The Journal has a superb A1 story today about a foreclosure “rocket docket” in Florida that gives homeowners fifteen or twenty seconds to “present” their cases.
Reporter Michael Corkery (disclosure: a friend and former colleague of mine) traveled down to Fort Myers to find judges there are hearing some thousand foreclosure cases a day in a frantic bid to cut down a backlog.Hoping to save her house, Saundra Hill Scott arrived at the county courthouse clutching dog-eared mortgage bills and letters from her lender.
She need not have bothered. The foreclosure hearing lasted less than 20 seconds, with Judge John Carlin asking her two questions: Are you current on your mortgage and are you living in the home? She answered no and yes and then offered to show him her paperwork.
“I don’t need to see that. That’s between you and the bank,” he said as he gave Ms. Hill Scott, her husband and three grandchildren 60 days to work out a deal with their lender or vacate their three-bedroom house.
Read the whole thing. 24,000 foreclosures at 20 seconds a pop - that's only three business weeks going flat out.
Nice.
2 comments:
I was astounded at the real estate market down there when I was there. There are more houses for sale than there are not.
And cheap. I walked by signs that said...29K, 53K For a house. In a pricier area, some new construction sat vacant. The sign said...was 699K, now 350K. Make an offer!
That's sales speak for "I'm desparate."
It was very depressing to see.
I believe it.
You think of every one of those houses as a family's life going down the drain and it's just beyond horrible to think about.
Half off a house... even if that's new construction - somebody's taking a beating on that.
The bank writedowns are getting a lot of ink - but the thought of my house taking a 40%-50% hit at selling time - ye gods!
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