The Housing Bubble

The BBC News reports on California. “In a large, featureless convention centre 40 miles east of Los Angeles, more than 1,000 people have gathered early on a Sunday morning. More than 100 houses are up for sale here and every two to three minutes a property goes under the hammer. Similar auctions of repossessed houses are taking place nearly every weekend in California, where banks are cutting their losses from millions of dollars of bad debt.”

“There are bargains to be had. One man says he paid $375,000 for a house valued at $616,000. Lot 132 was a five-bedroom family home with a pool and three-car garage on La Salle Circle, Corona.”

“It was expected to fetch some $400,000. In the end Cornelius Foster and Debra Moore paid $500,000 for it; still less than the $700,000 it was originally valued at. ‘We’re very excited,’ Cornelius says. ‘It’s got a pool and we’re looking forward to getting in and fixing it up. I’m smiling today.’”

“In one house on La Salle Circle, two days before its auction, an estate agent’s sign outside proudly proclaims ’selling the American Dream since 1969.’”

“But, as estate agent Julie Bruckner tours the property with its chandelier in the living room and a huge walk-in closet upstairs, she is well aware of a poignant irony. ‘There are so many in this area that are vacant.’”

“The Corona area has the third highest rate of foreclosures, or repossessions, in the United States. On La Salle Circle at least three properties were empty, awaiting sale.”

“One local resident is Jeanette Lovell, a British expat. She and her husband are not in mortgage difficulties, yet she was still worried about her own home’s value. ‘We may have to relocate for my husband’s job,’ Ms Lovell says. ‘And I know that our house has lost $150,000 in value in 18 months - if we can sell it at all.’”

“Cindy Robinson, another resident of La Salle Circle, predicts more problems: ‘You get graffiti,’ she says. ‘And then white collar crime.’”

The Desert Sun. “In a rare flash of optimism, two UCLA economists Tuesday forecast that California, while experiencing a ’slightly slower’ economy, will not sink into recession.”

“The UCLA economists noted that, nationally, housing construction starts had fallen from 2.3 million units in January 2006 to 1 million last January. ‘Never before have we had this kind of collapse in housing that was not accompanied by a recession,’ they wrote. ‘This time is different.’”

“‘I think they’re wrong,’ said John Husing, president of Economics and Politics Inc. of Redlands. ‘I think we are in a recession. As much as anything else, if you look at the volume of containers going through the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which is a precursor of what retailers are expecting, you’ll see that in 2006, the number of containers went up 900,000. Last year, it was down 15,000. Since 1990, the number has never gone down.’”

“Husing added he had ‘no doubt the Inland Empire will be in a recession in 2008. Last year, there were just 596 jobs added to the work force. The year before 44,200 were added. This year, the number will be probably negative. I’ve studied this economy for 44 years and the number has never been negative.’”

“Meanwhile, two professors from USC added to the real estate gloom by predicting that because of demographics, the slowdown could last two more decades. Dowell Myers, a professor of urban planning and demography, said as the baby-boomers age, they will become home-sellers rather than buyers.”

“Myers and Sungho Ryu, a doctoral candidate at USC’s School of Policy, Planning and Development, said that once the baby-boomers begin selling, ‘it could dominate the market for up to two decades.’”

The Record Searchlight. “Rachel Carrino knows that when times are tough, specialty retailers are the first to feel the budget crunch.”

“‘We are a want’ store, not a need’ store, so we are kind of the last place on everyone’s list,’ said Carrino, whose Candle Connection in the Mt. Shasta Mall has seen declining sales since the fall. ‘The biggest telltale sign was Christmas. I usually do so well at Christmas; it gets me through the year.’”

“Carrino isn’t going out of business, but this year, holiday sales at Candle Connection were down about 35 percent from 2006. The drop has forced Carrino to take a close look at her budget and figure out how she’s going to make it to Christmas 2008.”

“‘I feel lucky because I am still in business, but I will tell you if something doesn’t happen soon — I know of businesses that are on the edge,’ Carrino said.”

“Consultant Scott Camp, who does marketing and special projects for the Greater Redding Chamber of Commerce, said anecdotally the economy has gotten worse for north state retailers since the holidays.”

“‘Some of the most bulletproof businesses in town have been hit hard by a variety of influences,’ Camp said.”

“‘This is economic Darwinism,’ Dan Ansell, chairman of Greenberg Traurig LLP’s real estate operations division, told the AP. ‘Those retailers and businesses that have a product that is desired by consumers will survive, and those who do not will not.’”

The San Mateo County Times. “Home sales continued to fall in San Mateo County in February, as tighter lending standards and waning consumer confidence pulled buyers from the market. Home sales sagged 22 percent compared with February 2007, according to the San Mateo County Association of Realtors.”

“‘Buyers are feeling uncomfortable with the market, and their confidence in the economy is low,’ said Denise Aquila, a real estate agent in San Carlos. ‘It’s very frightening to think of buying now, and in two years the house is worth less than you paid for it.’”

“Aquila said lenders’ guidelines and rates are changing daily, causing confusion for buyers. Throw in high gas prices and relentless company layoffs, and buyer confidence is on the decline, Aquila said.”

“As foreclosures continue rising around the county — they were up threefold in January — home prices continue to be dragged down dramatically in blue-collar areas such as Daly City, San Bruno and South San Francisco.”

“In Daly City, the median price of a home in February was $577,450, down more than $150,000 from $743,000 in February 2007. The median price in South San Francisco was $608,500 in February, down from $766,250 in February 2007.”

“‘Banks are dumping foreclosed homes on the market in Daly City and San Bruno, just to get them off the books,’ Aquila said. ‘That’s pushing down the value of homes in the neighborhoods of the foreclosures.’”

“Parts of East Palo Alto and eastern San Mateo are also seeing home prices fall due to foreclosure problems, he said. In Belmont, where 25 or 30 homes typically sell in a month, only five sold in February, Diridon said.”

“Many offers accepted are below the asking price, the report shows. In many cases, the selling price is down 10 percent or more, especially in working-class neighborhoods. The median price of a condominium in the county was $485,000 in February, down from $558,000 in February 2007.”

“‘The areas where first-time home buyers stretched to get in are really hurting,’ said Tom Diridon, a broker in Belmont. ‘A lot of those people shouldn’t have been first-time buyers.’”

The Daily Press. “Prices of existing homes in the Victor Valley dropped 4 percent last month and almost seven out of 10 homes sold locally in February were bank owned, according to a report released Monday.”

“Since February 2007, Victor Valley home prices have tumbled 34.6 percent, according to figures compiled from the Victor Valley MLS by Larry Trombley of Century 21 Rose Realty in Hesperia.”

“According to the listings, last month was the worst February for the Victor Valley housing market in at least 11 years.”

“Only five percent of homes on the market sold in February, with the average sales price topping $215,000. The average price per square foot ranged from $96 in Adelanto to $167 in Spring Valley Lake.”

“‘We haven’t hit the tip,’ said Carolyn McNamara, owner of The McNamara Group real estate company. ‘I think we’re going to continue to decline, but I’m hoping it will slow down in the next three to four months.’”

Some housing bubble news from Wall Street and Washington. Bloomberg, “Hovnanian Enterprises Inc., New Jersey’s biggest homebuilder, on Monday reported its sixth consecutive quarterly loss. The loss widened to $131 million in the fiscal first quarter, which ended Jan. 31, the Red Bank-based builder said. The cash pinch has forced Hovnanian to slash prices in order to generate revenue. The company is trying to negotiate loan amendments before debt waivers expire Friday, Hovnanian has said.”

“I’t’s hard to couch this. They may not make it through 2008,’ said Vicki Bryan, a senior high-yield analyst for New York-based Gimme Credit LLC. ‘The only way to generate cash is to sell inventory, and if you’ve cut your prices, then you’ve cut the value of your collateral, which is your unsold homes.’”

From MarketWatch. “Hovnanian’s net contracts in the fiscal first quarter fell 41% to 1,511 contracts. The cancellation rate declined slightly to 38% from 40% in the fourth quarter.”

“CEO Ara Hovnanian during a television interview Tuesday said he can’t say the housing market has hit bottom and is ready for a recovery. ‘It’s not here at the moment yet,’ he told CNBC.”

“The Multifamily Condo Market Index ended 2007 on a low note, with the component of the index tracking builder confidence in current conditions standing at 18.8, down nearly 11 points from the same time a year ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders.”

“‘Given that the condo market became so overheated during the peak of the housing boom, it is not surprising that the market now continues to struggle, considering the difficulties in the mortgage sector and the fears about the economy in general,’ said David Seiders, NAHB’s Chief Economist. ‘It is going to take time for the extra inventory to be absorbed.’”

“A rating of 50 generally indicating that the number of positive responses is about the same as the number of negative responses. The component of the index that gauges current conditions in the condo market has not risen above 25 during any quarter of 2007.”

“About two-thirds of builders reported lowering prices to bolster sales. The average price reduction was 11 percent. More than 70 percent of the respondents reported including optional items at no costs, paying closing costs or fees, or absorbing financial points for their buyers.”

The Associated Press. “The loan you qualify for on Monday might be out of reach on Tuesday. Bankers and lenders are rapidly changing their requirements as home sales and prices plummet and delinquencies and defaults rise.”

“‘The market is reinventing itself daily,’ said Les Berman, president of the California Association of Mortgage Brokers and owner of Beverly Hills-based EB Financial. ‘I did my first loan in 1971 and have never seen anything like this.’”

“In early 2007, homebuyers with credit scores in the low 600s were able to get a mortgage that required no down payment simply by stating their income. Now, a credit score below 680 is a red flag that subjects the prospective borrower to higher rates and special fees.”

“‘Credit is the gateway right now,’ said Dan Green, a certified mortgage planning specialist. ‘Weak credit is cost-prohibitive.’”

“And regardless of credit score, customers are going to have to provide proof of income and assets in the bank. Lenders have drastically reduced the amount of money they will lend on any given purchase and also their maximum loan-to-value ratios.”

“Last year, a borrower could get complete financing on a $300,000 home with a mortgage alone or in combination with a home- equity loan or a line of credit. Today, the same borrower likely needs $60,000 for a down payment or will face large fees and higher interest rates.”

“Prices have dropped since last year when Greg Sax bought his St. Paul, Minn., home. But the 37-year-old first-time home buyer still feels lucky he made the move when he did. He was able to finance his purchase with no money down. And after talking with real-estate professionals…he’s not so sure he’d be able to secure that 100% financing today.”

“‘If we had to put 10% or 20% down, we’d probably still be renting,’ he said.”

“Borrowers today are going to have to verify their income and verify their financial assets to lenders, said Frank Nothaft, chief economist for Freddie Mac. ‘It’s the standards of maybe a decade ago,’ he said.”

“According to Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance, a first-time buyer in many markets will soon need even more money down — perhaps 10%. ‘And I think before too long we’re going to see it up to 15% to 20%,’ he added.”

All Headline News. “As the mortgage crisis is expected to worsen in the coming days, homeowners who could no longer keep up with monthly amortizations will simply mail in their keys, indicating willingness to give up their homes.”

“Most of these borrowers are those who are indebted more than the value of their houses. Instead of attempting to arrange another payment scheme, they would rather throw the key in. The home abandonments are felt most in California, Florida and Nevada, areas marked by steep price declines.”

“Freddie Mac says over half of owners of foreclosed homes did not answer the calls or letters of their lenders. An MBA analysis reveals that 23 percent of such types of loans were to mortgagees who no longer had contact with their lenders, while 18 percent more were to absentee homeowners.”

“The dollar fell to a record (low) per euro as firms from Citigroup Inc. to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the Federal Reserve’s plan to inject $200 billion into the banking system may fail to break the freeze in money-market lending.”

“‘The Fed is probably running out of options; the market is fixated on interest-rate differentials, which are clearly negative for the dollar,’ said Paresh Upadhyaya, who helps manage $50 billion in currency assets as a senior vice president at Putnam Investments.”

“‘There is a reasonable risk that this Fed move reflects the depth of their concern with U.S. asset markets, not a Fed formula to resolve U.S. asset- market difficulties,’ analysts led by Daniel Tenengauzer, New York-based head of global currency strategy at Merrill Lynch & Co., wrote in a research note today.”

From Reuters. “A central bank plan to infuse the financial system with new cash is a temporary fix for the debilitated U.S. mortgage bond and housing markets, but not a cure.”

“‘This is a tourniquet, it will staunch the bleeding, but it may not turn us around and bring the patient to health,’ said Susan Wachter, real estate and finance professor at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.”

“‘This is designed to stop in its tracks what might otherwise be an old fashioned credit crunch where the banks simply themselves seize up,’ Wachter said. ‘It’s not a sure fire end of the crisis by any means.’”

“This will be the first time the Fed takes non-agency residential mortgage bonds as auction collateral in its latest effort to add market liquidity. It already accepts this kind of paper as collateral from banks that borrow directly from the U.S. central bank at the discount window.”

“The Fed’s decision not to buy MBS outright limits the long-term upside for the bonds, several analysts agreed. The spread between benchmark 10-year Treasury notes that guides 30-year mortgage rates rose to 2.46 percentage points at the end of February from about 2.03 points a month earlier.”

“The larger gap indicates lenders, which have seen lower prices on their loans in the MBS market, have been less willing to trim mortgage rates.”

“‘The immediate effect is nothing more than psychological,’ Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com, said of the Fed’s plan.”

“‘The success of today’s Fed announcement is something that will be judged over the next several months and it will perhaps be best judged by looking at the spread between Treasury yields and rates for both conforming, as well as jumbo mortgages,’ he added. ‘Both spreads have grown to the widest levels in decades just in recent weeks.’”

“Glarushiah Davis is afraid she’ll lose her home because of an alleged predatory lending scheme. The 62-year-old retired social worker refinanced her $122,000 four-bedroom home in Minnesota four years ago, after a call from a lender.”

“Since then, interests rates on her mortgage have ballooned, doubling her monthly payment of $750 to nearly $1,500, which she said she can’t make much longer.”

“‘It is society’s problem when you have families on the street,’ she said. ‘I’ve worked. I’ve paid taxes. I vote. Yet we’re the ones getting shafted.’”

“Davis was one of nearly one hundred protesters with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, who stormed a Mortgage Bankers Association convention at a downtown Chicago hotel on Tuesday afternoon.”

“The activists, wearing red T-shirts, chanting with megaphones and carrying signs, disrupted a PowerPoint presentation and presented a list of demands, including a foreclosure prevention bill.”

“‘Save our homes!’ the protesters, who were from Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan, yelled while circling dozens of bankers in suits.”

The Orlando Sentinel reports from Florida. “The Orlando Regional Realtor Association reported that its members sold 922 houses and condominiums in February, 40.2 percent fewer than changed hands in February 2007. Combined with the revised total of 813 homes sold in January, it was the worst start to a sales year since January-February 1997. Steven Moriera, president of the Orlando Realtors group, said he thinks the year-over-year declines are beginning to moderate; the 40.2 percent drop in February was the smallest in six months.”

“‘The market isn’t moving down very much now, nor is it moving up,’ he said. ‘We believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but we don’t know how long the tunnel might be.’”

“Moriera said sellers have finally begun to lower their asking prices to reflect the market’s retreat from all-time highs reached several years ago during the nationwide homebuying frenzy.”

“‘They are becoming more realistic,’ he said. ‘There is an understanding that someone who is pricing a house at what it was worth last year has very little chance of selling.’”

“The number of houses for sale in the Realtors’ database rose by 260 in February to 25,984 — an inventory that would take more than 28 months to sell at the current sales pace.”

“‘There are houses in Windermere where people paid $1 million for a house and they got a $700,000 loan, and now their houses aren’t worth the value of the loan,’ said Austin Jones, an appraiser in Orlando.”

“From downtown Orlando condos to raw land and homes near the beaches, the ‘bid-calling’ patter of auctioneers has been picking up speed in Central Florida and across the country. Privately run real-estate auctions are gaining ground as the economy sours, even as courthouse sales fail to attract bidders.”

“Home builder Christopher Wardlow in St. Cloud said he recently decided to try to raffle off two houses he built on east Lake Toho. It is a desperation strategy, he concedes.”

“‘I’m not trying to make a profit. I’m just trying to avoid taking a loss,’ said Wardlow. He built the two houses on the lake as ’spec homes’ last year. But now the homes are 95 percent complete and regular sales effort through a national real-estate company failed to generate enough interest or offers high enough to cover the bank debt, Wardlow said.”

“He said he needs to raise about $655,000 to cover the loans for the two homes and the two lots, and anything raised beyond that would be donated to charity. The raffle tickets are $250 apiece. Wardlow said he needs to sell at least 3,000, to cover costs and the debt to make it work.”

“So far, he’s sold about 60 in the past few weeks, with four weeks to go. And four of the tickets went to the fellow who installed the granite countertops in the homes.”

The Palm Beach Post. “The overbuilt real estate market has dragged the Treasure Coast into a recession, but the end is within sight, economic and real estate experts said on Tuesday.”

“‘We’ll kind of get past this housing market,’ said economist Hank Fishkind. ‘Already, I believe, we can see the shape of the bottom.’”

“But even he - a self-proclaimed optimist who lists major developers among clients - conceded that the economy appears to be in a recession. ‘We have a classic kind of cyclical downturn in Florida,’ said Fishkind.”

“On the residential side, quarter-acre lots in Port St. Lucie that sold for about $80,000 two or three years ago are now selling for $25,000-$30,000, said Pat Murphy, president of Fort Pierce-based Hoyt C. Murphy Realtors Inc.”

“Murphy’s firm is handling a lot of foreclosure sales, and he noted another upside on that front. About 80 percent of the foreclosures were investor-owned homes, and about 80 percent of the buyers picking them up plan to live in them, Murphy said.”

“Fishkind has dramatically tempered his outlook since he spoke at the same conference in 2006. Then, he told attendees that Florida’s robust population growth would absorb the surplus homes on the market within nine months or a year. Two years later, the inventory has only grown.”

“Fishkind conceded Tuesday that Florida would lose some of its growth to the Carolinas. But he estimated that the Sunshine State would continue to add between 200,000 and 400,000 new residents a year.”

“‘Florida’s not over,’ Fishkind said. ‘Florida’s different.’”

The Tampa Tribune. “For the past three years, the developers of Trump Tower Tampa searched coast to coast for a lender willing to finance the $300 million luxury condominium. Now, after being turned down by numerous traditional lenders and 10 hedge funds, they’re poised to walk away and sell the waterfront site in downtown Tampa, the project’s developer says.”

“‘We’re either going forward or coming to an end,’ said Frank Dagostino, CEO of the company developing the project.”

“The tower’s only hope: one last New York hedge fund must agree to finance the project before March 31, Dagostino said. The developers set the self-imposed deadline in new contracts they persuaded buyers to sign.”

“‘No one wants to lend money in Florida right now,’ he said. ‘Every developer is desperate right now.’”

“Dagostino said the company has $85 million in contracts. It originally had $137 million in signed purchase contracts, he has said. If the company does call it quits next month, Dagostino said the company will try to liquidate the property and ‘pay everyone we can.’”

“SimDag paid $16 million for the property in 2004. They would likely get only about $10 million to $12 million for it in today’s market, even though developers may have invested as much as $25 million in infrastructure on the site, said Patrick Berman, senior director for Cushman & Wakefield in Tampa.”

“‘The land is worth what it will yield,’ said Patrick Berman, senior director for Cushman & Wakefield in Tampa. ‘The market for 50-story condos is no longer viable.’”

“Buyers put down 20 percent deposits on the condos, originally priced between $700,000 and $6.5 million. Half of the money was put into escrow so it could be returned to buyers. The rest was turned over to SimDag and used for site preparation.”

“Don Wallace, who with his wife invested in two units, said buyers are ready for a resolution, no matter what that is. ‘Everybody wants closure,’ Wallace said of the Trump Tower buyers.”

“‘The thing that messed this whole thing up is that Donald Trump didn’t step in and make this happen,’ Wallace said. ‘If we all knew this was in the hands of a local developer, I certainly wouldn’t want to buy a unit. With the Trump name behind it, we thought we’d be OK, even if problems arose.’”

The News Press. “Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. wrote off 1,345 houses in Lee County after the buyers were unable or unwilling to close on the deals, company officials said Tuesday.”

“Meanwhile, lawyers in a class action lawsuit against Hovnanian filed court papers Tuesday alleging that fraud and misrepresentation by the company resulted in the failure of those deals to go through.”

“Technically, the houses involved are considered ‘delivered,’ Hovnanian Chief Financial Officer J. Larry Sorsby told the analysts. He explained that buyers purchased them with construction loans that paid for the lot - then Hovnanian would take draws from the loan to pay for the house’s construction.”

“Buyers were originally supposed to convert the construction loan to a mortgage on completion of the house but many were unwilling or unable to do that as prices plunged and lenders tightened credit policies after the market started to slide in early 2006.”

“‘Basically we determined we had no ongoing involvement with those homes,’ so for accounting purposes the result was the same as if the buyers had closed on them, Sorsby said.”

“The class action suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, alleges that Hovnanian officials including Sorsby and CEO Ara Hovnanian deceived stockholders and the investment community by misleading them about how little many would-be buyers had at stake: as little as $1,000 per house even for investors who never planned to live there.”

“Sorsby said in an e-mail Tuesday afternoon that ‘We believe the suit is totally baseless and without merit. We will aggressively defend ourselves.’”

“Most of the 1,345 houses ended up in the hands of the National Credit Union Administration, which got them when two credit unions failed after making thousands of home loans in Lee County.”

The Daily Business Review. “Now that residential development has hit the wall, builders and lenders are partners in misery. Developers in the field — from small-scale operators to national home-builders — who aggressively acquired land during the go-go years of the early and mid-2000s, are now stuck with hundreds of acres of land they have no use for and cannot afford to hold.”

“Local experts point out that most overpriced land deals transpired at the peak of the residential market in late 2005 and early 2006. The loan terms on land acquisitions are normally between two to three years, lenders say.”

“Now, as the payoff deadline for many of these loans looms, owners are left with overpriced and undeveloped land, and mounting debts.”

“Many smaller, private developers, however, are still ‘hoping for a miracle,’ said Ronnie Issenberg of Miami-based Marcus and Millichap’s land division. ‘They are still hoping for a profit. It’s not going to happen. People need to get realistic and learn how to weather the storm.’”

“One developer in a bind is Scott Lehman. Lehman paid $5.33 million in May 2006 for a one-acre parcel in Lantana where he planned to build a 15-unit luxury condo with units priced between $1.4 million to $2.2 million. (The seller had acquired it seven months earlier for $2.3 million).”

“When the loan came due late last year, Lehman had to negotiate an extension for the payoff that is now scheduled for March 23. The parcel has been listed for sale for about three months, Lehman said, but the interest has been ‘minimal.’”

“‘Everyone thinks they deserve a profit,’ Issenberg said. ‘I don’t understand the logic behind it. If you are not going to develop it because it’s a bad market, how can you expect me to shop for someone who will?’”

“‘2009 is going to be worse than 2008,’ he said. ‘As time goes on there is going to be great infill locations either owned by the bank, that are being sold at auctions and we are going to have enough developers that are going to be in such pain that they will have to come to the table.’”

“Even industrial buyers now are getting cold feet, said Neil Merin, chairman of a West Palm Beach-based commercial real estate company.”

“‘Through the summer [of 2007] a number of industrial developers thought they were getting good bargains on the land, but they are realizing if they had waited another six months they would have gotten another 25 percent off,’ he said. What was a bargain six months ago may be overpriced today. It’s that bad.’”

From CBS 4.com. “Record home foreclosures in Florida and across the country are prompting some people to walk away, even before a bank steps in to take their home.”

“Lori Nicholson is packing up, abandoning the house she and her children have lived in for more than two decades. ‘23 years this year, my son I actually brought him home from the hospital in this house,’ said Nicholson. ‘It’s tough, it’s very tough to leave.’”

“Six years ago Nicholson took out a second mortgage on the house to pay for a divorce. With declining home values, she owes more in mortgages than the house is worth.”

“With the downturn in the housing market, many homeowners find themselves like Nicholson, who is basically stuck with a bad loan. Even if they are able to make her monthly payments, there’s little incentive to. So they are walking away, leaving the bank holding the bag.”

“One financial research firm predicts that if home prices drop an additional 10 percent, 20 million families will owe more than the value of their homes.”

“For Nicholson, the decision to walk away came when the bank wouldn’t help her figure out a way to stay in her house.”

“‘I just don’t know what else to do,’ explained Nicholson. ‘I’m tired of fighting the bank, I’m tired of fighting a situation. I cried for days and days and days, because I’m thinking this house is coming to an end and now I’m seeing it.’”

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