South Florida Law Blog

Foreclosures, repos up from last year in South Florida I said after the foreclosure settlement was announced that banks had been given the green light to rev up their foreclosures engines, and in South Florida at least, I’m being proven right. RealtyTrac’s numbers from last month show dramatic year-over-year increases in both new foreclosure filings (85%) and repossessions (39%) in […]

Could Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac finally be willing to sign off on principal reduction as a way to keep homeowners out of foreclosure and in their homes? Edward DeMarco, the acting head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency and de facto leader of the two GSEs has been steadfast in his opposition. President Obama has made principal reduction priority […]

There were two players conspicuously absent when last week’s $25 Billion settlement was unveiled; two players that absolutely should have been front and center. What are their names? If you’ve followed the housing crisis as closely as we have, then you probably know. Our old and unwanted cousins Fannie and Freddie. Their omission from the settlement was perhaps its biggest […]

We really haven’t seen President Obama insert himself directly into the housing crisis, but there are rumblings that he may do just that during Tuesday’s State of The Union address. The fact is that is what homeowners have been clamoring for. A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 58% of Americans want the government to do more to help people keep […]

Florida Homeowner Slams Judge Hearing 300 Cases In the absolutely-not-surprising-in-any-way file, one of the 300 homeowners who went before a Seminole County judge during a three day session this week thinks he was treated flimsily by the court. Blaize McMonagle told ABC News that Judge Alan Dickey sped through his case without being given the chance to defend himself. Dickey […]

From Urban Legend to Reality: Ocwen Offers Serious Principal Reduction Meaningful principal reduction used to be an urban legend compounded by scamsters. And until recently, Florida homeowners were probably more likely to spot Bigfoot than find a lender willing to forgive a significant portion of their residential first mortgage through a loan modification. But earlier this month, Ocwen Financial Corp. […]

There are quite a few people who advocate principal reduction as the best way to get out of the housing crisis. Their arguments were succinctly laid out and analyzed in an Atlanta Federal Reserve white paper. Advocates of such a policy argue that it would be cheaper for banks to reduce the principal of a loan to the current value […]

WOW: What a week for folks who are looking for ways to bailout their family from the underwater mortgage mess. The tide may be turning. This third week of March 2010 will long be remembered for when tides started to truly turn for those families with underwater mortgages. First, of course the historic health bill was passed by Congress and […]