The Housing Bubble

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The Tampa Tribune reports from Florida. “The mortgage crisis is causing more than just heartburn for homeowners. It’s changing their moral compass. Homeowners are walking away - even when they can afford their payments. Some loot on the way out the door. Others trash the home to ruin the bank’s chances of selling it. Today’s homeowners are tired of watching the lenders who triggered the financial meltdown get bailed out while they suffer. They want revenge. They feel entitled. ‘It went from being a shame to being behind on your mortgage to feeling like it’s a big joke,’ said Jim Kelly, a Tampa homeowner who said numerous neighbors of his have stopped paying. ‘The big talk at cocktail parties is how underwater is your house and how long have you lived there for free.’”

“Kelly paid off his mortgage 17 years ago and never tapped his equity – even though he saw the appraised value jump a couple hundred thousand dollars. One of his neighbors bought a house 25 years ago for $80,000, took out home equity loans, and bought new furniture and went on exotic trips. They now owe $250,000 and stopped paying the mortgage. ‘It’s a moral issue,’ Kelly said. ‘You borrowed the money and because of the world credit issues that have nothing to do with your house, you think you’re entitled to something.’”

“Tampa real estate agent Paul De La Torre said he sees the entitled attitude often. Clients who are trying to sell their homes for less than the mortgage – called a short sale – are increasingly asking to take pieces of the home with them. ‘They want to take the appliances and other things they bought with their equity money,’ said De La Torre. ‘I tell people that if you didn’t pay for it with your own money, it should stay with the house. Taking it just makes it more difficult to find a buyer.’”

“‘I just sold one house where they guy took the wall plates,’ De La Torre said. ‘Those are like 60 cents at Home Depot. Everybody says, ‘Look what the bank did to me,’ De La Torre said. ‘But when people were selling their homes for $100,000 profit, no one complained.’”

The Orlando Sentinel. “Like a lot of Florida homeowners, Philip Becker would like to tap into the $418 million in federal aid the state expects to receive this year to help quell the foreclosure crisis. He lost his construction job six months ago and is depleting his savings to remain current on the mortgage for his Winter Springs townhouse, which has lost nearly 40 percent of its value since he bought it in 2005.”

“‘Impending doom is what I’m facing,’ he said. ‘I’m hoping to avoid messing up my credit. I just want to try to keep the home I have and get back up on my feet, but I’m paying for something and [the value] is going to take me years and years to catch up to what I owe.’”

“Becker showed up Monday at a public forum on how Florida should use its share of federal Hardest-Hit Fund dollars designated for states most severely impacted by the deteriorated housing market and economy. He didn’t get much in the way of answers or reassurance. He still has no idea if he’ll qualify for whatever help Florida tries to offer. ‘There was no sense of urgency,’ he said after the hearing.”

The Bradenton Herald. “Before the local housing market crashed, ‘Kathy’ had a ‘very comfortable income,’ a healthy savings account balance and no outstanding credit card debt. Then came a divorce and the housing slump. Kathy, whose last name was withheld, fell behind on her mortgage and lost her Sarasota home to foreclosure in mid-2008. She now lives with a friend, is barraged with calls from creditors and their lawyers, and lives in constant fear of losing her car for non-payment.”

“She was among hundreds of Floridians surveyed as part of The Face of Foreclosure, a Florida Realtors research study that was released Tuesday. ‘I have found this entire experience to be devastating,’ she told researchers. ‘I am in total financial ruin.’”

“Its key finding: Most people fell into foreclosure not because of a single major life event — such as job loss or serious illness — but a cascading combination thereof. Those homeowners tended to be married with children, well-educated and better-paid, the study found. More than 90 percent of foreclosures were filed on homes owned by married couples, while 65 percent were on those owned by families with children at home. More than half of Florida homeowners in foreclosure had attended or graduated from college. And more than two-thirds earned at least $50,000 a year.”

“The findings show the foreclosure crisis — largely believed to have begun with defaults on subprime and other exotic loans in 2007 — was widespread and did not discriminate, a researcher said. ‘This study really kind of debunks a few myths,’ said Joel Searby of a Gainesville research firm that conducted the study. ‘This isn’t an issue just for the lower-educated or those with lower incomes.’”

The Herald Tribune. “A few years ago, during the real estate boom that you may remember, a developer ran a newspaper advertisement that said something like, ‘Drive an extra 20 miles and save an extra $20,000.’ It’s certainly not news that home buyers are willing to drive a while to find cheaper housing. We have built nearly our entire country on this concept. But at what cost? A new report by Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology quantifies it.”

“The report, ‘Penny Wise and Pound Fuelish,’ indicates that when the costs of purchasing, insuring, maintaining and fueling a car ($7,000 or more a year) are factored in, most of those so-called ‘affordable’ communities become unaffordable, especially for ‘working families’ making less than $50,000 annually.”

“The center’s report is based on the high gas prices of 2008. The cost of buying, maintaining and insuring vehicles is included in its interactive Housing + Transportation Index. The number of neighborhoods considered unaffordable under the H+T Index grows by about half in the Sarasota-Manatee metro, and more than 80 percent in the Punta Gorda MSA. ‘Housing affordability in the United States is currently being drastically overestimated, and many families could be susceptible to foreclosure as gas prices rise,’ according to the report.”

My Fox Tampa Bay. “To offer buyers the convenience of touring dozens of homes for sale in one weekend, the Florida Association of Realtors and their member clients will be hosting open houses on April 10 and 11. It’s the first-ever statewide open house weekend. The Florida Open House Weekend comes just before the April 30 deadline for the federal homebuyer tax credit. Homes need to be under contract by that date and closed on by June 30 in order to take advantage of up to $8,000 in tax credits for first-time buyers. A $6,500 credit is also available for those who haven’t owned a home in the last three years.”

“Blue balloons, featuring the Realtor’s ‘R’ in white, will denote those homes that are part of the statewide open house campaign. Balloons will be on display simultaneously at open houses from the Panhandle to Key West.”

The Palm Beach Post. “New Treasury Department rules to streamline short sales go into effect Monday, giving sellers, buyers and Realtors hope that the grueling process of getting bank approvals will soon ease. ‘The biggest problem we’ve had in the past is lack of cooperation from the lenders and no uniform set of rules,’ said Realtor Craig Fialkowski in Palm Beach Gardens. ‘Nobody does anything the same.’”

“Five years ago, Fial­kowski had no short sale listings. Now they make up half of his business, he said.

“Because property values dropped so dramatically in Florida, said West Palm Beach Realtor Jared Dalto, who deals almost exclusively in short sales, it’s difficult to get lenders to take substantial losses, even with small monetary incentives. ‘When the losses are so big, it’s like climbing Everest,’ Dalto said. ‘When negotiations happen in short sales, it’s all about money.’”

The Naples News. “Just as the 2010 census got under way, the U.S. Census Bureau released population estimates from the past year that showed how the recession has affected growth in various parts of the nation. For the year ending July 1, 2009, Collier’s growth rate ticked up slightly though still nowhere near the huge gains from earlier in the decade. Lee County lost population for that time period in 2008-09, the first time that happened in the past decade.”

“Armando Nargi, president of the Lee County Chamber of Commerce, said he wasn’t surprised by the numbers. ‘Right now there’s no growth and no stability in our economy in Lee County,’ Nargi said. ‘It changes month-to-month, day-to-day … employment opportunities are severely limited.’”

“The 5-foot alligator lurking in the algae-green waters of the community swimming pool was not the worst thing code-enforcement officers have found in recent years at AAA Apartments in Cocoa. Bathrooms infested with mold. Walls with gaping holes where air conditioners had been ripped out. Garbage and trash strewn about the 52-unit complex. The city began issuing code-violation fines in 2007, back at the beginning of the housing slump, and the apartments’ co-owners soon owed the city $1.8 million — more than three times the current list price of the property, and enough money to motivate the now-former co-owners to try bribing a code-enforcement officer.”

“As home foreclosures continue to mount throughout Central Florida, code-enforcement officers say apartments, condominiums and other commercial buildings are being abandoned by their owners and repossessed by banks in growing numbers. ‘The coming wave is the commercial foreclosures,’ said Mike Rhodes, code-enforcement division director for the city of Orlando.”

“As it turns out, the two co-owners of the troubled complex on Fiske Boulevard took a different approach in trying to make the problem go away. Lindsie Pham and Timothy Buu, both of Orange County, Calif., pleaded guilty last month to attempting to bribe a Cocoa code-enforcement officer in hopes the officer would overlook more than 50 violations.”

“The fines didn’t go away when, in May 2009, Deutsche Bank National Trust took over the complex. Robert Hold, president of Hold Thyssen Inc. in Orlando, was hired by the bank to serve as the property’s receiver and manager. Hold, a veteran receiver for bank-owned commercial properties, proposed that the city drop the fines to $100,000. One Cocoa official said the city could really use the entire $1.8 million, though it soon became apparent that the city had little leverage.”

“‘In one of the meetings, I believe it was the board of adjustment, one of the board members asked, ‘How can we give up $1.8 million?’ Hold recalled. ‘And I said, ‘The owners are prepared to give you the keys.’”

The News Journal. “Many area real-estate professionals understand the area’s housing market will not really improve until the situation gets better up North. Much of the local housing market has depended on retirees selling homes in New England and the Midwest before they can buy a home in Volusia and Flagler counties.”

“ICI Homes was pitching its upscale and gated Plantation Bay Golf and Country Club community in Ormond Beach, which straddles the Volusia and Flagler county line. It offers town houses starting at $169,000, single-family houses staring at $195,000 and multimillion dollar estates. About 30 percent of its 4,500 lots are developed, and there are no more spec houses available around the three golf courses.”

“‘It took us awhile to clear out the inventory, but we have done that and the last ones we did, we did not have to lower the prices any more,’ said Rosemary Messina, ICI vice president of sales and marketing. ‘People are over the shock and are done being mad. Homeowners realize the truth about what their homes are worth up north and that it’s the right time to buy in Florida.’”

The Cape Coral Daily Breeze. “An ongoing noise complaint from one Cape Harbour resident caused dozens of his high-rise neighbors to pack council chambers to defend the mixed use development, which has quickly become one of the more popular places for not only residents but the general public. Just as quickly, the battle between the two sides has grown heated, as it fast approaches litigation.”

“Jim Stevens wants to tone down Tuesday evenings at Cape Harbour, which feature a combination of motorcycles and live music. The noise, Stevens said, is far removed from what he thought he was getting when he purchased his condominium, which he assumed was a quiet, peaceful setting for his retirement. ‘I’m not trying to put anyone out of business,” Stevens said, an oil and gas producer from Michigan. ‘All I’m asking is to take the music inside and pipe it outside so people can dance, and to move the motorcycles.’”

“Stevens has even gone as far to say he was duped when he purchased his condominium, something Laura Straus from Realmark Development adamantly refutes. She said that Realmark offered him another unit, even urged him that Cape Harbour might not be the best fit for him. Straus said that Stevens knew all along that live music was part of Cape Harbour’s goal. ‘We started the live music before his closing,’ Straus said, who closed on Stevens’ condo. ‘We even told him we didn’t think he would enjoy living at Cape Harbour.’”

“Stevens said he’s had the noise level professionally tested, and it reaches levels of 90 decibles. Having fought what he sees as an injustice for two years, he said he will keep pushing until he gets his way. ‘I’m crazy enough to keep fighting,’ Stevens said.”

The Pensacola News Journal. “It’s frustrating to watch the Florida Legislature act as if its members have learned nothing from the recession about the flaws in Florida’s economy. We need to do things differently in the future, but the Legislature seems rooted in the past.”

“Florida needs new industries to replace home construction; the housing sector is overbuilt, and depended on rapid population growth that seems over. With a glut of unsold homes and condos, and rising foreclosures putting downward pressure on prices, home building will likely be depressed for years.”

“Legislators here in the Sunshine State remain nostalgic for a past that wasn’t that good to start with, and isn’t coming back anyway.”