HB 87, commonly known as the “Florida Fair Foreclosure Act,” took effect on July 1, 2013. This new Act applies to all pending foreclosure cases as well as cases filed on or after July 1, 2013.

One of the express purposes of the new foreclosure law is to speed up the foreclosure process. Speeding up the foreclosure process means that there will be less time for homeowners to work out a modification, explore loss mitigation alternatives, complete short sales and prepare for a transition in housing. The complexities of the new detailed procedures and expedited time frames under the Act will be difficult for pro-se homeowners to navigate. To many consumer advocates, the law is anything but fair to Florida homeowners.

The Act made many substantive and procedural changes to the foreclosure landscape in Florida. Some of the most significant changes include: (1) expansions to the law providing an expedited process for foreclosure which can now be invoked by any lienholder, including mortgage holders and homeowner and condominium associations;

(2) a provision under which the Plaintiff can request the Court require the borrower, on non-owner occupied residential properties, to make mortgage the payments set forth on the Note into the registry of the Court during the process in order to defend the case;

(3) a provision dictating the finality of a foreclosure judgments in certain circumstances which limits relief to monetary damages; and

(4) specific heightened pleading requirements as to the standing of the party filing the foreclosure and actual physical possession of the Note, verified under oath, which must be set forth in all mortgage foreclosure complaints filed on or after July 1, 2013.

Perhaps most significantly, the Act reduced the time in which a foreclosing lender can seek a deficiency judgment from five years to one year, reaffirmed the longstanding law that a deficiency judgment is within the discretion of the Court, and sets the measure of a possible deficiency judgment (on owner occupied residential properties) to the difference between what is owed and the fair market value of the property, a standard which now expressly applies both in foreclosures and short sales. This provision of the Act is beneficial to homeowners doing short sales as previously, the Lenders who refused to waive deficiency rights in a short sale, asserted they were entitled to the difference between what they netted from the sale (after payment of closing costs and real estate commissions) and what was owed. In essence, parties who sought to mitigate damages by doing a short sale were penalized, but under the new law, they are not, which is definitely a positive. The full text of HB 87 can be found at www.myfloridahouse.gov.

Florida leads nation in cash-only home sales

Florida led the nation last month with what one expert called an “astounding” rate of all-cash home sales: 66 percent, a new report shows.

Investor groups, international buyers, landlords and those in the market for vacation homes are fueling a cash-only market that has virtually shut out entry-level homebuyers, who can’t get approved for mortgages.

Lake Mary real-estate agent Tom O’Brien said he recently represented a single mother employed by Valencia College who wanted to buy a house near downtown Sanford.

“The seller said he wanted to hold out for a cash buyer instead of waiting for her FHA mortgage to get approved,” O’Brien said Wednesday. “The first-time buyers are the ones who are really struggling; they’re scraping together every nickel, and they’re competing with the cash buyers.”

The influx of cash continues to grow in one of the country’s most volatile states for real estate: Cash sales made up 57 percent of Florida’s home sales a year ago and 61 percent of all sales in June of this year, compared with the 66 percent reported in July, according to the report released today by the real estate research company RealtyTrac Inc.

“That’s astounding,” RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist said. Nationwide, only Nevada (64 percent) and Maine (60 percent) came even close to Florida’s tidal wave of cash-only deals.

Among Florida’s metropolitan areas, Brevard County had the highest rate of cash deals: Seven out of every 10 house sales last month went for cash. Next in line was the giant metro area that includes Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach; 69 percent of all sales there were all-cash deals.

One factor tipping the scales in cash buyers’ favor has been the tightening of mortgage requirements following the easy-lending era that preceded the 2007-09 recession.

“The home-loan mortgage market has utterly dried up,” said Mark Soskin, an associate professor of economics in the University of Central Florida’s business college. “The market requires buyers and sellers, [but] if you want to buy a house, you have to have cash.”

Private-equity firms and institutional buyers have been actively picking up Florida’s lower-priced houses, fixing them up, and renting them for some time already, but those buyers are moving on to other states, RealtyTrac’s report shows. During July, institutional buyers drove 22 percent of the home sales in Georgia, 16 percent in Nevada, 15 percent in Arizona and 14 percent in Florida.

The following is a statement by National Association of Realtors® President Gary Thomas:”The re-proposed Qualified Residential Mortgage rule announced this morning is a victory for homebuyers and the future of homeownership in this country. This version of the QRM rule will give creditworthy buyers access to safe and affordable loan products without overly burdensome downpayment requirements. “The new standards, which align with those applied to Qualified Mortgages, are stringent enough to protect consumers from unscrupulous lending practices while also creating new opportunities for private capital to reestablish itself as part of a robust and competitive mortgage market.”Realtors® were among the most vocal opponents of the first QRM rule proposed in April 2011 because it would have denied millions of creditworthy Americans access to the lowest cost and safest mortgages. We applaud the regulators for removing the 20 percent downpayment requirement and for adopting reasonable credit and debt-to-income standards.”In addition to the main proposal that we support today, regulators introduced an unfavorable alternative that would require buyers to put 30 percent down to qualify for a QRM loan, a restrictive measure that dramatically favors the wealthy. Research shows that it would take the average American more than 25 years to save enough money to buy a modest home with a 30 percent downpayment.

Florida CFO: Why aren’t insurance rates dropping? TALLAHASSEE, Fla. AP – Aug. 8, 2013 – Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater wants to know why homeowner insurance rates aren’t dropping.Atwater sent a letter Wednesday to Florida’s insurance commissioner, Kevin McCarty, noting that one of the main costs for insurers has been going down this year. He asked McCarty why those savings weren’t being passed along to consumers.Atwater is one of the state officials with the power to hire and fire the insurance commissioner.In his letter, Atwater wrote that trade journals have reported recently that the cost of reinsurance has come down an average of 15 to 20 percent. Insurers purchase reinsurance from an out-of-state or foreign company to provide the insurer financial backing in case of major claims.Atwater said Floridians need answers and they need to see their insurance bills coming down.“If insurance companies can justifiably raise rates on Florida families because the reinsurance market drives their costs up, they can certainly lower the costs for Florida families when reinsurance prices fall,” Atwater wrote.A spokeswoman for McCarty said his office was working on a response.Annual reports prepared by Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation show that the department has been approving more than 100 rate hike requests a year since 2009, including requests to raise rates by double-digits.But McCarty in late May said he expected insurance rates to stabilize in the coming year.The reasons for Florida’s steadily increasing rates are varied and have triggered endless arguments, especially among state lawmakers and others in the last two decades.Industry officials argue that insurers in the past did not charge adequate rates to deal with the real risk of covering homes in hurricane-prone Florida. The fragile nature of the market has been exposed by storms such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a Category 5 storm that destroyed much of the South Florida city of Homestead, and the series of storms that battered the state in 2004 and 2005.

New home sales hit fastest pace in 5 years

Sales of new homes rose in May to the fastest pace in five years, a solid gain that added to signs of a steadily improving housing market.

New home sales rose 2.1 percent last month compared with April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 476,000, the highest level since July 2008, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.

The median price of a new home sold in May was $263,900, up 3.3 percent from a year ago.

Sales of new homes remain below the 700,000 annual rate that’s considered healthy by most economists. But the pace has increased 29 percent from a year ago.

Analysts say the housing recovery is looking more sustainable and should continue to boost economic growth this year, offsetting some drag from higher taxes and federal spending cuts.

The sales gains in May were led by a 40.7 percent increase in the Midwest followed by a 20.7 percent gain in the Northeast. Sales were also up 3.6 percent in the West but they fell 9 percent in the South.

The inventory of unsold homes rose 2.5 percent to 161,000 in May, the highest level since August 2011 but still just 13 percent higher than the record low for inventories set in July 2012. Prices of new homes have been rising in part because more people are bidding on a limited number of homes.

The National Association of Realtors reported last week that sales of previously occupied homes surpassed 5 million in May. It was the first time that’s happened in 3 1/2 years.

Sales of previously owned homes rose to an annual rate of 5.18 million in May. The last time sales had exceeded 5 million was in November 2009, a month when the pending expiration of a home-buying tax credit briefly inflated sales.

Steady hiring and low mortgage rates have encouraged more people to buy homes. And with demand up, prices rising and few homes on the market, builders have grown more optimistic about their prospects, leading to more construction and jobs.

Last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cited the housing gains as a major reason the Fed’s economic outlook has brightened.

Still, mortgage rates have jumped in recent weeks. And they’re expected to rise further now that the Fed has signaled it plans to scale back its bond purchases this year if the economy continues to strengthen. A pullback in the bond purchases would likely send long-term borrowing rates up. Higher mortgage rates could slow some of the housing market’s momentum.

For now, a brighter outlook for housing has made builders more optimistic. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index rose in June to 52, up from 44 in May.

 

Remember the headlines a few years back declaring that Florida was no longer THE retirement haven.

Not so fast.

New Census Bureau estimates released Thursday show that 18.2 percent of Floridians are over age 65, the highest rate of any state in the nation. Maine and West Virginia rank second and third, respectively. Alaska had the lowest share of older residents, at 8.5 percent, followed by Utah and Texas.

Among counties, just under half of Sumter County’s residents are over age 65, the highest share of any county in the nation. The county located about 40 miles northwest of Orlando is home to the retirement community, The Villages, and also is one of the fastest-growing regions of the state.

The county with the next-highest percentage of seniors in the nation was Charlotte County in southwest Florida, where over a third of the population is over age 65.

Statewide, almost all counties experienced slower growth or a reversal of boomer population growth since 2010, said Mark Mather, an associate vice president for the Population Reference Bureau who analyzed the numbers.

“The recent decline in migration rates among baby boomers is significant because boomers were expected to jump-start economic growth in rural America,” said Mather, noting that parts of the rural Midwest and Appalachia had been losing population for decades. “But since the recession, we’ve seen more boomers aging in place.”

Nationally, the 65-and-older population grew 4.3 percent between 2011 and 2012, to 43.1 million, or 13.7 percent of the U.S. population.The 85-and-older population increased by about 3 percent from 2011 to 2012, to almost 5.9 million. The number of centenarians rose to almost 62,000.

Finally, the nation’s median age rose to 37.5, up from 37.3 in 2011.