Florida banks temporarily halting foreclosures

Pair of Florida banks joins national parade temporarily halting foreclosures • Saturday February 14, 2009, 2:36 pm EST Related:• Bank of America Corporation • , BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. • , BankUnited Financial Corporation MIAMI (AP) -- Two Florida banks are joining some of the country's largest lenders in temporarily halting foreclosures as the federal government tackles the housing crisis. On Friday, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and major banks JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. said they were halting foreclosures for at least a month. Coral Gables-based BankUnited and Fort Lauderdale-based BankAtlantic followed suit, all saying they hoped to learn more soon about President Barack Obama's $50 billion plan to keep more people from losing their homes. Obama is expected to provide more details in an Arizona speech Wednesday."We want to help people remain in their homes," said Ramiro Ortiz, BankUnited's president and chief executive officer. "... Treasury's plan may provide different avenues of relief for consumers, and we don't want them to miss an opportunity to take advantage of the program."Ortiz said his bank's moratorium would affect 1,400 homes statewide with $426 million in mortgages."This amounts to a triage until they can come up with a permanent solution," said Anne L. Weintraub, a Sarasota attorney who specializes in real estate. "Banks are finally trying to come up with an alternative to foreclosure because it's expensive and they don't want to become property managers."Florida is one of four states -- along with California, Nevada and Arizona -- that accounted for nearly half the nation's 2008 foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac Inc., while comprising just a quarter of U.S. mortgages overall.Florida's banks have also shouldered more of the burden. Two of the 13 financial institutions that have failed this year were based in Florida, including Cape Coral-based Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast, which was overtaken Friday.Chase hopes soon to open five counseling centers around Florida, where homeowners can meet directly with counselors to avoid foreclosure.More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007. Analysts say that number could soar as high as 10 million under some worst-case scenarios.