South Florida Real Estate News & Notes
Never say you’ve seen it all in the South Florida housing market.
Darren Shuster, CEO of Pop Culture PR in Encino, Calif., contacted the Palm Beach Post recently to say he has turned his home into a billboard - and put $75,000 into his pocket as a result.
Or, more accurately, into his Florida mortgage holder’s pocket.
“Struggling like my fellow Angelenos to cover the monthly [Florida mortgage], I decided to find a corporate sponsor for my house,” he said.
“And it actually worked.”
Shuster pitched his idea to companies around the world, and Rebtel.com of Sweden, a startup phone company, finally bit, he says.
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Elsewhere, the Mortgage Bankers Association, which issued an eye-opening report on delinquent Florida mortgages last week, has issued a separate report just for the Sunshine State, one of four states that pushed the nation into record foreclosure starts in the first quarter.
The report shows that the percent of home loans in Florida with foreclosure pending in some form started in the first quarter rose to 0.58 percent.
The percentage of Florida home loans in foreclosure at the end of the financial quarter rose 19 basis points, to 1.03 percent.
The Florida mortgage loan delinquency rate increased to 4.36 percent by the end of the quarter, the MBA report said. That’s a jump of 69 basis points - used to track the difference between two interest rates.
The MBA report came out, ironically, the same day the Fed held a hearing on what lenders can do to stop aggressive lending practices. Proposals include stricter proof of income and no penalties for mortgage prepayments.
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Florida mortgage broker practices have come under attack in recent months as the market has slowed and fingers have been pointed.
Now, the National Association of Mortgage Brokers has come out with its own set of recommendations amid a slowing Florida housing market.
“We believe that renting the credit history of an unknown or unrelated individual to obtain a home loan with a lower mortgage rate is an unethical practice,” the NAMB said.
“NAMB believes this fraudulent practice should be prohibited,” the trade group said.
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The Florida Association of Realtors report on existing-home sales doesn’t come out for another week, but an early look at one of our local markets shows that prices and sales are continuing to slide.
Martin County, a small but important market, saw median prices fall nearly $20,000 last month compared with May 2006.
That puts the median price of an existing single-family home at $277,500, down 6 percent from $296,250 in May 2006.
Sales continued to fall, too, as the market retreated from the glory days. Martin County buyers closed on 130 homes last month, down from 166 a year ago, the association said.
Nearly 90 home sales are pending in the county, according to its Realtors association, with a median price of $334,450.
SOURCE: Palm Beach Post
