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Total sales of houses listed in foreclosed home listings in Florida and in Polk County increased in May, according to real estate records in Florida.

Statewide, sales of previously owned homes, including houses in foreclosed home listings, increased by 16 percent to 13,921 housing units. In May last year, just a little over 12,000 houses were sold. Compared to April this year, total sales in May from foreclosure home listings and non-foreclosure listings increased by more than 6 percent statewide.

Sean Snaith, head of the Institute for Economic Competitiveness at the University of Central Florida, said that the jump in sales of properties in foreclosed home listings and non-foreclosure listings in the past several months indicates a positive trend in the residential market. The other positive sign is the slowdown in the decline of home prices.

However, Snaith added it is not yet time to declare that the residential market is stabilizing because home prices have not stopped dropping. He said he hopes the increasing pace of home sales continue so that the market can begin to recover.

Polk County’s housing market has been duplicating the statewide home sale and price trends. In May, more than 300 properties from foreclosed home listings and non-foreclosure listings were sold, representing an 18 percent increase from the total sales of 271 units in May 2008.

Compared to April’s sales of 323 units, however, Polk’s May home sales represented a decrease.

In Florida, the median price for a single family house decreased to $144,400 in May, an almost 30 percent drop from the $203,800 median in May last year.

The median home price in Polk County decreased in May to $112,300, compared to the $146,500 median home price in May 2008. The median price point refers to the point where half of total homes sold were priced higher and half of total sales were priced lower.

Property analysts have observed that the statewide pre-owned median price last month surpassed each of the statewide median home sales prices in the past 4 months in Florida. They interpreted this as the overall housing market effect of prices of properties in foreclosed home listings.

The median price for condos in foreclosed home listings in Polk County also decreased in May to $113,400, a nearly 40 percent decrease from the $181,700 median sales price in May 2008. But while statewide condo sales increased in May, Polk County condo sales decreased.

Florida foreclosure courts have found a way to quickly lessen the backlogs of bank foreclosed cases. The method, called rocket docket allows foreclosure courts to schedule as many as 250 hearings daily where homeowners usually never showed up.

By adopting this method, it took an average of one minute for each foreclosed home to be returned to lending institutions and set for a foreclosure hearing.

The increasing foreclosure filings after the housing market crash in 2006 created an unprecedented number of foreclosure homes cases in Florida, particularly in Manatee and Sarasota county courts.

However, despite the expedite way of handling foreclosure cases, some foreclosure defense lawyers are concerned that troubled homeowners may lose their homes that they should keep.

It has been the practice of lawyers representing lenders and banks to give false statements in courts about the true holders of mortgage loans or whether all legal steps have been taken to ensure that foreclosed houses are returned on the market.

Meanwhile, 12th Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth has added other rules that aim to protect distressed homeowners, including requiring lawyers representing banks to meet with owners and negotiate.

Cases that are put on acceleration are those with absent defendants and no more defenses. In the event that the homeowner attended a hearing, bringing with him a defense attorney, the case will be returned to the normal repossession track.

Economists believed that the faster foreclosure homes can be sold to new homeowners, the faster home values can recover.

Fast tracking foreclosure cases would greatly help in reducing the bank foreclosed backlogs in Florida. The state reported about 119,220 foreclosure filings in the first quarter of this year, representing a 12 percent decline from the last quarter a year ago. However, the quarterly figures were still 36 percent higher than those in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Data from the U.S. Foreclosure Market Report of RealtyTrac showed that one out of 73 houses in Florida received a filing for foreclosure during the first three months of 2009. Based on these figures, Florida is currently ranked as the fourth highest state in the United States terms of bank foreclosed rate.

Southwest Florida distressed homeowners are given a small measure of hope with the Obama Administration’s announcement of the enhanced $75 billion foreclosed houses prevention program.

Real estate market experts believed that the enhanced version of the Making Home Affordable program would help alleviate Southwest Florida’s troubled homeowners’ anxieties over the thought that they could lose their properties to foreclosure.

The enhanced version of the program focuses on the use of short sale as a means to avoid foreclosed houses. Short selling means the sale of distressed properties at a price that is worth less than the total debt owed by borrowers to their lenders.

The original version of the program offered incentives only to lenders who successfully modified terms of the loans of troubled borrowers. The enhanced version offers as much as $1,000 incentives to lending institutions who allow short selling and about $1,500 to borrowers for relocation costs.

Florida Gulf Bank’s senior vice president Doug Thrasher explained that the aim of the program’s enhanced version is to provide more incentives to encourage lenders and troubled homeowners to find ways to avoid foreclosures. However, short selling may help troubled borrowers avoid foreclosures but it would not protect their credit scores from damage.

Aside from short selling, the enhanced program also encourages the deed in lieu of foreclosure option which means homeowners transfer their properties’ title to lenders. However, some real estate experts are questioning how the new incentive program would make it feasible for homeowners to transfer ownership of their properties to lenders when many borrowers in Southwest Florida have first and second loans with different lenders.

Statewide, the number of foreclosure filings in Florida increased by 36 percent in the first quarter of this year, affecting almost 119,220 properties. These figures represented a 12 percent slide from the last quarter of 2008 but it also meant a 36 percent jumped from the first quarter the previous year.

Meanwhile, Florida’s foreclosure rate ranked fourth nationwide in the first quarter of this year. For the first quarter, Lee County in Southwest Florida registered the highest foreclosure rate in the state during the period, with one per 26 homeowners receiving filings and putting their properties in danger of turning into foreclosed houses.

A rising number of lawyers in Florida have been giving false statements to judges in court to facilitate the conversion of delinquent properties into forclosure homes for sale. They have been skipping several legal procedures for filing foreclosure cases in court, including failing to notify delinquent homeowners and determine the real owners of the properties.

Because of large numbers of filings by lawyers to turn defaulting properties into forclosure homes for sale, the courts are unable to check thoroughly all cases filed with them.

When asked about the fast-tracked forclosure homes for sale, the judges said that they can try to prevent the unethical practices of some of the lawyers, but the judges can not assure they can catch all of them. They hope to catch and punish some of the irresponsible lawyers to keep the others warned.

Because of the backlog, the judges asked homeowners to make sure that the information in the lawyers’ filings to turn their properties into forclosure homes for sale are correct.

Since the foreclosure crisis started in 2006, foreclosure cases in courts have risen by 600 percent across Florida.

In the areas of Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice, there were already 4,991 foreclosure filings, putting the areas among the top places with the highest number of forclosure homes for sale in the country.

In the same period, budgets for courts handling foreclosures declined by 13 percent.

Most lawyers filing foreclosures are non-resident attorneys, and they rarely go to the courts in person.

Florida Judge Donna Berlin discovered documentary mistakes when she noticed before signing that two delinquent properties were located in Miami, which is outside her jurisdiction. She said she does not usually look at those types of details because she relies on her staff for details.

Jacksonville lawyer April Charney said the practice is not isolated in Florida. She advised homeowners to check court files and the information written in filings.

Richard Kessler, a lawyer in Sarasota, examined 180 foreclosure filings in Sarasota County and found that 3 out of 4 cases had incorrect or incomplete documentation. He said that only 1 in 12 filings had documents showing that the firm doing the foreclosure is also the firm that own the mortgage note.

Almost 50 percent of the filings declared that mortgage notes had been lost.

Other techniques to facilitate the conversion of defaulting houses into forclosure homes for sale include skipping mediation meetings with homeowners and changing the names of mortgage lenders.

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The U.S. Department of Treasury is preparing to commence implementation of President Barack Obama’s foreclosure prevention program.

The $75 billion anti-foreclosure plan is expected to help nearly 9 million distressed homeowners to modify their loans to avoid foreclosures.

The program would be especially beneficial to the almost 43,070 pre-filed Florida foreclosures. Florida foreclosures rate is among the top 10 highest in the United States, with 10,007 homeowners who have lost their homes to foreclosures in January 2009.

The foreclosure prevention plan calls for mortgage lenders to modify loans by lowering interest rates to help distressed homeowners remain in their properties.

In Florida, homeowners who want to avoid foreclosures and have loans guaranteed or owned by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and Federal National Mortgage Association are qualified to refinance through these government-sponsored enterprises.

A key feature of the program that would be a big help in reducing Florida foreclosures is the reduced monthly payments. Under the program, loans would be restructured in such a way that distressed homeowners would pay only 31 percent or less from their monthly income to mortgage lenders.

Additionally, total debt payments, including credit cards and car loans, would be not over 55 percent of the homeowner’s pre-tax income.

Here are some things to prepare by homeowners who want to avail of the program and avoid Florida foreclosures:

• Credit report
• Bank statements and tax records since 2007
• Current income documents
• List of recent expenses
• Brief explanation of current financial condition

Meanwhile, another mortgage relief bill that would help stem the flood of Florida foreclosures gives authority to bankruptcy judges to require mortgage lenders to modify loans for struggling homeowners.

House legislators are expected to vote on the mortgage relief bill, which Democrats predict would be passed.

Under the pending mortgage relief bill, bankruptcy judges would use their power to determine whether a homeowner has received a reasonable deal from a bank to modify a loan. If bankruptcy judges think that homeowners will not receive a fair deal, they would step in by modifying the loans themselves.

Mortgage services have been lobbying against the bill designed to help struggling homeowners modify their loans to avoid foreclosures.

Nationwide foreclosures have seen a 25.7 percent drop in January 2009 to 72,694 from the previous month’s 97,841. However, the foreclosure rate decline is not substantial enough to warrant a sigh of relief from industry experts and legislators.

The Tampa Housing Authority’s Center for Affordable Homeownership aims to teach residents tips and tricks so that they can avoid foreclosures. The seminar includes discussions on how the federal housing legislation changed.

It also offers residents one-on-one assistance for their personal queries and concerns about foreclosure properties. The seminar is not just for residents who have limited income. It is open to everybody. Almost 70% of the participants are regular residents who have suffered a tumultuous financial ride due to loss of income.

Ever since the seminar started about 11 months ago, they were able to counsel 130 families. A percentage of 90 of these families were reported to be able to keep their homes. The seminar lasted 45 minutes long and is held every Friday of the week. The tips and tricks that they teach also includes ways on how residents can continue paying for their mortgage thus avoiding Florida foreclosures. This can be a very big help especially to those residents whose money problems originated from not being able to handle money properly.

The seminar was able to help residents with severe problems regarding Florida foreclosures such as those who are six months late in paying for their mortgage. Although the seminar is absolutely free, the number of people attending it has declined compared to the number of attendees in its launch last August.

For the manager of the Center, Jerry Munoz, this means that more people need help, they just don’t know where to look for it. He says that the company is now thinking of moving the date and time of the seminar in the hopes that more people will attend. Direct mailing has also been done to residents who are facing foreclosures just to inform residents that there are options that they can turn to.

The Tampa Housing Authority’s Center for Affordable Homeownership is always available for those who seek help regarding foreclosures. Their phone lines are always open to answer any queries regarding their seminars or to ask for counseling.

Despite the sudden decline in Miami foreclosures this November, experts say this is not an indication for any promising trend that would put an end to the housing crisis. A number of auctions that have been scheduled as well as other activities on this matter have been decreased since October.

Since 2002 up to 2006, Miami had a boom in house development. The sudden onset posted initial price heights that eventually declined as fast as it has risen and even ended up as foreclosures. With the many properties existing, recovery on housing markets is lagging at present. Multifamily developments that have taken over single-family development even worsened the situation with its long times of cycle.

The foreclosure dips in the previous month have been seen as outcomes of the short sales. In short sales, homeowners who have not been able to comply with the payment of their mortgages, if given the chance and are lucky enough, get to negotiate with their lenders. Instead of having to lose their homes to foreclosures, they sell their homes. The bank may be behind the sales price and the remaining credit of the homeowners. However, it may be a more likely situation for them than having to go through a foreclosure process, which can be very costly, not to mention, time-consuming.

On the other hand, the boom in short sales should not be seen as a promising solution to Miami foreclosures. According to experts, no matter how much increase short sales make, it would never be sufficient enough to change the existing housing crisis in Miami. Especially now that homeowners are beginning to learn that investing on a new home for very cheap prices may be possible making them not care about the unpaid mortgages in their present homes. This only posts more properties to end up being foreclosed.

According to a real estate lender based in Florida, the existing housing crisis in Miami is to remain at its current state for next three or even five years. A lot of foreclosures, in the form of units in buildings that remain unsold by the developers, are still bound to come in the future. Especially if these units cannot be marketed for rent, developers may have to end up losing every bit of it to the bank eventually.

Florida, also swept under the same financial crisis wave that is rolling across the country, had to deal with several foreclosed homes in most of its counties. Florida foreclosures continue to be on the rise that state officials need to develop plans and programs on how to deal with this real estate crisis.

The officials on one particular county have made headways in this regard. Manatee County have started finalization plans in trying the use the $5.3 million federal housing rescue package to deal with empty homes in their county.

Officials developed a program that would rehabilitate or replace foreclosed properties in most affected communities and neighborhoods. Part of this program is to identify and assist low-income buyers and their families to acquire these restructured homes. The officials made it clear, however, that no money from this fund will be allocated for homes still in the process of foreclosure or those with delinquent mortgage payments.

Unluckily for these people, they remain in danger of losing their homes,

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has created the Neighborhood Stabilization Program which formed this housing rescue package. From the overall fund of $3.92 billion, $541 was allocated for Florida foreclosures.

The fund is particularly aimed for the restructuring and rehabilitation of these properties by state and local government officials. Identified amounts were distributed per county depending on the number of foreclosure cases and empty homes.

With only a small portion allocated per county, it would be enough to buy up to 95% of a home’s current market value. This may translate to the total demolition and restructuring of around 50 homes, and the buying and redeveloping of 25 more foreclosed homes. Aimed for new occupancy, these homes will help quite a few residents and families get a home on their own at very affordable rates.

For every one percent of foreclosed homes in Florida in September 2008, Barack Obama took away 16 percentage points from McCain. For every one percent of unemployed Floridians, Obama took away almost two percentage points from McCain. McCain lost Florida, with 50.9 percent of voters delivering their votes to Obama.

AP compared counties’ foreclosure and unemployment rates to the results of the election and found out significant correlations, although the correlation between foreclosure and election results is much more significant than the correlation between unemployment and election results.

Four of the six counties with the largest foreclosure rates were won by Democratic nominee Barack Obama, with two of the counties overwhelmingly won by Republican President George Bush in 2004.

According to David Denslow, a University of Florida economist and professor, counties struggling under bad economic conditions have overwhelmingly voted for Obama hoping that the new president can make things different.

Stan Geberer, the chief economist of Orlando-based Fishkind & Associates, said that foreclosure became the surrogate for all other economic troubles, such as extremely low consumer confidence and unemployment.

When George Bush was re-elected as president in November 2004, there were only 10,350 foreclosed homes in Florida. In September of this year, there were nearly 48,000 foreclosed homes.

In 2004, there were 47,000 unemployment claims. In September 2008, the figured doubled to 94,000 claims. In 2004, the unemployment rate was 4.5%. It increased to 6.6% in September.

Twenty-seven year-old Alicia Smith has not been able to return to work since resigning from her job as store cashier in 2006 to deliver her child. She decided to vote for Obama, hoping he will do things differently and create jobs.

Fifty-three-year-old Diane Sealey has kept her job and has no problems related to foreclosure, but she sees all around her the signs of a bleak economy. She also voted for Obama.

Search for Foreclosed Homes by Florida Top Cities:

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With an increasing number of Tampa foreclosure homes, short sales are also on the rise, especially involving home-owners who own homes that are currently worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. Lenders agree for a house to sell for lesser than what the home-owner owes on the home-loan and the remainder is written off. The home-owner is then free of any more obligations when it comes to the property, unless of course, the home owner had the home as an investment.

A short sale does take care of the debt that the home owner is involved in. Many people though are in for a shock in the coming tax season, for they will be assessed the tax on the amount that the lender forgave.

Before the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was signed by President Bush, all the home-owners who were involved in short sales had to pay the tax for the amount that was written off from the loan by the lender. According to the new law, home-owners do not have to pay that tax, up-to the original amount on the mortgage. This though, is only applicable if the home in question is the primary residence.

It seems that the legislators and the president have shown no sympathy towards investors who bought more than one property during the housing boom in Florida, and are having problems keeping up with their payments. If these buyers are fortunate and can get their lenders to approve a short sale, they will still have to pay the ensuing income tax.

An example in case is, if 200,000 is owed on the mortgage and the lender agrees for the home to sell for 160,000, 40,000 would be forgiven. However, if the home is not the residence of the home-owner, then the forgiven 40,000 would have to be claimed as income by the home-owner.

A lot of borrowers among foreclosure homes in Tampa who get the approval to conduct a short sale are unaware of this tax requirement. For investors who have bought many properties, this does spell trouble.

Start your search for Foreclosure Homes in Florida Top Cities:

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Find information about government tax foreclosures.