inventory and weak new home sales, according to a local study released Wednesday.”

“New home permits in Utah County plunged 72 percent to 408 in the first quarter, down from 1,458 a year ago, while Summit county saw a 77 percent drop in new home permits. Statewide, new home building activity is declining at a record-breaking pace not seen since the ’80s.”

“‘This is more than just a correction for what went on during the housing boom. It’s a serious contraction caused by exogenous factors including the subprime lending crisis, which affected 15 percent to 20 percent of all mortgage loan originations in Utah,’ said James Wood, director of the University of Utah’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.”

“‘Utah County went up the most. So it had the most to fall,’ Wood said. In 2007, builders took out 3,500 new home permits in Utah County, where 25 percent of all new homes in the state were built.”

“According to Newreach, the number of unsold new homes and condominiums in Utah County skyrocketed 275 percent to 982 in the first quarter from a year ago. Lehi led the state for the second consecutive quarter with the greatest number of unsold new homes, accounting for a whopping 263 units, followed closely by Saratoga Springs with 204 units and Eagle Mountain with 157 units.”

“In the first quarter, the number of default notices nearly doubled to 613 in Utah County, from 365 a year ago, according to Newreach. About 90 percent of homes under default notices tend to go into foreclosure, the company found.”

“If the housing slowdown continues to worsen, Jason Eldredge, executive VP of sales for Newreach, sees the possibility of more consolidation in the building industry locally and nationally.”

“‘Builders that are holding expensive lot inventory priced at $100,000 and above, or expensive home inventory of $400,000 and above will either have to reduce those prices or consolidate if they can’t get rid of the inventory,’ he said.”

The Deseret News from Utah. “Jeff Atkinson, a general contractor from Utah County, said that because of the sharp downturn, he and many others in the industry are finding themselves unemployed, with few prospects.”

“‘I’m looking for work right now,’ he said. ‘I don’t have a job. My company is gone. I’ve lost everything. Most of my subcontractors, and some I have never even heard of, call me on a daily basis looking for work.’”

“Atkinson, who had been a general contractor for the past 10 years, said that until last summer, he and his partner built between 20 and 40 houses a year. Since then, he said, he has lost his personal life savings and maxed out his home-equity credit line to cover interest costs for the homes he and his partner had built, because those homes have not sold.”

“Meanwhile, he has been unable to find a job of any kind in the construction industry. He said his partner is in a similar predicament.”

“Atkinson said he and his former partner are still trying to sell three newly built homes for up to $120,000 below appraised value, just to cut their losses. ‘We keep getting killed from interest, and there comes a point where you just run out of money, and you can’t do it any more,’ Atkinson said.”

“Atkinson worries he may now be forced to find another line of work. ‘I’ve been in the building industry my entire life, and I would build homes forever if I could,’ he said. ‘But I honestly don’t see an end to this for quite a while. I think it’s just going to get worse.’”

WTVJ reports from Florida. “Broward resident Marina Davis has to love her home. She’s trapped in it. Like thousands, Davis has seen her real estate investment turn upside-down. In September 2005, Davis paid $550,000. Two months ago, the home was worth $480,000. Now, it is down to $380,000. Even worse, Davis falls farther behind every month. Because she got a risky ‘negative equity’ loan, her monthly payment of $2,850 isn’t even enough to cover the monthly interest of $4,550. She now owes the bank $590,000.”

“‘There’s nothing I can do,’ she said. ‘I am losing $1,700 a month. I am just going backward. I looked into refinancing, which is impossible.’”

“‘That’s not a good situation. You are basically stuck,’ Realtor Kevin Veilleux said. Loans like this, called negative adjustable mortgage loans, were common before the hard times hit South Florida real estate.”

“‘The only way people could actually afford to live in and buy property was to do the negative adjustable mortgage,’ Veilleux said. ‘They really need to unload and get rid of those properties before we get into hurricane season.’”

The New York Times. “Barbara Sanz has never missed a mortgage payment, but the plunge in real estate is punishing condominium owners like her anyway. Four years ago, she bought her first condo in a glassy new Miami tower when the building was filling up. Now nearly one in six residents in the 43-story building is battling foreclosure and their contributions to the building association are shrinking.”

“Each of the remaining owners has had to chip in an extra $1,000 assessment and $50 more a month for cable and Internet. That is on top of Ms. Sanz’s $450 monthly maintenance fee.”

“Even though she pays more, her building has broken washers and dryers and unusable exercise equipment, and her hallway is spotted with mold. ‘It’s not fair,’ said Ms. Sanz. ‘The first two years, I enjoyed all of the benefits of living in a condo. I’m disappointed now. I hate the way the building looks.’”

From CBS 12.com. “Rampant construction has West Palm Beach going vertical. But if you look closely at all the high rise condos downtown, you may notice some are virtual ghost towns. Realtor Anthony Pizzarelli says, ‘If you see a year-old building with half the lights on, half the lights off, chances are half the building is controlled by the developer that built it.’”

“The other reason for the big void: foreclosures. The agent, who’s been dubbed ‘Mr. Downtown West Palm Beach’ says on average prices for condos are down 25 percent or more. On the high end, a Penthouse at posh ‘Esplanade Grande’ (has) got marble everything and amazing views. It was going for $2.6 million. Now the asking price is only $2 million dollars.”

“At ‘The Slade,’ a 2 bedroom place, complete with a 200 square foot balcony providing a sweeping view of the intracoastal and Palm Beach, is going for $599,000. That’s down from $770,000.”

“Perhaps the best deal of all if also up for grabs in ‘The Slade.’ If you are in the market for a 1-bedroom, with full gym access, you can get one originally purchased at $380,000, now in bank foreclosure, going for nearly half at $188,000.”

“Barbara and Paul Westhorpe snatched up one of these great deals when they bought their condo at Flagler Landing, just north of downtown West Palm Beach. Their 2 bedroom, plus den, comes with a massive balcony overlooking a marina and its own elevator entrance. It’s listed at $600,000. The Westhorpes got it for only $460,000.”

“The bottom line: Mr. Downtown says if you want a downtown address, prices could go down even more. ‘I think we have up to a 24 months buyer’s window,’ Pizzarelli says, ‘I like to refer to this as the first inning of the true buyer’s market.’”

The Sun Sentinel. “The housing crunch rages on, as more South Floridians behind on their mortgage payments are losing their homes in foreclosure sales after failing to work out deals with lenders.”

“Scheduled sales in Broward County hit 2,568 last month, more than a fivefold increase over the 426 in April 2007, according to Realestat. In Palm Beach County, there were 785 scheduled sales in April, a 370 percent increase over the 167 from a year ago.”

“‘Our expectation is that we’ll see more repossessions by the banks over the next few months,’ West Palm Beach housing analyst Brad Hunter said Wednesday. ‘It’s not a pretty sight.’”

The Naples News. “Collier Clerk of Courts Dwight Brock said his office recorded 641 foreclosure filings in April. In Lee County, there were 3,425 filings in April, up 357 percent from a year ago and 3 percent from last month.”

“Look at the documents recorded with his office, ‘which are largely comprised of mortgages,’ he said. In February, there were 10,256. In March, 12,035.”

“‘That’s a considerable jump. A 2,000-document jump,’ Brock said. ‘We may be seeing an upturn in the real estate market but it is too soon to come to any definitive conclusion. But maybe we have reached the bottom of the real estate debacle. If i didn’t see any more foreclosures, it wouldn’t be too soon.’”

“David Cole, director of business development for Amerivest Realty in Naples, thinks the numbers are higher in Southwest Florida because the real estate market ‘was so hot,’ with many people hoping to cash in on the ‘flipping’ craze by buying properties and selling them quickly at a higher price for a quick profit.”

“‘We had investors and probably a lot of them were not savvy investors,’ he said.”

“We’ve all read about foreclosures but may not have had the chance to see it up close and personal. Steve is a great guy, a smart guy, hard worker, a local business man, a great boss, father, honest, kind and now, a victim of foreclosure. Bankruptcy is not too far around the corner, either.”

“‘I never thought I would be one of those people,’ he said.”

“I visited Steve at his home and he just looked around, at the new hardwood floor he had put in just a few months ago, the new halogen lights in the ceiling and the custom marble floors. I sold him the house about three years ago.”

“According to Steve, the ‘help line’ that his mortgage company has isn’t really a help line. It is no more than a debt collection tip-off line. When he called it, they just started harassing him, not helping him. More effort was made to harass him into the next mortgage payment and track him down to serve him with the foreclosure notice.”

“Sadly, the end is near. The American dream of home ownership has turned into a nightmare. The bank will soon own a home with no toilets, fans, light fixtures, wash basins or even light switches.”

“So Steve will pack up and move out and probably take a few things that aren’t screwed down so tightly. Steve, thanks for the memories … and the chandelier.”

The Herald Tribune. “The Maggi sisters, Kathleen and Linda, are still living daily with the ramifications of their foreclosure by the former Coast Bank of Florida. Kathleen, 65, and Linda, 60, lost their North Port house last year after the interest rate on their mortgage adjusted to more than they could afford. They now rent in Port Charlotte and say their lives have gotten worse.”

“Four years ago, the sisters had a nice home and a good credit rating. Today, they are living in a cramped rental with their dogs, hounded by collection agencies for late credit card payments and health care bills.”

“‘We’re getting sued left and right,’ Kathleen Maggi said. ‘We have no idea how they are finding us, but we had a sheriff at the door just the other day.’”

“The sisters’ North Port home — built by bankrupt builder Construction Compliance Inc. and financed by Bradenton-based Coast (since bought by First Bank of St. Louis) — was repossessed about this time last year.”

“Linda Maggi does not dispute that the sisters owe money, but lenders are not interested in the small payments they can muster. ‘I pray every night that I don’t wake up in the morning,’ Linda Maggi said. ‘It’s really depressing when you wake up in the morning and have to start it all over again.’”

“Agent Sandra Israelson had bank-owned listings that included a two-bedroom one-bath home on Baldwin Avenue in Sarasota listed for $114,000 and a luxury Siesta Key penthouse in The Pointe that was going for $437,000.”

“In both cases, the bank asked that the homes be priced at a point that allowed them to sell within 30 days. Apparently, Israelson struck the right prices. She received four full-price offers for the Siesta Key penthouse within one week, and the pending sale is set to close next month.”

The Orlando Sentinel. “Orlando’s resale-home market showed a few more signs of improvement last month, though even the local Realtors group described the pace of change as glacial. Another decline in the median sales price, while bad news for home sellers, meant properties were more affordable in April.”

“The current inventory translates into a 22.2-month supply at the current pace of sales. That’s the eighth-biggest backlog on record.”

“Akhtar Hussain, owner of the Village Coffee Pot on Donnelly Street in Mount Dora, thinks it’s going to take ‘five to seven years’ before the Central Florida real-estate market gets back to normal. ‘They were building homes like crazy. So there’s a surplus,’ the owner of the Mount Dora business noted. Now the slowing economy is adding to the region’s housing woes.”

“Bill Loh, an aviation-industry consultant living in Oviedo, said he figures most people locally would probably do better to rent for another year, until prices show they are stable and not still headed south.”

“‘It’s like when the stock market is going down — no one wants to catch a falling knife,’ he said.”

“The Village of Imagine has fallen victim to the local and nationwide housing slump. The project’s developer is reconsidering plans to build the mixed-use complex of shops, restaurants and residential units across from the Orange County Convention Center.”

“But all that has materialized is a 315-room condominium-hotel — the recently opened Westin Imagine Orlando — surrounded by a few retention ponds and barren ground where the rest of the development would have gone.”

“The decision to put the Village of Imagine on hold has disappointed those who bought condo-hotel units in the Westin for prices ranging from $270,000 and $650,000 each. Those who have refused to close on their units because the village wasn’t built have been told by the developer that the elimination of the village from the project did not constitute a ‘material and adverse’ change under terms of the condo-hotel sales contracts.”

“Realtor Robert Anarumo said he has seven clients with contracts for units in the Westin Imagine. While most of his buyers are closing on their purchases, they’re disappointed that the village, with its restaurants, shops and waterways, hasn’t been built.”

“‘The village is what they latched onto,’ Anarumo said. ‘It was the No. 1 differentiating factor.’”

The News Journal. “A total of 687 foreclosure-related court notices were issued to Volusia County homeowners last month, up from 548 in March and 2 1/2 times the 270 notices recorded a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.”

“In Flagler County, 230 notices were sent out last month, up slightly from 226 in March. A year ago, 78 households were put on notice.”

“Altogether, about 3,450 area households have come under a foreclosure cloud this year, estimated Larry Glinzman, spokesman for the Community Legal Services of Mid-Florida, a Daytona Beach nonprofit agency that provides free counseling.”

“‘Domestic violence is still our biggest caseload, unfortunately, but foreclosure is running a close second,’ he said.”

From WOKV.com. “The Jacksonville Area Legal Aid has started holding monthly clinics to help people avoid foreclosure and predatory lenders.”

“‘People think the crisis is over, that we’ve already bottomed out, but that’s not true,’ said Lois Ragsdale, an attorney in JALA’s Predatory Lending Unit. ‘The number of foreclosures coming down the pike is astronomical.’”

The Times Union. “The decline in existing home sales and prices in Jacksonville continued for the first quarter compared with the same time last year, the Florida Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.”

“Single-family home sales by realtors dropped 36 percent to 2,119, while condominiums decreased by 40 percent to 267 sold. Median sales prices weren’t up either, with single-family homes selling for 6 percent less at $185,300 and condominiums down 8 percent to $146,800.”

“Local analyst Ray Rodriguez said it’s largely tied to the economic slowdown.”

“‘Consumers are going to lower priced items now,’ said Rodriguez, owner of the Real Estate Strategy Center of North Florida Inc. ‘They’re not going after a dream anymore. They’re going after what they can afford.’”

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