The Sun Sentinel reports from Florida. “For South Florida’s sluggish housing market, one word became shorthand for the magic elixir to get buyers and sellers on the move again: portability. Gov. Charlie Crist predicted it would spark a ’sonic boom’ in home buying. But the state’s home turnover rate of 3 percent is the lowest in years, state economists said in a newly released report.”
“Analysts say any portability-fueled boost in home sales was swamped by stronger forces pulling down the real estate market in Florida and nationwide: crumbling home prices, tightening credit standards and a wave of foreclosures.”
“‘Unfortunately, the credit crunch hit at the same time as portability,’ said John Mike, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. ‘If we weren’t experiencing that, portability would be really, really impressing people. It will work for us yet, I’m utterly convinced of that.’”
From WTVJ 6 in Florida. “The foreclosure rates in Broward and Miami-Dade counties increased dramatically between 2006 and 2007. In Miami-Dade County, 9,814 homes were foreclosed in 2006 and 26,931 were foreclosed in 2007. The foreclosure rate in Broward County went from 516 homes in 2006 to 3,616 in 2007.”
“Deerfield Beach resident Dino Lapena said the property next door to his has not been cared for since its foreclosure and he is worried about his own property.”
“‘This is a nice neighborhood, but now there’re so many homes for sale,’ Lapena said. ‘A house was sold, beautiful house, for $180,000, a neighbor. That house was (worth) $300,000. Nobody buys no more.’”
The Herald Tribune from Florida. “My recent column about the war of words between the presidents of the state’s banking and mortgage-broker trade associations brought this reaction from Bradenton appraiser Jeff Deuitch, owner of Manatee Appraisal Service.”
“‘I do have to agree (with the bankers) that a higher proportion of mortgage brokers are unscrupulous than bankers,’ Deuitch wrote in an e-mail.”
“‘In my experience, a phone call from a mortgage broker requesting an appraisal for a residential property would nearly always include language about us guaranteeing that a property would achieve some kind of minimum value prior to granting the appraisal assignment,’ said Deuitch.”
“‘During the 2003-05 period, I was fielding one to two calls per day of this type. Clearly, mortgage brokers would try to influence appraisers. In my experience, this was more than just a widespread practice — it was nearly ubiquitous amongst small mortgage brokers.’”
“‘It is not to say that this did not occur with banks. If you research the incidents that have resulted in Andrew Cuomo’s pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you will see a good example of a large firm that has been accused of pressuring appraisers to ‘hit’ predetermined values via their large, third-party, vendor-management company.’”
The Jax Daily Record from Florida. “According to figures released June 25 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development and the U.S. Census Bureau, 512,000 new single-family homes were sold in May of this year. That number is 40.3 percent below the number of homes sold in May 2007.”
“The data confirmed what has been known by developers who aren’t developing and real estate agents who aren’t listing because nobody’s buying so nobody’s selling.”
“The effects of the real estate slump are also being felt by attorneys who practice in the area of real estate law. ‘Compared to a year ago, my real estate practice is only a third of what it was,’ said Bryan Goode of DiRito Goode Dempsey at Jacksonville Beach.”
“Obviously closings are down but our firm is diversified so we’re focusing on other areas like wills, trusts, probate and commercial litigation. We’re continuing to pursue real estate but we’ve got to watch our overhead,” he added.
Bill Ryan of Ryan and Marks has been practicing since 1972 and said, ‘Every now and then we see a blip and think it’s going to get better but then the blip disappears.’”
“Crabtree & Fallar’s Randy Crabtree has also watched his practice change with the real estate market. ‘Our market is down 75 percent. I went through the high interest rates in the ‘70s and the depreciation in the ‘80s and the lean periods in the ‘90s but I’ve never seen anything like this before. I think the sub-prime loans are the main factor in the current dynamic. It has caused investors to have no faith in the mortgage companies.’”
“Crabtree also has no idea as to when the market will turn around but did predict, ‘It could be an astronomical collapse if something isn’t done to get things going again.’”
“‘But even if you could get land at zero cost, you can’t build right now for a price anyone can afford. And even if interest rates were at 0 percent, nobody would make any money so the system wouldn’t work. It’s like a tornado. Everything we knew about real estate is no longer true,’ Crabtree said.”
