Ormond Beach Sellers in Trouble - Understand your Credit Score

How will a delinquency on your mortgage affect your credit score? We all know how important that FICO score is - from getting car or health insurance, at good premium rates, to getting a mortgage. But if you fall behind on that home loan, what will happen to your FICO score?

Here's a recent article released by our Florida Realtors Assn which gives some good information (published by 2010 Information, Inc., source CNN):

"Fair Isaac, which developed FICO scores, used a comparison between two people to explain how mortgage delinquencies affect credit scores.

"Fair Isaac derived these numbers from a theoretical calculation based on hypothetical borrowers – one with an initial score of 680 and one with an initial score of 780. FICO scores range from 300 to 850.

"The hypothetical person behind the 680 score had six credit accounts, while the person with the 780 score had 10. The consumer with the 780 score had no missed payments other than the mortgage; the 680 example had two late payments before they failed to pay the mortgage.

"After a mortgage payment problem, the two scores would look like this:

*After a 30-day delinquency, the 680 score drops to somewhere between 620 and 640; the 780 score declines to 670 to 690.
*After a 90-day delinquency, the 680 score falls somewhere between 595 and 610; the 780 score goes to 645 to 665.
*After a foreclosure, short sale or deed-in-lieu, the 680 goes somewhere between 575 and 595 and 780 drops to 620 to 640.
*After a bankruptcy, the 680 drops somewhere between 530 and 550; the 780 declines to 540 to 560. "

Ormond Beach sellers - let's talk about your alternatives before you get in a deep hole on your payments. You have options to foreclosure, and I'm a specialist in helping sellers who need a short sale. Let's work together before your FICO score gets too low.

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
www.sherryarmstrong.com
www.daytonabeachscene.com

Ormond Beach May Get Beach Park

Ormond Beach is the only city in the county that has no parks or large parking lots along the shoreline. That may soon change.

The four-acre site where a hotel once stood, along South Atlantic Avenue between Milsap Road and Harvard Drive could become the first beachfront park in Ormond Beach. The Trust for Public Land, a conservation group, is helping negotiate the final details. It could be done by next week and owned by the city by fall. The county property appraiser valued the land this year at $3.4 million, which is half of what it was just two years ago.

The Trust for Public Lands is planning a phone survey for later this month to figure out if citizens want this. If they do, it would probably be a city and county partnership to buy it.

If you have an opinion, contact the Trust.

Florida State Office
306 North Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
(850) 222-7911(850) 222-7911
E-mail

Media Contact
Tim Ahern
(415) 495-5660

Northeast Florida Office
1022 Park StreetSuite
401Jacksonville, FL 32204
(904) 358-0114
E-mail

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
www.sherryarmstrong.com
www.daytonabeachscene.com

Research Shows Housing Prices May be Nearing Bottom

New York City's Barclays Capital is reading the signs: home prices are stabilizing (with huge regional differences), loan modification efforts have increased, banks are more aggressively trying to dump their foreclosure portfolio. Could these mean the market is nearing bottom?

Barclays analyzes earnings from 20 banks, regional and national, to determine expectations of the housing market. While the 2010 outlook is mixed, many lenders agree home prices appear to have stabilized in several regions of the country. Certain markets - Arizona, Nevada, and parts of Florida predominantly - continue to exhibit softness in property values.

Our market in Florida is a good example of one of the conclusions of the analysts: the plethora of foreclosures already in the pipeline will likely weigh on the housing market for the foreseeable future.

Still, conclusions of the Barclays report indicate "The prices of real estate and the write-downs have been so significant that people are now starting to say maybe the bottom has been reached or maybe we're on the upside of that depending on the market. "

Our Ormond Beach home sales have significantly increased, but prices have not. Supply and demand will eventually exert some pressure, as inventory decreases. Contact me for ideas on how to take advantage of the Ormond Beach real estate market as it nears bottom. Search Ormond Beach homes for sale and let me discuss the best bargains you can find.

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
www.sherryarmstrong.com
www.daytonabeachscene.com
www.ormondbeachscene.com

Ormond Beach Dolphin Rescued

A male Wayward Dolphin, that recently swam into the fresh water of Tomoka River near Ormond beach, was rescued and relocated by Seaworld Orlando. After a veterinary health assessment, the 12-person team successfully completed an 8-hour rescue mission, moving the animal to the Intracoastal Waterway.

According to Seaworld's official blog, as the dolphin was exposed to fresh water, lesions began to form on his skin, which necessitated his being relocated to salt water. The lesions should eventually disappear now that it has returned to it's natural habitat.

The successful venture was made possible by a collaborative effort between SeaWorld, NOAA Fisheries Service, Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, The University of Florida and Volusia County.

Watch the YouTube video of the rescue here.

Isn't living by the water in Florida great? To share our world with dolphins? Wow!

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.
comhttp://www.sherryarmstrong.com/
http://www.daytonabeachscene.com/
mailto:386-679-3191yourkeytothebeach@gmail.comwww.sherryarmstrong.comwww.daytonabeachscene.comwww.ormondbeachscene.com

Mortgage Rescue Plan will help Ormond Beach

The government has released yet another plan to help troubled homeowners and rev up the real estate industry. Here are the key points:

• As much as $14 billion of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) will be made available to pay for writing down second liens for loans whose borrowers refinance through the Federal Housing Administration.
• Lenders that facilitate refinances through the FHA will be required to write down the principal of the first mortgage by at least 10 percent so the home owner has a loan-to-value ratio no higher than 97.75 percent.
• Lenders of second liens will be offered incentives of 10 cents to 21 cents per dollar of principal they write down in connection with an FHA refinance.
• Borrowers who lose their jobs can apply to have their mortgage payments reduced for three to six months while they search for a new job.
• Borrowers with a payment still greater than 31 percent of income after they find a job will be considered for a permanent loan modification.
• To encourage more short sales and “deed in lieu” of foreclosure transactions in which the lender settles the loan for less than is owed, the government will double assistance to borrowers to $3,000 and increase incentives to subordinate lien holders and investors to $6,000.

I recently received my FSP designation (Five Star Professional, of the Five Star Institute of Default Servicing) and also hold the CDPE (Certified Distressed Property Expert). You DO have options to foreclosure.

If you are having problems paying your mortgage, act now and give me a call. We can sell your home so you can get on with your life.

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
www.sherryarmstrong.com
www.daytonabeachscene.com

It's No April Fools Joke - Volusia County to Grow Marijuana

Just in time for spring planting, DeLand and Volusia County have received a federal grant to plant marijuana in neighborhoods and gateway corridors.

The grant, announced Thursday at DeLand City Hall, will pay for planting cannabis along Woodland Boulevard and New York Avenue in Downtown DeLand, and along Indiana Avenue between the Athens Theatre and the Justice Palace. Some of the plants will border the grounds of City Hall and the DeLand Police Station, Mayor Bob Agar said.

As reported by the BeaconOnlineNews, "It's a joint effort," City Manager Michael Plus explained, as a cloud of heavy, sweet smoke hung in the air of the City Commission chamber. "There will be no local dollars going into the grant program, but city crews will provide in-kind services in testing and planting the special herbs.'"

The U.S. Department of Agriculture grant has a street value of $1 million, and is part of the Weed and Seed Program in which DeLand has participated for several years.

Florida's congressional delegation secured the grant, as the last of its kind before the program is rolled into a larger single-source federal program to provide drugs under the new health-care-reform act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama.

"You might just call it pot luck," U.S. Rep. John Nica said.

Sherry Armstrong, Realtor
386-679-3191
yourkeytothebeach@gmail.com
www.sherryarmstrong.com
www.daytonabeachscene.com