Group items tagged

Housing downturn bankrupts borrowers Richard Burnett | Sentinel Staff Writer August 6, 2007 Article Tools E-mail Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback text size: The housing boom may seem a distant memory, but experts say the real-estate speculation and "creative" financing it generated are now driving many investors and homeowners into bankruptcy, especially in Central Florida. Personal bankruptcies in the Orlando area were up 80 percent during the first half of 2007 -- the biggest rate increase in the federal court system's Middle District of Florida, which includes Jacksonville and Tampa. Orlando's jump in bankruptcies also far outstripped the national rate, which was up 43 percent compared with the first six months of 2006. Orlando bankruptcy lawyer Richard Heller is seeing a lot of people these days who thought they had placed a sure bet during the recent housing boom.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. --- John Kennedy, Tallahassee bureau chief for the Orlando Sentinel, posted a grim analysis of Fla.'s economic trends Sunday that's perhaps most laudable for its subtlety. "This is a big deal, a very big deal," said economist Chris McCarty at the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research. ...In fact, some economists say Florida is teetering close to a recession. They say home values could fall as much as 15 percent this year, sparking a general economic decline. These days economists come in two flavors: pessimist and diet pessimist. University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith, left, is diet, but with a big squirt of Marie Antoinette syrup: "There's definitely a lot of hot air leaking out of the souffle because of the housing market, but I don't see a recession," said Sean Snaith, [left,] an economist at the University of Central Florida. "Still, it's going to be a couple of years before housing and the economy comes back." In six weeks, Fla. legislators will convene in Tallahassee to cut as much as $1.1 billion from the budget. Most cuts will come from programs funded by $29 billion in general revenue---mostly tax proceeds.