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…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — The Port St. Lucie City Council agreed today to accept about $13.5 million in federal dollars to buy foreclosed or abandoned homes in the city.
Council members voted unanimously to participate in the program through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They praised the move as one that will employee local contractors, while removing blight from the city’s neighborhoods. (more…)