Homeowners Still Struggling In South Florida

MIAMI (CBS4) - While many parts of the country are beginning to dig out of the worst housing collapse since the Great Depression; South Florida remains far behind a housing recovery.

One out of every four Miami residential mortgages is at least 90 days late and the foreclosure rate for the region, at 18.2%, is getting worse according to the latest numbers out of Core Logic real estate analysts.

Sunrise resident Derrick Thompson, a Broward Salesman, doesn't want to be another statistic. He said he's current on his monthly payments, but will soon face bigger bills as his student loans come due.

He came to Thursdays' Wells Fargo's home preservation workshop at the Borward Convention Center, hoping to get a cheaper mortgage. He currently pays $1600 dollars to Wells Fargo. He said he tried a few years ago to get them to drop his payments, but they wouldn't.

Thompson added, "It was difficult, they kept requiring a lot of sioffernet paperwork and we could never get togtehr. Hopesfuilly, today's a lot easier."

And, Thompson did manage to get his mortgage lowered.

Late Wednesday afternoon, Wells Fargo told CBS4's Al Sunshine that Thompson got his interest rate reduced by nearly two percent.

Wells Fargo officials said the bank is now working harder to try and offer cheaper mortgages to existing customers like Derrick.

It's offering new options like arranging short sales or taking over deeds, in an effort to avoid having to file formal foreclosure actions.

But Broward real estate investor Mick Pacheco said he's seen very few local homeowners actually able to get their lenders to lower their monthly payments.

"Actually it's like slim rather than none, not good odds at all, I've seen very,very, very few," Pacheco said.

All of it is making it even worse for struggling Homeowners.

Residential mortgage rates remain near record-low levels. Freddie Mac reported Thursday 30-year fixed rate loans dropped to 3.99% with 15 year lows down to 3.27%. So, cheaper mortgage financing is definitely available for anyone who can qualify for it.

But, homeowners had better work as hard as they can to find all available help they can qualify for.

Next year, state lawmakers will look at ways of speeding up the foreclosure process to to clean out the huge backlog of cases that are clogging Floridas court system.

And if that happens, Floridas' foreclosure rate next year could end up being even worse than it is now.

For help from Wells Fargo, click here or call 1-800-678-7986.