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Little-known program gives up to $2,000 a year to people buying their first homes. By Donna Gehrke-White | Sun Sentinel “little-known state program that pays first-time homebuyers up to $2,000 a year has more than tripled its number of participants in a year.Administrators expect an even higher surge of homebuyers applying this year as theRead more

SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN | Tampa Bay Times | “In February, a new company in Tampa called RE-710 got a terrific deal. It paid $5,700 for a five-bedroom home valued at $311,000. The same month, RE-710 acquired control of dozens of other houses and condos throughout the Tampa Bay area for just cents on the dollar.Read more

Staff | Tampa Bay Business Journal | “Tampa socialites Jill and Dr. Scott Kelley have avoided losing their mansion on Bayshore Boulevard to foreclosure. Under a mortgage modification with , the Kelleys have agreed to pay $9,747 per month until they repay the $1.7 million still owed on the house, the Tampa Bay Times said. According to documents filedRead more

Mamta Badkar | Business Insider | “112,498 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings in February, according to RealtyTrac. This was down 27% from a year ago and was the lowest monthly total since December 2006. In fact, one in every 1,170 U.S. homes received a foreclosure filing in February. But the headline number can be misleading. “Cold weather andRead more

STUART KORFHAGE | St. Augustine Record | “While Florida continues to put up alarming foreclosure numbers, Circuit Court Judge Howard Maltz of St. Johns County is starting to see stats he likes. According to data compiled by the state, Maltz and other county staff — including some senior judges — have managed to reduce theRead more

WCTV | “Bob Wallerius walks with a noticeable limp. He’s had 40 surgeries after a bad traffic accident. On the day he spoke to Eyewitness News, a foreclosure sale was scheduled for his northwest Tallahassee home. “Had to go to bed one more night not be able to sleep and wake up trying to haveRead more

Pam Bondi | The Tampa Tribune | Opinion Page | “The U.S. House’s vote Tuesday night was a move in the right direction to stop the short-sighted implementation of the Biggert-Waters Act, which has dire consequences for Floridians, who would bear the brunt of the financial burden, and our housing market. Traveling throughout Florida asRead more

Christina Sturgis | Tampa Bay Times Blog | “Florida is first in an undesirable competition – the number of foreclosures, which can take terrible toll on Tampa families and communities. One of every 409 Florida homes is in foreclosure, as of the end of 2013. According to the report by RealtyTrac, the other top states forRead more

The Staff | National Mortgage Professional Magazine | “RealtyTrac released its January 2014 Residential & Foreclosure Sales Report, which shows that institutional investors — defined as entities purchasing at least 10 properties in a calendar year — accounted for 5.2 percent of all U.S. residential property sales in January, down from 7.9 percent in December andRead more

Mamta Badkar | Business Insider | “According to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association, 11.8% of New Jersey’s loans in foreclosure are seriously delinquent. That figure sees New Jersey oust Florida from the top spot, which has 11.7% of seriously delinquent loans. New York takes the third spot at 9.11%. Following this, Bloomberg News reported that “the epicenterRead more