Palm Beach Courts Receive Foreclosure Aid

The Sun Sentinel reported today that Palm Beach is using $640,000 of state allocated funds to hire two senior judges, six case managers and four clerical assistants to help ease the backlog of foreclosure cases in Palm Beach County.

The newspaper article states that there is an estimated backlog of 500,000 foreclosures in the state of Florida and that the state has allocated $6 million to help the courts clear the cases.

In my opinion, unless the housing market in South Florida improves, this money won't help much. So much of our economy is based on housing that more and more individuals who have hung on for as long as they could are becoming economically tapped out and will have to roll the dice and see how long they can stay in their home if they stop making payments.

Currently that would be about two years minimum in Florida. A recent ruling by the Florida Supreme Court may extend that even longer; if the lender can't provide evidence of the original note (the borrower's IOU), they might be able to stay there permanently without making payments.


Interesting times.....painful for those of us living through it, but fascinating none the less. Feels at times like I am watching a train wreck in slow motion and the train is headed straight toward me.

For more information you can contact me at http://veritasrealestategroup.com/

Broward Housing Trends Over a 2 year Period

The followings graphs show the single family real estate market here in South Florida over the past two years.

For more information contact me at http://veritasrealestategroup.com/

Major Security Flaw at the US Post Office

The Florida Sun Sentinel reported today that someone had fraudulently gone on-line in June to the US Post Office's web site and changed the mailing address for the Florida state-run Citizens Property Insurance Company.


The result of this is that application fees, social security numbers and names, addresses and birthdates of the applicants were all routed to another mailing address. Citizens stated that this most likely occurred between June 14 - June 19 of this year.

If you feel that you have been a victim of identity theft as a result of this you can call 1-888-685-1555.

The most amazing thing to me is that this hasn't happened before. There does not appear to be any safeguards against this on the USPS site.

What do you think?

You can contact me at http://veritasrealestategroup.com/

Florida Employment Figures

This morning's Sun Sentinel reported the following figures for jobs gained and lost over the past year. Federal government jobs increased by 28.4%, college and university jobs were up by 9.7% and home health care positions rose by 7.3%. On the flip side metal fabrication jobs decreased by 18.1%, building construction was down by 17.9% and printing fell by 10.6%.


The Florida unemployment rate peaked in March at 12.3% and in May had fallen to 11.7%. The national rate is 9.5%. Our economy here is so centered around the housing market that economists say we cannot have a robust recovery until housing picks up.

In my opinion that is not going to happen until credit loosens up and private mortgage companies begin operating in Florida again. To buy a condo now, the purchaser needs to have a 25%-30% down payment because no one will issue a PMI policy. Great environment for cash buyers, though, as long as the condo and homeowners associations remain solvent with money in reserve.

The Sun Sentinel article went on to discuss that the international business trade may pick up in this part of Florida and that our tourist industry may increase if our beaches remain oil-free. Let's hope.

Meanwhile come on down and buy property. I'm happy to help. You can contact me at
http://veritasrealestategroup.com/

Coral Springs , Florida Will Soon Be A College Town

It looks like Coral Springs, Florida is set to become a college. The SunSentinel reported yesterday that the Broward Community College is opening a satellite campus at the northwest corner of University Drive and Sample Road. Classes are expected to start in October and it is anticipated that over 5,000 students will be attending. The college will initially offer two and four year general and business courses and the nursing school will be moved there.

Happy Fourth of July

Many of our local cities are having firework displays that start at 9PM. The most interesting ones, in my opinion, are on the beach. Ft. Lauderdale's fireworks display is at the end of Las Olas on the beach. You might have to park a fair distance away, but think of all the great exercise you can get by walking on the beach to the site.

Find local events at http://sunsentinel.com/fourth
To read more about me go to: http://veritasrealestategroup.com/

Health Insurance Reform Bill

The new law went into effect on July 1 so that people who have pre-existing medical conditions and have been refused health care coverage, can now be insured. In Florida if people qualify and apply by July 15, they can start receiving coverage on August 1. To apply online go to http://healthcare.gov and click on the link for Florida policies or you can call 1-866-717-5826 to hear the details. Rates will not be published until July 15.

To qualify a person needs to have been uninsured for at least 6 months, show proof of a pre-existing condition and been turned down in the past for health care.

To read more about me go to http://veritasrealestategroup.com/