The latest in the long and continuing scam/scandal story brought to us by the banks is how they are not allowing third party purchasers to take title to foreclosed properties at the public foreclosure auctions. The expressed purpose of every foreclosure case is to divest the current property owner of title, and get that property back out into the marketplace. The most efficient way to determine the true value of an asset is to have a public auction.
Our state’s entire foreclosure court system is set up with these public/private goals in mind. The entire force of our state law and our national policy is distilled into the public foreclosure auction but this entire system is being abused and manipulated by hidden and shadowy forces. There is something very much amiss in these foreclosure sales when, as in the case of Sarasota County, there are 342 public sales scheduled and only 46 of the homes are put out into the marketplace to third party bidders.
It should also be noted that there are many, many third party bidders out there..the spreadsheet certainly reflects this, with only 54 properties not being bid on by third parties. The rest of the properties, the vast majority, were bid on by third parties…but the banks bid the auction price up just high enough to prevent many of the third parties from winning the auction and taking title.
So what’s going on here? If the entire court and our social/economic infastructure is dedicated to divesting the “Bad” homeowner, with many courts taking it upon themselves to set auctions even when the Plaintiff bank does not want the sale, then what’s the point of foreclosure sales or foreclosures at all for that matter?
The Florida Legislature is pushing courts, the press totally fails to seek good data anymore and there is just not any responsible public debate driving all this rhetoric and decision making.
Just look at the spreadsheets below
Next, compare the total number of sales January through February in Pinellas County, 1000 to the total number of new foreclosure filings in Pinellas during the same period…1000…an estimate backlog of foreclosure cases in Pinellas was 28,000…so at this clearance rate it will take, like FOREVER to CLEAR THE FORECLOSURE BACKLOG.
Which brings us back to the question, “What’s the point in all this foreclosing anyway?”
Rather than all this debate and public policy over new foreclosure legislation, our policy makers and our judges need to focus on examining why the banks are distorting the marketplace.
The public deserves answers.
