Fort Lauderdale Real Estate - Short Sales - Foreclosures - Update

Posted by Eric Miller on Friday, June 28th, 2013 at 11:19am.

For many Fort Lauderdale Real Estate owners and owners of property throughout the state of Florida the foreclosure process has been a hot bed of a political issue. On the numerous sides of the issue was one core fact that, foreclosures in Florida can take over a year to process. In Broward County which includes the Fort Lauderdale area, the court system appeared to be overloaded with appeals and many foreclosures were talking closer to two years.

On one side of the argument was the consumer who felt the banks had hurt them by not processing their paperwork properly and protecting the consumer, another argument was very clear, “you pay to stay”. No matter what side of the argument you found yourself on it has been evident that not coming up with a solution had been simply prolonging the situation for everyone. Rumors of a “shadow inventory” and another wave of foreclosures have hurt the market for years. Even with this rumors in place the market has pushed back as buyers and investors got tired of waiting and reality set in that the banks were not about to give away any homes they ultimately took in the foreclosure process.

Recently the state of Florida passed a law HB87 in the state legislature with a vote of 87-26, and in the senate 26-13, the governor signed the law and it went into effect. The goal of the law is to reduce the number of hearings needed, and the number of days required to ultimately get through the foreclosure process.

For many homeowners it will force the decisions of dealing with the situation that some have not dealt with for years. As a real estate team that has completed South Florida Short Sales throughout Palm Beach, Broward and Dade County we hope and expect more homeowners to be receptive to the Short Sale process as an alternative to foreclosure.  We see short sales in the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate market as the last chapter for property owners when modifications and other alternatives have been exhausted and foreclosure is approaching.

Another important change in the overall process is that banks will only have one year to go after any deficiency judgment. At Eric Miller and Associates a team of Fort Lauderdale Realtors we see this as a positive for the market. Even though many banks have not gone after deficiency judgments we feel five years of living with this giant unknown is bad for the homeowner and the economy has a whole.

The goal of this law is to move Florida off the bottom of the list of States with the highest number of outstanding foreclosures and show that South Florida is still a real estate market that attracts buyers from all over the country. Moving the entire foreclosure process through the court system faster will help rid the market of rumors that still affect the real estate market as a whole. Many Fort Lauderdale Real Estate buyers are starting to see that the market has turned and real estate prices are starting to move upward even with new foreclosure inventory coming to market.

 

 

Eric Miller is an award winning Florida Realtor, salesperson and broker. His website, FortLauderdaleGroup.com provides an up-to-date guide to Fort Lauderdale Condos for sale, and the most complete buyer, seller and investor information for the Fort Lauderdale Real Estate Market.

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