Naples Real Estate News - 07/20/07
For a Friday, there is a lot of news to report on the Naples FL real estate report. An interesting tidbit on mortgage fraud - you should read it - just in case you were a victim. Mortgage interest rates up, down or stable for the week? And of course, what Floridians think about real estate tax reform.
REAL ESTATE TAXES - The majority of Florida voters (57 percent) support a plan to super-size the homestead exemption – even though they don’t know much about it, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. That’s just shy of the 60 percent approval needed for passage of the proposed property tax reform constitutional amendment.
MORTGAGE RATES - New economic data did not change financial markets’ general views about inflation, leaving 30-year mortgage rates unchanged this week at an average of 6.73 percent – near the second-highest level of the year, according to Freddie Mac’s weekly nationwide survey.
SUBPRIME MORTGAGES - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured lawmakers Thursday that federal regulators are taking steps to better protect would-be homeowners from abusive mortgage practices. Bernanke also said problems associated with subprime mortgages are "likely to get worse before they get better."
MORTGAGE FRAUD - Two Hillsborough County residents and three others were arrested in a multimillion-dollar mortgage loan scam that targeted mostly poor, elderly and minority homeowners in poor areas of Florida. (Victims live in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Lee, Orange, Monroe and Broward counties) State Attorney General Bill McCollum said his office is committed to prosecuting those involved to the fullest extent of the law.
Many home loans were submitted to Argent Mortgage, one of the nation’s largest "subprime" mortgage companies, law enforcement agents said. The company, which agents described as also a victim in this case, has reached out to homeowners affected and worked to resolve financial issues, an investigator with the Hillsborough County Consumer Protection Agency.
Those individuals named in the investigation were: Scott A. Almeida, 31, of Lithia, Frank S. Giffone, 32, of Tampa; Orson W. Benn, 36, and Samuel L. Green, 27, (both had positions with Argent Mortgage in White Plains, N.Y.), Adrienne L. White, 36, and a Bradford C. Peck.
Congratulations to law enforcement officials for their successful investigation.
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