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by MortgageOrb.com| “The national mortgage delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure) increased 4.23% in September to reach 6.46% of all mortgages, according to Lender Processing Services’ (LPS) First Look Mortgage Report, which covers about 70% of the U.S. housing market. Still, the delinquency rate for September was down 12.63%Read more

Staff | Tampa Bay Business Journal | “Home flipping dropped in the third quarter of 2013 in Tampa Bay, a sign that there are fewer bargain basement properties on the market. Between July and September, 575 homes were flipped in the area, about 50 percent lower than the rate during the same time in 2012, the TampaRead more

Drew Harwell | Tampa Bay Times | “Florida is seeing fewer foreclosure filings, but so is everyone else, keeping the Sunshine State on top of the national heap for foreclosure rates, new data from research firm RealtyTrac show. About 70,000 statewide housing units saw a foreclosure filing in July, August and September, down 7 percentRead more

MARTHA BRANNIGAN | Miami Herald | “Even as Florida’s housing market is showing solid recovery with impressive gains in prices and sales volume, the state led the nation in foreclosures completed in the year ended in August; no other state was even close, according to CoreLogic. Of the 658,463 foreclosures completed nationwide during the 12-monthRead more

Mary Ellen Klas | Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau | “From Stateline.org: Florida is among the state’s that has used its millions received from the multi-billion dollar settlement with major mortgage lenders to plug budget holes, according to a new report from Stateline.org, a project of Pewstates.org. Florida recieved $334 million from the legal settlement stemming from stateRead 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

JANN SWANSON | Mortgage News Daily | “CoreLogic said today that the shadow inventory or pending supply of homes at the end of July consisted of 1.9 million homes with an approximate market value of $293 billion. The shadow inventory is a measure of the number of properties that are seriously delinquent, in foreclosure or held as REORead more

“Citing a higher than average foreclosure rate, Moody’s Investors Service assigned a negative outlook for the city of St. Petersburg. The negative outlook was part of an Oct. 3 report from Moody’s that also affirmed the city’s Aa2 issuer rating, or a measure of the city’s ability to meet its obligations. The affirmation of theRead more

Celia Watson Seupel, Special to CNBC | “When real estate agent John Lebron opened EZ Investments in Tampa, Fla., he may have already been planning fraud. His very first EZ Investments transaction involved selling a distressed property to his sister, then to his brother-in-law, the kind of “non-arms-length” flopping that tips authorities to collusion. LebronRead more

By John Hielscher |  “In 2009, nearly half of all Sarasota and Manatee county homeowners with mortgages owed more money on their loans than their properties were worth. Thanks to rising home prices and an improving economy, the percentage of so-called “underwater” homeowners regionwide has dropped significantly. But the Sarasota-Manatee region still has one of the nation’sRead more