We Floridians have been watching the foreclosure crash for a year now while our Federal government bailed out major banks across the country.  While Main Street sat in ruins, Wall Street continued to reward their executives with millions of dollars in bonuses and pay back only a portion of the losses caused by the banking and insurance industries. 

Almost all of us have heard of somebody who lost his house to foreclosure after losing his job.   And although this presents excellent opportunities for those who have cash to buy foreclosures, remodel them, thereby adding value and then selling them at a profit, it must be a gut wrenching experience for those who put their hard earned money into their homes, only to lose them to foreclosure.

Good news in on the way for homeowners in Florida who are in jeopardy of losing their homes. The Supreme Court of Florida on Monday, according to the Miami Herald editorial on Saturday, "issued an administrative order requiring a statewide managed mediation program to handle all the foreclosures inundating state courts."  The courts are forcing banks which are reluctant to offer homeowners alternative to foreclosure to sit down, talk, and "to negotiate rather than automatically foreclose."

I think this is welcome news for desperate homeowners, overworked courts, and the majority of us who think this will be a benefit to the middle class in Miami-Dade County by stabilizing neighborhoods and allowing otherwise responsible citizens some time to work out their financial problems without losing their largest asset.