A time change is slated for early Sunday morning, and as everyone springs forward, they'll need more water for the lawn.

Water managers will allow an additional day of irrigation because of the longer days and warmer weather.

The new watering rules will also take effect on Sunday.

Even-numbered addresses are allowed to water on Thursday and Sunday.

Odd-numbered addresses may water on Wednesday and Saturday.

For those with irrigation systems, water managers ask that watering be limited to one hour per zone.

Watering is not permitted between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. at any time.

Additional Resource:

* Florida Water: Watering Restrictions

via Watering Rules Will Change This Weekend – Green Pages – using natl News Story – WESH Orlando.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. – March 9, 2010 –
Michael Keigans is “underwater” on his mortgage, owing $80,000 more than his Deerfield Beach house is worth.

Keigans figures it could take a decade or two to recover the lost equity, so he’s tempted to walk away, even though he has the money to pay. “Why keep putting money into a house that’s going down in value?” he asks.

It’s a question being debated in many households nationwide as the housing crunch continues. Some borrowers feel they have a moral obligation to pay the mortgage, but a growing number of homeowners and consumer advocates say walking away could be a smart business decision.

The scale of the problem is daunting: More than half of all residential mortgage holders in Broward County are underwater, California research firm First American CoreLogic said last week. In Palm Beach County, nearly half of mortgage holders fall in that category.

And there are several reason for the crisis: Homeowners who now are underwater have seen their property values plummet after they paid peak home prices from 2004 to 2006. Many of these borrowers bought with adjustable-rate mortgages, putting little or no money down. Some are underwater because they refinanced their homes at the market’s peak.

So should they walk? Hundreds of thousands of people are doing just that.

Keigans, 36, is considering it, too. First, he wants to try to unload the house in a short sale, in which a buyer would agree to pay current market value – probably no more than $200,000 – and his lender would forgive the remaining debt. If that doesn’t work, he sees little choice but to walk away.

But borrowers have to weigh several practical considerations of so-called strategic default. They risk being sued by the lender for the unpaid mortgage balance for up to 20 years. Their credit will take a huge hit, making it difficult to get a credit card or a car loan. And the poor credit rating could affect future employment and mean higher auto insurance rates.

Some homeowners, unable to strike deals with their lenders, are willing to face those consequences for the opportunity to shed burdensome mortgages.

“There is no easy way out,” said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry newsletter.

In a recent study, global information services company Experian and consulting firm Oliver Wyman estimated that 588,000 borrowers nationwide chose to walk away from their mortgages in 2008, up 128 percent from 2007. The taboo of abandoning homes appears to be dissolving amid the mortgage meltdown, the report said.

Those who walk away and let their homes fall into foreclosure can expect to see their credit scores drop by 200 to 300 points, said Shari Olefson, a Fort Lauderdale real estate lawyer. Foreclosures stay on borrowers’ records for 10 years, and they won’t be able to get other mortgages for at least two or three years, she said.

“We should be encouraging people to meet their obligations,” said Olefson, author of Foreclosure Nation, a book about the housing downturn. “It’s the right thing to do. We should be setting a good example for our kids.”

Florida law allows lenders to seek personal judgments if homeowners default on the mortgage. The increase in homeowners walking away likely will result in more lawsuits from lenders seeking to recoup losses, credit counselors say.

There may be tax issues, too. If lenders forgive the mortgage debt, borrowers who walk away from investment properties risk having to pay federal income taxes on the forgiven amount. Forgiven mortgage debt through 2012 is not taxable income on a primary residence as long as the debt was used to buy or improve the house.

“We don’t think [walking away] is a good option for homeowners,” said Nancy Norris, a spokeswoman for banking giant Chase, which lends in all 50 states. “A mortgage is a contract. We expect you to pay the money back that you borrowed.”

But sometimes that doesn’t make financial sense, said Brent White, a University of Arizona law professor who wrote a research paper in December on underwater borrowers.

White contends that most underwater homeowners stay put to avoid the stigma of foreclosure and because of the “exaggerated anxiety over foreclosure’s perceived consequences.” Borrowers who have good credit before they walk away can rebuild their credit rating within two years of the foreclosure, White wrote.

He said homeowners should make decisions in their own best interests, without worrying about “unnecessary shame and guilt and fear.”

Lenders and other businesses break contracts without considering morals or ethics, White said.

He points out that securities giant Morgan Stanley announced plans in December to hand back to its lender five San Francisco office buildings to get out of the loan obligation.

“We have a double standard,” White said. “It’s indefensible.”

But legal, Cecala said. Businesses often buy assets by setting up corporate entities that protect them from liability. Generally, most underwriters for residential mortgages require borrowers to be on the hook personally.

Edward Sunshine, a theology professor at Barry University, says borrowers and businesses should honor their contracts if they have the financial means to do so. Deciding to walk away from a mortgage in anticipation of financial problems that have not yet happened is rationalization, he said.

“Our whole economic system is based on trust,” he said. “It is important for people to fulfill their obligations and do what they said they’d do.”

Keigans, the Deerfield Beach homeowner, bought the property for $327,000 in 2005. He didn’t make the February mortgage payment of about $2,100. And if he walks, he thinks he’ll be able to rebuild his credit faster than the house would regain the value of his mortgage.

He said he doesn’t feel the least bit guilty. He blames the banking industry for creating the mortgage mess by lowering lending standards to make homeownership attainable for many Americans who couldn’t comfortably afford it. The increased demand helped push prices to record highs.

“The financial minds that made these decisions had to know that someone making $40,000 a year couldn’t repay a $400,000 loan,” Keigans said.

Boca Raton resident Hilton Wiener said reaching out to lenders often is a waste of time.

Wiener, a Fort Lauderdale lawyer, has tried unsuccessfully to make deals with his lenders on 10 underwater investment properties he owns across Florida. But he said they wouldn’t work with him, either refusing to take back the properties or rejecting offers for short sales.

Unwilling to deplete his savings to cover the mortgages, Wiener has stopped making the payments. He said his first responsibility is to his family – not the banks.

“You have to make choices in life,” he said.

Copyright © 2010 Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Paul Owers. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

WASHINGTON – March 5, 2010 –

After studying 40,000 home loans in three cities over a period of 30 years, the National Resources Defense Council and the Center for Neighborhood Technology determined that the likelihood of foreclosure grew as neighborhood car ownership levels rose.

The research suggests that if homeowners do not need to own a car, they are better able to weather financial shocks such as spiking gas prices or a job loss.

The study recommends that lenders factor location efficiency and borrowers’ transportation costs into underwriting decisions, thus providing “proportionally better borrowing terms for purchasers of location-efficient homes.”

Source: SmartMoney, Lisa Scherzer 02/22/2010© Copyright 2010 INFORMATION, INC. Bethesda, MD 301 215-4688

via Fewer foreclosures for the carless.

What you should know about home foreclosure

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – Feb. 24, 2010 – After more than six months of wrangling with her bank to get a reduced mortgage payment through a federal loan modification program, Debra Jacobs has had enough.

The West Palm Beach resident is walking away from her home of 14 years.

“I’m just going to wait here until they put a padlock on the door,” said Jacobs, 58. “I’m so over it, I have to let it go. It’s too painful.”

As homeowners grow increasingly frustrated by the nation’s struggling foreclosure prevention programs, more may consider walking away as a viable alternative.

But there’s more to it than just stopping your mortgage payments and handing over the keys.

Boca Raton real estate attorney Marlyn Wiener says there’s no “right way” to walk away from a home.

Knowing the consequences, however, will at least help the borrower make an informed decision, she said.

“There is an analysis that each homeowner should do to find the best way for them to proceed,” Wiener said. “There isn’t a speed lane.”

The biggest gamble in walking away is whether a lender will try to seize a borrower’s assets to pay for its losses, Wiener said. Lenders have up to 20 years in Florida to collect a deficiency judgment.

But banks are more likely to go after borrowers who strategically default – a term meaning the homeowner can afford the mortgage but decides to stop paying because the home is no longer a good investment.

Moral dilemmas aside, Wiener said it can make financial sense in some situations to “pull the plug and regroup” if the mortgage is underwater.

Scott Haft, who oversees the mortgage modification and foreclosure defense division at the law firm LaBovick & LaBovick, said some lenders are willing to forgive a mortgage debt if a borrower voluntarily turns over the home without going through a lengthy court foreclosure.

“We say, ‘We’ll give you the keys on Monday, but you have to waive your right to pursue my client in the future for deficiencies,’ “ said Haft, whose company has offices in West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach Gardens. “Many times, the lender is only interested in regaining the property.”

Another concern is whether the homeowner will have to claim forgiveness of debt on tax returns for the amount of money owed the lender.

The Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 temporarily exempts people who lose their primary residence from having to claim the canceled debt, but the act is scheduled to sunset Dec. 31, 2012, and can’t be applied to investment properties.

“Everybody’s relationship with their properties and their loans is different,” Wiener said. “People need to take a look at where they are in life before they decide to walk away.”

One thing Wiener asks clients is whether they will need good credit in the near future to secure a car or student loan. A foreclosure can knock up to 300 points off a credit score – damage that can take years to repair and will stay on your report for seven years.

Lenders have recently stepped up efforts to ease the foreclosure process and avoid the complications when a homeowner walks away.

Citigroup launched a program this month that allows some borrowers to stay in their homes for six months without paying. In return, the homeowner turns in the keys at the end of the time period and keeps the home in good shape.

The federal Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives Program, announced in November, gives lenders incentives for offering deed-in-lieu of foreclosure and for approving short sales.

But for Jacobs, the alternatives are “too little too late.”

“Not only do I not know the options, I don’t care anymore,” she said. “It’s really sad it’s come to this.”

Copyright © 2010 The Palm Beach Post, Fla., Kimberly Miller. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

via What you should know about home foreclosure.

This is the market information regarding College Park which is a community located Near Downtown Orlando.

To date there are currently 10 bank owned homes for sale within the College Park Community and there are also 54 short sale opportunities in College Park. Considering there are 54 out of the total 230 properties for sale in the College Park area, which equates to approximately 23% of the properties for sale within College Park are foreclosures. This does not mean that there are only 54 foreclosures in College Park,it just means there are only 54 foreclosures currently for sale within the College Park Community and there are others that are in foreclosure, just not represented on the Orlando MLS.

Here are the sold properties from the past week ending 02/04/2010

The properties labeled with a “B” stand for Eastwood Bank Owned properties that sold and the property with “F” illustrate a short sale that sold in pre-Foreclosure.

This report provided by Brady Pevehouse, a full time agent of Perrone Realty specializing in College Park homes for sale and College Park Foreclosures.