Articles Posted in Real Estate

As we review our clients’ online docket and/or official records search results each week during this holiday season, we can’t help but think that so many will not be able to spend time with family or loved ones or otherwise enjoy the holidays like they have in years past because of a variety of financial…

In Florida, about half of all homeowners with mortgages owe more than the value of their home. This is called “having negative equity, ” being “upside down,” or “underwater.”  Most of those families owe a LOT more, up to 50% or more than their homes are actually worth!  If a family owes tens of thousands…

The nation’s top banks are tired of paying the price for crashing the economy, defrauding billions from retirement savings, and dispossessing tens of millions of people from their homes in fraudulent foreclosures across the nation.  The banks are ready to move on already.   Their officers and representatives are whining about the continued investigations, lawsuits, and damage to…

The 2008 bailout of the American financial industry was based on a law enacted by Congress, Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (TARP).   Under rushed and pressured emergency conditions, Congress passed the legislation with very little understanding of why the economy was crashing.  There was a sense that the housing boom had something to do with…

It’s election season.  Every single Florida lawmaker is up for reelection this year because this is a redistricting year.  The Florida House, Florida Senate, and US Congressional district lines were redrawn after the release of the population and demographic data from the 2010 census.   Redistricting happens every ten years after the census is done.  Then…

David Dayen has a fantastic post up on Firedoglake.com debunking all the much celebrated recent good news in the media on housing issues. Headlines proclaim home sales are up, prices are up, bidding wars, realtors going door to door begging people to sell, inventory down, home-builder industry exuding “confidence”. On the ground, we know what’s…

The dearth of meaningful solutions to the housing crisis has local officials considering a complex, controversial loan modification proposal that has piqued the interest of several municipal governments across the nation.  The proposal has a component that taps into local government’s constitutional authority and power to take private property for a public purpose upon paying…

Amy Johnson, now 93 and facing foreclosure, thought the loan she purchased from Lehman Brothers, the now disgraced and defunct investment bank, was a fixed mortgage loan for $140,000.  She and her late husband hadn’t had a mortgage on the home since they’d paid it off sixty years ago.  After her husband died, she was…

Six Easy Steps to a Government of the Banks, For the Banks, By the Banks Maintain a spinning revolving door between big finance and legislators, law enforcers, and regulators to ensure friends are in powerful positions. Fund an army of lobbyists ready to provide rapid-response, detailed, Wall Street-friendly analysis of proposed legislation and regulation (here,here, here,here, etc). Horde of academics-for-hire to…

Our elected state officials (49 State Attorneys General) and appointed banking regulators (FDIC, Fed, OCC, Treasury) have already sold out the American people with a farcical, weak, and insulting settlement with Chase, Wells, Citi, BoA, and Ally/GMAC.  Now those same farcical, weak, and insulting terms seem to be under consideration with more financial institutions. We’ve seen…