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“Realty Trac has released new data from July showing the Florida counties with the highest foreclosure rate.” See slideshow here

By John Hielscher | Herald-Tribune | “A popular tax break that has saved struggling Southwest Florida homeowners millions of dollars is slated to expire at the end of this year. The tax deduction on forgiven mortgage debt has been available for the past seven years, one of a number of measures intended to ease financial pressure broughtRead more

Pamela M. Prah | Stateline | “Some of the states hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis aren’t spending millions of dollars that the federal government has set aside to help struggling homeowners, a new report shows. Of $7.6 billion the federal government has provided in the “Hardest Hit Fund” to help homeowners, states have disbursedRead more

Alyssa Gerace | Reverse Mortgage | “On Tuesday, Florida will reportedly announce a new program aimed reverse mortgage borrowers in the state who have defaulted on their loans after struggling to remain current on their taxes and insurance. The Florida Housing Finance Corporation is introducing the Elderly Mortgage Assistance Program as part of its $1 billion Hardest Hit Fund. It’sRead more

Reuters | “There were 51,000 completed foreclosures last month, down from 84,000 in September, 2012. Foreclosures are completed when a home is either seized by the lender or sold at auction. There were also 51,000 foreclosures in August. Between 2000 and 2006 and before the housing market’s downturn in 2007, completed foreclosures averaged 21,000 perRead more

JUNE FLETCHER | Scripps Howard News Service | “Steven and Janet Sparker never planned to leave the house they purchased in 2006 in Golden Gate Estates in the southwest section of Florida. But when Janet, 57, lost her six-figure job, and the home’s value fell by more than half from the $585,000 they had paidRead more

Charles Billi | WTSP | “Thanks to new flood insurance legislation, the watch word in real estate is “panic.” Panic if you’re a real estate investor, agent, buyer or seller- thanks to skyrocketing premiums. We’ve seen the Pinellas County meetings in the past few weeks packed with frightened residents. Now, more concern arises at an informationRead more

Newsroom America Staff | “CoreLogic says there were 48,000 completed foreclosures in the U.S. in August of 2013, down from 72,000 in August 2012, a year-over-year decrease of 34 percent. On a month-over-month basis, completed foreclosures increased 1.3 percent, from 47,000 in July 2013. Overall residential shadow inventory, as of July 2013, was 1.9 millionRead more

Michael Sasso | Tribune Staff | “An encouraging jump in home prices in the Sunshine State belies a more troubling fact below the surface: the number of foreclosed homes in banks’ possession keeps rising. RealtyTrac, a national firm that lists foreclosed homes for sale, estimates that 83,238 homes in Florida currently are classified as “real estateRead more

Pamela M. Prah | Stateline “Florida still leads the country in overall foreclosure activity, but Maryland and Oregon experienced dramatic increases in foreclosure starts in recent months. Meanwhile, bank repossessions climbed significantly in Kentucky and New York. The number of U.S. homes entering the foreclosure process hit a seven-year low between July and September, but bankRead more