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“We’re not sheep that can be led to the slaughter,” said Alexander, a 61-year-old who has been fighting to keep her Cape Coral house for four years. “These are fraudulent bankers and Wall Street gangsters who have to pay for what they’ve done.”
Florida (STOFL1), the U.S. state with the highest percentage of troubled mortgages, may collect almost one-quarter of the national $25 billion foreclosure settlement.
The deal includes 49 states and ends a probe into five U.S. mortgage servicers over abuses stemming from the housing bubble’s collapse. It requires the banks to pay $20 billion in mortgage relief and $5 billion to state and federal governments. The settlement may mean as much as $8.4 billion in benefits for Florida homeowners, said Attorney General Pam Bondi, who helped negotiate the agreement.
While Bondi described the deal yesterday as a historic win, interviews around the Sunshine State revealed anger among homeowners stuck in foreclosure cases that last longer than in any other state, and skepticism from real-estate professionals leery of banks’ promises.
“They say it’s a lot of money, but is it?” said Richard Thompson, a 51-year-old real-estate agent who has sold property in Broward County for 26 years. “You wonder if this is just p.r. or if it’s going to help genuine people stay in their home and help stabilize the market.”
Almost a quarter of the state’s homes, 23 percent, have delinquent mortgages or are being foreclosed upon, more than in any other state, according to Lender Processing Services, a Jacksonville analytics company.
The settlement included $170 million for Floridians foreclosed on between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, Bondi said. Expected to amount to about $2,000 each, she said, that means 85,000 payments. There have been 444,967 foreclosure sales in Florida in those same four years, according to Lender Processing Services.
Only new jobs will stem the crisis, said a spokesman for Governor Rick Scott, a Republican elected on a promise to reverse the economic slide.
“The housing problem in Florida is our biggest economic challenge, so every bit of homeowner relief helps,” Brian Burgess said. “But the governor knows the best way to fix the housing market is to fix the job market.”
The mere existence of a deal may be more beneficial than any actual benefits, said George Scanlon, chief executive officer of Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF) in Jacksonville, the largest U.S. title insurer.
“It’s debatable whether the principal reduction will help anyone,” said Scanlon. “Most people are going to be underwater more than the credit amount.
“It’s good news only in that it advances something that has been hanging over the market for 18 months now,” he said. “The bankers were very distracted, and having it resolved takes away one more aspect of uncertainty.”
Lenders slowed foreclosures as they negotiated with attorneys general in all 50 states. Florida leads the nation in the time it takes to foreclose, 1,017 days, according to Lender Processing Services.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...angsters-.html
Florida (STOFL1), the U.S. state with the highest percentage of troubled mortgages, may collect almost one-quarter of the national $25 billion foreclosure settlement.
The deal includes 49 states and ends a probe into five U.S. mortgage servicers over abuses stemming from the housing bubble’s collapse. It requires the banks to pay $20 billion in mortgage relief and $5 billion to state and federal governments. The settlement may mean as much as $8.4 billion in benefits for Florida homeowners, said Attorney General Pam Bondi, who helped negotiate the agreement.
While Bondi described the deal yesterday as a historic win, interviews around the Sunshine State revealed anger among homeowners stuck in foreclosure cases that last longer than in any other state, and skepticism from real-estate professionals leery of banks’ promises.
“They say it’s a lot of money, but is it?” said Richard Thompson, a 51-year-old real-estate agent who has sold property in Broward County for 26 years. “You wonder if this is just p.r. or if it’s going to help genuine people stay in their home and help stabilize the market.”
Almost a quarter of the state’s homes, 23 percent, have delinquent mortgages or are being foreclosed upon, more than in any other state, according to Lender Processing Services, a Jacksonville analytics company.
The settlement included $170 million for Floridians foreclosed on between Jan. 1, 2008, and Dec. 31, 2011, Bondi said. Expected to amount to about $2,000 each, she said, that means 85,000 payments. There have been 444,967 foreclosure sales in Florida in those same four years, according to Lender Processing Services.
Only new jobs will stem the crisis, said a spokesman for Governor Rick Scott, a Republican elected on a promise to reverse the economic slide.
“The housing problem in Florida is our biggest economic challenge, so every bit of homeowner relief helps,” Brian Burgess said. “But the governor knows the best way to fix the housing market is to fix the job market.”
The mere existence of a deal may be more beneficial than any actual benefits, said George Scanlon, chief executive officer of Fidelity National Financial Inc. (FNF) in Jacksonville, the largest U.S. title insurer.
“It’s debatable whether the principal reduction will help anyone,” said Scanlon. “Most people are going to be underwater more than the credit amount.
“It’s good news only in that it advances something that has been hanging over the market for 18 months now,” he said. “The bankers were very distracted, and having it resolved takes away one more aspect of uncertainty.”
Lenders slowed foreclosures as they negotiated with attorneys general in all 50 states. Florida leads the nation in the time it takes to foreclose, 1,017 days, according to Lender Processing Services.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...angsters-.html