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Josh Salman | Herald Tribune | “Lenders completed fewer foreclosures nationwide in May, but the rate of defaults continue to top recent years and the amount of distressed residences remains dangerously high, a new report shows. Mortgage bankers repossessed 52,000 delinquent U.S. homes in May, a 3.5 percent increase from April but down 27 percent fromRead more

By Scott Blake |     Banks and other mortgage servicers are holding many homes in foreclosure without putting them up for sale, according to local market watchers.    In fact, Florida leads the nation by far in vacant homes in foreclosure, with more than 55,000 homes in foreclosure sitting empty, according to a recent report by RealtyTracRead more

TheRealDeal.com | “Tens of thousands of Florida homeowners have abandoned properties threatened by foreclosure, a dark spot in the Sunshine State’s otherwise brightening real estate market, the Palm Beach Post reported. About 55,000 Florida homes with defaulted mortgages are deserted, nearly one third of the national total and more than triple second-place Illinois, which hasRead more

By Les Christie | @CNNMoney | “The long national foreclosure nightmare is nearing its end, with foreclosure filings hitting their lowest level since before the housing bust.   Total foreclosure filings, including notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, dropped to 127,790 in June, down 35% over the past 12 months, according to RealtyTrac. Overall, filings haveRead more

SUZETTE PORTER | “Buying a home is a big deal. Whether it’s your first time or you feel like a seasoned pro, getting what you want at the best price means keeping your eye on the details from beginning to end. A lot of the process involves personal decisions, starting with what type of home youRead more

Heather Perlberg & John Gittelsohn | “Jonathan Gray, global head of real estate at Blackstone Group LP, talks about Blackstone’s investment in residential real estate and the outlook for the U.S. housing and commercial property market. He speaks with Erik Schatzker and Deirdre Bolton on Bloomberg Television’s “Market Makers.” (Source: Bloomberg) The firm, which already ownsRead more

Garrett Kenny | The Canadian | “I am very pleased to be reporting on the striving property market this month. I have witnessed it first hand as the CEO of Century 21 Team Feltrim. Florida’s property market is rapidly recovering from the property bust years prior and was one of the hardest hit states during theRead more

BY: ESTHER CHO | “As Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue their efforts to prevent millions of foreclosures, delinquency rates are also declining, with 60-plus delinquencies down to the lowest level since the first quarter of 2009, according to a report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).    So far, efforts from the GSEs have led to nearly 2.8 millionRead more

Huffington Post | “My father arrived in this country from Europe in the late 1940s with a love of all things American but was especially fond of the post-war boom in emerging technology. To satisfy this hunger, he bought himself a new-fangled Webcor reel-to-reel tape recorder replete with a throbbing green “magic eye” (to monitorRead more

by Kim Miller |  Palm Beach Post | “The founder of a Florida-based mortgage servicing firm was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for her participation in a six-year scheme to prepare and file more than 1 million fraudulently-signed and notarized documents. Lorraine Brown, 56, launched the company DocX, which later became Jacksonville-based LPSRead more