Port St. Lucie is getting into the home-buying business.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week gave city officials the go-ahead on a plan to spend $13.5 million in federal money buying, repairing and reselling foreclosed homes.

Port St. Lucie hopes to start working with local real estate agents this week and begin closing on homes in as little as a month, said Pat Selmer, assistant director of the city’s community services department. (more…)

Beth Mazzouccolo, a widow with two children and her 86-year-old mother living at home, is concerned about landing a new job and being able to pay for health care.

But she’s hopeful that President Obama’s $75 billion housing plan will allow her to reduce her monthly mortgage payments.

With her unemployment benefits soon to run out, Mazzouccolo’s income tax refund has allowed her to catch up on her $1,600-a-month mortgage on the Fisherman’s Cove duplex in Stuart that is now worth nearly $40,000 less than the $195,000 she bought it for two years ago. (more…)

Anyone who’s been paying even modest attention to the housing fallout knows new-home construction is at a virtual standstill in Port St. Lucie. But the latest numbers from the city’s building department still manage to shock.

The city issued 10 single-family home permits — T-E-N — in January.

That’s down 98 percent from the 552 issued in January 2005, the year Port St. Lucie was declared the fastest-growing city in America.

The pace is way off the pre-boom numbers, too. In 2002, the city averaged 250 or so new homes a month. (more…)

The Baehrs — Derek, Kellyanne and their two young daughters are five months behind on their mortgage payments. They sometimes eat at a soup kitchen and shop at a food pantry. They expect to lose their three-bedroom suburban house before the end of the school year.
“This is just awful, and I know that we are not the only ones going through this,’’ says Kellyanne, 37, an accounting clerk. Derek, 40, is disabled. “We used to try to go day by day. Now we are just trying to get to the end of each day.’’

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A Wellington couple have managed to do what many who bought at the market’s peak are dreaming of: escape a new-home contract.

A Miami-based arbitrator ruled in January that the contract Kurt and Micheline Moeding inked with Kolter Homes violated federal law, and that they should get their $76,114 deposit back. The couple signed up for the $629,580 home at Kolter’s Verano community in Port St. Lucie in 2006 - before home values plummeted.

The tool the Moedings used to get out of the deal is a technicality in the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act.

The law requires developers to make time-consuming reports to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, unless they claim exemptions. The exemption Kolter used: It promised to complete homes at Verano within two years of signing a sale contract.

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The economy is so bad, St. Lucie County officials are thinking about declaring a state of emergency.

St. Lucie County commissioners explored creative methods to lower unemployment and stave the foreclosure mess, including the possibility of declaring a state of emergency to help local companies and laborers find work. (more…)

SEBASTIAN — Scott Bernard’s contest on www.HowToWinMyHouse.com likely will not have a winner when it ends Dec. 17.

The coloring contest he started, in an attempt to unload his remodeled three-bedroom, one-bath 1957 Florida home at 457 Columbus St. he dubbed The Sebastian Chateau, had a paltry 15 entries. The contest, which began in July, cost $49 to enter. (more…)