Since March, Leroy Stennett has spent more than 10 hours talking to seven people in five departments at Bank of America about getting his mortgage modified.

In 2006, Stennett and his wife purchased a house in Port St. Lucie for $285,000, putting $95,000 down and adding another $5,000 in closing costs from the sale of their previous home.

“My house is worth $120,000 now, so, I’ve basically paid it off, but they don’t want to cut me a break,” Stennett said about his lender, Bank of America. “Every time I call, I talk to a different person, so I can’t get any real answers.”

Like thousands on the Treasure Coast, Stennett hoped President Barack Obama’s Making Home Affordable plan would help adjust his house payments after applying for a mortgage modification. But frustrated homeowners, who remain current on mortgage payments despite economic setbacks, say they are confused about the modification process and aren’t getting support or cooperation from their lenders. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — Hundreds of Tesoro property owners aren’t waiting around while their subdivision’s developer grinds through bankruptcy court: They’re filing their own lawsuits against Ginn Resorts and its affiliates.

Property owners are charging Ginn with a host of wrongdoings, including selling lots through Ponzi schemes, fraudulently inflating property values, lying to and duping clients, failing to account for hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership dues and missing escrow accounts and backing out on promises to build amenities.

Timothy Vetrano, 72, a retiree from Manhasset, N.Y., who lives at Tesoro with his wife Marilyn, said his experience falls under “buyer beware.”
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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — More than a year after developers of the planned Cloud Grove had the county put the controversial 12,000-home project “on hold,” their creditor has added it to the Treasure Coast’s ranks of foreclosed properties.

“I imagine this pretty much closes any opportunities for that project,” St. Lucie County Commission Chairwoman Paula Lewis said this week.

MLIC Asset Holdings LLC, of Morristown, N.J., an affiliate of the lender, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., filed the foreclosure suit in Circuit Court on Nov. 26, accusing the developers of failing to pay on a $48 million mortgage.

MLIC is scheduled to auction the Cloud Grove land to the “highest and best bidder” at 11 a.m. June 24 in the St. Lucie County Courthouse.

Officials from Lennar Homes, who were managing the project in a partnership with Centex Homes, could not be reached for comment. (more…)

Core Communities LLC, the company behind the Tradition community and Port St. Lucie’s biggest developer, is trying to renegotiate two major loans as the value of its property has dropped.

Core’s parent company, Fort Lauderdale-based Woodbridge Holdings Corp. (Pink Sheets: WDGH), warned in its first-quarter report last week that Core was dealing with “cash flow deficits” and said its lenders are seeking payments to more closely align two development loans with the depleted value of Core’s land.

The deterioration of the real estate market and the possibility of those cash payments “raise substantial doubt regarding Core’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Woodbridge states in the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. And Woodbridge points out that it’s under no obligation to inject cash into Core. (more…)

While foreclosure actions on the Treasure Coast continued to fall during the first quarter of this year from the last quarter of 2008, the numbers for March indicate a resurgence.

Foreclosure actions — default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions — were down 18.5 percent in Indian River County, 3.3 percent in St. Lucie County and up 1.1 percent in Martin County in the first quarter compared with the last quarter of 2008, according to U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released today by RealtyTrac (realtytrac.com). Those first-quarter numbers were still up 40 percent to 68 percent from a year ago.

But foreclosure actions in March rose 71 percent from February in Indian River County and 48 percent in St. Lucie County, though they declined 6 percent in Martin County.
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FORT PIERCE — Plans for a $90 million project to build a hotel, restaurants, shops and homes on the old H.D. King Power Plant site may be in jeopardy because of a glitch in the contract.

Jonathan Snyder, president and chief executive officer of Nevada-based Snyder Development LLC, wants the city to donate 6.87 acres of waterfront property on Indian River Drive to build his project, but language tied to the deed says the city has to use the land for a public purpose or the property reverts back to the state.

The glitch might kill the project, Snyder said.

The City Commission, seated as the Fort Pierce Redevelopment Agency board, will discuss the city’s options during a 12:30 p.m. Wednesday meeting at City Hall. (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…)