Great Florida Bankwins $34M foreclosure, Miami real estate

Great Florida Bank wins $34M foreclosure on Hollywood project

A foreclosure judgment of $33.7 million was given to Great Florida Bank over the stalled Arden Park residential project in Hollywood.

On February 11th, Great Florida Bank, based in Miami Lakes, won the judgment against Miami real estate project, Arden Park LLC, formerly known as Coscan Shefaor.

Full article...Great Florida Bank wins foreclosure, Miami real estate

Miami homes for sale, Miami real estate

Pending home sales rise in South Florida

According to data released Tuesday by the Realtor Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service Pending home sales rose in Miami-Dade and Broward counties during January compared to December.

In Miami-Dade, pending Miami homes for sale increased 0.8% to 3,741 and condos for sale in Miami rose 3.5% to 4,647.

Pending sales of condominiums in Broward rose 9.4% to 4,137 and sales of single-family homes rose 6.2% to 3,310.

Full Article...Miami homes for sale, Miami real estate

Miami Condos, Miami Real Estate

Condo Bulk Buyers Helping Miami Real Estate Market

As the year starts winding down, Miami real estate investors have begun buying large blocks of Miami condos, known as ``bulk deals'' at a rapid speed.

According to analysts, the burst of new activity indicates investors, mostly seasoned Miami real estate professionals, recognize the new construction market is nearing bottom.

Investors have closed on five bulk transactions totaling 518 units and 710,500 square feet throughout Miami-Dade County, since the end of October.

For four of the five deals the combined purchase price was $43 million.

Full Article...Miami Condos, Miami Real Estate

Miami Condos, Miami Beach Real Estate

Occupancy Rates are Soaring in Downtown Miami Condos

With most downtown Miami Condos’ dark and desolate, newly built condo towers may look ghostly. But as the downtown area quickly fills up with residents, that's changing.

Renters are marching in to help lighten things up, although Miami condos sales remain sluggish. Sales are picking up, too.

An occupancy report released Wednesday by the Miami Downtown Development Authority, found that 62% of the new condos built since 2003 are, in fact, inhabited by humans.

Full Article...Miami Condos, Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Condos, Miami Beach Real Estate

Borrowing for Miami Condos Easier in 2009

Twenty six Miami Condos have been approved by Fannie Mae for Federally backed mortgages this year, compared to zero in 2008, according to Condovultures.com. Fannie Mae refused to finance units in condo towers where values had dropped too much or where a large portion of the condos were in foreclosure, as the housing market collapsed last year.

The higher number of projects in Fannie Mae's mirrors the quickening pace of sales in the battered Miami real estate market. Fannie Mae approved 25 South Florida condo projects in 2007 and 19 condo projects in 2006.

Miami Homes, Miami Beach Real Estate

Feds get Tough on Mortgage Fraud, Miami Homes

The string of rapid-fire sales at a Coral Gables home was emblematic of the cause and consequences of South Florida's housing bust, to neighboring residents. In less than three years, the four-bedroom house, now vacant and deteriorating, was sold, bought and foreclosed on three times.

Neighbors always suspected that something wasn't right with one of the Miami homes on Alesio Avenue as the value of the home more than doubled to $1.2 million in the short time span. As it turns out they were right.

This week a federal judge sentenced Jose G. Martin to 65 months in prison. Martin had once posed as a renter in the home and was charged with orchestrating a $6.6 million mortgage fraud scheme involving the Alesio property and six other homes in Miami-Dade County.

Full Story....Miami Homes, Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Condos, Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Foreclosure-Ridden Complexes are Now Top Sellers

Miami condos complexes that had the worst foreclosure problems are now showing high condosales. In a reversal of fortune, seven of the top 10 most foreclosure-ridden complexes last year ranked among the 10 top-selling projects in the first three months of 2009, mostly because banks slashed prices in order to speed sales.

The new figures come from Miami-based market research firm CondoReports.com, which compared foreclosure and sales transactions in its database of 2,000 Miami-Dade projects built before 2008.

Three of thr best selling Miami condos projects were in Miami-Dade's farthest flung suburbs. Shoma at Keys Cove in Homestead ranked first with 50 sales; followed by Mandarin Lakes near South Miami Heights, with 32 sales; and, Bluewaters subdivision in the Country Walk area, also with 32 sales.

Full article...Miami Foreclosures, Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Homes, Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Homes, April Sales Rise by 2.9%

From March to April, sales of previously occupied homes rose modestly as buyers who were brave enough to dive into the market took advantage of prices that were 15.4% below year-ago levels.

On Wednesday, the National Association of Realtors said that home sales rose 2.9% to an annual rate of 4.68 million last month, from a downwardly revised pace of 4.55 million in March.

The results slightly more then economists' forecasted. According to Thomson Reuter, sales had been expected to rise to an annual pace of 4.66 million units.

Full Article....Miami Homes, Miami Beach Real Estate

Miami Homes in Foreclosure, Miami Real Estate

Florida Foreclosures, Treasury Rolls out Relief for More Homeowners

ON THE WEB:
Treasury fact sheet: http://tinyurl.com/qlbn9m
Progress Report: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/docs/05142009ProgressReport.pdf
Making Home Affordable site: http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov/about.html

The Obama administration unveiled new programs Thursday designed to make it easier for homeowners who owe far more than their houses are now worth to sell those homes at a loss and have their remaining debt forgiven.

These programs are the latest additions to Making Home Affordable, an evolving $75 billion plan that tries to break the national housing crisis into separate pieces, attacking the problem on several fronts.

The first two legs of the program sought to help borrowers refinance into today's low mortgage rates, or if they're behind on payments, to seek loan modifications to avoid foreclosure.

MIami Condos, Florida Foreclosures

Florida Foreclosures, Onyx on the Bay Units Face Action

The developer of Onyx on the Bay, a 28-story highrise in Miami, faces foreclosure.

According to court records, Corus Bank has filed a foreclosure action targeting 41 unsold units within the 118-unit condo tower.

Named in the lawsuit, which was filed April 29 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, is Developer Biscayne Bay Lofts and the principals of the development partners, Willy Bermello and Luis Ajamil, of Miami-based BAP Developers, and Gustavo Micuslitzki, of Argentina’s GGM Developers.

Onyx appears to be the first to fall-Last month; the troubled Chicago-based Corus Bank warned that it was preparing to foreclose on three South Florida projects.

Full Article....Miami Condos, Florida Foreclosures

Florida Home Seizures, Florida Foreclosures

Home Seizures up Drastically, Florida Foreclosures

In the third quarter, failing Florida economy helped push 90,000 more homes into foreclosure, amid mounting job losses and falling home prices, according to an industry report released Friday.

The Mortgage Bankers Association reported at the end of September, Florida foreclosures stood at 7.32%, representing 261,027 homes. The percentage of all homes in foreclosure in Florida easily outranked those of other states. Nevada's rate of 5.58 was second highest.

Jay Brinkmann, MBA chief economist says ''Florida has lost 156,000 jobs [this year], the highest in the country, and that now is clearly driving problems in Florida in addition to some of the overbuilding issues we saw there''. He noted that speculation and poor underwriting had contributed to both Florida and California's high rates.

Full Article...Florida Home Seizures, Florida Foreclosures

Prices Down Even with South Florida Home Sales Up

As more and more are snapping up properties sold at levels not seen in four years, falling home values continued to stimulate sales in October. But South Florida's housing market remains weighted down by a huge surplus of Miami homes for sale.

According to numbers released Monday by the Florida Association of Realtors, prices for existing single-family homes dropped 30% in Miami-Dade County and 29% in Broward Compared to October last year,. Also, condominium prices fell 26% in Miami-Dade and 28% in Broward compared to the same period a year ago.

Full Article...South Florida Home Sales Up

Florida Home Prices, Miami Real Estate

South Florida Home Prices Drop 16.9%, Miami Real Estate

National Association of Realtors said Tuesday; the median sales price for South Florida single-family homes fell 16.9% from a year earlier in the third quarter.

Sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for at least a third of all transactions: Nationwide, prices were down 9%.

In four out of every five U.S. cities, in the third quarter, home prices fell; a record spurred by distressed foreclosure sales across the country. In 120 U.S. metropolitan areas prices fell, prices rose in 28 and were unchanged in four, the biggest share of declines in data going back to 1979.

Full Article...South Florida Home Prices, Miami Real Estate

Housing Market, Miami Beach Real Estate

HOTTEST TEN BUYERS MARKETS

Extraordinary change is expected in real estate markets all over the nation, but the hottest 10 Buyers Housing Markets in 2008 are exceptions to the rule. These Hot 10 markets have also undergone more changes as a result of the national housing crisis that is seeing most markets decline.

HOTTEST 10 BUYERS MARKETS
RANK	REAL ESTATE MARKET	2008 FORECAST
1.	Biloxi, MS	4.9%
2.	Salem, NC	4.7%
3.	Bismarck, OR	4.6%
4.	Spokane, WA	4.4%
5.	Yakima, WA	4.1%
6.	Austin, TX	4.0%
7.	Grand Junction, CO	4.0%
8.	Fargo, ND	4.0%
9.	Mobile, AL	3.9%
10.	Albuquerque, NM	3.5%

Click here for....Florida's housing Market Statistics

U.S Home Prices, Miami Real Estate

U.S. Home Prices Predicted to Plunge Until 2010

U.S. home pries are predicted to continue to fall until 2010, the worst declines since the Great Depression, said Nouriel Roubini, the professor at New York University's Stern School of Business who predicted the current financial crisis in 2006.

Roubini said Monday in a Bloomberg Radio interview, ''I expect home prices are going to fall at an annualized rate of 16 percent.'' ``The cumulative fall in home prices is going to 40% until 2010. It's the biggest drop in home prices since the Great Depression.''

New home sales, Miami Beach real estate

U.S. Housing Market, Pending New Home Sales up in August

Unforeseen positive news for the battered U.S. housing market- pending new home sales rose 7.4% from July to August.

On Wednesday the seasonally adjusted index of pending new home sales rose to 93.4 from an upwardly revised July reading of 87. The reading was the highest since June 2007, said The National Association of Realtors.

A pending home sale is when the seller has accepted an offer, but the deal has not yet closed. Usually there is a one to two month wait before a sale is completed.

Wall Street economists had predicted the index would fall to 84.9.

The index sunk to a record low of 83 in March and stood at 85.8 in August 2007.

Full article...US Housing Market, Miami Beach Real Estate

Home Values, Miami Beach Real Estate

Click on the Graph Above!

Florida Housing Market, Miami Lodge Realty

South Florida Housing Most Optimistic in Country

South Florida showed some improvement over the previous month, although home prices dropped in 20 U.S. markets in July.

House price declined in 20 U.S. cities in July at the fastest pace on record indication the worst housing recession in a generation has yet to reach the bottom.

After a 15.9 % decline in June, the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 16.3% from a year earlier. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007, and year-over-year records began in 2001.

However the index for South Florida, including Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, fell 28.2% from 2007, which was an improvement from a 30.5% drop in June.

Real Estate Foreclosures, Miami Beach Real Estate

Florida to Get $541 Million in Foreclosure Funds

More than $540 million in federal grants will be given to Florida state and local governments to buy wrecked property and assist low-income residents purchase

Florida foreclosures.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Steve Preston announced Friday that the state of Florida will receive $541 million in new federal foreclosure funds to prevent further home loan defaults and fight the damage caused by the rising number of abandoned properties.

Florida Foreclosures, Miami Beach Real Estate

78,000 Florida Foreclosures, Miami Beach Real Estate

According to an industry report released Friday, with more than 78,000 new homes in jeopardy of being repossessed by lenders, the number of Florida home loans entering foreclosure continued to rise at a quick rate in the second quarter.

The Mortgage Bankers Association survey, which tracks only first mortgages, painted a dark cloud over Florida's housing market after a more than half-decade of overbuilding and heavy speculation.

Full Article..... 78,000 Florida Foreclosures!