Rob Chrisman with Rob Chrisman's Mortgage Daily News has an interesting report on why Florida homeowners may be struggling through a long period of home price stagnation:

Yesterday the commentary had some statistics on Florida lagging in price appreciation, which many attribute to the "judicial versus non-judicial" foreclosure issue. But I also received this note: "In my opinion the reason that Florida foreclosures continues to rise is that HAMP, and the lenders, continue to refuse to modify second homes. They will modify rentals and primaries but not second homes. About 55% of the houses in FL that I know that are in foreclosure are second homes. Every homeowner has told me they tried multiple times to refi or modify and are denied. Even in HARP it is very difficult to do second homes. It took me a year, literally to get a Freddie approval on a second home condo in FL. In my latest, the borrower squeaks; $450k in income, 800 FICO and $1.2M in cash. No one would do the loan until 2 weeks ago."

Chrisman also has more on Carrington's recent growth spurt:

Taking a quick look at the jobs market, Carrington, which has 19 different mortgage-real estate centric companies, recently announced the opening of two new East Coast Operations Centers to support its 2013 growth plans, and Carrington is now hiring for the expansion of its wholesale platform.  Specifically, the lender is looking to fill the following "newly created" key positions: Divisional Sales Manager - Central US, Regional Sales Manager - Inside (Eastern Division), Regional Sales Manager - Outside (Eastern Division), 20 Inside Sales Executives between the East and West Divisions, and 20 Outside Sales Executives between the East and West Division. "AE candidates need to be able to bring a minimum of $5 million monthly volume with them for consideration.