Gold Coast Florida

09/09/2010 - Former Police Officer charged for second time with trying to rent out homes he doesn't own - Claiming he is backed by an obscure Florida law pertaining to abandoned and vacant property, Carl Heflin again has attempted to take homes via adverse possession and rent them to unwitting tenants, according to Palm Beach County Sheriff's investigators. Heflin, a former W.P.B. police officer, was arrested again Monday. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

09/05/2010 - Former housing industry workers transfer their skills to new jobs - Some workers in the once-thriving housing industry are moving on. Many who once sold homes or mortgages in the region's housing boom now work in jobs involving home foreclosures. Others have transferred their skills to other industries or started businesses. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/31/2010 - Judge fines major legal firm for foreclosure conduct - Circuit Judge Janette Dunnigan scolded five lawyers from the Smith, Hiatt and Diaz firm in connection with a Manatee County foreclosure case filed in 2007. The firm is one of several "foreclosure mills" filing thousands of foreclosure cases monthly. - http://www.heraldtribune.com

08/29/2010 - Bargain buys: South Florida has plenty of homes priced at $50,000 or less - Investors are buying, fixing up and reselling for a profit - The collapse in home prices during the past five years has left plenty of bargains for the taking, but many of the properties are shoe-box tiny, need new roofs or have some other major flaw that doesn't make financial sense for buyers on a budget. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

Laura Trebatch bought this house in Pompano Beach for $47,000, rehabbed it and resold it for $99,900 three months later

08/28/2010 - NACA Foreclosure aid: Homeowners jam mortgage modification marathon event - Borrowers jam the Palm Beach County Convention Center to try to work out new deals with their mortgage lenders. The event, which continues round the clock until 8 p.m. Tuesday, was the third NACA loan marathon in South Florida this year aimed at helping homeowners avoid foreclosure. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/24/2010 - South Florida foreclosures surpass 100,000 - More than 100,000 properties -- an average of 2,300 per month -- have been repossessed in the three big South Florida counties since the real estate crash began in 2007, according to a new report from CondoVultures.com, a real estate consultancy. - http://www.miamiherald.com
Read More: condovultures.com

08/15/2010 - S. Fla. property tax appeals favor high-end businesses, homes - Tax appeals have been pouring into government offices throughout Florida, fueled by the real estate boom and crash and a highly profitable cottage industry of tax representatives. So far this year, Broward and Palm Beach counties have reduced property values by more than $2.5 billion as a result of appeals. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/15/2010 - Feds allot $3 billion more to aid homeowners facing foreclosure - Florida will receive about $239 million in additional funds the Obama administration has earmarked to assist unemployed homeowners facing foreclosure in the nation's hardest hit jobless and housing markets. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/15/2010 - Foreclosures jump 77 percent in Palm Beach County - The county had 3,759 homeowners in some stage of foreclosure in July, up 77 percent from June and 42 percent from a year ago. Palm Beach County had the 11th-highest foreclosure rate of Florida's 67 counties. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/15/2010 - Foreclosure help group to return to West Palm Beach - NACA - The nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America - hero to the struggling homeowner, bully to big banks - said it will conduct its third South Florida mortgage counseling extravaganza Aug. 27-31 in West Palm Beach. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/15/2010 - Midtown Miami overcomes challenges - The advantage of Midtown is that it's a self-contained community that has only scratched the surface of what it can become. Midtown Equities has developed about one-third of the 5-million-square-feet available. - http://www.miamiherald.com

08/14/2010 - Midtown Miami sparking an urban renaissance - Midtown Miami, an everything-in-one-place collection of stores, residences and offices, is sparking an urban renaissance. Somehow, amid a bleak real estate meltdown with shopping centers clinging desperately to tenants, Midtown appears to have caught on, fulfilling a long-desired demand for urban retail. - http://www.miamiherald.com

08/12/2010 - First Coast condominium prices plunged by 42 percent - Jacksonville-area condominium prices plunged by 42 percent from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter in 2010. The median price for Jacksonville-area condominiums fell from $126,900 in last year's second quarter to $74,200 this year, - http://www.jacksonville.com

08/10/2010 - Attorney General Bill McCollum opens investigations into foreclosure law firms - Because many mortgages have been bought and sold by different institutions multiple times, paperwork involved in the process to obtain foreclosure judgements is often missing. Trent said Stern's firm overcame that obstacle by creating an assignment, which was signed by a Stern employee instead of a representative of the lender attempting to foreclose. - http://www.jacksonville.com
Read More: Florida investigating 'bogus' foreclosure records

08/04/2010 - Sellers should ensure condo projects are on FHA mortgage list - Condo owners trying to sell in today's agonizingly slow market should make sure that their community is on the Federal Housing Administration's approved list. Under a little-noticed edict put in place in December, the FHA is no longer approving mortgages on condominium units on a spot, loan-by-loan basis. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

08/03/2010 - For South Florida real estate market, a hopeful sign - Fueled by foreign buyers and distressed sales, South Florida pending home sales were up in July compared to last year. In July, pending home sales in Miami-Dade County stood at 10,113, up 40.5 percent from July of 2009, according to figures released Tuesday by the Miami Realtors. In Broward, pending sales stood at 7,830 in July, up 25.4 percent from a year earlier. - http://www.miamiherald.com
Read More: PAGE-2,

08/03/2010 - Homeowners decry 'American dream' - Values for residential property in the area have dropped to 2000-01 levels, leaving half of mortgaged homes worth less than their mortgage debt. The owners of 6,000-plus Orlando-area homes face foreclosure and ruined credit. What was once seen as an opportunity to build wealth has, in some cases, turned into dead weight. - http://www.orlandosentinel.com

08/01/2010 - S. Fla. market is 'ground zero' for housing bust - Where the housing bust hurt most in South Florida: Median prices by ZIP code - "South Florida was definitely ground zero for the housing bust," said Larson, an analyst with Weiss Research, a Jupiter-based provider of global investment information. "We had a lot of rampant speculation and fly-by-night mortgage lenders and when they went away, the market collapsed." - http://www.sun-sentinel.com
Read More:
Broward homes & condos: Price change between 2005 and 2010,
Palm Beach homes & condos: Price change between 2005 and 2010,

07/30/2010 - Can landlord use prepaid rent to pay for tenants' damage? - The Miami metropolitan area has the nation's 10th-highest foreclosure rate, with 3.89 percent of homes receiving a notice during the first half of 2010, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

07/29/2010 - Foreclosures slam Miami metro area in first half of 2010 - Mortgage interest rates dropped to record lows last week, hitting rates not seen since the 1970s. But brokers say few of the many South Florida homeowners rushing to take advantage and refinance their loans will be able to qualify. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

07/26/2010 - Mortgage refinancers face tough road - Mortgage interest rates dropped to record lows last week, hitting rates not seen since the 1970s. But brokers say few of the many South Florida homeowners rushing to take advantage and refinance their loans will be able to qualify. - http://www.miamiherald.com

07/23/2010 - `Shadow market' clouds housing recovery - Realtor database, for properties in Tamarac. He said banks owned about 300 homes, but had listed only 81 for sale. Homes on the market in Miami-Dade has shrunk 36 percent since last year to 26,296 homes, the number of loans 90 days or more past due or in the foreclosure process stood at 122,800 in September. - http://www.miamiherald.com

07/19/2010 - Foreclosure court handles mighty backlog - Metro Orlando ranked eighth in the nation for foreclosures during the first six months of the years, with one foreclosure-related court filing for every 24 households, according to a report released today by the California-based research firm RealtyTrac. - http://www.orlandosentinel.com

07/15/2010 - Orlando foreclosures may be easing - You don't need to be a lender to see when the mortgage crisis hit Orange County. Between 2002 and 2006, Central Florida's largest county saw an average 4,827 foreclosures each year. During 2007, the foreclosure filings jumped to 11,351. Last year, 31,308 foreclosure cases were filed -- most of them residential cases -- according to court statistics. During the first five months of this year, another 9,073 cases hit the system. - http://www.orlandosentinel.com

07/15/2010 - Foreclosures batter Broward County during first half of year - Broward County had the third-highest foreclosure rate among Florida's 67 counties for the first half of 2010, RealtyTrac Inc. reported Thursday. One in every 21 Broward homes received a foreclosure notice during the January-to-June period. said. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

07/15/2010 - Six arrested in another South Florida mortgage fraud scam - Six South Floridians were arrested Wednesday on charges of grand degree theft for their involvement in a mortgage scam that netted more than $2 million in fraudulent mortgages, the state Department of Financial Services Division of Insurance Fraud said. - http://www.miamiherald.com

07/14/2010 - Lenders on pace to take back 50,000 S. Fla. homes this year - The increase, from 30,400 repossessions last year, stems in part from the migration of the foreclosure sales process to the Internet, said Peter Zalewski, principal of Bal Harbour-based CondoVultures.com. deficits. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

07/02/2010 - Property values plunge across Broward County - Property values in Broward County plunged 11.7 percent last year - the third yearly drop in a row - marking one of the worst declines in history. As a result, residents face tax increases and service cuts as local leaders confront budget deficits. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

06/30/2010 - Foreclosures dominate Broward home sales in 1st quarter - Foreclosures -- homes in default, bank-owned or scheduled for auction -- made up 26 percent of sales in Palm Beach County during the first quarter. The share of Broward sales that involved a home in distress was 44 percent, well above the national average of 31 percent. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

06/21/2010 - State plans to funnel millions in federal foreclosure aid to South Florida - More than $73 million is expected to pour into Palm Beach and Broward counties this year as part of a federal plan to keep borrowers at risk of foreclosure in their homes. Of the $2.1 billion the Obama administration pledged to 10 states hit hardest by the housing meltdown, Florida is getting $418 million. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

06/15/2010 - State spells out who will get foreclosure relief funds - Homeowners who qualify would get at least nine months of their mortgage, taxes and insurance paid for through the U.S. government's Hardest Hit Fund program. Florida is one of five states that will share in $1.5 billion of the funds. Of the state's $418 million, most will go to the mortgage-intervention strategy. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com  

06/15/2010 - Foreclosure tsunami swamps South Florida courts - Millions being added to budgets, courts will try mediation to resolve cases - Starting next month, there will be two new efforts to turn back the foreclosure crisis. But even those changes won't eliminate the backlog. Statewide, more than 700,000 foreclosure cases have been filed in the past two years, one out of four in Broward and Palm Beach counties. In South Florida, the number of foreclosure cases has increased tenfold in five years. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

06/12/2010 - Foreclosure defense business booming in South Florida - After an hour-long foreclosure defense workshop, Weston lawyer Roy Oppenheim called for questions and turned to Ailene Colini. Laid off, stuck with an "underwater" mortgage and fed up with her lender, she wanted to know about a radical option. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

06/12/2010 - Collier, Lee foreclosures slow, debate begins whether banks are backing off - While new mortgage default filings decreased in May, banks seized more properties last month in Southwest Florida and throughout the nation than ever before, reported RealtyTrac, a California-based firm tracking foreclosure trends. - http://www.naplesnews.com

06/12/2010 - Foreclosure Prevention Seminar Video - Web site for Collier County Foreclosure Task Force - Helpful resources and upcoming events - Members of the Collier County Foreclosure Task Force conducted a comprehensive 3 hour Workshop on the topic of foreclosures in Collier County before the County Commissioners. - www.sun-sentinel.com
Read More:
Matrix of Resources - download a free brochure listing local resources available to those facing foreclosure in Collier County ,
Housing Development Corporation of SW Florida, Inc. -,
Homeowners Given FLASH Of Hope

12/16/2009 - Federal government wants to sell you a home - Uncle Sam and two government-sponsored companies are unloading property, from waterside mansions to burned-out shells, often at fire-sale prices 10 percent to 20 percent below market value. - www.sun-sentinel.com
Read More:
FDIC REAL ESTATE FOR SALE,
ORE Property Listings,
Additional FDIC LISTINGS

05/17/2010 - New help coming for troubled homeowners? - It would happen through a large-scale mediation process that would be set up in Broward's courts. Fannie Mae's Senior Manager for Media Relations Jason Vasquez told me that he's not ready to discuss the program yet, but he promised more details later. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

05/17/2010 - Broward foreclosure filings decline in April, Palm sees rise - Broward County foreclosures declined in April from a year ago, but the county still posted Florida's third-highest foreclosure rate, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

05/09/2010 - Condo financing in Florida to get boost from Fannie Mae - A program from government-run mortgage company Fannie Mae aims to make condo loans more readily available for individual buyers. This program could play a key role in South Florida's condo market. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

04/28/2010 - South Florida home prices drop - The closely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home-price index for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties dipped one half of a percent from January. It was the fifth consecutive monthly decline. - http://www.miamiherald.com

04/27/2010 - Boynton couple sues developer over flipping - First a ghost town of vacant properties, they complain their community of three-story town homes is now overrun by "irreverent transients" who park erratically, leave trashcans perpetually curbside, throw loud parties, install unsightly and unauthorized satellite dishes, and fail to pick up after free-roaming dogs. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

04/26/2010 - Florida again top state for mortgage fraud, report finds - The Miami-Fort Lauderdale region ranked fourth among the metropolitan areas studied, institute researchers found, accounting for 4 percent of all mortgage fraud reported nationwide. The New York-New Jersey- Long Island area was first, followed by Los Angeles-Riverside and the tri-state Chicago-Gary-Kenosha region - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

03/31/2010 - Online foreclosure auctions get off to rough start in Broward - Thanks to local media coverage, about 3,000 users flooded the website, Broward.realforeclose.com, slowing the process down, said Lloyd McClendon, chief executive of RealAuction.com, the Plantation company that runs the auctions for Broward and more than 10 other counties in Florida. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

03/31/2010 - NACA Team returns for another 5-day mortgage modification marathon, in Miami Beach. Five-day run begins in Miami Beach April 15 - As with the Save the Dream event at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the program at the Miami Beach Convention Center will run 24 hours a day. It will be NACA's 14th event around the country. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

03/20/2010 - Market may see shift as Orlando-area home prices show biggest rise in years - The median price of all resales in the core Orlando market in February was $109,200, up from $102,000 the month before but down by more than 26 percent from a year earlier, according to a report released Friday by the Orlando Regional Realtor Association. - http://www.orlandosentinel.com

03/20/2010 - Broward County begins online foreclosure auctions March 30 - Bidders must register for the online sales at Broward.realforeclose.com. Registration is free, but the county will charge a $60 fee to each winning bidder to cover the cost of automating the auctions. More than 1,000 people signed up as of March 18. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

03/18/2010 - Courts seek $9.6 million to help clear foreclosure case backlog - Without additional resources to clear the cases, judges fear the bottleneck will continue to drag down home values, which aren't expected to stabilize until the glut of foreclosures moves through the system. - http://www.sun-sentinel.com

03/17/2010 - Federal stimulus house sells in Orlando (VIDEO) - On Tuesday, Tilisa Fisher put a human face on the funding program passed by Congress in 2008. The 30-year-old mother of three is buying the first of 16 houses the city has renovated. - http://www.orlandosentinel.com  

03/02/2010 - Miami-Dade ruling shows banks may be fined for delays in condo foreclosure sales - Why would a financial institution want to slow condo foreclosure sales? To avoid paying its share of association fees as required by law, say critics such as David Cohen, the president of the King Cole, a community of 285 condos. - www.sun-sentinel.com

02/23/2010 - Foreclosures clog courts in Orange, will go online - Orange County plans to join Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties by switching to online foreclosure auctions - one of several potential ways of dealing with a bombardment of foreclosure cases. - www.orlandosentinel.com

02/23/2010 - Homes' distress sales hit Central Florida's low-income areas harder - Interactive Map - The rate of short sales versus foreclosures - www.orlandosentinel.com

02/23/2010 - Who are they Orlando region's biggest losers in housing freefall? - In a region where house prices have been cut in half in two years, a handful of investor-driven developments lost much more. County property appraisers in Central Florida have identified the communities where values fell the most. Lake County's once-exclusive Bella Collina residential project, on the hills overlooking Lake Apopka, made the list. - www.orlandosentinel.com

02/10/2010 - Four in 10 South Florida mortgage holders `underwater' - About 41 percent of the 836,723 single-family home mortgages in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties are ``underwater,'' according to a fourth-quarter report from Zillow. The Seattle real estate firm compiles data from public property records. - www.miamiherald.com

02/10/2010 - Will Florida lawmakers stop delinquent condo owners from collecting rent? - A number of pending Florida bill proposals aim to make life harder for condo owners who stop paying association fees, including investors who rent them out. - www.sun-sentinel.com

02/10/2010 - Florida condos target delinquent owners - While associations are on the hook to pay their bills, delinquent owners are able to watch free cable TV paid for by the association, elect board members and even collect rent from tenants without forwarding a dime to the association they owe money. - www.sun-sentinel.com

01/24/2010 - Florida's recovery will take two years, economist says - Sean Snaith, a University of Central Florida economist recently named to the Wall Street Journal's panel of forecasters, predicted a tough year ahead for the state, dominated by foreclosures, an unemployment rate that will surpass 12 percent and payrolls that will not return to pre-recession levels until 2014. - www.heraldtribune.com

01/24/2010 - Lyons: Bankers' refrain is refusal to yield - Since lenders don't get extra payback from a homebuyer when values shoot up, they should not accept less money when the value goes down. Even way down. But I suggested it makes more sense to be practical. The best available business decision, for some, is to put self and family interests over all others and stop paying. Let the bank do what it does. - www.miamiherald.com

01/21/2010 - Palm Beach County launches online auctions of foreclosed homes - Buying a foreclosed home at the courthouse becomes obsolete Thursday as Palm Beach County launches a new era with online auctions. The move is meant to save time and money as counties deal with budget cuts and a mountain of mortgage defaults. Palm Beach County says it has more than 53,000 pending foreclosure cases. - www.sun-sentinel.com

01/20/2010 - Online foreclosure auctions start Jan. 21 in Palm Beach County - The counties say they'll save time and money as they face budget cuts and a ton of mortgage defaults. Palm Beach County bidders can visit - mypalmbeachclerk.com - to begin registering, placing deposits, researching properties or viewing a "how to" demo. - www.sun-sentinel.com
Read More:
Online foreclosure auctions start next year in Palm, Broward

01/20/2010 - Online foreclosure auctions start Jan. 21 in Palm Beach County - Even though South Florida home prices are still dismal and foreclosures are expected to take years to sell off, two high-profile developers are taking a chance on building a 1,600-home community in Cooper City. - www.sun-sentinel.com

01/20/2010 - New homes buck trend in dismal South Florida market - Even though South Florida home prices are still dismal and foreclosures are expected to take years to sell off, two high-profile developers are taking a chance on building a 1,600-home community in Cooper City. - www.miamiherald.com

01/14/2010 - Local groups get $162.5 million in foreclosure aid - Palm Beach County and the Lake Worth Community Redevelopment Agency were among three South Florida entities awarded $162.5 million by the federal government Thursday to help communities hurt by foreclosure. The county was awarded $50 million, while the Lake Worth CRA received $23.2 million. Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida was awarded $89.3 million and said it will spend all the money in northern Miami-Dade County. - www.sun-sentinel.com

01/14/2010 - Miami-Dade County selling foreclosures online - Miami-Dade County started auctioning foreclosures online Monday, allowing potential buyers to place bids from anywhere in the world with the click of a computer mouse. The county, which has the seventh-highest number of foreclosed homes in the country, auctioned about 40 foreclosures on the first day. As the program ramps up, circuit court officials expect to auction 200 or more homes and commercial properties daily, up to triple the figure sold on the courthouse steps. - www.miamiherald.com

01/11/2010 - Miami foreclosure auctions shift from courthouse steps to Web - In a move that could speed the sale of massive numbers of distressed properties on the market, Miami-Dade County officially launched online bidding for foreclosures Monday, bringing together bidders from across the globe and launching hopes of an accelerated return to normalcy in the real estate industry. - www.miamiherald.com

12/18/2009 - Foreclosure filings skyrocket in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade - More misery on the foreclosure front: Lenders filed more than 7,000 notices in November against property owners in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to from Condo Vultures. - www.sun-sentinel.com
Read More:
ACCORDING to ZILLOW

12/18/2009 - Foreclosure workshop set for Jan. 19 - South Florida residents in danger of foreclosure can attend a workshop Jan. 19 in West Palm Beach organized by Alex Sink, Florida's chief financial officer and candidate for governor. For information, call 877-693-5236 or visit MyFloridaCFO.com - www.sun-sentinel.com

12/17/2009 - Simple mistakes can undercut the best home sales - Sellers who don't review their listings for mistakes and omissions by their agents may find that no matter how grand their homes, they may not sell, especially in this day and age when would-be buyers scour the Internet before going to take a look. - www.sun-sentinel.com

12/17/2009 - Backlog of foreclosures likely to hold back home prices, report says - About 1.7 million homeowners were on the verge of foreclosure in the fall, a looming "shadow inventory" of homes that will be put up for sale in the coming years and weigh down prices, a report said Thursday - www.sun-sentinel.com

12/16/2009 - Federal government wants to sell you a home - Uncle Sam and two government-sponsored companies are unloading property, from waterside mansions to burned-out shells, often at fire-sale prices 10 percent to 20 percent below market value. - www.sun-sentinel.com
Read More:
FDIC REAL ESTATE FOR SALE,
ORE Property Listings,
Additional FDIC LISTINGS

12/13/2009 - Online foreclosure auctions start next year in Palm Beach and Broward County - Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller Sharon Bock said Thursday that auctions of foreclosed properties on courthouse steps are moving online starting Jan. 21. Broward County also is expected to begin online auctions in 2010. In-person training classes will be held Jan. 5 at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. To register, send an e-mail to MMcMillan@mypalmbeachclerk.com or call (561) 355-6824. You can't attend if you don't register. - www.sun-sentinel.com

11/25/2009 - Prices plummet, making Orlando condo market worst in U.S. - Condo prices have fallen more in Orlando during the past year than in any other metro area in the state and, most likely, the country, according to state and national Realtor reports. - www.orlandosentinel.com

11/22/2009 - "The moral of the story," she says, "is don't buy in North Port." - Code violation fight may cost woman her home - Marfut is not losing the house to a bank, as hundreds of others in North Port have in recent years. Instead, North Port is pressing to liquidate the house to pay $45,500 in city fines that began accruing years ago after she put up a canopy tent without a $30 permit. - www.heraldtribune.com

11/22/2009 - Home buyers have the power in Sarasota-Bradenton area - During September, buyers were able to seal their deals at a median of 7.8 percent below the final listing price, Zillow said. That equates to a savings of just under $20,000 -- in many cases from a price that has already been lowered. - www.heraldtribune.com

11/22/2009 - Sarasota is singled out by economist - chief economist of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) was clicking through his slides, detailing his glass-half-full outlook for the nation's real estate market, when up popped Sarasota. - www.heraldtribune.com

11/22/2009 - New niche for Realtors - As energy-efficiency issues become more important to consumers, "we are seeing that we need to bridge the gap between the industry professionals -- the builders, the architects - www.heraldtribune.com

11/17/2009 - Sunrise, Florida to Bank of America: Clean up your act - Why the change of heart? Bank of America, which acquired Merrill Lynch in January, has taken heat recently for not being very helpful to customers needing help renegotiating their mortgages to avoid foreclosure. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/30/2009 - Regulators ramp up efforts on loan modification complaints - One South Florida mayor wants his city to reconsider doing business with Bank of America, which had drawn more complaints than any other lender in Florida over stalled loan modification deals. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/30/2009 - Five South Florida lawyers disbarred, two suspended - All attorneys were disbarred or suspended due to real estate and mortgage fraud according to the Florida Bar Ass. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/21/2009 - Condo board tries new tactic to collect delinquent fees - Condo owners behind on maintenance fees, beware: Condo boards are becoming more aggressive in collecting delinquent fees. One board even wants to try an untested strategy -- forcing renters into empty units to pay off deadbeat accounts. - www.miamiherald.com

10/21/2009 - Survey: S. Fla. home values will plunge even more - Among 381 metropolitan areas ranked nationwide, Miami will be the biggest loser, according to Fiserv, a financial information and analysis firm. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/20/2009 - Massive amounts of foreclosures clogging county's civil courts - Still, court clerks say more than 135,000 foreclosures could be filed in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties this year -- compared to a tri-county total of about 17,500 in 2006. - www.miamiherald.com

10/20/2009 - Foreclosure backlog complicates housing recovery - Part of the reason for that is the enormous backlog of cases clogging the local court system, a problem that reporter Daniel Chang explores in depth in this week's cover story, Page 16. The crush of cases has lengthened the time it takes for banks to take back properties from homeowners to almost a year. - www.miamiherald.com

10/20/2009 - $3.5 million grant to help homeowners in Miami-Dade, Broward avoid foreclosure - Map: Foreclosures, subprime loans in S. Florida - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/19/2009 - Map: Foreclosures, subprime loans in S. Florida - Map: Foreclosures, subprime loans in S. Florida - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/19/2009 - Property tax appeals rise during economic decline - Even after years of sinking real estate prices, thousands of South Florida property owners are fighting to further deflate the values of their homes and businesses. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/16/2009 - Homestead deals with aftermath of boom - Once dubbed the fastest-growing city among medium-sized cities, Homestead is now dealing with the aftermath of its explosive building boom. - www.miamiherald.com

10/16/2009 - Foreclosures, unemployment to peak next year, chief economist of Mortgage Bankers Assoc. says - "The recession is behind us but the effects of the recession will linger for some time in the form of higher unemployment and lower levels of business investment and home construction," Brinkmann said. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/16/2009 - Sinking home prices, lost jobs fuel rising bankruptcy rate in Florida - From January through September, Florida saw 70,799 bankruptcies, making it second only to California in terms of volume, and 16th nationwide on a per-capita basis, according to AACER, a bankruptcy-data and management firm. That's a 48 percent increase from the same time frame in 2008. - www.miamiherald.com

10/12/2009 - South Florida banks and borrowers struggle with loan modifications - Sides have sharply different understanding of what it means to modify a mortgage. A new federal report shows lenders are restructuring home loans for troubled borrowers, but stories like the Weisses' abound across South Florida and the nation. - www.sun-sentinel.com

10/10/2009 - Homeowners could lose insurance coverage over Chinese-drywall woes - Uonce an insurer knows there is drywall damage in a home, the existing damage could be the trigger for not renewing a policy unless repairs are made. - www.miamiherald.com

10/10/2009 - Small-business contracts often go to huge companies - U.S. contracts meant for small businesses in Florida often go to huge companies Small businesses are supposed to get a substantial percent of government contracts. But not all contract holders are really that small. - www.miamiherald.com

10/07/2009 - Condo ombudsman: An advocate for owners, associations - One of the best resources for condominium owners and association board members is the Florida Office of the Condominium Ombudsman. With a main office in Tallahassee and a satellite in Fort Lauderdale. e-mail ombudsman@dbpr.state.fl.us or call 850-922-7671 or 954-202-3234. - www.sun-sentinel.com

09/29/2009 - In nine area ZIP codes, home values are less than they were in 1999 - Prices have fallen so far during the past three years that homes in some unlucky neighborhoods are selling for less now than they did a decade ago, before the start of the historic housing boom. - www.sun-sentinel.com

09/27/2009 - Free legal workshop on ways to avoid foreclosure and how to buy a short sale - Knowing your legal rights is always best, but it's even better if you can learn about your legal rights for free. Check out the free legal workshop on Oct. 1 by the Oppenheim Law Group in Weston. - www.sun-sentinel.com

09/27/2009 - New obstacle to condo loans. New FHA rule will make it harder to obtain a condo home loan - Beginning Nov. 1, a new Federal Housing Administration rule goes into effect that disallows a loan process called "spot approvals," which gave loan underwriters the authority to approve individual units rather than an entire building. - www.sun-sentinel.com

09/24/2009 - Orlando home prices dip below state median - Sarasota County, the judge has started cutting a break to troubled homeowners who simply show up at the courthouse, giving them an extra three months to try to save their home or prepare to move out. - www.orlandosentinel.com

09/24/2009 - Orlando home prices dip below state median - Single-family home sales in the four-county metro area were up 48 percent last month from August 2008, compared with a statewide average rise of 28 percent. Driving that flurry of activity may have been the year-over-year price decline of 29 percent for Orlando, compared with 22 percent for the state as a whole. - www.orlandosentinel.com

09/19/2009 - Can't pay rent? You may qualify for part of $7.1 million - The money comes from a $1.5 billion federal stimulus program meant to save people on the verge of homelessness and those who have already lost their rental housing. The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program passed earlier this year. - www.orlandosentinel.com

09/18/2009 - Home values lower in some South Florida areas than a decade ago - Nine zip codes in Broward and Palm Beach counties had lower single-family median sales prices in July than they did in July 1999, according to an analysis. - www.sun-sentinel.com

09/16/2009 - South Florida property value appeals on rise - With tax rates rising, South Florida home owners are rushing to file appeals of their property assessments in order to lower their property tax bills. The deadline is Friday. - www.miamiherald.com

09/15/2009 - Acquisition capital emerging for commercial markets - Florida's commercial markets appear to stabilizing, with increased prospects for acquisition capital, according to a quarterly study by the University of Florida's Bergstrom Center for Real Estate Studies. - www.orlandosentinel.com

09/15/2009 - Despite hiking fees or tax rates, some cities plan to party on - In Boca Raton, fire fees could rise and libraries and parks could be closed on a rotating basis, but city leaders plan to hold about 20 major celebrations. - www.sun-sentinel.com