Foreclosure freeze hurts Hernando

Al Boland said existing sales of single-family homes had been on a roll until the nation's lenders imposed a freeze on foreclosures sales.

That hurt, because 40 percent of recent transactions in Hernando County were from foreclosed properties, said Boland, president of the Hernando County Association of Realtors.

The numbers for October were bleak: only about 155 single-family transactions, he said.

Before that, real estate agents had been selling consistently around 200 homes per month, he said.

Boland said the sudden lender freeze on foreclosures and bank-owned homes also hurts the local job market because those foreclosed homes put to work tradespeople, home inspectors, appraisers and others.

"It was a job-killer," Boland said.

Possibly inaccurate court documents forced Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Ally Financial Inc. to suspend some of their foreclosure transactions until a full review is completed.
Attorneys general in all states have backed the probe and called for a full investigation.

Boland said the suspension, which occurred in October, is especially bad for Hernando County, which has such a high number of bank-owned homes.

"We've got to get those foreclosures back on the market," he said.

Nationwide, "distressed property," including foreclosures and homes at risk of foreclosure, accounted for 34 percent of third-quarter transactions, up from 30 percent a year earlier, according to Florida Home Builders Association President Al Zichella.

The positive news is that the median price of a single-family home in Hernando County in October was about $109,000, up from about $105,000 a month or so ago.

The national median price was little changed at $177,900 in the third quarter, down 0.2 percent from $178,200 in the third quarter of 2009, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The NAR's chief economist, Lawrence Yun, said relatively flat home prices have been the hallmark of the 2010 housing market.

"Even with swings in home sales, prices this year have been changing very little from year-ago readings," Yun said in a press release. "Areas with some larger swings in home price reflect the degree of distressed sales in those markets."

Meanwhile, the Hernando County Clerk of the Court's office posted 148 foreclosure filings in October, the lowest in at least two years.

On the new-home construction front, the county posted nine building permits in October, one less than September.

County commissioners this month approved an ordinance that keeps in place an impact fee rollback on residential and commercial construction for another year.

The fees are rolled back from $9,200 to $4,848.

Commissioners hope the rollback, which will expire at the end of November 2011, will prompt new home construction and put contractors and trades people back to work.