Board-certified real estate attorney Gary M. Singer answers housing questions in this space each Friday. To ask him a question about short sales, mortgages, refinancing, homeowner's associations or any other residential real estate topic, click here.

Q: I heard in the State of the Union address that President Obama has a new plan to fix the mortgage situation and help struggling Americans. I?m also having some problems with my mortgage, and my property is underwater. Is this plan going to finally save me? -- Anonymous

A: I?ve been asked a lot in the past few days whether President Obama?s plan to fix the housing crisis will actually work. The plan being proposed by Obama is the third bite at this particular apple. Similar plans were adopted by then-President Bush and later Obama. Both of those previous plans had little effect. In this latest initiative, the homeowner must be current on his or her payments and can only refinance the mortgage as long as the loan to value does not exceed 140 percent. Later, if there is a foreclosure on the new loan, the federal government will pay back the lender some, if not all, of its losses. The President?s idea is that when the government refinances loans at a lower interest rate, homeowners will take the savings and buy other items, thereby helping the economy. Other tenets of the program include a homeowner's bill of rights and the bulk sale of foreclosed homes to investors.

Pundits are saying that this program is unlikely to be approved due to political infighting. That may not be such a bad thing because I see little different in this program for the average homeowner. I don?t think this program would do enough to improve a homeowner?s situation. The people who need the most help are those who can no longer keep up with their mortgage payments, but they wouldn't qualify for aid. While everyone paying their mortgages would benefit from lower rates and save $100 to $200 a month, it's not enough of a savings to make a difference for someone who is $60,000 underwater on a $150,000 home.

The information and materials on this blog are provided for general informational purposes only and are not intended to be legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed, nor should any such relationship be implied. Nothing on this blog is intended to substitute for the advice of an attorney, especially an attorney licensed in your jurisdiction.

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Where online house hunters are looking
1. Palm Bay
2. Winter Haven
3. Bradenton
4. Fort Myers
5. Tulsa, OK
6. Palm Beach County
7. Broward County
8. Riverside, Calif.
9. Charleston, SC
10. Orlando
Source: Trulia.com

Despite the threat of hurricanes and a tsunami of ?underwater? mortgages, potential home buyers still view the Sunshine State as paradise.

Among the top 10 metro areas nationwide where demand among online house hunters is strongest, seven are in Florida, according to real estate website Trulia.com.

Palm Beach and Broward counties are sixth and seventh on the list, respectively. In each county, there are more than twice as many people looking to move than leave, Trulia says. The only non-Florida metros on the list are Tulsa, OK., Riverside, Calif., and Charleston, S.C.

Following the busy hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005, plenty of people left Florida and talked of leaving, fed up with the storms and soaring property taxes that resulted from the housing boom. Nothing like big price declines and great weather to keep people wanting to live here.

?Although locals in Florida, inland California and the Southwest are suffering from high foreclosure rates and lost equity, huge prices declines since the height of the housing bubble have drawn house hunters from across the country,? Jed Kolko, Trulia?s chief economist, said in a statement.

From Staff Writer Doreen Hemlock: A top Florida official Wednesday announced an arrest for alleged Personal Injury Protection (PIP) fraud, as the Scott administration revs up its campaign for a new PIP auto-insurance law.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, pictured at right, said an investigation into insurance fraud led to the arrest of a Miami man accused of submitting fraudulent PIP claims from an unlicensed health clinic.

Juan M. Dieguez, who also used the identity Jorge R. Gonzalez, is charged with operating a health care clinic without a license, grand theft and insurance fraud. He owned and ran Venetian Rehab Center, at 434 SW 12th Ave., since October 2010, but was arrested while working at another clinic, Therapy-Diagnostic, Tech Medical, according to a statement from the CFO?s Office.

Dieguez is being held on $65,000 bond at Miami-Dade County Jail. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison, the statement said.

?Insurance fraudsters have learned how to game Florida?s PIP system, and every honest Floridian with a car in the driveway ends up paying,? Atwater said in the statement. ?We must put policies in place to stop those who make a career out of stealing our fellow Floridians? hard-earned dollars.?

The arrest comes as Gov. Rick Scott and his administration push for changes in Florida?s no-fault auto insurance to reduce PIP fraud. Current law requires Florida drivers carry at least $10,000 Pip insurance coverage for expenses related to personal injury after an auto accident, no matter who was at fault in the crash. Administration officials have backed a House bill that would limit PIP medical coverage to emergency rooms at hospitals.

For more on PIP reform, see our Jan. 21 story here.

The government late last week announced changes to its main foreclosure prevention initiative, the Home Affordable Modification Program.

One big change: The U.S. Treasury now will triple the financial incentives for lenders that forgive a portion of homeowners? mortgage debt.

And on Wednesday, President Obama announced another refinancing plan for underwater borrowers.

From Reuters:

President Barack Obama on Wednesday called on Congress to approve a $5 billion to $10 billion effort to help U.S. homeowners refinance as part of a wider package of proposals to shore up the depressed housing market.

The White House offered more details on Wednesday ahead of a speech by Obama to expand on his initiative, which some Republicans have derided as an election-year ploy.

Refinancing will help, but analysts say the scope of the housing crisis is so broad that reducing mortgage balances is the best way to get out of this mess. So far, though, the writedowns have been few and far between.

Have you asked for and/or received a writedown already? What do you think of the revised HAMP?

Home prices fell in South Florida and across most of the nation in November, according to the Standard & Poor?s/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday.

Prices in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties declined 0.5 percent from October and 4.4 percent compared with a year ago.

Nineteen of the 20 cities measured by the index endured price declines from October. Phoenix was the lone exception.

Eighteen of the 20 metro areas had lower prices compared with a year ago, with Detroit and Washington, D.C., the only cities to see price increases. Detroit, hit hard by the housing collapse and other economic woes, has performed surprisingly well in the index recently.

?Despite continued low interest rates and better real GDP growth in the fourth quarter, home prices continue to fall," David M. Blitzer, chairman of the index committee for Standard & Poor's, said in a statement.

Case-Shiller is one of the most respected measures of home prices because it tracks the price of the same house over time. The Florida Realtors trade group releases a monthly median price, but many analysts say the median is misleading because it reflects only the value of what sold during the month -- not the value of all homes in an area.

The Florida Realtors said Broward's median price rose 4 percent last year to $186,000.

The Case-Shiller index lags Florida Realtors' data by a month and does not include condominiums.

The Florida Realtors measures prices in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties separately while Case-Shiller includes data for all three counties collectively.

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Photo Courtesy: Getty Images