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JUNE FLETCHER | Scripps Howard News Service | “Steven and Janet Sparker never planned to leave the house they purchased in 2006 in Golden Gate Estates in the southwest section of Florida. But when Janet, 57, lost her six-figure job, and the home’s value fell by more than half from the $585,000 they had paidRead more

Charles Billi | WTSP | “Thanks to new flood insurance legislation, the watch word in real estate is “panic.” Panic if you’re a real estate investor, agent, buyer or seller- thanks to skyrocketing premiums. We’ve seen the Pinellas County meetings in the past few weeks packed with frightened residents. Now, more concern arises at an informationRead more

Michael Sasso | Tribune Staff | “An encouraging jump in home prices in the Sunshine State belies a more troubling fact below the surface: the number of foreclosed homes in banks’ possession keeps rising. RealtyTrac, a national firm that lists foreclosed homes for sale, estimates that 83,238 homes in Florida currently are classified as “real estateRead more

Pamela M. Prah | Stateline “Florida still leads the country in overall foreclosure activity, but Maryland and Oregon experienced dramatic increases in foreclosure starts in recent months. Meanwhile, bank repossessions climbed significantly in Kentucky and New York. The number of U.S. homes entering the foreclosure process hit a seven-year low between July and September, but bankRead more

Conor Dougherty | The Wall Street Journal | “The number of foreclosed homes continues to fall across the country, which is helping the U.S. housing market creep back to normal. There were some 48,000 foreclosures completed in August, down 35% from a year ago, according to a release by CoreLogic. At the same time the inventoryRead more

by TallahasseeRealEstate | Tallahassee.com “A good friend of mine who is also a real estate investor sent me an article yesterday that provides some insight as to why Tallahassee foreclosures are going nowhere fast. The recent article by 247wallst.com on “zombie homes,” pointed out that roughly one in every five of the 770,000 homes in foreclosure across the USRead more

By Elliot Njus | oregonlive.com “An expanded state foreclosure mediation program is showing far more promise for homeowners than its 2012 launch, a virtual nonstarter. In the first six weeks since the expansion took effect in August, the program has received 456 requests for face-to-face meetings between mortgage borrowers and lenders, the Department of JusticeRead more

Linda Hersey | SaintPetersBlog | “More homes sold in St. Petersburg than any other Pinellas County city in July. But Florida overall tops the nation in the percentage of underwater homes and short sales, according to new statistics. RealtyTrac, which monitors homes in foreclosure, reports that in August the Sunshine State was No. 2 in theRead more

Rebecca Freeman | U.S. Finance Post | “The number of foreclosures in July were down 25 percent from a year earlier according to CoreLogic. During the month of July 49,000 foreclosures were completed compared to 53,000 the previous month.That was a decrease of 8.6 percent. In July 2012 there were 65,000 foreclosures. For context, CoreLogic pointed toRead more

By Francys Vallecillo | World Property Channel | “The U.S. foreclosure inventory decreased 32 percent in July compared to last year, according to the latest numbers from CoreLogic. The inventory included approximately 949,000 homes in some stage of foreclosure. As of July, the foreclosure inventory represented 2.4 percent of all homes with a mortgage, compared toRead more