2014 May See Last of Recession – Caused Foreclosure Inventory

The following article was written in the Daily Business Review by Adolfo Pesquera with excerpts by Roy Oppenheim have been republished in the South Florida Law Blog.

Florida still has the highest percent of residential foreclosures, but an improving economy and years of aggressive court action have made it possible to say 2014 may be the last year of the recession hangover inventory.

“You’re going to see the issue of the five-year statute of limitations become front and center,” said Roy Oppenheim at Oppenheim & Pilelsky in Weston.

Banks that accelerated a mortgage with a notice of default in 2008 or later are now trudging through an era of statute of limitations, where they must obtain the foreclosure judgment.

There had been speculation that as 2013 wound down, banks might rush to file foreclosure motions to beat the statute of limitations, but that hasn’t materialized.

“It’s being done all the time. What’s special about them now is the title insurance industry is not recognizing them automatically,” Oppenheim said. “The industry is waiting for there to be more legal clarity.”

Despite optimism of an end in sight, Florida is still the state with the highest foreclosure rate. One in every 392 homes in the Sunshine State is in some stage of foreclosure. Some counties far exceed that. In Miami-Dade the rate is one in 244.

No other large population state comes close. According to RealtyTrac, Illinois is 1 in 700; California, 1 in 1,095; New York, 1 in 1,989 and Texas 1 in 2,310.

Roy Oppenheim:

From Wall Street to Main Street, Roy Oppenheim is a Florida real estate attorney focusing on foreclosure defense and loss mitigation. In 1989, Oppenheim co-founded Oppenheim Law with his wife, Ellen Pilelsky, offering Florida real estate law representation to developers. When the financial crisis occurred in 2009, leaving thousands of home owners with properties that were worth less than what was owed on them, Oppenheim Law shifted its focus to foreclosures, becoming a highly specialized law firm. 

He is a guest legal blogger for Yahoo! Homes and comments regularly on real estate law and policy in the national media. Oppenheim Law reports the highest rating (A-V) conferred by Martindale Hubbell Law Directory, the most respected directory of lawyers and law firms in the U.S.

Oppenheim Law’s practice areas include real estate and defending homeowners and investors from foreclosure, arranging short-sales, loan modifications, commercial litigation, and business related matters. He is also the creator of the South Florida Law Blog, named the best business and technology blog by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Follow Roy on Twitter at @OpLaw “like and share your comments”  on Facebook,  collaborate through LinkedIn with the Oppenheim Law for professional networking or view a compilation of television appearances on YouTube including FOX news, HuffPost Live, PBS and more.