Average Florida mortgage relief $75,949 a home

The historic settlement involving the nation’s five largest mortgage lenders has so far helped nearly 102,000 struggling Florida homeowners with an average $75,949 in relief for each, according to a new report.

Short sales accounted for almost $3.3 billion of that relief — or most of the financial help extended to Floridians by the lenders — based information supplied by the five banks and outlined in the latest report prepared by the Office of Mortgage Settlement Oversight, the private group set up to administer last year’s nationwide settlement.

In the case of the short sales, the lenders agreed to take an average loss of $112,000 per mortgage by allowing 29,251 homeowners to sell their properties for less than what they owed on their loans.

Most Floridians, though, have gotten help from the program by having second mortgages completely forgiven, the mortgage settlement office reported. Some 36,494 Floridians had an average of $67,448 each erased in that fashion, the office said, for a combined discount of $2.46 billion.

Floridians are getting more than18 percent of all the financial relief being handed out nationwide in the $25 billion settlement, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said. The five lenders involved in the settlement — Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo — agreed to it last year to settle allegations of previous abuse against struggling homeowners.

“We will continue to closely monitor the banks’ compliance to ensure that Floridians receive the full benefits of the relief afforded under the settlement,” Bondi said.

The state of Florida has another $60 million in mortgage help from the settlement to give out — in the form of down-payment assistance, housing counseling, legal aid, and better-funded courts for foreclosure-related issues, Bondi said. Also, the Legislature will allocate another $200 million from the settlement during its upcoming session.

One of the shortfalls of the settlement process in Florida, Bondi acknowledged, has been the number of foreclosed homeowners who applied for financial compensation. About167,000 application letters were sent to Florida homeownerswhoselenders reported them as being in foreclosure between January 2008 and December 2011, Bondi said, but only 88,857 — or just over half — applied for help.