This year won’t bring too much foreclosure relief in the commercial real estate sector. Banks are moving forward with foreclosure and the list of targeted developers is pretty long.

Gregory Talbott is among those developers, although his name has already been mentioned in several other foreclosure lawsuits filed by investors or lenders. The recent foreclosure lawsuit involving Talbott’s name was filed by Legacy Bank on January 11 against Big Red Associates, 1850 Associates and names the troubled developer Talbott as loan guarantor.

The lawsuit concers $4.28 million plus interest, split between two mortgages. According to informations obtained by the South Florida Business Journal, the largest loan involved is the $3.41 mortgage on the nearly 10,000 square-feet office building located at 1850 N. Federal Highway in Boca Raton, which was formerly leased by Fifth Third Bank. This institution also filed a foreclosure lawsuit against Talbott.

The second mortgage is for $894,426  and it was taken out by the Big Red Associated against a vacant 0.36-acre site on the south side of the aforementioned property.

Nationally, home sales last month reached their highest pace in nearly a year. The gain coincided with other signs that the troubled housing market improved at the end of last year, Naples News informs.

During a NABOR news conference, Cindy Caroll, a real estate appraiser with Caroll & Caroll in Naples sad that the Naples housing market is on its best was to recovery, furthermore it is healing already, because of some neighborhoods where the demand is so high that outstrips the supply.

Cindy Caroll highlighted that foreclosures have absolutely disappeared in some neighborhoods and they are close to disappear in others too.

In addition, the housing supply for properties under $150,000 has shrunk to three months, she said.

“The housing inventory is tight in the area between Goodlette-Frank Road and U.S. 41, from Pine Ridge Road to the south. In that market area — running from Sorrento Gardens on the north to Lake Park on the south – there are 47 homes on the market. That’s four more than there were in September 2005, when prices and demand had reached their peak,” she said. “There is now a seven-month supply of homes in that area and a one-year supply is considered “balanced,” Cindy Caroll said.

The median price of a single-family home sold with the help of a Realtor last month increased 32% compared to the same period a year ago reaching $116,950, while in December 2010 hardly hit $88,000.

There has been a shift in the types of homes selling in the market and prices for foreclosed homes have been rising.

The same report comes with the following highlights:

- the median price for conventional homes has risen 1.7% compared to the same period a year prior, reaching $137,250 in December. Conventional sales represented a little more than 50 percent of all sales in the market last month.

- The median price paid for a short sale in the Greater Fort Myers area in December was $87,500, up 2.9% from a year ago. Meanwhile, the median price for foreclosure sales rose more than 27% to $82,750.

The resort community east of Naples gives strong signs of rebirth after it fell into foreclosure last year.

The reason why it will re-open its doors to buyers is because last year, Lennar Corp., a Miami-based homebuilder took over the troubled development at a foreclosure auction held at the court steps of Collier County. Public records show that Lennar was the only bidder on the property after one of the builder affiliates assumed the mortgage notes.

The new sales center at Treviso Bay officially opens to the public Jan. 21. Saturday, past customers and other VIPs will get the first chance to buy.

Naples News informs that more than 1,000 homes are still to be built in the resort community. Collier County records show that the mostly undeveloped community was hit with a $82 million foreclosure judgment as the former developer V.K. Development Corp, a family-owned company based in Wisconsin faced financial woes.

According to a press release issued by Lennar price range for the newly built condos will range between $200,000 and $700,000.

Treviso Bay isn’t the only place Lennar has targeted. Last year, Lennar agreed to purchase 57 lots at TwinEagles off Immokalee Road in North Naples and it will soon start sales there. The Bonita Bay Group shed the high-end golf community at the end of 2010 as it fought off bankruptcy, selling it to The Ronto Group, a Naples-based developer that’s revitalizing it.

Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront owners have been hit by a foreclosure lawsuit which resulted in a $195.5 million judgment awarded to US Bank NA, the trustee for the lenders.

However, the owners of the downtown hotel did not let the property go, they continued their fight and tried to renegotiate their loan to keep control of the building. The Hyatt Downtown is owned by Oxford Jacksonville Riverfront Hotel LLC, a partnership led by a San Francisco hotel investment firm called Chartres Lodging Group LLC since 2005.

According to Jacksonville’s daily record, the hotel wasn’t affected by the foreclosure judgment. Initially a foreclosure sale was scheduled for January 11, but the owners managed to postpone it until April, so they gained some more time in their fight to keep the property.

Meanwhile the Downtown hotel experienced some great days, as 963-room Hyatt was 95% full on Dec. 31 and 91% full on the first day of 2012.

Property records show that Oxford Jacksonville purchased the hotel located at 225 E. Coastline Drive and 122 S. Newman St. for $167 million seven years ago.

But the financial crisis has hit the hotel, just like others across the country. Foreclosure lawsuit documents filed in November 2010 show that Oxford Jacksonville had a $150 million mortgage on the hotel, and with interest and fees the total judgment against the owners was $195.5 million.

On the other hand, the NABOR’s report highlights one interesting phenomenon: 80% of all homebuyers were Canadians, Brenda Fioretti commented on the report.

Second home buyers are a large part of the market, along with investors looking for bargains.

The same statistics compiled by NABOR shows that the most active price range is the under $300,0000, with 379 closed sales and 558 new contracts written last month. This is driven by foreclosures and short sales.

In the Naples area, the median price for closed sale declined $12,000 to $160,000 from $172,000 reported a year prior.

In the $1 million to $2 million price range, pending sales – or new contracts written – rose by more than 42% to 37 in November, up from 26 in the same month a year ago. There were 22 closed sales in this upper end market last month, up from 17 last year.

The good news for those who plan selling their house is regarding the median price: recent data underscores that the median paid for a single-family property increased to $103,900in November, up 25.18% over November 2010, according to a report by the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach Inc.

While the report reflects single-family median price not just in Lee County, but is comprises all single-family home sales made by the association’s members it is still good news for sellers. However, the report does not reflect contracts for new homes.

It looks like we are ending a year when Fort Myers area’s median price has steadily increased by more than 28%. The increase talks highlights the jump is traditional sales, which is equal with less foreclosure sales and short sales.

In November, foreclosures accounted 27.4% of single-family homes sales in Lee County while short sales made up 20.4% of the market.

The inventory of resales on the market crept up in November to 4,583. That was up by 172 homes from October.

The numbers highlighted in a report issued by the Lee County Clerk’s Office show a total of 587 filings, down from 642 in October.

However, when compared to the same month a year prior, the numbers aren’t so positive, as there were 345 filings in November 2010. Nationwide, filings slowed at the end of last year amid the “robo-signing” scandal.

According to the Lee County Clerk’s Office, 15 foreclosure filings were for commercial properties, while most of the new filings were for properties with a homestead exemption, indicating it’s a primary home.

There were 20 deficiency judgments last month. There have been 214 this year. With the judgments, lenders in Florida have the legal right to collect the difference between what was owed on a mortgage and the fair market value of the property on the day of the foreclosure auction, the Naples News has learned.

The owners, NJ-based Wavestone properties fell behind on their $15.4 million mortgage payments which triggered the foreclosure lawsuit filed by Corus Construction Venture. The lawsuit targeted the real estate located at 17315 Collins Ave. A $13 million second mortgage held by NYLIM-GCR Fund 1-2002, was also wiped out as a result of the judgment. The fund, which holds the second mortgage is managed by New York Life Investment Management.

CCV is a company formed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Starwood Capital Group to assume the loans of the failed Corus Bank. 99 of the 250 condo-hotel units at Sole on the Ocean were sold since December 2007 according to court records. The remaining 151 units are set for online auction Jan. 11, South Florida Business Journal reports.

“We’re trying to do this so people have a place to live,” said Judy Jones, who has been leading the Bread of Life Mission. “These people can have a Thanksgiving knowing that after Thanksgiving they have a place to go to sleep and rest,” she added, cited by the News Press.

Jones said improvements are needed but she doesn’t have the money, as the mission lost its nonprofit status from the IRS last year and according court records, the Jones owes the IRS $73,584.

Bill Spurgeon, who foreclosed on the property, was not surprised that Jones found an 11th-hour solution.

“Well, she did it to me again,” said Spurgeon, who originally mortgaged the property to the mission because he supported it. “There’s nothing I can do but sit back. It’s like watching a movie,” the News Press cites.

Spurgeon received a final foreclosure judgment in 2009 saying the Bread of Life owes him $174,380 past-due mortgage payments, taxes and other costs. According to his words, he was auctioning the property because he didn’t want to see the mission close.

Bankruptcy court records show Jones owes to creditors including Spurgeon $314,042, while she earned about $1,200 a month on average as the center director.