Today's Local Real Estate News

Business Week reports that foreclosure rates continue to rise:

“Foreclosure filings rose 9 percent from June to July and surged 93 percent over the same period last year, with Nevada, Georgia and Michigan accounting for the highest foreclosure rates nationwide, a research firm said Tuesday.”

“‘While 43 states experienced year-over-year increases in foreclosure activity, just five states - California, Florida, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia - accounted for more than half of the nation's total foreclosure filings,’ said RealtyTrac Chief Executive James J. Saccacio.”

“Florida's foreclosure filings fell 9 percent between June and July to 19,179. The July figure represents a 78 percent jump from a year ago.”

The South Florida Business Journal reports that unemployment is down in the up in Broward and Palm Beach Counties:

“The unemployment rate in Broward and Palm Beach counties edged up in July, while Miami-Dade's unemployment declined in a year-over-year comparison, the Florida Agency of Workforce Innovation said. “

“Broward County posted an unemployment rate of 3.8 percent in July, up from 3.3 percent in July 2006. Palm Beach County also was up, to 4.7 percent from 4.1 percent.”

“Miami-Dade County's unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in July, compared with 4.1 percent in the year prior.”

“Florida's job growth has been slowing since September 2005, when it peaked due to a booming housing market and construction-related hurricane recovery, said Monesia Brown, director of the Florida Agency of Workforce Innovation. She said the slowdown was tied to weakness in the construction, manufacturing and industrial sectors.”

Miami-Dade continues to fight the Federal takeover of their troubled Housing Agency (see this video for some background):

“After months of threats and negotiations, HUD announced Aug. 7 that it would take control on Aug. 21. County attorneys waited until the end of that window and expect to file their request for an injunction today, said acting county attorney Abigail Price-Williams.”

“The federal government began probing the agency last year, following The Miami Herald's House of Lies series, which exposed widespread waste and mismanagement in the county's affordable housing programs.”

“Some developers who received millions of dollars to build affordable housing delivered few, if any, units. Delays in the replacement of housing projects forced hundreds from their homes for years, and tens of thousands of Miami-Dade residents are still on waiting lists. At least three developers have been arrested.”

“They have fought HUD, saying they are already doing everything possible to rebuild the department. A takeover, they have said, would only kill their momentum and take critical programs out of the hands of locally elected leaders.”

Maybe taking the program out of the hands of local “leaders,” the ones that failed to oversee the Agency in the first place, is a good thing.

Finally, the Sun-Sentinel printed the following letter to the editor:

“The Property Appraiser's Office has been tying our house values to the volatile housing market of the last several years. Thus, many are paying taxes based on a much higher, and false, market price.”

“Why not just fluctuate these guesstimates in proportion with the stock market or the pay-outs at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino? The taxpayer's ability to pay is of no apparent significance.”

“How does an overtaxed public retaliate? Go to bcpa.net and download the form for challenging your assessment. This is something every taxpayer should do by the Sept. 18 deadline. Swamp the bandits!”