Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/146256
Sarasota News Leader July 26, 2013 OPINION Page 76 With homeowners in residence while the idated firms. And these firms are once again economy recovers, more homes will be main- making good money now that sales are being tained, thus keeping up the property values in made. communities within the county. Quickly processing the foreclosures still in the Developers, having recently purchased large courts will dump a great number of homes tracts of land, now have an incentive to build. on the market all at once. This will depress prices quite a bit once again and reduce the Who benefits from eliminating the backlog in amount of money that homeowners receive the courts? They are as follows: from sales. This also will reduce the proper• The banks. If they had taken possession of ty taxes for decades into the future, as these all houses as soon as owners stopped making houses will be homesteaded at lower values. their mortgage payments, they would have Further, this will mean less incentive for deowned more houses than they could handle velopers, again reducing jobs within the counadministratively; the houses would have had ty. And, with the banks forcing out residents, low market values, which the banks would the situation will again create attractive nuihave had to carry for a very long time (basisances, which will bring back the vandals. But, cally until now, when they can start getting a with a greater volume of sales, the agents will decent return); and the banks would have had receive more in commissions than they would to deal with either high maintenance costs for have earned from selling fewer residences, a long time, or, if the houses were not maineven if the latter were of higher value. tained, an even greater lowering of the values of the homes. • The senators and representatives of the state of Florida. It is unfortunate that political camThe net result would have been to put the paigns cost so much to run, as campaign conbanks back into a crisis and, perhaps, another tributions have become a destabilizing force bailout situation. in every state in the U.S., with Florida being Based on the above points, it is obvious that no exception. the banks have benefited from the delay in The banking and real estate industries have completing foreclosures and now will benefit given large amounts of money to the key playeven more from speeding them up. ers in the Florida House and Senate. This, • The real estate industry. With the long coupled with no requirement for legislators drought in home sales there has been a big whose day jobs are in banking or real estate shakeout in this business. Simply put, the to recuse themselves from addressing bills mom and pop agents who dabbled in the mar- related to their work, has created a law which ket are gone, leaving the bigger, more consol- only hurts, and does not help, the most vulnera-