Fort Lauderdale Real Estate - What s Being Done To Reduce The Burdens Of South Florida Homeowners?
The city of Fort Lauderdale is famous across the US for being known as the "Venice of America". This urban metropolis has an expansive and intricate canal system, and is located in Broward County, Florida. At present, the metropolis has a population of 185,804, and serves as the county seat.
This sunny city's first major development started in the early 1920s, when the state's land boom began. However, The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the succeeding years of the Great Depression wreaked havoc on the area and caused a major economic slump. At the start of World War II began, the city became a major US Navy base, where the US Armed Forces trained pilots, radar and fire control operators.
The Housing Slump Is The Worst Ever In South Florida's History
Broward County and the rest of South Florida are currently in a housing slump that historians say is the worst in at least 30 years, and some housing market analysts don't see the market improving until 2009.
With the current slowdown, most home mortgage lenders are starting to tighten standards and are not anymore offering subprime loans and other risky mortgages, thereby reducing the pool of qualified home buyers. A lot of individuals who don't yet see any compelling reason to buy homes now are holding off for the mean time, and are in the sidelines waiting for the housing boom's inflated prices to continue falling to more reasonable levels, notes a local real estate analyst.
Home Prices Have Plummeted
As of the early onset of 2008, home prices and sales of existing homes in this city and also in the county have dropped last month, as South Florida's housing downturn went into its third consecutive year. Broward County's median home price also dropped by 14 percent in January, to $314,200 from $364,500 a year ago, according to the Florida Association of Realtors. Home sales dipped by 33 percent, to 307 from 458. according to the FAR, January saw the fewest homes changing hands in any month countrywide since, and this was since the FAR began releasing monthly housing statistics in 1994.
What Home Lenders Are Doing To Correct The Malaise
Mortgage lenders across the United States, who are facing much pressure from Congress and consumer advocates, have pledged to provide concrete evidence of their progress in modifying and retooling costly home loans, in order to assist borrowers and prevent their homes from being foreclosed.
Home lenders have agreed, under a plan endorsed by the White House, to freeze interest rates on a number of specific troubled mortgages, as well as to steer qualified borrowers into lighter and more reasonably-priced loans. This emergency plan aims to forestall massive foreclosures, as floating-rate loans adjust to higher payments. However, since the plan was disclosed by President Bush last December, critics have been quick to point out hat there has been little evidence to verify if it has truly been effective.
Despite the measure enacted by the US Congress and the state government, a lot of work needs to be done, and much yet remains to be seen, however the good thing is that some concrete steps have already been enacted to prevent the market from sliding further, and some aid is already on its way to troubled homeowners.
According to some real estate observers, the majority of actions made were related to repayment plans, which typically give borrowers more time to catch up on delinquent payments, and although some consumer advocates note that these are helpful, on the other hand, they say this simply delays the day of reckoning for troubled home borrowers, who still face very steep mortgage payments.
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Added: March 14, 2008
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