Last month West Palm Beach saw a surge of South Floridians descend upon the city in order to attend the extremely popular Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's (NACA) mortgage modification marathon that was taking place.  Perhaps you're among the many owning Miami Beach homes who are seeking mortgage modification assistance but failed to attend the event for whatever reason, thankfully you're in luck.

NACA is making another trip to South Florida next month.  Best of all, you won't need to make the long journey from Miami-Dade County up to Palm Beach as this time the event will be taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center so it's quite feasible you'll be able to simply walk from your Miami Beach homes to the event and still make it on time to secure a sit-down with someone.

Speaking with a NACA lender representative can mean a reduction of your mortgage loan interest or principal forbearance.  More recently, some lenders have even begun offering principal forgiveness.  The marathon kicks off on April 15th and continues for 24 hours.  Don't miss out on another chance to hold onto your precious Miami Beach homes, schedule some time to try and work out a potential new mortgage payment solution.

Last Friday we discussed the Obama administration's mortgage modification efforts and the fact that its good intentions were not exactly translating into much relief for owners of properties like Miami Beach homes.  It seems like the bigwigs overseeing these foreclosure prevention efforts caught on to this quickly and announced some tweaks on Friday that may be more effective.

If your lender is participating in the Making Home Affordable program and you happen to be unemployed, you'll have some degree of relief for about three to six months as the lender will be required to cut down the monthly payment for your Miami Beach homes.  However, you must be able to show proof of unemployment insurance and you must not have missed more than three mortgage payments if you wish to qualify.

Some people may already be part of the government program and have received a mortgage modification.  If you happen to be one of those people you can still get a reduction on the principal for your Miami Beach homes as lenders must retroactively consider cutting down the mortgage balance by the same amount that would have been forgiven using the new approach.  Keep in mind however that in most cases any loan refinancing may negatively affect your credit as you're essentially not paying off the total balance on your original mortgage loan.

The Obama administration's efforts to assist homeowners with modifying their existing loans has generated arguably equal amounts of praise and criticism.  Despite its good intentions, the rigid requirements and the actual number of success stories paints a different picture of its success.  Are people owning property such as Miami Beach homes really seeing benefits from government assistance?

Just yesterday news reports surfaced that the mortgage relief program was not living up to its goals but now there's concrete evidence that it really isn't doing as much as the government may like.  Of all the mortgages that were modified to give homeowners room to breathe after defaulting, just over half of them ended up defaulting again anyway.  In other words, Miami Beach homes that are underwater are ultimately not seeing much long term relief.

Could it be that these modifications simply aren't reducing the monthly payment enough?  Some experts believe that mortgage payments should be reduced by as much as twenty percent in order for the default rate to decrease.  Does that seem like the right way to go or do you have entirely different opinion on what should be done to ameliorate the situation and prevent more people from potentially losing their Miami Beach homes?

Miami Beach homes in particular experienced a good two month performance during January to February per recent statistics regarding South Florida home and condo sales.  The very same reasons that have steadily contributed towards encouraging sales have yet again lead to more incremental increases.  How did things ultimately work out during those two months?

Single family residences such as Miami Beach homes in Miami-Dade County specifically managed to show improvement, albeit a very modest one.  Sales were up by two percent while condo sales did even more modestly at one percent.  In some very good news however, the median price for single family homes actually increased this time by four percent instead of tumbling once again and now stands at $191,000.

These welcoming numbers reaffirm what most people already know: South Florida continues its uphill climb towards getting itself out of the real estate slump it's been in for some time now.  The tax credit is soon to end which may or may not affect the sales of Miami Beach homes come the summertime, but for now the market remains fragile but mostly on the right track.

The Making Home Affordable program has received extensive coverage in the media.  In fact, you may be one of the people owning Miami Beach homes either in the process of or considering applying to receive some assistance from the program designed to keep homeowners in their homes.  What you may not be aware of is the fine print going on behind the scenes if and when you sign up.

Should you decide to sign up for the mortgage assistance program, you should know that regardless of how responsible you've been in paying your mortgage every month, there is a penalty you may not like: a lower credit score.  Indeed, keeping your Miami Beach homes could mean a drop of nearly 100 points after receiving assistance.  Needless to say, this rather unfair caveat has had its share of criticism, oftentimes by the very people trying to help homeowners.

It's important to know however that receiving assistance from the Making Home Affordable program and seeing your credit score lowered is a much wiser option than if homeowners default on their Miami Beach homes and go into foreclosure.  One option will see your credit score go lower, while the other causes it to nosedive.  Your best option is to simply be aware of what you're signing up for, that way there are no unwanted surprises.

Not too long ago reports surfaced that South Florida homeowners may have finally gotten the hint about setting realistic prices for their Miami Beach homes.  Recent reports however, are saying the complete opposite.  Even though prices have been declining for some time now, some homeowners are apparently stuck in the period during the real estate market boom of the earlier 2000s.

More than fifteen percent of existing homes on the market throughout the country had to cut their prices at some point during 2009, dropping the price by just over ten percent than what was originally being asked.  In fact, South Florida has seen even more drastic price cuts.  Perhaps Miami Beach homes do remain overpriced.

To put it into perspective, consider that more than twenty percent of homes in Miami-Dade County had to slash their prices at some point during the past year, that's quite a significant umber that translates to tens of thousands of dollars in price cuts.  Assuming you're among the many trying to sell Miami Beach homes, listen to your real estate agent and take their advice.  The numbers clearly show that one must price according to existing market values, not the glory days of Miami Beach real estate.