The Housing Bubble

The Wall Street Journal reports on California. “Some mortgage companies such as New Century Financial are halting new loans to borrowers with blemished credit histories, while others are tightening lending standards. Some lenders are backing out of loan agreements, leaving borrowers scrambling for more expensive financing. Borrowers in the gray area between prime and subprime, a category known as Alt-A, are encountering tighter lending standards, as are buyers of investment properties.”

“‘Four or five months ago, I could get a loan for zero down,’ says Howard Shatsky of Los Angeles, who has been trying to secure financing for a real-estate investment. ‘It makes it hard for somebody without a very high credit score to get a loan,’ he says. ‘Right now, I’m a little nervous.’”

“‘If borrowers can’t afford to put any money down, they should stay out of the market,’ says Mitch Ohlbaum, a mortgage broker in Los Angeles. ‘You’re going to get so badly beat up on the rates and terms.’”

The New York Times. “Andrew D. Sobel in San Diego took out two mortgages to buy a $240,000 condominium in 2004 and is now facing its sale for $175,000. He could not afford higher monthly payments that took effect in September, when his loan was converted to a variable interest rate.”

“Countrywide, which services his loan, would not agree to modify the loan but was willing to accept the short sale. He could not refinance because the home is worth less than what he owes on the property. ‘There was never any effort to try to keep me in my home,’ he said.”

“‘If someone calls and says they want (to) do a 100 percent loan,’ said Jeff Jaye, a mortgage broker in San Jose, Calif., ‘my antenna goes up. My first question is ‘What’s your credit score?’”

The Contra Costa Times. “Realtor Christopher O’Brien is hoping the fifth time is a charm. His $449,950 listing in Pittsburg has been in escrow five times in the past three months after lenders canceled the subprime loans of four would-be buyers.”

“‘Most of the people, except the last buyer, had 100 percent financing,’ he said. ‘They had a pre-approved letter, but when they went back to the lender, they were told, ‘We’re not doing those loans anymore.’”

“‘Credit standards have been tightened,’ said Dustin Hobbs, spokesman for the California Mortgage Bankers Association. ‘There is going to be a lot more documentation required, with t’s crossed and i’s dotted.’”

“Although the East Bay has a relatively low rate of subprime loans because of higher housing costs that often push borderline borrowers to outlying areas, the rate was 10.6 percent as of December, significantly higher than San Francisco’s 5 percent.”

“California, as a whole, holds most, 22 percent, of the national subprime debt, said First American LoanPerfomance spokesman Bob Visini.”

“‘It’s essentially eliminating 15 (percent) to 20 percent of the market,’ said Ed Leamer, director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. ‘What drove the California marketplace wasn’t foreign borrowers but entry-level buyers helped into the market by exotic loans.’”

“For Ezequiel Rojas, a bilingual loan consultant with Stellar Home Loans in Concord, the bust of subprime is a mixed blessing. ‘They were always coming in and being aggressive. ‘Hey, you got something for me?’ he said. ‘They would always come in here and want to talk to you about your files. It got to the point I would leave the office to avoid them.’”

“Rojas said they would ask what loan they were working on and say they could cut a better rate without any documentation or credit history. Around January, Rojas noticed that the salespeople stopped coming by, and that’s when the criteria began to become strict. The days of no proof of income and no documentation loans were gone.”

“‘It’s going to have a huge impact on the Hispanic market,’ said Rojas, president of the Contra Costa chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. ‘Now the 100 percent financed loans are completely revolving around high credit scores.’”

“Rojas said he was aware that many of the problems came from unscrupulous brokers with loose requirements. Although he said he turned down people for loans, ‘There was always some subprime broker waiting in the wings.’”

“Now loans that are defaulting very quickly — within four months, according to LoanPerformance, could lead to large-scale foreclosures. The East Bay’s subprime loans that are late by 60 days or more rose from 2.1 percent in December 2004 to 12.4 in 2006, a sign of possible foreclosures to come, Visini said.”

“Economist Christopher Thornberg said the implosion was sped up by appreciation that stopped in mid-2006, but he said he doesn’t believe it’s a subprime issue. ‘It’s an adjustable-rate mortgage issue,’ he said. ‘Even in prime-rate ARMs you’re seeing spikes in foreclosures.’”

“‘We got a lot of people in a speculative mode, and that has huge consequences,’ he said.”

The Mercury News. “LoanCity, a wholesale mortgage lender based in San Jose, stopped funding loans as of Tuesday and will gradually lay off its approximately 350 employees, the company’s chief executive said Wednesday.”

“‘It’s just the tightening of the credit market,’ Rick Soukoulis, LoanCity’s founder and CEO said Wednesday. The company did not have enough working capital to adjust to the ‘warehouse’ banks’ new requirements, Soukoulis said.”

“Privately owned LoanCity, founded in 1999, funded about $6 billion in mortgages in 2006, Soukoulis said. It mostly loaned to borrowers with good credit - those known as ‘A’ and ‘Alt-A’ customers, he said.”

“Dennis Steinbach, owner of S&L Home Loans in San Jose, expects to see more wholesale lenders close or merge as banks tighten their lending criteria. ‘Every day this week I have gotten a notice from a lender who’s cutting off 100 percent financing programs of some kind,’ he said.”

From Bloomberg. “Some lenders say it’s high time that buyers are discouraged from buying real estate with no money down.”

“‘Could we have a little skin in the game from the borrower, please,’ said Rick Soukoulis, CEO at LoanCity, a San Jose, California-based lender that stopped making mortgages last week to customers who want to borrow more than 95 percent of the value of their house due to the shrinking secondary market. ‘Something to lose if you go into default?’

“LoanCity, which made about $6 billion in mortgages last year, went out of business on March 20.”

The Ventura County Star. “For the second year in a row, Ventura County’s population hardly grew at all, according to estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.”

“Young families fleeing high home prices appear to be the biggest reason for the meager half-percentage-point increase in population between 2005 and 2006 to 799,720 people.”

The Union Tribune. “For the fourth year in a row, San Diego County saw thousands more people leave for other destinations than relocate here, cementing its position as one of the nation’s top 10 losers in that category, new census figures reveal.”

“That ranking is all the more stunning given that two of the counties ahead of San Diego – Orleans Parish and St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana – were devastated in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina.”

“Between July 2005 and July 2006, 42,034 more people moved from San Diego County to other places in the country than came here from elsewhere in the nation, according to county population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.”

“Since 2000, the net number of people who moved out of the county is even more staggering – 119,636, a figure greater than Carlsbad’s population.”

“Other California counties joining San Diego County in the top 10 counties with the greatest migration losses are Orange and Los Angeles.”

“The continued movement from San Diego during the last few years parallels a prolonged run-up in housing prices and lagging incomes that have propelled large numbers of aspiring homeowners to seek less expensive areas where they can afford to buy a home.”

“Lois Howard, who’s moving in a few days from her spacious mobile home in Santee to a new house she is buying in Desert Hot Springs, said she searched in vain for an affordable place to buy in San Diego County after deciding to downsize.”

“‘I kept going further out and out from San Diego to see where I could own the land and afford something on that land, and this is so close to Palm Springs,’ said Howard, 75, who is purchasing a two-year-old, 1,100-square-foot home with a two-car garage for $185,000. ‘I have friends who are in similar situations and want to follow suit and do this.’”

“‘We just had a friend who moved to Texas because it’s less expensive. It’s just so expensive to live here,’ Howard said.”

“‘Right now, we’re looking at a slowdown but we’re not going to always be this slow over the next 23 years because our economics are still good and we don’t see a giant recession coming,’ said demographer Ed Shafer of the San Diego Association of Governments. ‘There’s a problem now in the housing market and to some extent this problem will wash out and housing might become more affordable in the region.’”

The Daily Press reports from Virginia. “The percentage of Hampton Roads subprime loans at least 60 days late, which are close to default, rose from 4.5 percent at the end of 2005 to 7 percent at the end of 2006. Adam White, a Virginia Beach attorney who serves as a trustee for foreclosures, said he had seen a big increase in the past year.”

“‘I have never seen an environment like the one we are currently in,’ he said, ‘with the rate of defaults and the volume of foreclosures. This is as bad as I’ve seen it in 18 years, and I think it’s going to get worse.’”

“New Century revealed in April 2005 that it had made more than 10,000 mortgage loans in Virginia totaling $1.75 billion. That lending clearly had just accelerated, with the company extending 4,000 loans worth more than $720 million in the previous year.”

“White said he was amazed at how many people were extended credit who couldn’t handle it. He said he knew this reckoning would eventually come in the wake of lax lending standards. ‘All of the gloom and doom that everyone was predicting a year ago is occurring because of reckless lending practices,’ White said.”

“Housing prices rose slowly last year in Hampton Roads, but the number of houses sold each month was down from 2005 as an oversupply built up. White is seeing fewer investors making bids for homes hitting foreclosure.”

“These properties are getting sold by the lenders at discounts, so they can get their money back as quickly as possible. White said, ‘They’re putting downward pressure on the sales price.’”

The News Leader from Virginia. “Despite the recent nationwide housing correction, area real estate insiders say the Staunton-Waynesboro-Augusta County market is still seeing strong growth, both in terms of units sold and the price for which they were traded.”

“Thanks to a high inventory of homes on the market now, ‘there’s more inventory for buyers to select from,’ said Fred Morgan, immediate past-president of the Greater Augusta Association of Realtors. That’s particularly good news for buyers.”

“Morgan sees a ‘normalized’ market in 2007. ‘I don’t think we’re going to experience the frenzy of activity we saw in 2004, 2005 and early 2006,’ he said.”

“‘With all the incoming businesses and growth not only in Augusta County but from what I hear is coming in across the mountain and in Rockingham County, we’re in great shape,’ said Pat Rexrode, current GAAR president.”

The Virginia Pilot. “For the fourth year in a row, the Census Bureau says, Norfolk is shrinking. Virginia Beach, too, for the second year in a row. Is that possible? Are Virginia’s two most populous cities really losing residents?”

“Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim laughed when told about the new census estimates. ‘The Beach is growing,’ he said. ‘And so is Norfolk.’”

The Washington Post. “The galloping growth of Washington’s outer Virginia suburbs is slowing at last, according to Census Bureau estimates to be released today, with high housing costs beginning to dull the appeal of counties that have long been a magnet for newcomers.”

“The shift brings Northern Virginia in line with the District and Maryland, where Montgomery County’s growth rate continued to slow and growth in two other counties, Anne Arundel and Prince George’s, stagnated in 2006.”

“In Anne Arundel, where census figures indicate a net loss of 97 people, county demographer Kavi Maddula said that the county issued more than 2,300 building permits during the year, a figure that suggested to him that the population had grown.”

“‘I haven’t seen this data, but I would be surprised if those numbers were correct,’ said Maddula5. ‘If it were losing population, I don’t think we would have the kind of activity that we’ve had in residential and nonresidential construction.’”

The Philadelphia Inquirer from Pennsylvania. “A borrower with a credit score of 580 can no longer get 100 percent financing, said Ricky Boone, a Trevose mortgage broker. ‘Nobody will buy it,’ he said of the investors. ‘People now looking to buy houses, they are going to have to have more down-payment money.’”

“‘There’s nothing left. It all disappeared in a heartbeat,’ said Bill Metalsky, a loan officer with Creative Mortgage Group Inc., of Willow Grove, which had 15 percent to 20 percent of its business in the subprime arena.”

“Metalsky said he had a customer with a very low credit score, but a 20 percent down payment. It would have been easy to find a lender at the beginning of the year. ‘Now I can’t find anybody. Now I would have to have 40′ percent down, he said.”

The Phillyburbs from Pennsylvania. “The area’s inventory of unsold homes was up in February, to 3,646, from 2,526 a year ago, and from 3,389 in January. At January’s sales pace, that means there’s a 10.2-month supply of homes on the market.”

“The average house sold in February sat on the market for 68 days before receiving an offer, a 119 percent increase from the 31 days the average house took to sell a year ago.”

“Many real-estate insiders say days-on-the-market figures understate how long it actually takes houses to sell, because Realtors regularly pull slow-moving homes off the market and re-list them to make it appear they haven’t been for sale for too long.”

“In Bucks County, sales of new homes were off 36 percent in January. There’s little sign of a market turnaround in building permit data. Permits for single-family homes pulled by developers fell 40 percent in Bucks County in January, and 30 percent in Montgomery County. February data is not yet available.”

The Star Ledger from New Jersey. “Mark and Debbie File’s dream home is $8,000 from completion. That includes the two air conditioning units stolen last fall. And the stainless-steel refrigerator and microwave that were ripped from the walls over Labor Day weekend, perhaps, as Mark File suspects, by a contractor angry that the builder, Kara Homes, was behind on payments.”

“The rest of the development, Horizons at Birch Hill in Old Bridge, is much the same, partially finished and in disarray. While ‘No Trespassing’ has been spray painted on the boarded-up garage doors of unfinished homes, it has done little to deter vandals. One was so brazen he stole the front door off a unit.”

“Kara has yet to file a reorganization plan, although the bankruptcy court judge last week ordered the Old Bridge-based company to file one within 30 days or start making interest payments on its $230 million in construction debt.”

“‘Every day we delay upsets a group of people, except these people who are making $500 an hour,’ said Birch Hill homeowner Alan Ross. ‘The longer this site sits, the more undesirable it gets.’”

Some housing bubble reports from Wall Street and Washington. “KB Home reported Thursday that first-quarter profit dropped 84% and cautioned that problems in subprime mortgages and imposition of stricter lending standards may put more stress on what’s already a wobbly market. ‘It is hard to predict when the housing markets will stabilize,’ said Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger.”

“‘Profit margins on our 2007 first-quarter deliveries were constricted due to the persistent imbalance in housing supply and demand that is fueling intense competition and pricing pressure among home builders and other participants in the new home and resale markets,’ the CEO said in a statement. ‘We believe these conditions will likely continue for at least the remainder of 2007,’ he said.”

“‘Moreover, recent problems in the subprime mortgage market combined with tightening credit requirements could exacerbate the already-difficult conditions in the home-building industry,’ the CEO said.”

“‘The rise in delinquency and foreclosure rates may increase the supply of homes on the market, generating additional downward pressure on prices,’ he added.”

From Bloomberg. “‘Having now entered the spring selling season, we continue to observe instability in the marketplace,’ Mezger said.”

“Orders declined 12 percent to 7,677 because of weakness in Arizona and the central U.S., which the company defines as Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana and Texas. The average selling price fell 5.4 percent to $261,400 a year earlier.”

The LA Times. “As risky home loans soared in popularity in recent years, federal banking regulators were repeatedly warned that more borrowers were getting trapped in mortgages they could not afford. The Fed and other regulators issued stricter lending guidelines. But observers were stunned that the rules excluded adjustable-rate mortgages with low initial teaser rates.”

“‘Nobody was home,” said housing policy expert Michael A. Stegman. ‘None of the regulators were home.’”

“‘It was very clear that the standards had deteriorated,’ said David A. Lereah, chief economist of the National Assn. of Realtors. ‘I’m not a lender though. I kept on saying to myself — I guess they know what they’re doing.’”

“Two years ago, former New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer launched an investigation into mortgage lending practices. But instead of backing Spitzer’s demand for lending records from three national banks, the Comptroller of the Currency filed suit seeking to block the probe.”

“In October 2005, a federal judge forced Spitzer to drop his investigation. ‘Spitzer was concerned about the consumers — and the federal regulators were concerned about the banks,’ said John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which took Spitzer’s side in the case.”

“‘Abusive’ lending and fraud helped fuel a surge in subprime mortgage defaults, the regulator of the biggest U.S. banks told senators probing federal agencies’ response to trouble in the markets.”

“Emory Rushton, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s senior deputy comptroller, told the Senate Banking Committee in Washington today that the OCC is working to correct lending standards that have slipped.”

“‘It is clear that some subprime lenders have engaged in abusive practices, and we share the committee’s strong concerns about them,’ Rushton said in prepared remarks. ‘We are now confronting adverse conditions in the subprime mortgage market, including disturbing but not unpredictable increases in the rates of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures.’”

From Reuters. “Sen. Christopher Dodd on Wednesday laid blame for the subprime mortgage market crisis at the feet of federal regulators. The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee said in a statement that ‘a pattern of neglect by federal bank regulators … precipitated the subprime mortgage crisis that could cause 2.2 million homeowners to lose their homes.’”

“Dodd said that in late 2003 and early 2004, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s internal analysts noticed lending standards were slipping, raising default and foreclosure risks.”

“At around the same time, he said, Fed leadership was encouraging the development of alternative mortgages, such as adjustable rate mortgages.”

“‘Soon thereafter, the Fed embarked on 17 consecutive interest rate increases, meaning that people with ARMs were now facing substantial payment shocks in the future,’ he said.”

The Associated Press. “Dodd said he wanted to know why it took the regulators more than three years to act ‘despite evidence that they themselves identified problems in the subprime market.’”

From MarketWatch. “Roger Cole, the director of the Fed’s banking supervision and regulation division, warned in congressional testimony that more borrowers may face problems. ‘Some borrowers are clearly experiencing significant and personal challenges, and more subprime borrowers may join these ranks in the coming months,’ Cole said.”

“‘Our nation’s financial regulators were supposed to be the cops on the beat,’ said Dodd.’Yet, they were spectators for far too long. The fact that the country’s financial regulators could allow these loans to be made for years after warning flags appeared is…unconscionable.’”

“The chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee said on Thursday that he plans legislation on predatory lending, but that the solution to the problem of Americans facing foreclosure on their mortgages may not be legislative.”

“‘The solution to this problem may not be legislative. Instead, I would seek to ask leaders from all the stakeholders … to come together and try to work out an efficient process providing some relief for these homeowners who will be caught in this bind,’ Sen. Christopher Dodd said.”

“Congress should not bail out subprime lenders and brokers who made risky mortgage loans to borrowers with bad credit, but lawmakers can take several steps to protect consumers going forward, a representative of the Conference of State Bank Supervisors said on Thursday.”

“‘I strongly encourage Congress to avoid using taxpayer funds to bail out the subprime lenders, brokers and investors that generated our current problem,’ Joseph Smith, the North Carolina Commissioner of Banks, said in remarks prepared for a Senate hearing.”

“Some traders who predicted declines in shares of New Century Financial Corp., NovaStar Financial Inc. and Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. say such stocks may fall further as loan delinquencies increase and demand for mortgage-backed securities wanes.”

“‘The subprime guys are history,’ said Steven Persky, CEO of the $1.1 billion Los Angeles-based hedge fund Dalton Investments LLC, which began shorting shares of subprime lenders two years ago. ‘They’re ultimately going to have to file’ for bankruptcy.”

“‘The lending standards had loosened to the point where virtually anybody could get a loan and the borrowers had little or no skin in the game,’ said Brian Horey, general partner at Aurelian Partners LP in New York, which has shorted New Century, Accredited, and Fremont General Corp.”

“‘If you couldn’t sell something, you wouldn’t do it either,’ UBS analyst David Liu in New York said. Part of the problem is falling demand for ‘piggyback’ home-equity loans used to make down payments, he said.”

“Citigroup will no longer buy home-equity loans made to borrowers who won’t prove their incomes and want more than 95 percent of their home’s value, according to e-mails from salespeople.”

“Countrywide Financial, the nation’s top home lender, this month stopped making any loans with down payments of less than 5 percent when borrowers are ’stating’ both income and assets.”

“‘People are adults and made choices in their lives because they wanted to own a home of their own,’ Countrywide Financial CEO Angelo Mozilo said. ‘America’s great because people can make those decisions for themselves. The complaints about the loans only came when the opportunity for enrichment was gone’ because home prices flattened out.”

The Miami Herald reports from Florida. “In January, the developers of condo project 2 Midtown announced they would build 455 units instead of 459. That’s all it took for buyers Barry and Rachel Craemer to declare their contract void a week later and demand their $117,000 deposit back. The buyers for 47 units have sent such letters, and the builder is determined not to let any of them out.”

“The tension is rising as closing day approaches for the roughly 25,000 new condos expected this year and next. This may be the beginning of the ‘interesting period,’ said real-estate analyst Michael Cannon.”

“Attorney Gary Saul, who represents developers for 2 Midtown and other projects, said that six months ago he didn’t receive any letters from buyers wanting out. Now they’re coming from 10 percent of the buyers in buildings, sometimes as much as 20 percent.”

“‘The scary thing is, people who have flaked on me tell me they have like five other contracts in other buildings under construction,’ said developer Gregg Covin.”

“‘These are not people who have been wronged,’ Saul said. ‘These are flippers who wouldn’t be saying anything if the market was going well.’ To which Rachel Craemer replied: ‘Who are they to decide? The person who makes the determination should be the buyer, not the seller.’”

“Developers in turn are worried that if they give one buyer a break, they will lose the building. With their support, legislation is pending in Tallahassee that would make it tougher for buyers to get out of condo contracts.”

“‘If I am a developer and you come to me with your lawyer and I let you out, the first thing that lawyer does is tell everyone else in the building, ‘I can get you out, too,’ said Miami attorney John Sumberg, who represents builders.”

“At 2 Midtown, buyer Susan Linnell of Burlington, Vt., is among those seeking to get out. She said the developer did not respond for months to her queries about when she could see her two-bedroom unit or the date to close. ‘I couldn’t get any information out of them,’ said Linnell, a real-estate agent. ‘The whole thing started to have a really bad feeling.’”

The Naples News. “Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A few years ago, Collier County ranked as the second-fastest-growing county in the nation. But U.S. Census figures set for release today reveal that Collier is now the 97th fastest-growing county, based on growth from 2000 to 2006.”

“Fewer people coming to Collier has created a situation in which many homes aren’t selling, said Bob Murray, chairman of the economic development council of the East Naples Civic Association. With home prices dropping, families now are able to buy homes that couldn’t afford a home here before, Murray said.”

“‘I’ve watched people drop $50,000 off the price of homes they are selling,’ he said.”

“With so many homes up for sale, Collier could remain in a real estate slump longer than a lot of other communities. ‘I have 18 units up for sale,’ Murray said. ‘They’ve been up for sale for six to eight months. People aren’t buying because the cost is too high.’”

“According to a census report released today, about 18,000 more people left Broward than moved in from other states. ‘Housing costs are out of whack, and there isn’t an acceptable balance between cost of living and incomes here right now,’ said Bill Leonard, senior planner for Broward County.”

The Orlando Sentinel. “The torrid pace of growth in Central Florida has slowed. The net increase in residents in the region fell by more than 20,000 last summer, a Census Bureau report out today shows.”

“‘One complaint I have heard is that companies are having a difficult time recruiting people to work because they can’t find a place to live in Seminole County,’ said Bill McDermott, economic-development director. ‘When I hear that, that’s not good news. That’s really not good news.’”

The Sun Sentinel. “Business leaders and demographers worry that soaring living costs have placed Palm Beach County and South Florida beyond the grasp of average families.”

“‘We have major problems with people being able to afford homes in Palm Beach County, but it’s not because of the housing market. The crisis is in our taxes and insurance,’ William Cozart, CEO of the Realtors Association of Palm Beach County. ‘Buyers actually have wonderful choices, but they soon realize their mortgage payments are not as high as their property taxes and insurance. It’s devastating and worsens the economy. It makes it difficult for businesses to recruit people to live here.’”

The Palm Beach Post. “Here’s an early look at local existing home sales for February, which come out Friday from the Florida Association of Realtors. The inventory of unsold homes rose to a near-record high of 23,713, nearly on par with September’s peak of 23,886. Inventory stood at 17,842 in February 2006, making last month’s tally of unsold homes a 33 percent increase year-over- year.”

“February sales declined 44 percent, year over year, to 623 from 1,106 in February 2006. At the current sales pace, the inventory represents a 38-month supply of homes.”

“‘Given the very large supply glut evident in these figures, I suspect we’ll end up with a lot of disappointed sellers this spring,’ said analyst Mike Larson.”

The Herald Tribune. “Florida and federal regulatory agencies, including the FBI, are digging into the real estate-related mess that started with the collapse of St. Petersburg-based Construction Compliance Inc.”

“Tampa investor Zanuel Johnson said he found himself in the midst of six federal and state investigators asking questions about the particulars of his home investment. Steve Hatch, a Pennsylvania investor who bought a home from Construction Compliance and financed it through Coast Bank of Bradenton, said he has received a similar request by mail recently from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation in Tampa.”

“Johnson, a Tampa-based account executive with troubled national sub-prime lender New Century Mortgage Corp., signed a contract to buy a home in Cape Coral built by Enchanted Homes and financed through Coast with American Mortgage Link as the loan’s originator.”

“The loan was made by Coast subject to documents that Johnson says were falsified by someone to show that he made a $43,000 escrow deposit.”

“‘We’re talking to folks to find out what they were told and what information they were given,’ said C. Benton Eisenbach Jr., area financial manager for the Office of Financial Regulation in Tampa. ‘We can see the documents from the record, but that doesn’t tell me what these people believed.’”

The Gulf News Breeze. “As the destructive hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 become more of a memory, real estate professionals are predicting 2007 will be the year the deflated housing market rebounds to a state of normalcy.”

“‘With the spring, which is always the case, things are heating up,’ said broker Mark Lee. Lee should know a little something about market trends, as he has 25 years of experience in real estate.”

“‘It’s still kind of a standoff between sellers and buyers,’ Lee said. ‘The sellers aren’t willing to lower their prices and the buyers are not willing to pay the price the sellers have. When sellers do lower their prices, there’s definitely going to be a market out there.’”

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