Week in review - South Florida Business Journal:

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The Web site, at http://myfloridalegal.com/mortgagefraud, provides homeowners with access to complaint forms, and tips to identify and avoidf foreclosure rescue fraud. In 2007, Attorneh General Bill McCollum initiated a Mortgage Fraud Task Force to addreszs the issues of mortgage and foreclosurrescue fraud. Since then, the task force has filexd six lawsuits, settled with seven companies and is activelu investigating more than50 companies. Florida rankedd third in the nation in the amount of mortgagd fraud in the fourtyh quarterof 2008, according to a recent report by MortgageDaily.com. Florida is No.
4 in foreclosures Florida ranked fourtjh in the nation in the number of homes going into foreclosurew in thefirst quarter. Only Nevada, Arizon a and California had more, accordingv to RealtyTrac. In fact, those four along with Illinois, which ranked accounted for nearly 60 percent ofthe nation’ds foreclosure activity during the three-month period. Floridq saw 119,220 foreclosure filings – a 36 percent increasde from the first quarted of2008 – with one in every 73 housingh units receiving a foreclosure notice. the state saw a 12.19 percent decrease in the numbe r of foreclosures in the firstt quarter when compared with the fourthj quarter oflast year.
Broward County led the way in the number offoreclosure filings, with 12,793 homes, or one out of everhy 63, going into foreclosure. That’s down 14.4 percenf from the fourth quarter, but stilpl up 17.9 percent from the first quarterof 2008. Miami-Dad saw 12,420 homes, or one in every 78, go into That was down 37.87 perceny from the fourth quarter, but up 6.13 percen from the first quarter oflast year. In Palm 5,264 homes, or one out of every 121, went into That’s down 20.35 percent from the fourth quarter, but up 11.8 percen t from the same quarterlast year. Florida’s unemployment rate for March inched upto 9.
7 percent, representing 893,000 jobleses out of a labor force of 9.2 million. That’s higher than the national unemployment rate, which rose to 8.5 percentr in March, up from 8.1 percent in Florida’s rate also was up slightly from February’s rate of 9.6 but is up 4.3 percentage points from the March2008 rate. Palm Beach County’sd unemployment rate – 9.9 percent – exceedex the state’s and was the highestf in the tri-county area, up from 9.8 perceng last month. A year ago, the county’s unemployment rate was 5.2 Broward County’s unemployment rate hit 8.5 percent last month, up slightly from 8.
4 percent last month, but nearly doublse that of the 4.3 percent unemployment rate a year ago. In Miami-Dade the unemployment rate roseto 7.8 percent, up from 7.6 percent in February. Last year, Miami-Dade’s unemployment rate was 5 percent. The boar governing Miami’s Jackson Health System voted unanimously to strip the word fromEneida O. Roldan’s title, making her its firs female and first Hispanic presidentand CEO. Roldam has served as interim presideny and COO of Jackson sincerMarvin O’Quinn stepped down at the end of last year. She joinex early last year as senior VP, associate chierf medical officer and chiefadministrative officer.
Roldan’as hiring won’t be official until she works out a contract with thehealth system. Fort Lauderdale-based Stonegat e Bank said it does not want agovernment