Southwest Florida Faces a Difficult Economic Outlook
The Southwest Florida economy is headed for a recession if not the whole United States. As a personal injury attorney in Fort Myers/Cape Coral Florida but just as equally important a mortgage foreclosure defense attorney, I see no reason to be optimistic about the near future of this area...
The Real Estate Boom and Market Crash
As an attorney during the "boom" times here in Fort Myers, I hardly know anyone (including myself and many bankers I know) with money who did not buy real estate with the expectation that the property value would increase...
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Banks Received Bailouts While Homeowners Faced Lawsuits
Yet when the market crashed (and that's putting it gently) all of a sudden we were "greedy" and the banks had every right to sue us for every dime for the overvalued property while they themselves were being bailed out by the government.
The Economic Consequences of Foreclosure Judgments
Don't get me wrong; I don't resent the banks being bailed out. What I do resent is that they refuse on many occasions to give the same break they got to their own customers and instead insist on getting a judgment against them. What is the point of getting a $200,000.00 or more judgment against a person who is never going to pay it? All it does is create an "underground economy" where those people put all their assets in someone else's name or put their money under the mattress. How does this lead to a healthy economy?
Frequently Asked Questions
The article focuses heavily on the collapse of the real-estate boom. It describes how many people, including investors and professionals, purchased real estate expecting property values to continue increasing before the market experienced a major crash.
The collapse in property values left many homeowners facing financial difficulties and foreclosure-related problems. The article argues that homeowners were sometimes pursued for debts associated with properties whose values had fallen substantially.
The author contrasts government assistance provided to financial institutions during the financial crisis with the treatment of homeowners who faced foreclosure lawsuits and judgments. The article questions whether pursuing large judgments against people who were unlikely to repay them actually helped the broader economy.
The article argues that obtaining a large judgment against someone who has little realistic ability to pay may not produce a meaningful economic recovery. Instead, it suggests that such judgments could encourage people to keep assets outside their own names or otherwise operate outside the formal economy.
The central argument is that economic recovery should consider the financial realities facing homeowners as well as the interests of banks and lenders. The article questions whether aggressively pursuing homeowners after a real-estate collapse contributes to a healthier local economy.
