florida

In vacation home meccas such as California, Florida and Las Vegas -- where foreclosure numbers soared during the housing meltdown -- real estate agents have been employing a new sales tactic: foreclosure bus tours.

Next stop? Cincinnati.

According to The Cincinnati Enquirer, the trend -- in which Realtors organize groups of prospective buyers to view short sales and foreclosures -- also is catching fire in more traditionally stable markets in the Midwest.

And for one local agency in Cincinnati, the tours actually are helping to sell homes.

At Exit Realty West, foreclosure outings are an integral part of their sales efforts, and foreclosures and short sales generate about half of the company's business. In the county, foreclosure sales make up about 32 percent of all home sales in 2010.

Is it just that the sales technique is working or are the home buyers really getting a bargain?

Rapper Fat Joe is selling his Plantation, Fla., home for $1,999,000, which could be considered a deal when compared to neighboring houses for sale, and by how much he dropped the price about eight months ago.

His house at 1203 NW 121st Ave. was priced at $2,399,000 in October 2009, but in December 2009 the price dropped $400,000, or 16.7 percent, to the price it remains today.

The 39-year-old rapper, born Joseph Cartagena, has his tenth album, "The Darkside Vol. 1" set for release on June 29. He's also known for having a feud with New York rapper 50 Cent, has been arrested for assault, and named a witness in two murder cases. And he's got good taste in real estate.

Key West may conjure up images of many things, but affordable housing isn't one of them. Now, for the first time in decades, middle-class homebuyers can consider living in the community that erstwhile resident Ernest Hemingway once called "the best place I've ever been anytime, anywhere."

Five years ago, the island was the most expensive community in Florida, with a 2,200-square-foot home selling for $949,000. That has been slowly changing as home prices have dropped 35 to 60 percent since the peak of the housing boom. In those days, even the most dilapidated houses could fetch $700,000. Now come reports that those very same residences are being snapped up for as little as $300,000 to $400,000.

The cheaper prices -- combined with low interest rates -- are heating up the market, and giving teachers, bank tellers and naval officers a once-in-a-lifetime shot at living the Key West dream.

Living in Coral Gables, Fla. can be expensive, with homes near the water running $20 million or more. But this prime area with its thriving downtown away from the beach shouldn't be reserved for the mega-rich. Just head inland a bit to find a great Coral Gables home for less than $1 million.

It's a great city to live in, with a downtown commercial district along Ponce de Leon Boulevard that is more than two miles long and four blocks wide. A free trolley circulates around this main artery.

For less than $1 million, here are three homes in Coral Gables that might spark your interest in moving to "City Beautiful" and enjoying one of the most pedestrian-friendly in the country. They're not right on the beach, but at less than $1 million, it might be a sacrifice worth making.

Many remorseful Americans are finding their property values have plummeted, their neighborhoods have gone to the dogs, and their neighbors have defaulted right out of their houses. So whose fault is it anyway?

Jonathon and Brandy Miller, of Boynton Beach, Fla., think they have an answer. The couple sued the builder of their townhouse, Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., for selling multiple units in their development to home flippers.

Instead of the mini-utopia they were promised in the development called Firenze, the Millers say, they found it full of transients. Not homeless folks but real estate flippers who bought homes with the sole intent of selling them.

Now it's a ghost town instead of a neighborhood, where vandals have looted everything but the kitchen sink, and maybe even the kitchen sink, in some homes. "The exercise room was burglarized," reports the Wall Street Journal. "The clubhouse remains locked for fear of vandalism. Landscaping deteriorated."

I don't necessarily want to live in a treehouse, but I'd like to get close to the feeling of it. The house for sale at 9737 SW 98th St. in Miami, Fla. does just that on an acre of property with soaring oaks throughout.

The 3,396-square-foot home has enough trees around it to support a few more hammocks beside the one pictured. Then everyone living there would be happy. I know $950,000 is a steep price for hammock space, but the owner is willing to negotiate. More on that later, here's what you get:

A Tampa, Florida man hasn't made a mortgage payment since 2003, and although the foreclosure police are standing at his door, he hasn't budged. How has Jeffrey DeMauro staved off the auction block? He declared bankruptcy a whopping eleven times in seven years, reported the St. Petersburg Times.

De Mauro is not alone. Thousands of homeowners across America are turning to Chapter 13 bankruptcy -- which instantly calls off creditors -- to save their homes.

"I sincerely want to work this situation out and get back on track and save my home,'' De Mauro wrote to Pinellas County court officials. "I have two children and do not want to be put out of our house and on the street.''

When the housing market finally improves in this country, is a lot more poo in the streets all we really have to look forward to?

That particular reward came along with a booming housing market in downtown Tampa, Florida. Buyers have snatched up condos and rental units in recent months, after prices were pummeled by the housing market collapse. The area's population has zipped from almost zero to some 3,000 residents, Paul Ayres, the director of marketing for the Tampa Downtown Partnership, tells a local website.

It turns out that a lot of these new downtown residents have brought their pets with them -- along with a pretty inconsiderate attitude toward their new neighbors. Now, Tampa is grappling with a virtual explosion of dog poo.

Many struggling homeowners have to make tough choices about which bills to pay. If you live in a community with a homeowners association or own an apartment in a building with a condo association in Florida, you'd better pay those monthly fees -- or you could lose your house.

Florida law puts a homeowners association on par with the bank. Don't pay association fees or special assessments and the association could foreclose on your house. Across the state, HOAs are cracking down on delinquent members, barring them from common areas and even from getting their pizza delivered. With HOA delinquency rates as high as 50 percent in some communities, several bills up for consideration in Tallahassee would give associations even more power to deal with in arrears members.

One of the great things about vacationing at a luxury resort is all of the amenities: the pool, rec room, beach, fine dining, and personal service. Moving into this $18 million house at 3575 Stewart Ave. in Miami, Fla., would be like living permanently at a luxury resort, minus the personal service. That is unless you hire a valet, personal chef maid and butler to cater to your every whim.

And why not? With a home like this, at this price tag, you might as go all out and hire some help. It at least has room for them, with staff quarters included somewhere on the nearly 1-acre lot in the Southwest Coconut Grove neighborhood.

I want to live in this $1 million penthouse in Miami and live like Don Johnson's character in "Miami Vice."

I want to wear a white suit in this white building at 720 NE 62nd St., which looks like a place Detective James "Sonny" Crockett would call home. If he could afford a $1 million penthouse condo, although less expensive condos are available in the same complex, called IOS On the Bay.

The swanky and historic Coral Gables, Fla. neighborhood has kept the classic Mediterranean Revival architecture alive by maintaining homes and landscaping in pristine condition, staying true to the very style that made these grand homes some of the most sought after in Miami-Dade County.

Serving as an example of this is the gem on sale for a cool $1.9 million at 4211 Monserrate Street. The historic 1925 Mediterranean revival home is chock full of the elements the Gables prides itself on. It's why they call it "The City Beautiful."

A 30-story hurricane-damaged condo in West Palm Beach, Fla. came tumbling down on Sunday in a Valentines Day implosion that made spectators' hearts go 'boom.' The scheduled implosion took only 15 seconds to crash the concrete and steel building into a 40-foot pile of rubble that will take about three months to clean up. The tower that was at 1515 Flagler is the third largest building in the U.S. to be imploded.

Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne damaged the tower back in 2004, and it has languished ever since, creating an eyesore for the high-end neighborhood, reported CBS Affiliate Channel 12. The biggest concern was the effect on other residences next door.

Hasta la vista, your honor.

The Florida Bankers Association has proposed a new approach to deal with the backlog of foreclosure proceedings in the state's courthouses: skip the courts and proceed immediately to the sale.

The banking trade group -- a significant lobbying force in the state capital -- is shopping a bill that would allow "non-judicial" foreclosures as a way to speed up the process that can take as long as 18 months, according to the St. Petersburg Times. The bill would kick troubled homeowners out of their homes in as little as three months, and allow banks to continue pursuing homeowners for unpaid mortgage debt long after they've been foreclosed upon.

With Orwellian flair, the bankers have called the bill The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act.

The proposal comes just a month after the Florida Supreme Court mandated a statewide mediation program between lenders and homeowners aimed at averting foreclosures -- a program the bankers' proposal would nullify.

How times have changed.... at least if retirement trends are the measure.

When my parents' generation thought of retirement living, it was in Florida, probably on a golf course. If you lived in the Northeast, it was Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. Midwesterners typically opted for Naples or Fort Myers.

But Baby Boomers -- always the individualists -- are breaking the mold. As the post-war generation begins hitting retirement age, they are bypassing the golf course communities, Sunshine State and other traditional retirement trappings of their parents. Instead, they're choosing smaller urban areas, in states such as North and South Carolina, and even downsizing on housing choices.