We called it a band-aid, and at least for some South Florida homeowners, it’s proving to be just that. The Palm Beach Post profiled several homeowners who were among the first to receive benefits from the program. Sheryl Stuart, a Jupiter homeowner whose business went under, applied for help through the mortgage relief program, and is about to see her payments end next month. Hardest Hit only entitles qualified homeowners up to six months of mortgage assistance.

Stuart told the Palm Beach Post that even though she’s found a new job, her salary won’t be able to cover her mortgage payment once she stops receiving aid from Hardest Hit. She’s frustrated that she’s about to be right back where she started when she applied for aid in the first place.

“In this economy, to think you can turn your life around in six months is totally ludicrous,” Stuart said in the article, “The working class is quickly slipping into a black hole.”

The truth is this program, however well-intentioned it might have been, is just not enough. What Hardest Hit is essentially doing is giving homeowners a nice seafood dinner, when they really need to learn how to fish.

It scratches the surface but for people like Stuart it might just delay the inevitable. Unless you’re giving homeowners a solid two years of payment relief, you’re not giving these people time to go back to school, improve their financial standing, and really turn their lives around.

Hardest Hit is throwing good money after bad, and really, what’s the point of spending all this money if it won’t provide permanent relief?

Not to mention that many homeowners have been rejected by the program, nearly 10,000 according to the Post, for reasons including being over 180 days past due on their mortgage. So if many aren’t getting the help they need, and those who are getting the relief aren’t feeling a lasting impact, what’s the point?

Spokeswoman Cecka Green told the Post the state is going through uncharted waters with Hardest Hit, and it looks to us like the state wasn’t truly prepared to handle the demand.

“We never really anticipated where we would be at this point since we had not ever before administered a program like this,” Green said.

Helping people make their payments isn’t the answer. We were elated when the Federal Reserve started talking about principal reduction, that’s a much better solution that ultimately has a chance of keeping people in their homes.

If we allowed homeowners facing foreclosure to lease back their properties, that too would have a higher success rate, in our opinion. If we’ve learned nothing else, it’s that banks make the worst neighbors.

Florida’s Hardest Hit was doomed from the get-go, so it’s time to focus on systematic long-term solutions.

Advocates of such a policy argue that it would be cheaper for banks to reduce the principal of a loan to the current value of a house because people who have positive equity in their homes are much less likely to default on their loans. The policy would also help homeowners because they would get to stay in their homes. It seems like a win-win situation, except it isn’t.

As a recent New York Times article illustrates the difficulty with large scale restructuring programs is that banks don’t know who really needs the help and who is trying to take advantage of the situation.

Ms. Rula Giosmas was not one of the people who needed help, yet she got it anyway. For her lender, the modification amounts to an avoidable loss. The lack of knowledge in who can pay and who can’t is the reason why banks are wary of initiating large scale modification programs: not all underwater borrowers will default on their mortgages.

It still remains economically advantageous to foreclose on the defaulters and continue to collect the full loan amounts from the people who can and will pay. The banks also worry that if they do initiate large scale modification programs, it will encourage people who can pay to miss payments simply to qualify for the principal reduction. Such a problem is called moral hazard, where there are incentives to perform badly. The last thing that banks want is to encourage people to default.

Oppenheim Law warns you: don’t bet on a principal reduction. Banks are very wary of them and the Federal Reserve white paper is going to scare them off even further.

There are, however, other foreclosure defense solutions so don’t become a deer in the headlights. You must be proactive!

Check out a recent post about ‘how to pay off second mortgages at a discounted rate’.

The times they are a-changin’. And it’s about time.

Florida District Courts of Appeal are ruling in favor of homeowners when procedural due process has been violated as well as in cases where the trial court improperly granted summary judgment in favor of a bank based on lawyers’ assertions that have no evidentiary support on the record.

Recent decisions from the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th District Courts of Appeal can provide hope to homeowners and South Florida foreclosure defense attorneys that banks will be forced to start playing by the rules, or risk having their judgments reversed on appeal.

For example, the 5th DCA reversed a summary judgment decision in favor of a bank last month for a lack of evidence on the foreclosing bank’s standing to sue. The Court of Appeal found that documents submitted at trial contradicted the bank’s mere allegations that it was the holder of the note, and therefore allowed to foreclose.

“Taken together, these decisions are powerful evidence that Florida’s appellate courts are increasingly receptive to foreclosure defendants’ complaints that some trial courts are not holding foreclosure plaintiffs to the requirements of Florida Civil Procedure – and perhaps that they are also paying attention to the widely reported improprieties in the mortgage lending industry,” said Dan Bushell, a South Florida appellate attorney, on his blog, Florida Appellate Review.

We have seen the pace of foreclosure proceedings drastically slow in the past months due to the court’s heightened documentation standards. These recent decisions by the District Courts should pump the breaks even more on the banks’ steamroll approach to foreclosing South Florida homeowners. Banks better take note.

From the trenches,
Roy Oppenheim, P.A.

Oppenheim and Sunshine come together again to discuss the depths of the South Florida foreclosure crisis. In the below clip, the pair examine the dismal real estate climate in Florida last summer:

No stranger to fighting the banks, foreclosure defense attorney and award-winning legal blogger Roy Oppenheim specializes in helping families fight foreclosures, while using his South Florida Law Blog to openly decry fraudulent foreclosure practices and ask: Why isn’t Wall Street in Jail? Veteran investigative reporter Al Sunshine has received numerous honors for his reporting, including the Miami Police Department Accuracy and Fairness Award (1976), the Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers Media Award (1991) and the Dade County Trial Lawyers Association Award (1992).

Consumers are definitely shopping—and they are buying even if it is for good deals.

On the shopping front, an Experian Hitwise webinar reveals traffic to real estate web sites is up 27 percent in February. That’s the highest gain since the first half of 2009. Although rentals are the key beneficiary, it still bodes well for investors trying to rent property and hold on until property values rise.

But consumers are also buying single-family homes and condos across Florida, and specifically in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Seems that confidence is starting to slowly come back even if prices are not moving much.

Home and condo sales rose in Florida rose during February, according to the Florida Realtors. Existing home sales increased 13 percent in February with a total of 13,701 homes sold statewide compared to 12,164 homes sold in February 2010. And February’s statewide sales of existing condos rose 29 percent compared to the previous year’s sales figure. Meanwhile, Florida’s median sales price for existing homes last month was $121,900. A year ago, it was $124,500 for a 2 percent decrease.

The Miami Association of Realtors and the Southeast Florida Multiple Listing Service is also reporting good news. Single-family homes and condominiums sales in Miami-Dade County increased 22 percent in February compared to a year earlier. One stand out on the condo front is Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach, where 46 units have sold since October 2010. Ft. Lauderdale posted an 8 percent month-over-month gain in February even as housing inventory declined.

“The housing market is healing with sales fluctuating at times, depending on the flow of distressed properties coming on the market,” says National Association of Realtors Chief Economist Lawrence Yun. “The broad fundamentals for a housing recovery are developing. Job growth, high housing affordability and rising apartment rent are conducive to bringing more buyers into the market.”

I want to agree with Yun. Although there are still areas of South Florida where the housing market is raw, the massive bleeding has eased. Distressed properties are getting worked out, albeit slowly. With the economy showing signs of improvement and the job market seeing an uptick in South Florida, there is hope for investors and homeowners alike that the worst of the torrential storms may have blown past us.

Looking for timely, strategic, and educated guidance in Florida real estate transactions? Check out our sister site Weston Title!

On a recent Friday morning in Miami-Dade County, Judge Maxine Cohen Lando went on the record to dress down a foreclosure mill in such a fashion that it brought chills to any lawyer who is a member in good standing of the Florida Bar.

The foreclosure case was before the court because the defendant had brought a motion to dismiss the foreclosure with prejudice. The judge, having previously become annoyed with the bank and the bank’s counsel, had requested that there be an order to show cause. The judge was questioning the pleadings and wanted the foreclosure mill representing the bank to come forward and prove that they had not been involved with any inappropriate conduct.

The judge was clearly upset and said to the banks’ attorneys:

Join Florida Foreclosure Defense and Short Sale Attorney Roy Oppenheim March 9th at 6 PM.

“Not a single financial executive has gone to jail”…that is how Producer Charles Ferguson rocked the Oscars by starting his acceptance speech for winning best feature documentary for “Inside Job,” a film about the 2008 financial system meltdown. How appropriate.

Meanwhile, Florida real estate is no red carpet winner when it comes to the housing market. Oppenheim Law announces its real estate webinar streaming live Wednesday March 9th at 6 pm, designed to help Florida homeowners use today’s economic conditions to their advantage and fashion their own bailouts.

In this timely workshop, Oppenheim shares fresh insights, including:

• How the rising price of oil will affect the American job market, and in turn affect the housing market.
• What these trends mean for Florida foreclosure defense and how homeowners can use these events to their advantage to engineer and structure a short sale.
• The impact that a sluggish start to the national “selling season” will have on a local level.
• Why home prices will continue to drop in the months ahead.
• And how a double dip recession could impact homeowners in the coming months.

Florida real estate is not immune to the financial system melt down or the recent world events, according to Florida Foreclosure Defense Attorney and Legal Blogger Roy Oppenheim.

As revolutionary tremors continue to spread through the Middle East and actual tremors rocked New Zealand with a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, Oppenheim Law offers insight on how these international events could impact Florida’s real estate market as well as sharing the latest legal trends in foreclosure defense and short sales strategies.

What: Global Impact on Florida Short Sales and Foreclosures Workshop

Where: Oppenheim Law TV

Or come in person:

95 NW 11th St., Boca Raton, FL 33432

Cost: Free with advanced registration

RSVP: To register, email jackie@oplaw.net or call 954.384.6114

Want to learn more? Attend Oppenheim Law and Weston Title‘s Real Estate Workshop this Wednesday, February 9 at 6pm via Oppenheim Law TV or in person:

95 NW 11th St., Boca Raton, FL 33432
Cost: Free with advanced registration
RSVP: To register, email jackie@oplaw.net or call 954.384.6114

We’ll cover how the protests in Egypt, Florida’s new governor’s stimulus ideas, Obama’s agenda, bankrupt states, and even massive snowstorms are poised to make a direct impact on Florida foreclosures and short sales.

Technology, politics and the economy seem to be unfolding into one.

First let’s point out, there is a lot of BLAME going on, starting with the 500-page FCIC document, or should I say docu-drama. The in-depth analysis covers how we got to where we are today as it relates to the financial crisis, foreclosure crisis and housing crisis.

As taken from the official FCIC press release:

The Commission concluded that the crisis was avoidable and was caused by:

• Widespread failures in financial regulation, including the Federal Reserve’s failure to stem the tide of toxic mortgages;
• Dramatic breakdowns in corporate governance including too many financial firms acting recklessly and taking on too much risk;
• An explosive mix of excessive borrowing and risk by households and Wall Street that put the financial system on a collision course with crisis;
• Key policy makers ill prepared for the crisis, lacking a full understanding of the financial system they oversaw;
• And systemic breaches in accountability and ethics at all levels.

But let’s be clear on BLAME; the last person that should be blamed in this mess is the homeowner.

Yet, the homeowner needs to make adjustments and say hello to a whole new set of rules.

We’ll be covering this in our next foreclosure defense workshop in addition to very important points emphasized in Obama’s SOTU address.

1. The economy has a new set of rules! Learn how to apply those rules to help your current crisis and remove yourself from the situation.

2. How will you reinvent yourself? The old economy of 2007 is not coming back, ever. It’s a new economy and like our own government, we must reinvent ourselves to adapt.

Foreclosures are becoming passé. Short sales are the new economy. Join us on Wednesday, February 9^th for the Oppenheim Law Real Estate and Economic Workshop.

So despite harder-to-come-by financing and the possibility of a housing double-dip, it seems historically low interest rates and bargain basement home prices are winning over public opinion. Interest rates may or may not rise, but the bargain basement prices are likely to continue as home foreclosures are reaching record highs.

Foreclosure headlines are telling. South Florida filings dropped 41 percent in 2010 due to the foreclosure freeze. And some are asking if foreclosure lawyers’ misdeeds are being ignored in Florida. Despite the freeze and other legal questions, though, Florida still ranks second in the number of foreclosures in 2010.

And the worst may be yet to come. News reports are citing studies that show real estate short sales are set to increase in 2011 as banks attempt to dispose of defaulting loans without foreclosing. And many may get caught flat-footed in the South Florida foreclosure wave.

As you read all of these headlines, keep in mind that if it’s a buyer’s market, that also means it’s a seller’s market. And with all the foreclosures hitting the market, it’s a good time for a buyer to seek a short sale purchase. Oppenheim Law’s sister company Weston Title & Escrow has been very successful closing short sale deals and guiding clients through the process of both buying and selling short sales.

Wondering what this means for Florida homeowners? Is 2011 the year of the short sale or the strategic default? Catch the replay of Oppenheim Law’s monthly Foreclosure Defense workshop on Oppenheim Law TV for the next 4 days!