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By Nicholas Nehamas “Federal authorities on Wednesday announced a temporary anti-money-laundering crackdown on pricey homes bought secretly with cash in Miami-Dade County and New York City. The new policy will require title insurance companies to identify the true owners of shell companies that pay $1 million or more in cash for homes in Miami-Dade andRead more

Susan Taylor Martin, Times Senior Correspondent |Friday, March 13, 2015   “TAMPA — For Doreen Rosselli, Carrollwood’s Grande Oasis condominium has provided a lushly landscaped refuge from the cacophony of urban life. For Silviya Gregory, a young nurse from Bulgaria, Grande Oasis has meant home in a country where she has no family. And forRead more

By Marcie Geffner of Bankrate.com “Buying a home is a challenging goal for most hopeful homeowners. But for those who have experienced a bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale, the hurdles are even higher. Still, it’s not impossible to buy a home after financial difficulties, says Dan Keller, a mortgage banker with Hometown Lending in Everett, Wash. In fact,Read 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

Alexander E.M. Hess, Michael B. Sauter and Thomas C. Frohlich | 24/7 Wall St. | USA Today “Last December, 16.2% of all home sales involved distressed properties, according to a recent report. These homes were sold at an average discount of nearly 40% when compared to conventional, non-distressed homes. Housing data site RealtyTrac recently releasedRead more

Michael Sasso | The Tampa Tribune | “The median sale price of an existing home in the Tampa Bay area rose by 16.2 percent in December when compared with a year earlier, new figures from Florida Realtors show. Last month, the median sale price of a single-family home in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area was $158,000.Read more

 Michael Sasso | Tampa Tribune | “It’s getting harder to find homes to flip for a profit in the Tampa Bay area as big rental home companies crowd out traditional flippers, according to new data from real estate and foreclosure marketplace RealtyTrac. Irvine, Calif.-based Realty­Trac researches millions of real estate sales across the country and estimates how manyRead more

Christine DiGangi | Credit.com | “There are fewer than 2 million mortgages in serious delinquency as of November, a 26 percent decline from the previous year and a 5-year low, according to the monthly CoreLogic Foreclosure Report. A seriously delinquent mortgage means the homeowner is more than 90 days past-due on payments and is in danger of defaultRead more