It’s no secret that the state of Florida has one of the highest rates of abandoned houses in the nation. The housing boom of the late 1990s produced a wave of construction projects promising investors big returns if they would simply build the houses. When the bust occurred some 10 years later many of those same investors were left with empty houses they could not sell. As a result, neighborhoods with large numbers of abandoned homes are seeing property values plummet; a scenario making an already bad situation worse.

Helping to stem that tide is a new bill recently introduced in the Florida House of Representatives. The bill, which got a unanimous 5-0 vote to take it out of committee, is one that reaches a good compromise between property owners and banks. The Senate bill, which was introduced on February 21 2012, is fairly similar. If both are passed and can be reconciled it would mean the implementation of several new regulations that would help get abandoned homes off the foreclosure rolls and back on the market.

For example, one of the bill’s key provisions reduces the amount of time lenders will have to wait before beginning the foreclosure process. This will ostensibly speed things up and get these abandoned properties ready for sale more quickly. Another provision would reduce the amount of time a bank can pursue a borrower. Currently that can be done for up to five years after foreclosure has begun. The bill would reduce that to one year, allowing affected homeowners to move on and start over.

So far the proposed legislation has the support of banks, homebuilders, and mortgage lenders. It would seem the only detractors are consumer advocates who claim it would place too much burden on homeowners. Yet in all those claims there’s been no explanation as to how homeowners would be adversely affected.

It appears as though the point of the legislation is to get the state’s housing market going again by finding new occupants for the abandoned and foreclosed homes. Although the final details of the legislation won’t be worked out until both chambers have passed it, it stands to reason that anything that can help get these abandoned homes back in the market is a good thing. Remember, we’re not talking about homes in which people are still residing and trying to work things out. These are homes that sit empty day after day, week after week, month after month.

Furthermore, it also stands to reason that if the legislation can help restore the real estate market in Florida the state economy would follow. The housing market plays such a pivotal role in consumer confidence that it simply makes no sense to continue with the status quo which allows so many abandoned homes to sit empty. Statistics show that 30% of all houses in the state’s most depressed markets are sitting empty. This legislation is designed to solve that problem and get Florida’s economy rolling again.