How Much Blame Does He Deserve For This Mess?
Readers suggested a topic on the housing bubble and the outgoing President. “Since we are approaching the end of the Bush debacle, a very good topic would be how much blame he deserves for this mess. Throw out your shoes on the 20th. In the streets!”
“How many of us would it take to buy us some senators (like the bankers have been doing for eons)? Get em to stand up and speak for the Constitution! Well, it was nice to think about it anyway.”
The Virginian Pilot. “Foreclosure activity in Hampton Roads jumped in December despite some of the nation’s lenders suspending home repossessions. The number of foreclosure-related notices filed in December in Hampton Roads was 1,321, up 22 percent from November and 258 percent from year-ago levels, according to RealtyTrac.”
“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac recently announced that they would extend the moratorium to the end of this month, but that may make little difference when it comes to the pace of foreclosure, said James Koch, an economist at Old Dominion University in Norfolk. ‘None of this changes my viewpoint that we’re still headed for lots of grief,’ he said. ‘There are lots of potential problems out there. These problems are going to be exacerbated by the economy and people losing their jobs.’”
The Naples News in Florida. “Cape Coral-Fort Myers had the highest foreclosure rate in the nation for 2008. According to RealtyTrac, 12.03 percent of housing units received a foreclosure related notice last year. ‘It’s over six times the national average and over two times the state average,’ said Daren Blomquist, a spokesman for RealtyTrac.”
“In Lee County, 41,040 properties received foreclosure related filings last year, up 219 percent from 2007. California had the most properties receiving filings last year — at 523,624. Among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, Stockton, Calif. had the highest foreclosure rate in 2008. In December, Cape Coral-Fort Myers had the second highest foreclosure rate in the country among the 230 metros — and the highest rate in Florida.”
The Review Journal from Nevada. “In one of the more ominous signs of Las Vegas’ crumbling housing market, foreclosures nearly tripled in 2008 from the previous year. Lenders took back 31,416 homes in Clark County during the year, compared with 11,509 in 2007. Preforeclosure filings nearly doubled to 67,314 from 33,953 during the period. It’s by far the highest numbers since Foreclosures.com began tracking the information.”
“Nationwide, foreclosures increased 63 percent for the year to about 1 million, plus 2 million filings that could lead to foreclosure.”
“Of the 22,000 homes for sale on the MLS, roughly 8,200, or 37 percent, are bank-owned, according to Applied Analysis research firm. ‘That’s a big number,’ principal Jeremy Aguero said.”
“Asking prices on homes continued to fall at the fastest rate in Las Vegas, according to (a) report. Prices were down 3.6 percent in December, the ninth straight month that Las Vegas has posted the largest decline among major markets, and down 6.8 percent during the fourth quarter.”
The Register Pajaronian from California. “A little less than half the homes for sale in Watsonville are owned by banks due to foreclosure. And much of the remainder are short sales, in which the lender agrees to accept less than the amount they own. In Santa Cruz County, the number of foreclosures jumped from 146 in 2006 to 506 in 2007 to 1,351 last year, according to the Santa Cruz Record. No spot in the county has been hit as hard as Watsonville, which has seen roughly the same number of foreclosures as the rest of the county combined.”
“‘That’s the market,’ Stephen Pearson, the immediate past president of the Watsonville Association of Realtors, said in an interview with the Register-Pajaronian. ‘Really, everything right now is a distress sale.’”
“The leap in foreclosures has put a glut of housing on the market, and has caused prices to further plummet. Watsonville’s high foreclosure rate has made it attractive to buyers, Pearson said, noting that 219 homes are currently for sale — compared to about 40 when the market was strong — and 49 have sales pending. ‘People are buying,’ he said. ‘We are a hot spot from the sales standpoint; (most of) the prices are in the 100 (thousand dollars), 200s, 300s.’”
The Merced Sun Star in California. “It’s another dubious distinction: Merced County led the state last year in foreclosure filings. One out of 10 houses in the county were in some stage of foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac. That 10 percent figure translated to 8,291 homes in the county.”
“San Joaquin County ranked second with 9.46 percent of its homes, or 21,127, in foreclosure. Stanislaus County was third with 8.9 percent of properties, or 14,883, headed back to banks.”
“Within those staggering statistics are people who are losing their homes either because of bad mortgages or predatory lenders. Rose Martinez is one of them. The 80-year-old Merced resident is on the verge of losing the West Avenue home she moved into on July 4, 1960. The four-bedroom, two-bathroom house cost $13,500 at the time.”
“She seems unnerved by the thought of losing it. Jeff, her 41-year-old son who lives at home to care for her, admits he’s more scared. ‘I thought I’d be dead by now,’ she said, a Virgin of Guadalupe necklace dangling on her sweater. ‘What can I do? I can’t do nothing.’”
“Forty-five years later — at the height of a housing boom that seemed endless — she took out a $175,000 loan. Martinez used the money to consolidate debt, buy new appliances, replace the roof and take a couple trips to visit her children. Close to that same time in 2005, she was diagnosed with a form of bone cancer, which has forced her in and out of the hospital. Her husband, an Army veteran who fought in World War II, had died four years earlier.”
“By winter 2007, she had begun falling behind on payments. Collecting about $1,500 every month through Social Security and her husband’s retirement, she felt comfortable with the $600 payments. Then they grew to $750 and later to $1,500. By May 2008, she had stopped trying to pay off the loan. A statement from the summer shows that she owes $191,819. That’s since grown to $212,000 because of lawyer’s and late fees.”
“Her home is set to be auctioned in front of the county courthouse in February. If that goes through, there’s a good chance she’ll be forced to move within 90 days. Her son has been trying with no success to strike a compromise with the lender. He’s also been lobbying state and federal representatives, suggesting that the government trade seized drug homes for bank-owned homes as a way to fight the foreclosure problem.”
“Banks, he argues, would still end up with a house, while residents could keep their home. At this point, he’s run out of options. Rose has applied for low-income housing. She’s on a long list, he’s told, though his dad’s military status may help her chances. Outside the home where he grew up, he sighed, ‘I don’t know what we’re going to do.’”
