Sun Sentinal Real Estate News

Start with your best offer and consider bumping up the deposit

Finding a bank-owned home these days is hard enough. Actually buying one is an even bigger burden.

- New York state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Friday accused three major U.S. banks of fraudulently using an electronic mortgage database to avoid the need for recording mortgage transfers.

Board-certified real estate attorney Gary M. Singer answers housing questions in this space each Friday. To ask him a question about short sales, mortgages, refinancing, homeowner's associations or any other residential real estate topic, click here.

The president aims to help about 3.5 million people with good credit who are unable to refinance at historically low rates because their homes are worth less than their mortgages.

Distancing himself from Republicans on housing issues, President Obama pitched a $5-billion to $10-billion plan to help a key segment of struggling homeowners ¿ those still making monthly payments, but on underwater mortgages.

Despite the threat of hurricanes and a tsunami of underwater mortgages, potential home buyers still view the Sunshine State as paradise.

A top Florida official Wednesday announced an arrest for alleged Personal Injury Protection (PIP) fraud, as the Scott administration revs up its campaign for a new PIP auto-insurance law.

The government late last week announced changes to its main foreclosure prevention initiative, the Home Affordable Modification Program.

Who should pay to replace condominium unit windows? Can your association block a buyer or renter because work was done years ago on a unit or home without proper permits? Can associations protect themselves from owners who don't pay community fees but still pay the bank?

Home prices fell in South Florida and across most of the nation in November, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.

David Stern, whose Plantation law firm was at the heart of the robo signing foreclosure scandal, now is investing in hamburgers, The Palm Beach Post reports.

A pair of Delray Beach apartment complexes two miles apart have changed hands.

Home prices in Broward County will continue falling through much of 2013, financial services firm Fiserv said in a report released Monday.