Nearly two million Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure this year, and many of them are right here in South Florida, according to CBS 4 News.
Foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim joined CBS 4 Chief Consumer Investigator Al Sunshine to analyze South Florida’s foreclosure numbers in order to help homeowners determine what they may expect in the coming months.
RealtyTrac reports foreclosures are continuing to rise in South Florida, even when compared to last year’s staggering numbers. With more than 277,000 filings, the State of Florida is now number two nationally behind only California. Broward County ranks third in Florida foreclosure filings, with 1 out of every 21 units in some form of foreclosure.
“In Florida there is clearly a backlog, and I don’t see the problem getting much better,” Oppenheim said in the report. “I don’t see it getting much worse, but the idea everyone is saying that the problem is getting better is nonsense.”
Check out the video below for the full interview including Oppenheim’s assessment of government-backed foreclosure programs. For the latest in South Florida real estate trends and foreclosure defense advice, follow Oppenheim Law on Twitter @OPLaw.
Save the Date! Oppenheim Law’s next foreclosure defense workshop is Wednesday, August 4 @ 6:00 pm. The theme is “Strategic Default: What We Can Learn from the Wealthy” hosted by Roy Oppenheim. Stay tuned for more information.
As housing sales hit an all time low, The South Florida Law Blog and Oppenheim Law bring our readers a fresh perspective on the Florida real estate landscape and legal trends. We also serve as an expert source to local and national media outlets.
Investing, renting, buying or selling real estate in today’s market is a tricky course to follow, we know, we’re on the frontlines and in the trenches defending homeowners.
So we wanted to take note of the other excellent resources and personalities to follow in the news. House Keys, written by Sun-Sentinel real estate reporter Paul Owers, and It’s Your Money, written by Sun-Sentinel personal finance reporter Harriet Johnson Brackey.
Connected to Oppenheim Law on Twitter, @OPLaw? You can follow Paul Owers, @paulowers, and Harriet Johnson Brackey, @HarrietBrackey, as well for the latest in business news and views on personal finance, real estate and foreclosure defense.
Have a favorite source for legal advice, real estate tips or personal finance? Share it in the comments section!
Hundreds of homeowners participated as Roy Oppenheim shared the latest on foreclosure defense, strategic defaults and South Florida real estate trends.
Oppenheim Law is making July’s Strategic Default Workshop available until Thursday, July 15.
Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Underwater on your mortgage? It seems like regardless of financial or social status, someone is upside down, underwater or ready to walk.
July 7th is your chance to get answers to your real estate questions as Roy Oppenheim hosts his free monthly Foreclosure Workshop LIVE ONLINE and in Weston, FL.
Join Oppenheim, recently profiled in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, tomorrow night as he explains why homeowners on the verge of Shay’s Rebellion 2.0 hold the power and means to fashion their own financial bailout.
Or come in person: 2500 Weston Road, Suite 404, Weston, FL 33331
Cost: Free with advanced registration
RSVP: To register email roy@oplaw.net or call 954.384.6114
Unable to make it to Weston or want to watch from home? Simply visit www.oppenheimlaw.payperlive.com at 6 PM tomorrow night to participate in the commercial-free high quality broadcast. Ask questions and get answers just like you were in the live audience.
Check out the video below for a preview of the Foreclosure Workshop and Oppenheim Law looks forward to seeing you tomorrow night!
The Miami Herald is reporting the flood of South Florida foreclosures is receding in the first five months of 2010 as foreclosure filings have fallen sharply and efforts to ease the courts’ backlogs are kicking in. But Oppenheim Law isn’t so sure the decreases are going to last and believes the next big wave of filings will come soon.
Foreclosure defense attorney and legal blogger Roy Oppenheim shared his thoughts on the Florida Supreme Court’s mandated mediation process with Miami Herald writer Harris Meyer in an article published on Sunday about Florida foreclosures.
“I enjoy mediations and find them very effective,” Oppenheim said. “But I won’t mediate unless the bank has done its homework.”
Oppenheim went on to explain mediation can be successful for homeowners and the banks only if the mediator is skilled, the lender has read the documentation and also knows the value of the property and the holding costs.
Oppenheim’s comments follow the news that foreclosure filings in Broward have fallen from 51,670 in 2009 to 17,565 in the first five months of 2010. However, as Oppenheim Law explained on the South Florida Law Blog in May, this decrease in Florida foreclosure filings can probably be attributed to the new rules promulgated by the Florida Supreme Court requiring every residential mortgage foreclosure complaint must be verified and prove that the plaintiff is the actual owner and holder of the promissory note.
Oppenheim Law wrote, “Until now, banks have been abusing a Florida statute allowing them to file a foreclosure based on a “lost note.” The problem: the notes aren’t lost; the banks are just too lazy to look for them. This new rule is halting foreclosure filings in their tracks, as banks scramble to find the notes so they can foreclose.”
Also less encouraging is the fact that commercial foreclosures are increasing, and concerns of increased residential foreclosures due to the re-setting of rates under adjustable-rate mortgages may accelerate, according to the Herald.
Want to learn more about mediation and foreclosure? Join Oppenheim Law for our free monthly foreclosure defense workshop next Wednesday, July 7 @ 6 pm and check out the entire Miami Herald foreclosure story in the Oppenheim Law Newsroom.
Is strategic default nearing its peak? Oppenheim Law doesn’t think so.
Pointing to recent positive indicators in the economy and real estate market, today’s Daily Business Review poses this question to foreclosure defense attorney Roy Oppenheim in today’s Economic Outlook.
Signals of stabilization in South Florida real estate include:
The Florida Association of Realtors reported May data showing year-over-year increases in the median prices of single-family home sales.
Default Research of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, reported that initial foreclosure filings in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties fell 51 percent in May, compared with April.
A turnaround in home prices could eliminate the incentive to voluntarily enter foreclosure through strategic defaults. “If prices start going up, they wouldn’t be upside-down anymore,” Oppenheim said in the Daily Business Review. “But I don’t see that happening for awhile.”
A Foreclosure Tsunami is overwhelming South Florida courts, writes Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reporter Harriet Johnson Brackey.
Florida real estate attorney and legal blogger Roy Oppenheim contributed to the report, which explains how a tenfold increase in foreclosure cases over the past five years is crippling the South Florida court system.
According to Oppenheim Law, South Florida courts have turned to mediation, a process prior to foreclosure proceedings that gives homeowners and banks an opportunity to avoid a battle in court if an agreement on the future of the property and debt can be reached. The problem, though, is most homeowners are not aware they now have a right to mediation.
“Mediation makes all the difference in the world,” Oppenheim says. “There are so many opportunities to resolve matters in mediation, a lot of creative ways.”
Check out the entire Foreclosure Tsunami article in Oppenheim Law’s Newsroom to find out the state’s plan to eliminate half of the foreclosure backlog by the end of the year.
Aside from acting as counsel on short sales, foreclosure defense and strategic defaults, Weston real estate attorney Roy Oppenheim is bestowing a sense relief to South Florida’s underwater homeowners.
As Oppenheim Law mentioned in our Shay’s Rebellion 2.0 Workshop Recap, Sun-Sentinel real estate writer Paul Owers was on hand, working on a feature article of Oppenheim and the firm’s foreclosure defense strategies.
The article highlights Oppenheim Law’s monthly foreclosure defense workshops, explains the firm’s entry into foreclosure defense practice and describes the positive effects Oppenheim Law’s services are providing for homeowners struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments.
Check out the entire Sun-Sentinel article in Oppenheim Law’s Newsroom and be sure to leave your comments below!
Even before the economic bubble started to burst in 2005, I frequently talked about Black Swan events (Haiti, Transcript and Video from Presentation back in November of 2008) You know the kind of low probability events that have a huge impact on the economy.
Examples are Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti and Chilean earthquakes and, of course, the devastating Gulf Oil catastrophe. Who could have imagined an underground oil well would explode and the government would not have a logistical safety plan in place. Now we watch each day helplessly as the oil destroys our beaches, marine ecosystem — and our way of life.
It is always events that just come out of nowhere that shock our senses. This oil deluge is no different except it is happening in slow motion over weeks and months instead of minutes or seconds. Each day tens of thousands of gallons of oil are fowling our shorelines and animal life. Fisherman and those in the marine industry are feeling the effects first, but so are the folks in the hospitality business.
Many small businesses will be put out of business, and there will be a new round of mortgage defaults by those that have lost their livelihoods due to this crisis. Individuals generally involved in tourism in the bordering Gulf States will be most affected.
Economists are suggesting that along the Florida Panhandle alone 195,000 people may lose their livelihoods. Not just their jobs! Those fishermen who only know how to fish as a livelihood face a huge problem since the fishing industry as a whole is at risk. Estimates suggest the losses to the Florida Panhandle alone could top $10 Billion!
So just when we thought maybe we had hit rock bottom in the real estate market, one can only imagine the number of new foreclosures we will see crashing ashore in the coming months courtesy of BP, its contractors, subcontractors and the latest Black Swan.
Taking after Britney Spear’s colossal “Oops…I did it again” hit song from 2000, Bank of America has accidentally foreclosed on a home for the third time in less than a year!
“I honestly felt like Bank of America was trying to steal my property”, said Nancy Willmes, who had paid cash for her home from Fannie Mae, who had foreclosed on the previous owner.
This growing problem is caused by the massive increase in foreclosure proceedings lenders have seen in the past few years. The numbers are startling, and there has been over a 400% increase in foreclosure filings in Florida since 2007.
This enormous increase has not only affected the already bogged down “Big Banks” but has also put a serious strain on our legal system, that at times appears to have been transformed into a private collections agency. In fact, several months ago the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court’s Office erred in a foreclosure action and had a woman and her family literally thrown into the street by police officers after they auctioned off her $260,000 home for $87,000. A Judge quickly reversed the sale, but the family was left homeless for 24 hours.
Even before the economic bubble started to burst in 2005, I frequently talked about Black Swan events (
Taking after Britney Spear’s colossal “Oops…I did it again” hit song from 2000, Bank of America has accidentally foreclosed on a home for the third time in less than a year!
