The Era Of Less In Florida
Miami Today reports from FLorida. “Despite suffering through one of the worst housing market crises, Miami’s residential market is now doing better than the rest of the nation. ‘You’re getting a lot of Venezuelans, Canadians, Brazilians because they feel like there’s a bargain,’ said Michael Pappas, president and CEO of The Keyes Co.”
The Sun Sentinel. “Lowly apartments, transformed into condominiums across South Florida during housing’s heyday, are now turning back into rentals. Unit owners are split on whether the move is a blessing or a bust. In many cases, these complexes went condo for no other reason than to satisfy the incredible demand for homes in the middle part of the past decade.”
“Those who bought at the height of the housing boom won’t break even in a sale for 10 years or more, said Jonathan Kingsley, a unit owner at a Hollywood condo that’s operating unofficially as a rental. ‘You might as well get out now at whatever loss you can,’ he said.”
The News Press. “Where developers once dreamed of towering riverfront condominiums, six parcels in downtown Fort Myers sit quietly now — waiting for their time to come. They’re still the subject of calculations if not acquisitions by potential investors, wary of carrying costs that could go on for years. Investors have to judge how long it will take for The Vue to become viable for the 27-story tower it’s been approved for by the city council, said commercial real estate broker Steve Luta., and that’s hard to calculate. ‘Is it a three-year hold? Five years? Ten years?’”
The Palm Beach Post. “People selling their homes in Palm Beach County lost money nearly 46 percent of the time during the third quarter of this year, according to Zillow. Jeff Shanley, president of Pembroke Pines-based Ambire Group Holdings, said it’s optimistic to think South Florida home values will hit bottom in 2012. Shanley’s company manages foreclosures for banks. He’s concerned about the growing shadow inventory of distressed homes that are either in foreclosure or already repossessed but not on the market.”
“‘We’re going to see this continued market dive for another five years,’ he said Monday as he waited for Habitat for Humanity to take unwanted furniture from a foreclosed condominium on Riviera Beach’s Singer Island. ‘Next year, you’ll start seeing the banks unloading these homes left and right.’”
From Florida Today. “About a fourth of all mortgages in Florida, and about 18 percent in Brevard County, are either delinquent or in foreclosure, according to the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta. With a backlog of homeowners delinquent on their mortgage payments, banks seem to be pacing their foreclosures and evictions.”
“‘It’s like an overcrowded bar,’ said Melbourne attorney Hurley Partin Whitaker, who handles bankruptcy and foreclosure cases. ‘When two (foreclosures) go out, the banks let two more in.’”
“A growing number of homeowners who are living in their homes without paying for them as they wait for the bank to force them out. ‘It was a matter of fighting off the foreclosure process. I’ve been stalling them off for three years,’ said one delinquent beachside mortgage holder who asked to remain anonymous because he didn’t want to draw his bank’s attention. The 50-ish construction worker bought a home three years ago but was quickly overwhelmed when the economy went sour and payments on his adjustable rate mortgage ballooned.”
“‘You get used to not answering the phone,’ he said. He is just trying to find steady work and waiting until the bank boots him from the house he hoped to own. ‘Where’s my bailout now?’ he wondered.”
From WTSP. “For several years, however, 10 News viewers facing foreclosure or trying to get a loan modification have called us and sent in e-mails to complain about Bank of America saying they’ve experieced runaround and have been told their paperwork was lost or missing. William Pfanakuck of Port Charlotte is a Bank of America customer who says he too has been frustrated with the bank. He owes more on his home than its worth.”
“Pfanakuck says, ‘I’ve been trying to deal with renegotiating the loan for about two years now. I’m hoping for at least a reasonable payment that I can start making to help my credit and get back on top.’”
The Lehigh Acres Citizen. “Some delinquent mortgage holders are defying lenders and staying in their homes while living for free, sometimes for years. They have attorneys pleading their cases causing the lengthy foreclosure process to take even longer. Sometimes, banks are not pushing to go to foreclosure because they do not want to increase their inventory of repossessed homes. AARP recently reported, ‘Florida retiree C. Light is still holding on to his three-bedroom home in the scenic Gulf Coast community of Cape Coral, as well as a five-bedroom residence in the town of Bartow. It’s been almost two years since he made a mortgage payment on either one.’”
The News Journal. “When Florida mandated a residential foreclosure mediation program two years ago, its creators hoped that joining lenders and borrowers together would plug the stream of foreclosure cases that swamped the court system. That hasn’t come close to happening, lawyers and bankers say.”
“Sandy Upchurch manages the foreclosure mediation program in the state’s 7th Judicial Circuit. Participation numbers in the circuit, as in the rest of the state, are low. At her office in Daytona Beach, three drawers in a filing cabinet are filled with foreclosed residents who never responded to her staff’s multiple attempts to reach them. ‘The reason why they’re not buying into the program in bigger numbers is they know they’re underwater and don’t want to save their house,’ said Upchurch, of the firm Upchurch Watson White and Max. ‘Or they have no money at all and can’t afford a lawyer, and don’t believe we’re actually a free service.’”
From Reuters. “In a recent Gallup poll, 66 percent of Americans ranked not having enough money for retirement as their top financial concern. That was up from 53 percent a decade ago. There are multiple reasons for reversals in gains in fighting elderly poverty, including the impact of the financial crisis on stock prices and interest rates, the end of many traditional defined-benefit pension plans which provided people with a guarantee of retirement income, and the bursting of the U.S. housing bubble.”
“59-year-old Orlando-based Realtor Margaret Davis says she has shelved plans to retire next year after losing 75 percent of her net worth in the economic crisis and Florida’s housing bust. A daughter of hard-working Cuban immigrants, who retired comfortably in south Florida, Davis is partly disabled and now plans on working for at least another 10 years.”
‘Davis’ $1,200 monthly health insurance premiums are covered through a home equity line of credit. ‘I was the American dream. I worked 80-hour weeks as a single mom. I worked like a dog, very successful. I never felt entitled. I didn’t do anything wrong. And my money’s gone,’ Davis said. ‘I’m devastated. I’m disgusted at how marginalized people are,’ she added, referring to what she described as the yawning gap between the very rich and everyone else. Whatever the American dream was, it’s now out of reach for the middle class, and that’s why people are scared and pissed off.’”
The Daily Record. “Jacksonville was just .02 points from escaping the red-shaded real estate investment ranks of ‘generally poor’ to reach the yellow-tinged tones of ‘fair.’ The investment rankings were reported in the ‘Emerging Trends in Real Estate’ report from Urban Land Institute and PwC, the brand name of member firms of Pricewaterhouse Coopers. The 2011 report was called ‘The Era of Less.’ The 2012 edition is ‘Facing a Long Grind.’”
“ULI Chairman Peter Rummell, a 42-year veteran of the real estate industry, moderated a panel discussion about industry trends. Rummell, also chairman of the Jacksonville Civic Council, is chairman of ULI globally. ‘I think we’re part way through it,’ he said of the real estate recession. ‘I’ve been in this theater before, but this movie is different,’ he said. ‘This is a very long movie.’”
“Rummell said he is guarded about the next few years in real estate, except for apartments. ‘The era of a rising tide lifting all ships is gone,’ he said.”
