You're watching southwest Florida.

InFocus.

The Sunshine State is a national leader in foreclosure rates.

We talk with experts who say despite a recent increase in filings across the state, they're not concerned about a potential crash in the housing market.

We take a look at the health of the housing industry.

Millions on social Security could be impacted, with changes coming to the program meant to decrease fraud and modernize the program.

And we're following a flock south of the equator to preview a new book that captures the winter home of several Florida birds.

Hello I'm Sandra Victorova Thank you for joining us.

Foreclosure rates are on the rise across the country.

And Florida is one of the states leading the way.

A U.S. foreclosure market report from Adam shows that about one in every 2500 Florida housing units have a foreclosure filing.

That's a 5% increase compared to August of last year.

Our state ranked third behind only Nevada and South Carolina in foreclosure rates.

Are these numbers just the market correcting itself, like some experts believe, or growing concern for housing in Florida?

To learn more.

We're joined now by Tom Hudson, senior economics editor with WLRN.

Welcome, Tom.

Thanks for joining us.

Great to be back with you.

Thanks for the invitation.

So looking at this Adam report that looked at the foreclosure rates 18% higher than they were one year ago nationwide, it specifically looked at Lakeland, Ocala and Cape Coral, some of the worst foreclosure rates in Florida.

Why do we think we're seeing an increase?

Well, I think there's three pressures that homeowners are experiencing.

One is the cost of insurance.

Homeowner's insurance obviously remains incredibly high in Florida.

The rate of growth has calmed down from just a few recent years ago, but it still is very, very expensive to insure a home in Florida.

The second reason is property taxes is property taxes have increased thanks to the underlying value of our real estate.

The amount owed by property owners has increased, and we know that the state legislature and the Republicans and Governor DeSantis really want to go after local property taxes in the next legislative session.

And I think the third reason here in 2025, we are in a mortgage market, which is much different than five years ago.

So for home buyers or folks that refinance their mortgages in 2020 and have five year adjustable rate mortgages, those mortgages are coming.

Do they need to refinance?

And they're experiencing much higher borrowing costs than they had just five years ago.

And that adds to the total cost of carry of a home between insurance taxes and for those with adjustable rate mortgages coming due.

Now, a much more expensive mortgage and a much higher monthly, mortgage that they have to come up with.

Are the numbers concerning these increases in foreclosures?

Certainly the double digit increase year over year is, attention grabbing, but it is coming from a pretty low base.

We're far, far from the days of 2006, 2007, 2008.

Any single foreclosure is, a possible, tragedy for the family or the individual that's affected by it, certainly no doubt about it.

And the increase that we're seeing is, again, attention grabbing, but it's coming from such a low base and coming at a time where we know the housing market overall in Florida has hit.

Shall we diplomatically call it a soft spot right now?

So realtors have said this is a essentially a course correction on some of the prices that we're seeing.

Would you call this a course correction or you know, I'll say, you know, concerns about where the health is of our housing market.

I'm always a little allergic to the term correction when it comes to a market standard, because correction implies that somehow the market is wrong.

The market is the market.

The price is the price.

It's not.

It's not right or wrong.

It is what buyers and sellers have agreed upon what the price of an asset is.

It's either a stock or a bond, or in the case of Florida real estate, a house or a condominium.

And you're seeing, particularly in Southwest Florida, which saw a significant boom in prices during coronavirus and a building boom.

So supplies increased, demand has retrenched.

So there's fewer buyers.

And the buyers that are there are competing for more properties.

That is going to lead naturally.

Economics 101 supply and demand into price is probably moving lower.

And we've experienced that in Cape Coral.

The volume of sales has dropped only by about a half a percent year over year for single family homes, but the median price is down by 5.5%.

Condominiums in the Cape Coral area that sales are down 8% in the pace of sales.

The number of condominiums sold, in the last month compared to a year ago, down 8%.

But the price of those condominiums down 12%.

So we're seeing that really, reflected here in fewer sales and prices moving lower because demand is softer.

So I've been seeing on social media some folks comparing this to the 2008 housing market crash.

You've said there is that that comparison is just not reasonable.

Correct.

Not only not reasonable, it is just wrong.

There is an old phrase that historians use and economists use, investors use that history rhymes.

It does not repeat.

That certainly is the case here with the housing market.

You know, there's some notes that may rhyme with the 2006 seven and eight housing crash, but we are far from repeating that.

Remember the Ninja loans, right?

Those were no income loans back in 2005.

Six, seven.

If you had a heartbeat, you could get a mortgage for a Florida condominium or a Florida house back in 2004 and five.

That's certainly not the case now.

Homeowners, condominium owners have much more equity.

So ownership stake in their, properties.

And so that allows them a bit more of a safety, financial safety, cushion.

Additionally, while we have seen growth in some markets, like Cape Coral, Fort Myers, we've seen some building.

We haven't seen the boom of supply that has kept pace with the population growth that the state really experienced during the coronavirus.

And in the months and few years immediately after the pandemic.

Tom, if I can end with this, governor Ron DeSantis has been pretty adamant that the state should eliminate property taxes.

Do you think that would be a game changer for the housing industry here in the state of Florida?

Yeah, I think it would.

Whether or not it makes economic sense is another an important question to be asked here, because where are the local governments going to be getting the funds to provide the services that those homeowners and condominium owners have come to rely on?

That is an open question at this point.

I think the other piece in this debate over the the financial number of property taxes that oftentimes gets ignored is the formula that comes up with property taxes.

It's not just the tax bill that homeowners have to pay.

That bill is going up because of the function of two pieces.

One is the millage rate, the tax rate.

So you want to pay attention to that, but also the underlying value of the property.

So the tax rate could stay the same but at a value the property's increasing.

Guess what.

Your tax bill is going to increase as well.

So while legislators can affect the millage rate and can affect the, the tax number that homeowners are required to pay, they have less of a direct influence on the underlying value.

That being said, there can be rules and regulations that can really affect that underlying value.

And we've seen that time and time again in economic cycles here in Florida.

Tom Hudson, we always appreciate it.

Appreciate your insight.

Thank you so much.

My pleasure.

Thank you.

Thank you.

After the break, changes are coming to Social Security aimed at weeding out fraud.

The impact this could have on the 5 million Florida recipients of the federal program.

This year, the Trump administration enacted significant changes for millions of Americans who receive Social Security changes aimed at rooting out fraud and reducing wait times.

Those include adjustments to the SSA website, its verification process, and moving the bulk of the agency's operations online.

Also included in the president's Big Beautiful bill are funding changes, leaving some to wonder if the federal program will eventually dry up.

We recently spoke to Jeff Johnson with AARP Florida about these issues and the recent government concessions on stricter identity verification requirements.

Yeah, thanks for raising this.

This has been a major debate over the first six months or so of the new administration, and it's something that I have to say.

I'm proud that AARP has fought on behalf of Social Security beneficiaries to try to push back what we've won, over the last couple of months have been concessions, if you will, from the Social Security Administration.

That recognize that there are people for whom a digital only approach to Social Security verification doesn't always work.

And so we've been able to, secure opportunities for people to still access by phone.

The challenge here, though, is that the phone systems themselves have incredibly long wait times.

So we're hearing from AARP members and others who are waiting up to six hours on the phone just to be able to get through.

So it does raise the same level of concern that people don't have necessarily access to the customer service that they're entitled to.

As somebody who paid into the Social Security system for their entire lives.

So the office of the Inspector General reported that nearly $72 billion, that's billion dollars, was improperly paid between 2015 through 2022.

Of course, that's less than 1% of total benefits paid out.

But do you think the changes will ultimately have a positive change moving forward, even though it does, you know, pose a an issue for some folks?

I think that certainly AARP, like any American taxpaying organization, would want to see every effort made in order to reduce or eliminate fraud.

Certainly not a concern about that, that at the same time, as you point out, this is 1%, roughly 1% of, the money that goes out from the Social Security Administration.

So it's a big number that should be reined in.

But in the grand scheme of, the program, it's a pretty efficient organization.

Most, folks who study the federal government would say that, said, we we hope that these changes, the changes that are made will be ones that do, root out fraud.

But they do so in a way that don't take those who have rightfully earned their benefits or a lifetime of work out of the ability to claim those benefits in a in an efficient manner.

So this is the 90th anniversary of Social Security.

A lot of folks concerned about what the future is for social Security, will it be around when they're old enough to receive benefits?

Are you concerned about the future of Social Security?

I'm optimistic about the future of Social Security, but I am concerned that that, changes need to be made to ensure that this is a stable program for the long term.

Let me explain a little bit.

So the Social Security Administration has built up a trust fund over the last several decades in order to fund, payments to beneficiaries who have earned those payments through a lifetime of work, especially the baby boomer generation that has had the blessing of living long active lives, have been able to claim benefits for a long time.

That trust fund is estimated to run out sometime in 2034, and at that point, we will continue to be paying into Social Security.

Social security will continue to pay benefits.

However, the current estimate is that the beneficiaries at that time, 2034 and beyond, would have to receive a 20% cut in their benefits in order for the math to work for the money going out to match the money coming in.

That is something that we have grave concern about because again, there are many, many Floridians who depend on those Social Security checks in order to pay their basic bills.

And so our effort and our optimism is that Congress will do the right thing, will look at this challenge, will recognize that waiting until 2034 is not acceptable.

And we'll look for ways that they can take action to shore up the solvency of the program for the long term.

If we can end on this.

My understanding is that more than 2 million Floridians rely on Social Security as a primary source of income.

Help us to understand how critical this money is to seniors as far as as folks who may not have anything else but but these these benefits, my understanding is it would greatly impact poverty levels in our state if I.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So when you think about Social Security, one of the things that's really valuable about this program is that we all pay and we all receive benefits, but for some people, it really is life and death.

So without the Social Security program, about 40 to 41% of Floridians 65 and over would be living below the federal poverty level.

With Social Security, there's still about 10%, Floridians in that age category who are living below the poverty level.

But that is a huge difference, 30% of the population.

And so it is all the more essential, again, that those 20% rate cuts that are estimated for 2034 and beyond be warded off, because not only is that money that helps people live with independence and dignity, it's also money that keeps our economy going.

There's about $100 billion a year that comes into the state of Florida, from Social Security benefits, that goes towards paying for a lot of the elements of our economy.

And so, there is even if you are somebody who's watching this, who is fortunate enough not to be in a position where your Social Security check will be the thing that keeps you out of poverty, you should think about the contribution Social Security makes to the economy at large, as well as probably to your own livelihood.

Jeff Johnson with AARP, thank you very much.

Yeah.

Thanks so much.

Accessing medical care can be tough for low income families or anyone under-insured.

But there are groups looking to provide necessary services for those in need.

WGCUs Elizabeth Andarge introduces us to one organization, Christian Medical Ministry.

Driven by their faith to heal their community.

In neighborhoods with limited health care.

This center offers more than just treatment.

It offers fellowship and prayer.

Which begs the question could faith be the missing piece in modern medicine?

In the patient lobby of this Fort Myers clinic, the bookshelf isn't shelved with Men's Health or Time magazine.

Instead, it's stacked with Bibles and scripture booklets free to take home.

It's a running theme here.

Who in their right mind would set up a free clinic and volunteer to do that and take care of the sickest people in the world for free?

Like, who else would do that except a Christian?

Like, I don't see atheists doing that.

So that's why we do this.

Because we love Jesus.

Alan Groening claims he was called on by God to open Christian medical ministries after 2004 Hurricane Charlie.

On a quick tour of the clinic.

Each room looks different.

One is set up like a traditional exam space with a medical bed.

Another has a wooden cross hanging on the wall, and then another has a large white inflatable tube in the middle of it.

What is that?

People think it's like a space chamber or like a.

Well, somebody said it looked like a literal death chamber.

I was like, oh, good.

But I just think people people just don't know what they are, honestly.

Clinic director Anna Hogan explains the noisy hyperbaric oxygen chamber.

One of their more popular requests is treating bio toxin illnesses or mold exposure.

It's one of the many tools used to treat patients who often fall through the cracks of the health care system.

The clinic serves people earning less than 300% of the poverty level.

And while the clinic offers mental health counseling and over-the-counter medicine, antibiotics aren't the only focus here.

I ask them and I say, hey, would it be okay if I prayed with you?

And they're like, oh yeah, please, let's do that.

But if somebody doesn't want to, I don't force that.

We don't require people to be religious to come here.

People come here of all faiths, persuasions, atheists, whatever they are, they can come here and we're happy to help them.

For GCU news, I'm Elizabeth and Margie.

Christian Medical Ministry's primary focus is assisting low income and under-insured people dealing with chronic inflammatory response syndrome, or Sirs.

Up to 80 million Americans are at risk for the illness, which is triggered by bio toxins such as mold.

Well, earning the reputation of man's best friend.

Coming up, a local guide dog has separated himself from the pack and is looking to bring home a national award for being a good boy.

Each year, millions of birds migrate in and out of the Sunshine State.

Right now, the popular purple Martin is in transit, leaving southwest Florida, making the long trip home to areas like South America.

A new book, birds of the Tropical Andes, captures the population of birds on the other side of the globe, and the dangers they face from habitat loss.

WGCUs Jennifer Crawford sat down with one of the book's creators.

Joining us now is one of the coauthors of the book and the president of the American Bird Conservancy, Mr. Michael J. Parr.

Mr. Parr, thank you very much for joining us today.

I appreciate you being here.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it, too.

Mr. Park, can you, explain what inspired you to take on this project?

This book?

It is remarkable.

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, I started bird watching, growing up in England, when I was a kid, I found that the tropical antes is one of the most amazing places on the planet for birds.

The the three countries.

Well, two of the the top countries with the most bird species on the planet are Colombia and Peru.

They each have close to 2000 bird species, which is almost double what we have here in the United States.

And so I started traveling to the tropical Andes to see some of those birds.

And in doing so, I realized that, you know, some of the birds are actually quite endangered.

And we also have birds that spend the summer in North America, actually spend the winter in the tropical Andes.

So not only do we have endangered birds, that are spending the whole year there, but we have birds from North America that spend the winter there.

So it's a really important area not only for endangered birds, but also for our own migratory birds, mainly due to agricultural expansion.

It is estimated that about three quarters of the northern tropical Andes has been lost.

What impact is that going to have on the species of birds that you focused on, specifically in your book?

Well, it can have a significant impact.

And one of the things that we do with American Bird Conservancy is creating protected areas with partners.

And actually an actual fact, we've been able to buy a fair amount of land to create reserves, from willing sellers.

And there is still a lot of habitat left, but there's a lot of conservation infrastructure in Latin American countries.

There's lots of national parks.

There's lots of great conservation going on.

The one thing we're trying to do is just help to fill in the gaps around where the existing national parks are for places that are really special for some of these particularly rare birds.

So it's really important for all of these reasons, to protect forest, not just for the birds.

Well, if the deforestation continues, what impact could that have on migratory birds that we know and love here in Southwest Florida like the purple marten?

Yeah, that's a very good point.

And species like the purple marten, a lot of the swallows and martins tend to congregate in particular areas and large flocks.

And so those kind of areas are really important to like most of the purple martins, actually roost on one island in the Amazon, close to them announced in Brazil when they're on the return migration.

So it's really important to understand where these places are and make sure they get protected.

One of the the challenges we have, North American migratory birds is that they winter in across very, very large areas.

Some of them winter in multiple countries, not just in, you know, one site.

So that some of the rarest birds, we can conserve, one reserve and we can actually, you know, safeguard the species from extinction.

But that's not really true in the case of birds like the golden wing warbler.

That's right behind me, or the Canada warbler or, you know, any one of these migrants like Swainson's thrushes, broad wing hawks that use the the Andes.

But working on, you know, how do we do this across much larger landscapes, I think is the next challenge.

So you're right to highlight that it is really important and something we're working on.

Well, thank you so much for sharing.

This is really, truly a treasure.

And I know we're fortunate for for having this copy here.

And thanks for all your information and insight.

That's great.

And thanks for having me.

Really appreciate it.

And thanks for supporting birds.

And then Everyone believes they have the best dog in the world.

But one Fort Myers pooch is looking to bring home the hardware to prove it.

Donald, a guide dog with off the charts intelligence, intuition and heart, is a finalist in the national competition to win the title of Hero Dog from the American Humane Society.

WGCUs Cary Barbor shares his story.

Give me a kiss.

Thank you.

Good boy.

This is Donald, the guide dog for Terry Gargano of Fort Myers.

Gargano is an Army veteran who now works for the Blind and Veterans Association.

Donald.

So legally blind herself, Gargano leans on Donald's top notch navigation skills for everyday tasks like walking through the grocery store and more difficult ones like flying with her around the country for her job.

He really knows what he's doing.

He loves to lead.

He anticipates problems and he just makes sure that I'm not stepping on sidewalks that are all ripped up or walking in front of cars.

He gives me my independence back to me.

When you go blind, you're fearful of falling.

And Donald is taking that fear away.

There you go, buddy.

Your liverwurst ice cream.

Voting for Hero Dog runs through September 15th at American humane.org.

In the service dog category.

The announcement for the winner will be revealed on January 9th.

So find the door out.

Good boy.

Donald.

And good luck.

In Fort Myers, I'm Carrie Barber, with help from Andrea melendez.

Such a good boy.

And you can learn more about Donald and cast a vote for him as part of the 15th Annual Hero Dog Awards on the American Humane Society website.

Well, Florida has taken steps to eliminate the vaccine mandate in school children.

Coming up next week, we try to get an understanding of the impact this could have regarding public health.

As we celebrate our very first year here at Southwest Florida in Focus, we wanted to thank all of our viewers who have supported us, sharing the stories that impact our community.

Please remember, you can find all of our content, including those extended interviews on the WGCU app.

We hope you have a great day and we'll see you right here next week.