CWCapital, who services the defaulted $79 million dollar loan, has already rejected two workout proposals. While moving forward toward foreclosure, the loan service company is weighing a third proposal to modify the loan for owner PMAT Real Estate Investments of Mandeville, LA.

The four-level, 196,492-square-foot lifestyle center at 3015 Grand Ave. was built in 1990. It is more than 85 percent leased to well-known tenants such as Muvico Premier Theater, The Gap, Maui Nix Surf shop, The Cheesecake Factory and Chili’s."

Interesting read. The original article can be found here.

"The Miami facility is the first in a series of local centers that the mortgage financier plans to open across the country. Fannie Mae says the goal is to accelerate the response time for struggling homeowners and improve the company’s resolution of problem loans."

"At the center, borrowers will meet directly with housing advisors to discuss their mortgage situation. Fannie Mae says these face-to-face meetings will help borrowers better understand the entire range of foreclosure prevention options and work closely with servicers to ensure a prompt response."

A more likely scenario, says Sharga, is that many of the loans that are only modestly delinquent will be cured or re-financed. “Of the loans that go into foreclosure, probably 50-60% will either be sold at foreclosure sale or taken back by the banks,” forecasts Sharga.

In addition, Sharga says that 20% of that number is already on the market, and are therefore not “shadow” inventory.

So what’s the real number of shadow inventories? “The only shadow inventory we can really be certain of is that which has already been repossessed by the banks, and isn’t yet listed for sale,” explains Sharga. “We estimate between 400,000 and 500,000 such properties. Everything else is pure speculation.”

The worst case? “If you were to assume that 50% of loans in all stages of delinquency would enter foreclosure and that 50% of those (as well as 50% of the homes currently in foreclosure) would ultimately wind up as REOs, and add these to the current off-market REOs, that would give you potentially 3.7 million homes in the pipeline.

“If 20% of those are currently listed, you come down to 2.96 million properties. Given processing timelines, which range from 3 weeks to 600+ days, and other delays in the system, predicting when these homes become REOs and hit the market is virtually impossible right now.

“And it doesn’t factor in two other important variables: how many loans are yet likely to go into default during this cycle, and how rapidly will buying activity increase? At the end of the day, we’re not looking at 7 million properties that are likely to flood the market all at once; but we will have several million properties go through foreclosure over the next 3 years and ultimately keep market prices from recovering as quickly as everyone would like.”

That could mean a long, slow recovery through 2013, predicts Sharga, rather than another precipitous drop in home prices. The foreclosure pipeline will continue to be slow, but what will hold the finger in the dyke is sheer volume, accounting and strategy.

“Even with the current slowdown, foreclosure activity is running at 6 times what it was four years ago, and REO activity at 10 times,” says Sharga. “Secondly, there are financial reasons to slow down foreclosures and subsequent resales.

“When the “mark to market” accounting rules were relaxed last year, it meant that lenders didn’t need to write down the value of their real estate assets until the assets were re-sold. This allows lenders to repossess properties at full loan value (on their books) and defer the losses for months or even quarters. Finally, now that we’ve reached “critical mass” – a point where releasing all of the REOs onto the market would probably drive prices down – lenders realize that it’s a better strategy to gradually release the properties back onto the market, and may even benefit from a small bounce in prices which will minimize some of their losses.”

Actually, the housing market in many areas such as California, could use more inventory, so lenders would do well to release some foreclosures for resale. In some recovering areas of Southern California, for example, there is less than one month’s inventory for sale on hand." ( End of his statement.)

That last sentence is most relevant to South Florida. This year, and next year, will be very similar to 2009, where the number of foreclosures actually becoming available to be purchased, has been quickly swallowed up by a veritable tsunami of ready, willing, and ready buyers.

Frankly, we agents in South Florida would LOVE for the inventory of available properties to double, or even triple - but unfortunately - for the hungry buyers - that isn't likely to happen.

"Lenders repossessed an average of 83 properties per day in South Florida in 2009," said Peter Zalewski, a principal Condo Vultures.  "The number of bank repossessions could have been higher if the South Florida court system was not overwhelmed with foreclosures right now."

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"If you are new in buying Miami foreclosures, the first most important aspect of the process you should know about are the three different types of foreclosures. Basically, there are pre-foreclosure, foreclosure and post-foreclosure. Pre-foreclosure homes are sold by the homeowners themselves. These homes are some of the most affordable foreclosure properties in the city. Also, buying pre-foreclosures is the safest way for first-time homebuyers to get a hold of affordable properties without too much hassle."

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This is another good read about Florida bank foreclosures. Click here for the entire article.

"The October foreclosure-fest means that lenders in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami are on pace for 98,000 foreclosures this year -- a huge leap from the 33,000 they filed in 2007, according to Zalewski's research."

It may be the sign of the times. To read the entire article click here.

"You know times are tough when people are getting kicked out of their house when it’s not even for sale. That’s what happened to Anna Ramirez after she found all of her stuff out on the front lawn of her Homestead home last week and a strange man demanding she get out of his newly purchased house. The eviction came after Ramirez’s home was mistakenly auctioned off to the highest bidder by her bank, Washington Mutual (yes, we know WaMu is now Chase, but we're in denial). Usually, you get a warning before you get the boot. A foreclosure letter. Maybe a sign saying your house is up for sale. Not Ramirez, who found her belongings bashed and battered in the street.
"This came out of nowhere," Ramirez said. "The bank took the house from right under my feet."

"I have never seen anything like it," Taylor said. "They literally threw all her stuff on the front lawn. I didn't sleep that night and it wasn't even my house."

Continue reading this incredible story here.