Wednesday, October 27, 2010

New home sales rise 6.6% after dismal summer

 

New home sales rise 6.6% after dismal summer

WASHINGTON (AP) – Oct. 27, 2010 – Sales of new U.S. homes improved last month after the worst summer in nearly five decades, but not enough to lift the struggling economy.

The Commerce Department says new home sales in September grew 6.6 percent from a month earlier to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 307,000. The increase follows a stretch where three of the past four months were the slowest on records dating back to 1963.

High unemployment, tight credit and uncertainty about home prices have kept people from buying homes. Government tax credits propelled the market earlier in the year, but those expired in April.

The median sales price was $223,800. That was up 3.3 percent from a year earlier.
AP LogoCopyright © 2010 The Associated Press

 

Florida's consumer confidence gets big boost

 

Florida’s consumer confidence gets big boost

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Oct. 27, 2010 – Historically low interest rates, bargains on condominiums and a moratorium on foreclosures likely caused a six-point jump in Florida’s consumer confidence in October to 74, its highest level in six months, according to a new University of Florida (UF) survey.

“Much like the spike in April’s consumer confidence, this increase was not expected,” says Chris McCarty, director of UF’s Survey Research Center in the Bureau of Economic and Business Research. In April, home appliance rebates sparked the increase, he says.

All five of the index components rose in October, with the biggest increase in perceptions about whether it’s a good time to buy big-ticket consumer items, which jumped 10 points to 85.

Perceptions of personal finances now compared with a year ago rose six points to 55, while perceptions of personal finances a year from now rose seven points to 85. Perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next year rose five points to 68, while perceptions of U.S. economic conditions over the next five years rose two points to 78.

“As we get closer to the holiday season, consumers should expect increases in both gas and food prices, which will likely affect consumer confidence and holiday sales,” McCarty says. “Given the large increase in confidence this month, I expect a slight decline next month, barring some significant change in the economic climate.”

The rise in confidence this month was particularly marked among seniors. The index rose only two points for those under 60, but 11 points for those 60 and older.

“This is an odd result when the biggest news for seniors during October was the announcement on Oct. 15 of no cost-of-living adjustment to Social Security,” McCarty says. “Since then, there has been a push among President Obama and some in Congress for a one-time payment of $250 as compensation.”

It’s also possible that the midterm election cycle could somehow affect senior optimism, McCarty says. “It is not unusual for the potential viability of one candidate … to translate into one of the index components, although that is typically one of the two components measuring perceptions of U.S. economic conditions.”

A likely cause of an increase in consumer confidence overall is the effect of the temporary moratorium on foreclosures and the possibility of delaying foreclosures as a result of the news that banks may be vulnerable in not following procedures in the filing of paperwork when buying and selling mortgages.

The increase in confidence comes amid mixed economic news about employment, housing, tax revenue and tourism revenue. The latest unemployment figures, which were just released, show Florida’s jobless rate in September was up to 11.9 percent from a revised August figure of 11.8 percent – far above the national unemployment rate of 9.6 percent.

“Although housing prices have been declining, condo sales have been on the rise due in part to bargain-buying by those with cash,” McCarty says. Florida’s number of tourists and the resulting tourism revenue are also outpacing last year.

“My thinking had been that consumer confidence would remain mired in the upper 60s and low 70s until there was a clear path to economic recovery,” McCarty says. “While I still believe that to be the case, the confidence index for Florida has been somewhat erratic since April.”
 
The research center conducts the Florida Consumer Attitude Survey monthly. Respondents are 18 or older and live in households telephoned randomly. The preliminary index for October was collected from 403 responses.

© 2010 Florida Realtors®

 

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Les avantages d'un investissement en Floride

Del Prado Realty, LLC

TRC Realtor ® (Certifié Transnational Referral) est une agence immobilière multilingue en Floride, qui vous propose des operations immobiliere d'acquisition de terrains vacants, de maison et d'appartement. Nous vous assistons pour l'achat ou la vente de propriétés résidentielles et d'immeubles commerciaux.
Nous offrons des services additionnels tels que la gestion de propriétés, l’entretien, la réhabilitation ou la construction neuve ainsi que la location de propriétés de vacances et de propriétés résidentielles à long terme et bien plus.
Renseignez-vous auprès de notre agence immobilière multilingue en Floride sur notre liste de maison reprise par les banques, assuance et maison de credit.
Notre réseau de contacts qualifiés nous fournit des spécialistes pour le financement à la fois aux États-Unis et en Allemagne.
Nous avons accès au service majeur MLS dans notre région de Fort Myers et ses alentours de plages, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, Bonita Springs et Naples.
HABLAMOS ESPANOL, WIR SPRECHEN DEUTSCH

Les avantages d'un investissement en Floride :

Nous vous proposons un investissement aux USA sûr et rentable constitué par un placement nouveau, original et à très haute rentabilité. Un placement historiquement sûr et rémunérateur.
Les qualités du produit par rapport à un autre placement :

•Stabilité politique des USA
•Facilité de réalisation
•Discrétion et anonymat
•Effet de change favorable avec effet de levier en cas de hausse du dollar
•Pas de formalités administratives compliquées
•Fiscalité très avantageuse
•Sécurité et fiabilité assurées
•Sérieuses garanties
•Insaisissabilité
•Suivi du placement et conseils
La rentabilité à moyen terme la plus élevée à ce jour! Le meilleur rapport risque/rentabilité raisonnablement possible.
Il y a encore peu de temps sur 10 ans la hausse des prix de nos produits a été en moyenne de 12% à 20% par an : soit au minimum un doublement du capital en 4 à 6 ans

 

Del Prado Realty, LLC

lic. real estate company

www.floridacapecoral.info

 

search for property

http://fl.living.net/idxfirm/1020798

 

 

see us on German TV

http://www.zdf.floridacapecoral.info/zdf.wmv

 

Ph# for Juergen Hahn: 1-239-634-6677
Office: 1-239-298-9264
Fax: 1-800-976-6499

 

Mailing address:
PO Box 101521
Cape Coral, Fl 33910

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Foreclosure wheels begin to turn again for Bank of America, GMAC

Foreclosure wheels begin to turn again for Bank of America, GMAC

NEW YORK – Oct. 19, 2010 – Bank of America and Ally Financial’s GMAC Mortgage have begun to lift their freezes on more than 100,000 foreclosure cases in Florida and other states, saying they’re not finding flaws in their paperwork.

Late Monday, Bank of America issued a statement saying that it expects to begin going back next week to courts in the 23 states where foreclosures are a judicial process, including Florida. A statement from spokesman Dan Frahm said the lender is preparing to re-submit documents in 102,000 foreclosure cases already underway.

Also Monday, Ally Financial spokesman James Olecki confirmed that GMAC is re-submitting documents in some foreclosure cases including at least one in Florida “as each of those files is reviewed and remediated when needed.”

Among major lenders, Bank of America had called a halt to all foreclosure sales nationwide. It also, along with GMAC, JPMorgan Chase and PNC Financial Services, initiated reviews in the 23 judicial foreclosure states. Bank of America later extended its review nationwide. Wells Fargo did not undertake a review of its procedures.

Major lenders in September began announcing halts to all or parts of their foreclosure processes, after revelations – in sworn statements submitted in lawsuits in which homeowners are fighting foreclosures – showing that employees or representatives failed to verify mortgage paperwork before submitting foreclosure cases to courts.

The so-called “robo-signers” said, under oath, that they handled thousands of documents each month without knowing whether they were accurate, as required by court procedure.

The GMAC and Chase documents surfaced in Palm Beach County cases that are still going through the courts.

On Monday, Bank of America said its “initial assessment findings” have shown “the basis for our foreclosure decisions is accurate.”

GMAC’s Olecki wrote in an e-mail, “Again, we have been in the midst of a review for approximately two months and have found no evidence of any inappropriate foreclosures to date.”

A spokesman for PNC Financial said the lender hasn’t changed its position on reviewing foreclosure documents. A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase repeated the bank’s intention to review about 115,000 foreclosure files and delay foreclosure sales.

Monday’s developments won’t speed the foreclosure process in Florida’s overburdened courts, said Alexander Fernandez, director of homeownership preservation for Neighborhood Housing Services of South Florida. He noted there are more than 50,000 cases in Broward County alone that are still pending. And renewed cases, he said, would probably go to the back of the line.

Foreclosure defense attorneys questioned how the process can be re-started. “Do they simply get to resubmit the document and go on like nothing happened?” said Matthew Weidner, a St. Petersburg foreclosure defense attorney.

Beyond Florida, Bank of America said it would continue its halt of foreclosure sales in the 27 states that do not handle foreclosures through the judicial system.

Copyright © 2010 Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Harriet Johnson Brackey. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Provided by http://www.floridacapecoral.info

 

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Goldman Sachs sued by German Bank

 

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which served as the placement agent for a collateralized debt obligation named Davis Square Funding VI, was sued by Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg over its $37 million loss on the investment.

 

The CDO held 95 percent residential mortgage-backed securities, of which 33 percent were subprime and 46 percent were "midprime," the German bank said in a complaint filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan. TCW Group Inc., the investment adviser on the CDO, was also sued by the bank.

 

When Goldman sold the investments to a Luxembourg affiliate of LBBW in March 2006, they were represented as "safe, secure, and nearly risk free," according to the complaint. At the same time, Goldman senior executives privately observed that "it was game over" for subprime lenders and were reducing their exposure to the mortgages, LBBW said.

 

Monday, October 4, 2010

Bank of America delays foreclosures in 23 states

Bank of America delays foreclosures in 23 states

WASHINGTON – Oct. 4, 2010 – Bank of America is delaying foreclosures in 23 states as it examines whether it rushed the foreclosure process for thousands of homeowners without reading the documents.

The move adds the nation’s largest bank to a growing list of mortgage companies whose employees signed documents in foreclosure cases without verifying the information in them.

Bank of America isn’t able to estimate how many homeowners’ cases will be affected, Dan Frahm, a spokesman for the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, said Friday. He said the bank plans to resubmit corrected documents within several weeks.

Two other companies, Ally Financial Inc.’s GMAC Mortgage unit and JPMorgan Chase, have halted tens of thousands of foreclosure cases after similar problems became public.

The document problems could cause thousands of homeowners to contest foreclosures that are in the works or have been completed. If the problems turn up at other lenders, a foreclosure crisis that’s already likely to drag on for several more years could persist even longer. Analysts caution that most homeowners facing foreclosure are still likely to lose their homes.

State attorneys general, who enforce foreclosure laws, are stepping up pressure on the industry.

On Friday, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal asked a state court to freeze all home foreclosures for 60 days. Doing so “should stop a foreclosure steamroller based on defective documents,” he said.

And California Attorney General Jerry Brown called on JPMorgan to suspend foreclosures unless it could show it complied with a state consumer protection law. The law requires lenders to contact borrowers at risk of foreclosure to determine whether they qualify for mortgage assistance.

In Florida, the state attorney general is investigating four law firms, two with ties to GMAC, for allegedly providing fraudulent documents in foreclosure cases. The Ohio attorney general asked judges this week to review GMAC foreclosure cases.

In New York, State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is reviewing the matter “to prevent homeowners from being improperly removed from their homes,” according to a spokesman, Richard Bamberger, who said Friday that Cuomo’s office has been in contact with several of the financial institutions.

Mark Paustenbach, a Treasury Department spokesman, said the Treasury has asked federal regulators “to look into these troubling developments.” And the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, has asked seven big banks to examine their foreclosure processes.

“We both want to see that they fix the processing problems, but also to look to see whether there is specific harm” to homeowners, John Walsh, the agency’s acting director told lawmakers Thursday.

A document obtained Friday by the Associated Press showed a Bank of America official acknowledging in a legal proceeding that she signed up to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month and typically didn’t read them.

The official, Renee Hertzler, said in a February deposition that she signed 7,000 to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month.

“I typically don’t read them because of the volume that we sign,” Hertzler said.

She also acknowledged identifying herself as a representative of a different bank, Bank of New York Mellon, that she didn’t work for. Bank of New York Mellon served as a trustee for the investors holding the homeowner’s loan.

Hertzler could not be reached for comment.

A lawyer for the homeowner in the case, James O’Connor of Fitchburg, Mass., said such problems are rampant throughout the industry.

“We have had thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of foreclosures around the country by entities that did not have the right to foreclose,” O’Connor said.

The disclosure comes two days after JPMorgan said it would temporarily stop foreclosing on more than 50,000 homes so it could review documents that might contain errors. Last week, GMAC halted certain evictions and sales of foreclosed homes in 23 states to review those cases after finding procedural errors in some foreclosure affidavits.

Consumer advocates say the problems are widespread across the lending industry.

“The general level of sloppiness is pervasive around the industry,” said Diane Thompson, counsel at the National Consumer Law Center.

Vickee Adams, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo & Co., said Wells’ “policies, procedures and practices satisfy us that the affidavits we sign are accurate.”

Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Citigroup Inc., said the bank “reviews document handling processes in our foreclosure group on an ongoing basis, and we have strong training to ensure that appropriate employees are fully aware of the proper procedures.”

Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Friday they’re directing companies they work with that collect loan payments to follow proper procedures.

In some states, lenders can foreclose quickly on delinquent mortgage borrowers. By contrast, the 23 states in which Bank of America is delaying foreclosures use a lengthy court process. They require documents to verify information on the mortgage, including who owns it.

Those states are: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.
AP LogoCopyright © 2010 The Associated Press, Alan Zibel, AP real estate writer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. AP Business Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

 

Provided by Cape Coral Florida Real Estate