South Florida Real Estate News: Week Ending March 20

By Mark Schecter

Broward County to Begin Online Foreclosure Auctions

Broward County begins a new era March 30 with online foreclosure auctions, a move expected to improve efficiencies and attract people worldwide who now can bid on homes in their bathrobes.

Broward, which had Florida’s third-highest foreclosure rate for February, will tweak its auctions based on lessons learned from Miami-Dade County, which moved the courthouse sales online Jan. 11. Palm Beach County auctions hit the Internet later that month.

Bidders must register for the online sales at Broward.realforeclose.com. Registration is free, but the county will charge a $60 fee to each winning bidder to cover the cost of automating the auctions. More than 1,000 people signed up as of March 18.

Shamrock Condominiums is Facing Foreclosure

Thirty-six units in the Shamrock Condominium conversion project in southern Miami-Dade County’s Kendall area face default.

FirstBank Florida, which is part of FirstBank Puerto Rico, filed a foreclosure lawsuit March 11 against C&R Properties at Kendall and managing member Carlos Chuman, according to Miami-Dade County Circuit Court records. It seeks $5.9 million outstanding from a 2007 mortgage, plus interest and fees.

Florida TaxWatch: Beware of Amendment 3

Florida TaxWatch issued a report Wednesday that finds most Floridians acknowledge that the Save Our Homes amendment is flawed policy.

The 1992 amendment to the Florida Constitution – which limits annual assessment increases to 3 percent – has resulted in “sometimes dramatically disproportionate tax burdens” among homeowners and is clearly “an unintended consequence of what has come to be regarded as a flawed policy,” the organization said.

The publication, titled “When Good Policies Go Bad: Unintended Economic Consequences of Assessment Caps,” says that, in 2008, voters expanded the policy to include non-homestead properties because business interests convinced the Tax and Budget Reform Commission that they carried a disproportionate share of the overall property tax burden. Amendment 1 set an annual 10 percent assessment increase limit for non-homestead property.