Citizen Fires off a Neuron in Mortgage Title Issue

DeSantis Covers Confusing Title of ONE Property

70% of Remaining Monroe County Titles Remain Unscathed by Citizen Coverage

- Naked Conch - Posted by Matt Gardi -  September 1, 2012
Did a light bulb go on at the Key West Citizen?  Seemingly so, as John DeSantis penned a piece in this Sunday's edition of the Key West Citizen titled "Confusing mortgage ownerships, big problem."

While this latest effort at journalism by our esteemed daily is a positive event, the article barely even scratches the surface of the scale of the crisis.  DeSantis concentrates on the ownership issues of one property that was recently in the limelight for huge code enforcement fines.  He fails to address the fact that the issue he highlighted actually affects close to 70% of all title records in Monroe County.  This is the single most important issue that affects each and every one of us in a tangible and painful way.

For a more in depth and enlightening analysis of the issue I might recommend the six part series I wrote for Key West the Newspaper over a year and a half ago.  (Enjoy that here)

It might have been nice had the Citizen actually covered this issue when I raised it as a candidate for Clerk of Courts.  (See Here)  They chose instead to give front page coverage to outgoing Clerk Danny Kolhage, glorifying him, instead of covering the issues presented by the candidates.  Ironically, it's Kolhage's failures at his job, and lack of the Citizen's coverage of such, that has allowed the banks to decimate our land records, which is illustrated by the ONE property DeSantis has uncovered.

Instead of covering the details of the crisis I was highlighting as a candidate, one week before the election Citizen reporter Gwen Filosa chose to give oversimplified coverage to the fact that Countrywide is attempting to foreclose on me as if it was something I was trying to hide.  I had only written about it in a newspaper, for goodness sake.  It's my experience that has given me the insight as to the true nature of how the Banks have run roughshod over our properties and land records and no on wants to address it.  Not at the National level, not at the State level, nor even here locally where the destruction of our land records has occurred, and not been addressed by local leaders, and local media.

Folks, as I said during the campaign, these decimated land records have destroyed confidence in our title histories, and will be a litigious nightmare for decades to come.  This in turn will keep pressure on our property values, regardless of what sunny optimism Real Estate gurus can shine on the situation.  That will continue to force more homeowners into a negative equity position, the leading cause for walking away, which perpetuates the downward cycle.  Not only does the pressure on property values destroy net worth, it reduces taxable values, and as such tax revenue.  Ultimately, this effects the budget of every agency, from schools, to police, to fire.

While it's good to see the Citizen come out of their journalistic coma to cover the biggest issue facing our County, (and Country) DeSantis still continues to do a disservice by not discussing the scale of the problem.   Our Country was founded on property rights, and rule of law.  Both are being decimated by Banksters, with the complicity of Judges, Clerks, and yes the media, as we quickly approach true Banana Republic status.