Andre Shambley

DAVENPORT, Fla. - June 3, 2009 - When Joe Isserles moved his wife and four sons, one of whom is comatose, into a rental home in Davenport earlier this year, the landlord failed to mention that the house was in the final stages of foreclosure.

Shortly after they paid $1,200 rent for April, there was a knock on the door.

"It was a representative from Coldwell Banker representing Chase Bank, saying the bank took over the loan because the homeowners hadn't paid the mortgage in a year," Isserles said. "The next morning, the sheriff showed up to padlock us out."

The Isserleses are among countless renters across the region and the country who have become unwitting victims of foreclosure - paying rent to landlords who pocket the rent money rather than use it to pay the mortgage. The houses go into foreclosure, and evicted tenants are left scrambling for a home.

No one has tracked the number of renters affected by the continuing wave of foreclosures, but research companies such as RealtyTrac Inc. and other groups estimate that 20 percent to 40 percent of all foreclosed homes are not occupied by the owner. Some of those may be vacant or seasonal, but many are likely rentals. And experts say the proportion is likely higher in Florida, which also has one of the nation's highest foreclosure rates.

The state is home to one of every six loan defaults in the country, according to California-based RealtyTrac, with 119,200 foreclosure-related court filings during the first quarter alone.

"Renters are losing their homes," said Dean Preston, executive director of Tenants Together, a nonprofit group that represents California renters. Florida has no such organization. "They may not be as sympathetic of victims as homeowners, because they are not losing equity. But they are generally paying rent, losing deposits, forced out on short notice and treated unfairly by banks."

Unpleasant surprise

Unlike defaulting homeowners, renters don't see the eviction notices coming. Muffet Robinson, spokeswoman for the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, said she returned one day last year to the Seminole County condominium unit she was renting only to find a foreclosure notice on the door. She learned that, even though she was paying her full rent on time, the landlord had not used it to pay the mortgage.

"I didn't really understand that, because that didn't really seem honest to me," said Robinson, who struggled to find another apartment on short notice. "It's hard enough to move when you're planning on it."

Picking up and moving quickly can be particularly difficult for a family such as the Isserleses. Tristen Isserles has been comatose since nearly drowning in a swimming-pool accident in September 2007, when he was 14 months old. Taking him to Easter Sunday church services required briefly unhooking him from ventilators, loading him in the family's sport utility vehicle and carting him into the congregation in a Radio Flyer-style wagon.

To permanently relocate him and all the medical equipment he needs to survive is even more challenging. When his parents were not working jobs as a resort concierge and a time-share marketer, they were scouring neighborhoods from Davenport north to Clermont to find another place.

The upheaval could have been avoided if the landlord had told them the bank was about to take ownership of the house, Maria Isserles said.

"They were already in the final stages of foreclosure when they rented the house," she said. "I couldn't imagine somebody being so cold and heartless. ... How can you do this to a family with a sick child?"

The landlord, Alfred Sundar, said in a telephone interview that he knew he had defaulted on the loan but thought he had reached a settlement with the bank that would allow him to keep the rental house.

"I submitted all of the paperwork to the bank, and the bank said it was going to work with me, that I would pay $1,440 a month," said Sundar, who drives a shuttle bus at Orlando International Airport. "And when I received a letter in the mail that the house was sold, I was shocked."

He said he has a daughter with severe medical conditions and understands somewhat the plight of his tenants.

"If I knew the bank wouldn't work with me, I would have never rented it to them," he said of the Isserles family.

Some compensation

The Coldwell Banker agent who first knocked on the Isserleses' front door to ask them to leave said the family's plight was unfortunate but noted that the bank is giving them six weeks to relocate instead of the 48-hour notice many renters get. And the family is getting compensated for being forced out.

Joe Isserles said the bank offered him $1,500 to leave the house, in an arrangement known in the mortgage business as "cash for keys." After explaining that he and his wife had invested time and money cleaning and painting the rental, he was able to get $3,400. But they must be gone by Monday.

Unlike states such as New York and California, Florida has few laws to protect renters' rights. Relief may be on the way, however, in the form of a new federal law passed earlier this month by Congress.

Effective immediately, tenants who pay rent on time can remain in their homes until their lease ends plus an additional 90 days - unless the bank sells the property to someone who intends to reside in it. Even without a lease, a renter may stay in a house for as long as 90 days after the foreclosure is complete, though that provision in the law is set to expire at the end of 2012.

"Really, it's the first major piece of legislation that protects renters from foreclosure," said Taylor Materio, spokeswoman for the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The Isserles family, meanwhile, has found another home nearby where it can relocate. This time, Joe Isserles said, he did the homework to make sure the family wouldn't get another unwanted knock on the door.

Copyright © 2009, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla., Mary Shanklin. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

There is a growing belief among financial experts that the recession is finally over.

While watching "Good Morning America" yesterday Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said that she agrees with the conclusion Barry Knapp, a strategist at Barclays Capital, recently wrote that the economy appears "to be in the sweet spot of a recovery" and that the recession may have ended last month, according to Bloomberg News..

"It isn't any brilliant prescience on mine or anybody else's part," Sonders said. "There are certain indicators we can look at to set the turn, and I think we have seen that turn."

While the jury may still be out on this one, there is good news in South Florida housing with signs of a robust market.

It wasn't too long ago that the South Florida housing market was one of the hottest in the country. Developers, seasoned and novice investors rushed to cash in on what was believed to be a gold mine. Home values shot up 75% over three years, and some of the most desirable addresses doubled in price.

The market peaked in late 2005, and soon after just about anything associated with housing in South Florida came tumbling down.

As foreclosures soared, South Florida housing prices fell an average of 36%. The foreclosure rate hit 8.9% in February, up from 3.8% a year ago, according to First American CoreLogic. That compares to 1.7% for the rest of the country. Sales ground to a standstill.

But in recent months, low prices and low interest rates have been luring buyers. First-timers are finally finding homes they can afford, while investors say that for the first time in years they can negotiate deals that make sense.

The sales numbers are dramatic. In February alone, condo purchases skyrocketed 71% from a year earlier, while home sales soared 68%, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

People are astonished when they learn my team is busier than ever.

What's driving the spike is rock bottom prices on foreclosed homes, lower interest rates and a new $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers? Homebuyers once priced out of the market are now filled with excitement that they can get a great deal in Miami real estate.

Take Patrick and Shakel Stewart. First time homebuyers forced to rent after being priced out of the South Florida market where able to take advantage of the dramatic reduction in prices and purchase a 3 bedroom 2 bath foreclosure on a huge lot in Biscayne Gardens for $91,000. Nearly one-third of the price it sold for in 2007.

"Who could've imagined this day would come. It was such a great opportunity" said Patrick. "My dollar is definitely worth a lot more in this recession.

When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs...Experience is Priceless! Andre'Shambley&Miami's Best REALTOR® Team, The Keyes Company, 305-396-9106. MiamiBestTeam@AOL.com. www.OnePlaceOpenHouse.com

Ready to refinance or looking for a better rate? For your complimentary rate quote visit Jacinta Shambley, APEX Lending, Inc. JShambley@ApexLending.com. www.JShambley.ApexLending.com

Sales of existing single-family homes surged again in South Florida last month, jumping by 101 percent in Miami-Dade County and 47 percent in Broward, as the triple draw of low interest rates, tumbling prices and a new $8,000 first-time-homeowner tax credit lured in buyers.

March was the eighth consecutive month in which the number of homes sold grew over the year-ago-period in both counties, according to monthly numbers from the Florida Association of Realtors. Sales of condominiums rose by 59 percent in Miami-Dade and 28 percent in Broward.

South Florida's sales increases eclipsed the nation as a whole -- nationally, resales fell by 7 percent compared with last year, and 3 percent from February. Sales growth in South Florida also outpaced the state.

Though prices continue to fall by double-digit percentages, the new momentum underscores growing confidence among South Florida buyers who believe prices and the available housing options may not get much better. Roughly 40 percent of homes on the market are foreclosures and other distressed properties that are selling at big discounts.

Davis Pagan and his wife Lesli, of San Diego, are currently in Miami for 10 days of house hunting. The couple, who plan to move to South Florida within the next two months, decided against renting, fearing that if they waited a great opportunity could pass them by.

''There is always a chance the market could change in six months, so we are buying now,'' said Pagan, 33, who works for the Coast Guard and is being transferred to Miami in June. ``Our lender told us they could lock us in at 4.8 percent.''

In Miami-Dade, the March median home price slipped to $205,600, a 39 percent drop from March 2008. The median condo price fell 43 percent to $151,000.

The median selling price for a single-family home in Broward County fell 30 percent to $219,500. The median condo price fell 40 percent to $82,100.

In the state as a whole, the median home price fell 30 percent in March to $141,300 and dropped 37 percent for condos to $108,800.

It is unlikely home prices will see a turnaround anytime soon because thousands of homes hat remain on the market. In both counties, roughly 61,000 homes and condos were for sale. In March, a total of 2,546 properties changed hands.

An abundance of foreclosures and other distressed property sales also will continue putting downward pressure on pricing, analysts said.

Last month, 62 percent of closings were distressed sales, according to Ron Shuffield, a Coral Gables-based real estate analyst and president of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell Realtors. That drove down median prices -- the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less -- in both counties.

While the median price for houses rose marginally between February and March, analysts say several months of sustained appreciation are needed to indicate a lasting trend rather than a market blip.

Dramatic price declines erode the personal wealth of homeowners, but they also make homeownership affordable for thousands of new buyers.

The Pagans, for instance, said they were looking for a house in the $300,000 to $350,000 range, which puts more than half of the homes in Miami-Dade and Broward within their reach.

Pagan said that compared to San Diego, also considered a highly desirable market, Miami prices were a great bargain. He echoed the attitudes of foreign buyers and others from outside the area who now find South Florida prices enticing compared to those in other top domestic locales.

''Even outside of [San Diego], foreclosures are still selling for $400,000,'' Pagan said.

About 30 percent of the homes for sale in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are listed for less than $100,000.

''We are now comparing very, very favorably with most every city across the U.S. when you compare our median income to median home price,'' Shuffield said.

When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs...Experience is Priceless! Andre'Shambley&Miami's Best REALTOR® Team, The Keyes Company, 305-788-6643. AndreShambley@AOL.com,
http://www.OnePlaceOpenHouse.com

Ready to refinance or looking for a better rate? For your complimentary rate quote visit Jacinta Shambley, APEX Lending, Inc. JShambley@APEXLending.com . http://www.JShambley.ApexLending.com

It looks like a house you'd order from Ikea. It sounds like a house designed by Apple. The I-House just might be the future - well, one future, anyway - of the housing market.

Clayton Homes, based in Maryville, Tenn., is one of America's largest manufacturers of mobile homes and prefabricated housing. So when President Kevin Clayton wanted to go green, he gave his architects a free hand, instructing them to incorporate as many green products as possible and to produce a home that was super energy-efficient - the only constraint was that it had to be something that could be built in existing facilities.

The result was the Clayton I-House (view Clayton's online tour of it here), an innovative prefab home that can be powered for a dollar a day, thanks to Low-E windows, solar augmentation, high-efficiency appliances and superior insulation. The solar panels on the roof don't supply all the home's needs, but they do cut electricity consumption in half. There's also a tankless water heater and a cistern that collects rainwater from the roof for use in gardening, car washing or other outdoor uses. Floors are made of fast-growing bamboo, and paint and insulation are low- or zero-emission.

The basic I-House is 992 square feet, though the design's blend of indoor and outdoor space makes it seem bigger. Though final prices haven't been set, Clayton hopes to deliver it for about $100,000. But the "core" unit can be expanded by adding additional rooms in different configurations to suit the buyer's needs and the character of the lot - placing rooms above one another to accommodate, for example, a hillside. Clayton Vice President Chris Nicely says the goal is to allow as much customization - both in configuration and interiors - as possible. It can be set on a traditional foundation, for example, or it can sit on piers driven into the ground.

As innovative as the energy and environmental features are, though, it's the design that draws attention. As Popular Mechanics toured a display model near the Knoxville airport, people were stopping in to look it over. "I'm not a mobile-home kind of guy," one man said, "but I could see living in this." That's the idea.

The Clayton folks see the typical customer for the I-House as being younger and more affluent than traditional mobile-home buyers. The interior and exterior are attractive, looking like something from a high-end home show, not the kind of disposable mobile home you'd see coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The house more closely resembles a product that you might buy from Ikea. In fact, it is a house you might buy from Ikea: Kevin Clayton is a fan of the Scandinavian furniture company, and Clayton Homes is exploring a partnership with Ikea that would feature display models at Ikea stores and even allow people to design and order their own I-Houses from the Ikea Web site. (Clayton's own Web site will allow this in a few months, via a build-your-own I-House feature. They'll even let you visit the factory while it's built.)

So where does the I-House fit in to the troubled times of the current housing market? Well, obviously, it's not for everyone; even with several expansion modules added, large families will probably find it a bit small. But with big, expensive houses looking less attractive as investments - since their values are actually plummeting in many markets - and with energy costs virtually certain to climb in coming years, the market for a small but stylish house that has lots of high-end amenities with a low energy bill is likely to be pretty big. And if you're like a lot of Americans, you spend most of your time in a couple of rooms anyway, regardless of how many rooms your house has.

But the I-House's impact is likely to go beyond this particular home. What was learned in the process of designing and building this energy-efficient home has fed back into the rest of Clayton Homes' product line, Nicely says. An ordinary mobile home that gets much lower energy bills may not be as exciting as the I-House, but multiplied by millions, it's likely to have an impact. And the strong interest in the I-House's look and "green" character is also likely to encourage other builders - including the makers of traditional site-built homes - to add green features as well.

When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs...Experience is Priceless!Andre'Shambley & Miami's Best REALTOR®Team, The Keyes Company, 305-788-6643. AndreShambley@AOL.com, http://www.OnePlaceOpenHouse.com Ready to refinance or looking for a better rate? For your complimentary rate quote visit Jacinta Shambley, APEX Lending, Inc. JShambley@APEXLending.com . http://www.JShambley.ApexLending.com

Going house hunting can be maddening from just about any perspective. Much of the stress and frustration comes from trying to find the perfect home.

The perfect home. That dream property you plan to settle into for years and raise a family Ah, how magical life will be. Screeetch. You've started looking for it, but can't find it. Welcome to the world of real estate.

If you are searching for the perfect home, you need to put the breaks on your search. It is time for a bit of practical reflection. Your chances of finding the perfect home of your dreams is pretty remote unless you are basing that image on a house you have actually seen. Even if you do stumble across the home, you have to keep in mind that dream homes are often very expensive. Unless you have a significant financing package or cash available, you may be crushed to learn you can't actually afford that perfect home. Whew, where is the depression medication?!

To make house hunting a less stressful task, you need to keep an open mind. The perfect home is probably not out there, but plenty of excellent choices still exist. Your goal should be to define the space you need and work off of that. For instance, consider your life and write out how many bedrooms, bathrooms and other specifics you must have with your new home. When out trolling, stick to the list like it is the word of God.

So long as you stick to your must have list, you can be flexible on other aspects. This gives you the opportunity to turn an average or good home into your dream home. One of the areas you can really upgrade is the yard. An otherwise average home can be made to look much nicer with a major landscaping makeover. Don't believe me? Upgrading landscaping is a common strategy among investors that buy and flip apartment buildings. In fact, this may be the only improvement they make, but it will hundreds of thousands of dollars to the bottom line when they sell. You can do the same thing with your home.

When house hunting, make sure you know exactly what you need as far as space and such. You can be flexible on other aspects of a home and end up with something very nice.

When it comes to choosing professionals to assist you with your real estate needs...Experience is Priceless! Andre'Shambley & Miami's Best REALTOR® Team, The Keyes Company, 305-788-6643. AndreShambley@AOL.com,
http://www.OnePlaceOpenHouse.com

Ready to refinance or looking for a better rate? For your complimentary rate quote visit Jacinta Shambley, APEX Lending, Inc. JShambley@APEXLending.com . http://www.JShambley.ApexLending.com