Today's Local Real Estate News: "These foreclosures are wiping out wealth that people often took a lifetime to build."

Reuters reports that Miami is ground zero for mortgage fraud:

“America's subprime mortgage crisis is partly due to predatory, or aggressive, lenders, hard-sell tactics by mortgage brokers and an easing of underwriting standards in the $10 trillion home-loan industry.”

“But fraud accounts for a sizable share of the bad bets on mortgages, according to many industry experts, and lenders may have been victimized as much as anyone else.”

“‘The lenders are holding the bag now, that's what we're finding out,’ said Glenn Theobald, head of a mortgage fraud task force formed in south Florida's Miami-Dade County in September.”

“Florida leads the nation when it comes to mortgage fraud, according to the Virginia-based Mortgage Asset Research Institute, a group that works closely with the U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association.”

“Ken Thomas, a Miami-based banking expert and lecturer at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, said there was little surprise Florida led the country in mortgage fraud.”

“It stems, at least in part, in the way lenders plowed ‘easy money’ into the local condo market before Florida's recent housing boom turned to bust, Thomas told Reuters.

“‘We're going to see a lot more of this fraud being exposed, especially as these units go into foreclosure,’ Thomas said.”

“‘We were the poster child of the housing bubble ... maybe we should have expected more of this.’”

Based on this article, it is not surprising that our local markets are being swamped by foreclosures. The Miami Herald reports on foreclosures in South Florida:

“A wave of foreclosures in South Florida among borrowers with shaky credit will cause the property values of nearly 1.7 million homeowners to sink an average $13,000 in Miami-Dade County, and $6,400 in Broward, a new report says.”

“The report released Tuesday by the Center for Responsible Lending estimates the two counties will lose more than $17.2 billion in their tax base in the coming years resulting from some 35,000 expected foreclosures among subprime borrowers.”

“The state of Florida could lose $23.5 billion from its tax base, the economic spillover of an expected 98,000 foreclosures coming from subprime mortgages made in 2005 and 2006. Most of those loans came with adjustable interest rates that are now resetting, accelerating foreclosures, the center said.”

“Fort Lauderdale and Miami ranked fourth and eighth, respectively, among the metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, according to a separate report Tuesday by RealtyTrac, a foreclosure tracking firm.”

“One of every 48 homes in Broward and one of every 60 homes in Miami-Dade were in some stage of foreclosure on Sept. 30, the report said. The Center for Responsible Lending's property value analysis was based on academic research indicating that a foreclosure lowers the price of properties within an eight of a mile by 0.9 percent on average.”

“‘These foreclosures are wiping out wealth that people often took a lifetime to build,’ said Martin Eakes, the Center's chief executive. ‘Many families will never achieve homeownership again.’”

The Palm Beach Post added the following:

“Faced with adjustable mortgage payments resetting at double and sometimes triple the original percentage rate, local homeowners threw away their keys three times faster in October than they did in the same month last year, studies released Tuesday show.”

“A deluge of factors working against cash-strapped homeowners in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast came together last month as the worst housing crisis in nearly two decades continued to wreak havoc on U.S. homeowners.”

“The factors are becoming well known: falling home sales, rising inventories, tightened lending standards, a high percentage of homes owned by investors and adjustable rate mortgages resetting. Combined, they took their toll on area homeowners, who saw triple the number of mortgages sink into default as in October 2006, according to the clerks' offices in Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties.”

“In Palm Beach County, 1,620 homeowners received mortgage default notices, according to the clerk's office, compared with 541 in October 2006, a rise of 199 percent year over year and triple the tally a year ago.”

“In Martin County, there were 95 foreclosures last month, up 217 percent from October 2006, when there were only 30.”

“And in St. Lucie County, where the sound of hammers all day long signified one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation, until the bubble burst, 610 homeowners could not afford their mortgage payments. That compared with 193 foreclosures a year ago, an increase of 216 percent.”

“‘These figures are a stark reminder of just how much the Florida real estate market has soured in the last two years,’ said Mike Larson, an analyst with Weiss Group. ‘Foreclosures are surging because the housing market is still struggling to find a bottom. Home prices are slumping and lending standards are tightening - a nasty one-two punch for borrowers who are having trouble paying their mortgages. We'll be coping with a high level’ of adjustable-rate mortgages until the end of 2008.”

With all this foreclosures and fraud, the National Association of Realtors® aren’t worried. If fact, they saying we’re at a bottom and could be saved shortly by droves of rich foreign investors. The Palm Beach Post provides the details:

“The market for existing homes is ‘hitting the low right now’ and heading for a ‘modest recovery’ next year, the chief economist for the National Association of Realtors said at the group's annual convention Tuesday.”

“Existing home sales will be ‘much softer’ this quarter compared with the same period last year, the economist, Lawrence Yun, said at a news conference. He said that for all of 2007, sales nationwide would fall to 5.67 million, compared to 6.48 million in 2006.”

“NAR expects the national median price of existing homes to decline 1.7 percent to $218,200 for this year, and hold steady at about that level in 2008.”

“The number of sales will rise to 5.69 million next year, Yun said. But the housing recovery will be very uneven, with some markets bouncing back more quickly than others, Yun predicted.”

“But Miami may rebound faster because foreign investors like the city, especially now that the U.S. dollar is so weak, he said.”

“‘There is a big incentive for foreign buyers’ to come into Miami, he said.”

“At the moment, the housing market is stalled because those would-be buyers are holding out for lower prices, while sellers are waiting for prices to rebound. ‘This is a battle between buyers and sellers,’ he said.”
“If buyers blink first, ‘it is possible for even higher home sales activity than we're forecasting,’ he said.”