Foreclosures Stopped At Two Florida Banks
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With Florida leading the country as one of the top states for foreclosure, two banks here say they will stop foreclosures temporarily as the federal government tries to fix the housing crisis.
Coral Gables-based BankUnited, along with BankAtlantic, will join Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Chase, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Bank of America which have all decided to temporarily halt foreclosures.
A bank spokesman said they didn’t want consumers to miss any opportunities that would be provided by the federal government. BankUnited’s president Ramiro Ortiz says 1,400 homes in Florida will be affected. Together they cover $426 million in mortgages.
All of this is a bit self-serving as well. Banks don’t want to own property, especially property whose value is in a decline. And foreclosure is expensive.
Florida joins California, Nevada, and Arizona as the top states for foreclosures. Together they account for about half of the 2.3 million nationwide in 2008, according to RealtyTrac Inc and that number is up by 81 percent from the previous year. The numbers are expected to get worse before they get better, perhaps a high as 10 million foreclosures.
Besides waiting for some federal solution, Chase will open counseling centers in Florida to try and help homeowners avoid foreclosure. Expect to see banks get creative in helping consumers so they too do not join the ranks of two other Florida banks which have failed. #