“We Are In For Some Changes”: California
The Nevada Appeal. “Carson City’s housing market has worked against Donaldo Palaroan. He bought his Silver Oak subdivision home in 2004, when every other California refugee was trying to get in, which fired up the market. Palaroan tried to sell in 2006, the year the bubble burst.”
“He and his wife had wanted to upgrade to a bigger home. Now it’s a dream deferred. ‘We backed out of the idea of moving into another home until this one sells,’ he said.”
“They’ve had their Taylor Way home listed on For Sale By Owner.com for $464,900, which they’ve reduced by $10,000 since October. They bought it for $347,000 in 2004; prior to that it was flipped by two other owners within four years, according to assessor records.”
“‘I think (prices) are pretty close to bottoming out,’ said broker/associate John Vettel. ‘Everybody knows a sustained rate like that can’t continue. Already we’ve had indications that the market is receding.’”
“The average price in 2006 of $345,200 may seem high, but there were many properties priced much higher than that, and those are the ones that languished on the market.”
The Santa Cruz Sentinel. “Two lenders specializing in ’subprime’ mortgages that made loans in Santa Cruz County have shut down, and a third stopped taking applications Wednesday, signs of trouble in the industry.”
“Ownit Mortgage Solutions, of Agoura Hills shut down Dec. 5 and filed for bankruptcy Dec. 28. Mortgage Lenders Network USA of Middletown, Conn., which was issued a cease and desist order Jan. 24 by Connecticut banking officials.”
“Mandalay Mortgage of Woodland, which notified customers Jan. 24 with an online announcement that it would no longer accept applications. All three did business in Santa Cruz County.”
“Ownit made about 200 loans locally over the past three years, according to the Santa Cruz County Recorder’s Office. Ownit was known for 100 percent financing. Bankruptcy records indicated Ownit had millions in loans where borrowers missed payments within the first four months.”
“Santa Cruz mortgage broker Jim Chubb said he knew the local Ownit representative, a Prunedale man who lost his job in December and was owed $12,000 in commissions. ‘His life’s crumbled,’ Chubb said.”
“Chubb attributed the company’s problems to mortgage agents making overly competitive loans. ‘I think they didn’t do enough to verify borrower cash flow,’ he said. ‘They abused the guidelines and lenders allowed it’”
“‘When you look at the fact that one out of 10 sub-prime loans are currently in default, what is that telling you?’ said Vickie Thivierge, a lending industry veteran in San Jose. ‘It basically says we are in for some changes.’”
The Press Enterprise. “Zillow and sites like it ar satisfying people’s obsession with housing prices and their curiosity about just what their friends and acquaintances paid for their property.”
“Realtor Mindy Zink warns homeowners not to put too much stock in Zillow. It is not accurate, she said, and is merely designed to generate revenue by selling advertising to real estate agents. The site’s overvaluations are harmful to home sellers, making them think their property is worth more, Zink said.”
“‘If people that are nearing foreclosure actually buy into it (and) list it too high, they may actually go into foreclosure when the property could have sold earlier and saved them money and heartache,’ she said.”
“Zink had one client whose home was listed at $320,000 on Zillow. But based on comparable sales, it was worth about $230,000, she said.”
“‘It has not sold after three months, listed at $230,000, many open houses, advertisements and probably 30 showings,’ she said. ‘If I had put it anywhere near what Zillow stated, it would not have gotten the showings it had.’”
“Riverside real estate agent Dan Sewell uses Zillow as a reference point for pricing every property he handles. But the recent shift from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market skewed zestimates, placing prices too high for the glut of available inventory that has forced sellers to price homes more competitively, he said.”
“Moreno Valley appraiser Dave Whipple used Zillow once out of curiosity, plugging in the address of a home in Perris that he was going to evaluate. The estimated value on Zillow was $383,000, even though the highest comparable property was $287,000, he said.”
“Kevin Myrick, whose 3,430-square-foot house in Menifee is estimated at $636,588 on Zillow, is a Zillow loyalist, however. When an appraiser valued his house at $75,000 less than the zestimate, he was so outraged that he withdrew a loan application. ‘I trust Zillow more than I do the appraisers,’ he said.”
There are some denial of service attacks going on. We are working that now.
In other words, someone in the REIC sees this blog as a major threat. Sorry about the hassle, but at the same time, Congratulations!
It could just be cyber punks.
posted ” “We Are In For Some Changes”: California ‘
I read the posted Thread….. then more than 3/4 of the coments…. then had to puke. That is not a bad thing. After the Ralphing…. you become more focused more intentent.
cyberpunks do not target blogs…
Hey, they got a big week coming up. Post Superbowl party begins, you know, and they don’t need a miscreant like Ben Jones screwing it up for them, damnit.
Realtor.com is not working either.
Protect your constitutional rights. If the REIC truly is attacking, you should sue all the way up to the Supreme Court, if necessary.
Ben,
Will money help? Sending donation via paypal.
While the credit card is handy, how about a buck for this guy.
http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2007/01/28/the_house_on_memory_lane/
.
Does anyone ever even try to EARN anything anymore? This guy is just another Casey except with a little more pull on the heart strings.
He’s no Casey. He’s ASKING for a handout. Casey LIED on mortgage applications. Big difference, IMO. But, yes, both Casey and this panhandler ought to stop begging and take pride in what they can do and what they can earn ethically and on their own merit.
What I think is suspect is his claim that he’s doing this as a way to come to grips with his grandmother’s death. She died in 1992!
lol, another scamster, what a dirtbag invoking the image of his dead grandmother to gain sympathy.
Cyberbegging. The wave of the future.
$1,795,000 asking. How will this guy even afford the taxes, insurance, utils? Sold for $385,000 in ‘92.
He’ll beg for that too… after losing the house for nonpayment.
Ben, a suggestion- perhaps it might help if you can keep a meta-blog somewhere else (or use one of your other blogs that are hosted at blogspot), where you can give us junkies updates on issues like this until this blog is back, up & running.
I mean, when this blog goes down, I don’t know where to turn. My imagination was running wild when I couldn’t access HBB.
“Kevin Myrick, whose 3,430-square-foot house in Menifee is estimated at $636,588 on Zillow, is a Zillow loyalist, however. When an appraiser valued his house at $75,000 less than the zestimate, he was so outraged that he withdrew a loan application. ‘I trust Zillow more than I do the appraisers,’ he said.”
Oh my. Outraged?
Jesus H. Christ, what is WITH these people???
Ben, I do hope you’re writing a book with plenty of these quotes…an instant bestseller.
I just Zillowed all the IQs in Menifee. It shows everyone there is far above average. Which should I trust –some stupid bell curve jibber-jabber, or my highly flattering “IQ Zestimate”?
I remember several months back, we all thought zillow would help lead the market DOWN. How wrong we were.
There is somehting inherently wrong with Zillow’s underlying arithmetic. Lets say 2 idenitcal houses are valued at 200K. One of them sells for 190K. That house will now be listed as 205K in Zillow. Its got a saleability factor in now cos its sold. Never mind that if anything that saleability added to it, should move it to 195 at best.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.
Zillow is such a friggin joke, unless you knopw how to catch it at its own lies. It’s exactly like they say; go to the comp page and comp it out for yourself. It’s easy to see that no recent comp comes near the zillow estimate. It’s all about the comps!
Is Zillow lagging by 6 months to a year or is it just a NAR shill outlet trying to keep the “wine and cheese party” going?
Either way Zillow seems pretty useless except for showing recent sales (I have verified all of my known actual sales numbers are accurate), giving property info, and relative values.
The “Zestimate”……wish I knew the formula they use coz it seems to be off.
The obviously use one of those new-fangled mortgage calculators that let’s you input the annual appreciation of your house into your affordability equations.
Its not like the guys in charge of Zillow are lying to us, its just that they are using a very dull instrument to measure what appraisers (at least the honest kind) use a sharp blade for. Actually, they do a decent job considering they are trying to value 100 million homes all at once.
They miss the mark when they encounter a group of cheap homes right next to some expensive homes. One example I’ve seen is an area with large, modern, 5-8 year old townhomes right next to some 35-40 year old th’s. The older ones are not particularly well cared for, and zillow overvalues them by doing a straight forward square footage adjustment.
Not to mention the fact that their data is all wrong. I rent a 3/2. It’s listed as a 3/2.5. I think I’d know if there was a half-bath somewhere…
I’d keep looking for it, it’d be kinda handy.
Have you checked the backyard?
If there is more than a urinal back there I would hate to be down wind.
That sounds as egregious as the data the credit rating agencies keep on all US citizens…
Maybe a previous occupant was caught taking a whiz in the kitchen sink?
Aw, c’mon, Zillow is a great tool! Not for that Zestimate garbage of course, but for following the horrendous mortgage fraud wreaking havoc on the Reno market. Yeah, you just pull up the comps and look for the place that sold for like $700 per square foot. Then, you take a drive by to notice they never moved in. Ain’t real estate grand!?
how many times are we going to hear some jackass say “I think we’re pretty close to the market bottoming out.” If you are that great of a fortune teller, then why’d you push people to buy above their means when you knew the market was tanking?
Let me tell you, my friend, I’ve done quite a few loans in Silver Oak, and it’s now where near bottoming out….not even close! But this is exactly the kind of BS that’s being shoveled hard around NNV, and it’s got everyone waiting on a spring bounce that any fool could see can’t, won’t bounce back. That dude in Silver Oak could probably salvage his 2004 price if he acts now, otherwise he’s toast.
I think they meant that they were pretty close to the bottom falling out of the market.
hahaha……..spot on
ah, that would make more sense…my bad
“I trust Zillow more than I do the appraisers,’ he said.” ”
famous last words
I say sell your house to zillow.com and how much they pay you for it.
I imagine it’s not in Zillows interest to give the true picture of declining valuation not part of the buisness model they have adopted.
“I trust Zillow more than I do the appraisers.”
In other words, “I trust what I want to hear more than what I don’t want to hear.”
HAL (Zillow) I am going to have to shut you off. David (appraiser) I don’t think I can let you do that. Zillow is like the terminator the machines are taking over the real estate market.
HAL (Zillow) I am going to have to shut you off. David (appraiser) I don’t think I can let you do that. Zillow is like the terminator the machines are taking over the real estate market.
HAL (Zillow) I am going to have to shut you off. David (appraiser) I don’t think I can let you do that. Zillow is like the terminator the machines are taking over the real estate market.
lol
“I trust WebMD more than I do the doctors”
“Bottoming out”? Jeez, I’m still waiting for any price decreases, here in LA and Ventura.
Quite alot of price decreases here in Ventura. There are homes that are on the market at prices lower than what the “owners” paid in 2004-5
Where? I’ve been following single family homes along the Avenue (not to live in obviously), on streets like Warner, Harrison, Ramona, Prospect, etc., and prices for a small house, even under 1000 SF, on a small 4500-5000 SF lot seem stuck in the 425K-450K range, and 5-6 units are stuck at 875K. When I call the listing agents, they indicate no flex in the price, even when the things are listed for 9 - 12 months already, the sellers either want their price or they’ll just leave it listed at these prices.
I’m in East Ventura, I don’t frequent the Avenue area much, only to C-Street for surfing. But, 2388 Grand Ave. in Montalvo area is for sale @ 550,000 and was bought @ 619,000 in 05. House on Utica in E. Ventura is 469,000. And a few others in the low 500’s in same area. I think there are going to be quite a few REO’s soon.
Cool.
Oxnard and Camarillo are also starting to decline.
substantial price drops are had to spot because they are only in the very few houses that actually sell, whereas there’s a thousand times more publicity for every one of the many many houses on the market which the owners cannot sell for less than they owe
Oh, it’s bottoming out all right, just not the bottom he’s thinking of. Got lube?
Thank Goodness somebody is finally pointing out that those foolish “Zestimates” are garbage based only on the now passe concept that “RE appreciates 20% per year”.
Zillow is just a byproduct of Tech Bubble 2.0, it’ll get flushed straight into the toilet along with the rest of the new “wannabe bought by Google” websites.
On the other hand, it would be nice if Zillow, or some other site, was actually based on allowing users to appraise property similar to how Google’s image tagging system works. A user would input a price that matches to what other user’s have input, and the incentive is to get on a top appraiser’s list.
I think Zillow should just list the comps. and not go so far as to put a zestimate on it . I don’t see anything wrong with a property information site ,but their appraisals are a joke .
My guess is that the REIC was using Zillow to convince buyers ,but sellers could be holding firm because of Zillows influence also .
Some areas have not had alot of sales lately ,so I’m sure Zillow is not taking that into consideration . I’m sure Zillow does not consider recent listings either that have not sold yet, or sold homes in escrow ,not closed yet .
Unless you do a on-site inspection of a property I think you can’t get a solid appraisal .You can go one tract over and get a totally different neighborhood .
Also Zillow uses to much of a sq. footage appraisal approach rather than market vlaue approach . Sq footage approach is used in commercial real estate mostly .
I use to argue with my last agent about how square footage appraisals were not used in residential appraisals . In other words , you get a certain amount of money for the first 1000 feet in a house and the second 1000 feet is at a lower sq; footage value . The agents were trying to sell based on charging full value for the entire sq. footage .
I saw a listing the other day where the agents were trying to include outdoor patio space as sql footage to beef up the entire square footage .
i think that the REIC would love nothing more than for zillow to go away. they do not want the sales data and comps to be so easily obtained by the masses. previously realtors were the sole proprietors of a lot of this information (or at least it was a pain in the ass for the average joe to get a hold of), and that’s how they made their money. believe me, they’re frightened of zillow and its ilk. you don’t make friends w/ the REIC by allowing home owners to list their homes for sale for free on your website. the MLS is their lifeblood, and they closely guard access to it. why would they want a competing system?
forecasting accurately is notoriously difficult to do, especially when trying to forecast or estimate the values of millions of houses in a changing market. they have imperfect data and need to further refine their algorithms, but it is not some conspiracy to make people believe that their homes are worth more than they really are.
sites like zillow are the wave of the future for RE and other industries. it’s all about putting information in the hands or ordinary people. you can’t put the genie back in the bottle now.
“Bottoming out”? Jeez, I’m still waiting for any price decreases, here in LA.
Sorry for the repeat
The cyber punks made me do it
lol
Thank Goodness somebody is finally pointing out that those foolish “Zestimates” are garbage based only on the now passe concept that “RE appreciates 20% per year”.
but for a while prices did appreciate @ 20% per year. when doing forecasting you look at the past to predict the future, and the near past should have more relevance than the more distant past. forecast models are horrendous at predicting a change in direction. but it’s not garbage per se. i’ve read several interviews w/ the owners of zillow and they are aware of the shortcomings of their zestimates, and are constantly working to refine them. they will never be perfect, but i imagine that they will become more accurate as time goes on and they get better at what they do. but either way outside of the zestimates there’s a lot of valuable data easily available on their site that would have previously been very difficult to get a hold of.
We will know the market is *bottoming out* when websites like zillow are defunct.
… and Web 2.0 will be bottomed out as well.
Heard my first ad from an attorney trolling for “victims” of ARMS today on the radio,AM 960 out of san francisco.That boy is gonna make a pile of $.Having been a loan broker who tried talking people out of arms for the last 2 years,and having encountered the blind greed of many specuvestors,as well as the illiterati who shouldn’t be allowed out without a keeper,it is my opinion that most of those who got ARMS were begging for an f’ing,and are getting it good and hard.sure there are victims,but the vast majority who borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars without bothering to do even minimal due diligence are getting what they asked for,good and hard.as far as zillow,i trust it more than some of the appraisers i have encountered…zillow is about as trustworthy as don rumsfeld.
zillow is about as trustworthy as don rumsfeld
dunno, zillow never killed people to make money for Haliburton…
they haven’t quite written the code to do that, but if it would turn a dollar for the realty ho’s i’m sure their vote would cast in favor thereof
crush
How will they be able to make a case when you sign a contract in front of witnesses? It’s just an attorney looking for a retainer… means if someone is idiotic enough to sign for an ARM without reading it, they will also give away a few thousands just like that.
Talk about bottom feeders feeding frenzy!!!
“Moreno Valley appraiser Dave Whipple used Zillow once out of curiosity, plugging in the address of a home in Perris that he was going to evaluate. The estimated value on Zillow was $383,000, even though the highest comparable property was $287,000, he said.”
LOL, Still at 287, what a rip off for any house in Perris. Shit, it should be maybe 200 (thinking more like 175) for a 1200 sqft 3b/1.5 bath in that no job smog meca.
“Zink had one client whose home was listed at $320,000 on Zillow. But based on comparable sales, it was worth about $230,000, she said.”
“‘It has not sold after three months, listed at $230,000, many open houses, advertisements and probably 30 showings,’ she said. ‘If I had put it anywhere near what Zillow stated, it would not have gotten the showings it had.’”
Apparently not worth $230k either.
rotfl
Good find.
Zillow… is interesting. I like the concept. Its just not set up to accept a declining market. I do notice that home of interest in the south bay part of LA are down 7% to 8% from the peak… About right? Nope. But still interesting to see.
Zillow is always going to be 6 weeks to 12 weeks behind the curve. That’s a lot of time in today’s market.
got popcorn?
Neil
I don’t get Zillow’s valuation system at all. One house I was following dropped 32K in zestimate in a month, then went up a little again, then stayed flat, all in about 2 months.
Zillow is totally wacky. I looked at the old house I grew up in, and it was down $25,000 in one month, but the next door neighbors was up $10,000. WTF?
“Realtor Mindy Zink warns homeowners not to put too much stock in Zillow. It is not accurate, she said, and is merely designed to generate revenue by selling advertising to real estate agents. The site’s overvaluations are harmful to home sellers, making them think their property is worth more, Zink said.”
Zillow zestimates zuck. But it is nice to know they make the owners feel good. Too bad their homes will never sell at those bloated prices, which are not anchored to market reality.
Zillow zestimates zuck.
Yes, but zey don’t zuck as much as Zink’s.
Maybe Zink sucks really well, and then swallows.
You mean Zucks Zwell and Zwallows. Maybe she also takeZ it up the Azz.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.
Zillow says the house I’m renting is worth 750K. I’ve got to admit, if it went on the market for that, it would sell instantly even though it’s just a 2+2 at 1400 sq ft. It’s surrounded by million + properties in Studio City.
So the NAR has put together a series of “tools” to help its members during the market transition. The NAR website is actually pretty interesting. It’s only scary when unexpectedly Lereah’s face pops up on screen. I thought I was having a nightmare…
http://narblog1.realtor.org/mvtype/housing_market/
“Kevin Myrick, whose 3,430-square-foot house in Menifee is estimated at $636,588 on Zillow, is a Zillow loyalist, however. When an appraiser valued his house at $75,000 less than the zestimate, he was so outraged that he withdrew a loan application. ‘I trust Zillow more than I do the appraisers,’ he said.”
——————————————————————-
not selling, buy trying to HELOC all the way up to the $638K zestimate! lol!
I think Zillow is rubbish ! It lists my condo here in chicago at $212 00 when I paid $260 000 5 years ago and similar condos are selling for around 380 000
Question - is it possible to get zillow to look at individual errors like this ?
“They’ve had their Taylor Way home listed on For Sale By Owner.com for $464,900, which they’ve reduced by $10,000 since October. They bought it for $347,000 in 2004; prior to that it was flipped by two other owners within four years, according to assessor records.”
This house is not even worth what they paid for it in 2004. Prices were already wacky. The price the first flipper paid is closer to reality. What these folks are not understanding, is that at this very moment, they would be hard pressed to get what they paid for the house. So they are price surfing all the way to the bottom. This also underscores why anyone considering purchasing a FSBO home should really know the market. These folks are not trying to sell their home for fair market value, but rather for what it would take for them to realize their dream. Not a sound plan. Might have worked two years ago, but not anymore. Needless to say, it’s still a horrible time to buy a house in the Reno/Sparks/Carson area. It’s going to take a few years to work through this sludge.
The message this guy is sending is very clear. “Work is for dummies!” Why bother working, when in 2.5 years you can make $117,900 profit, without lifting a finger. Ok, after careful deliberation, only $107,900. This is about $40,000 a year, not less tan a lot of white collar folks make.
Bantering Bear:
at this very moment, they would be hard pressed to get what they paid for the house
I guess that they aren’t that hard pressed!
By the way, is it really even news if I am unsuccessful in my attempts to sell my used pickup truck for more than the dealers are asking for brand new?
“When you look at the fact that one out of 10 sub-prime loans are currently in default, what is that telling you?’ said Vickie Thivierge, a lending industry veteran in San Jose….”
Um ….. 10% of the market’s decline will be directly attributed to sub-prime lending?
“They’ve had their Taylor Way home listed on For Sale By Owner.com for $464,900, which they’ve reduced by $10,000 since October. They bought it for $347,000 in 2004; prior to that it was flipped by two other owners within four years, according to assessor records.”
So, they are trying to sell it for over $100,000 more than what they bought it for, but “Carson City’s housing market has worked against” them? How’s that? I’d say as long as they can sell at a profit, the market has worked for them.
As someone who survived being “upside down” on a house for several years in the early nineties (after putting %10 down with a fixed rate loan for our primary residence), all these people whining that they aren’t making ridiculous profits on a flip make me sick.
We were upside down 20-30K on a 146K house, and it felt like the end of the world. Imagine putting zero down on a 500K house and now it will only sell for 400K. People have become very cavalier with the easy money, so it doesn’t seem like as much as it used to, but wages have not gone up that much. 100K is a helluva lotta money.
“ I trust Zillow more than I do the appraisers, he said.”
I’m sorry, but I’ve not seen anything on Zillow that I’d trust. The house next door to mine is valued 25k more than mine. A house 2 doors up from me is valued 40K more than mine. All 3 houses were built in the late 40s. The house next door is mostly original. My place had a 500 sq foot addition to it, the house 2 doors up also has had an addition to it. The 4 houses across the street, all built in the same timeframe and all are valued the same, but more than the houses on my side of the street.
I don’t see any reasons for the variations.
Fremont throws 8,000 brokers overboard (OT-but having trouble posting).
Subprime mortgage lender Fremont Investment and Loan on Monday said it severed ties last quarter with some 8,000 brokers whose loans were responsible for some of the highest delinquency rates in the industry.
Such moves to improve loan quality have helped trim the number of early defaults on Fremont mortgages to a 3 percent rate from almost 6 percent in mid-2006…The so-called early payment defaults were close to 1 percent in 2005.
The brokers “released” were “highly correlated” to the sudden rise in defaults on Fremont loans, he said in response to questions from investors.
Fremont was the fifth-biggest originator of subprime loans last year, with about $33 billion of loans issued…
The loans, most destined for the $575 billion home-equity, asset-backed bond market, are being returned by investors at an alarming pace, hurting profits.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2007-01-29T212716Z_01_N29208796_RTRIDST_0_FREMONTGENERAL-LOANS-BROKERS.XML
Too little, too late. Of the more substantial subprime lenders, Fremont is my candidate for the Implode o Meter.
Ah, but tossing these timebombers off onto other lenders is a stroke of genius.
Zillow, Brillo, Rillo and Willow can list any damn price they like but it makes noooooo difference now the bubble has burst in some places and is deflating in others. Things have changed. Word is out that this boom has been a bust (as usual) and the great unwashed are scared of jumping in. They are learning fast that if their incomes don’t allow them to pay their mortgages without turning gray from financial worry and fear of bankruptcy, it’s game, set and match.
If realtors want to talk about the bottom, I’ll match their bottom with my bottom (well not literally of course because at my age it’s sagging a bit) which is THE ULTIMATE bottom. The bottom line that is. This mess ain’t no where near over. Realtors can slap me on my sagging bottom (line) and wake me up when sanity returns. That will be around 2007 or 2008 or even 2009 when these over-priced crap boxes roughly line up with incomes.
“Word is out that this boom has been a bust (as usual) and the great unwashed are scared of jumping in.”
What’s more, with so many subprime outfits going belly up, the subprime bid that supports last year’s prices is pretty much gone. The mass of sellers wait their time on the market in quiet desperation.
Hallelujah!
No way we’re going to hit bottom by end of year or even next couple of years. We’ve had approx. 8-9 years of a rolling boom, of which the last 5 years were a super-charged-on-crack credit binge, c/o Fed & GSEs. The resets won’t happen all at once, but come in several waves over the next few years.
Sellers will be in denial, get angry, throw tantrums, cry, then beg, borrw & steal. They will serially refi, max out credit cards, rob Peter to pay Paul and generally hold out as long as possible. These tactics will not avert their day of reckoning, but it will postpone it. This is why prices are always “sticky on the way down” at the end of major RE cycles.
LOL ….
Let us not forget that Zillow is also picking up the fraud comps and the unqualified buyer comps that are foreclosure bound and the flipper comps . Zillow has no way of weeding out this cr-p and either does the regular lenders yet . There needs to be a serious new look at the appraisal data banks by lenders .
In fact , I would venture to say that so many of the sales in 2006 have cash-backs and concessions ,that are not reflected against the inflated purchase price ,that there is no way that Zillow can determine value .
Speaking of shady Cash-back deals, I was looking through Ziprealty and noticed this house @190 S. Linden Dr. Ventura Ca. 599,900 and sellers willing to sell @ 640,000 with 6% back @ COE. Is this legal?
“Cash-back deals…Is this legal?”
Only if it’s disclosed to the lender, in writing, on the appropriate forms.
good points wiz.
Thanks Rainman18 .
Krills …In answer to your question . The cash backs are getting so widespread that people are openly advertising them . Now make no mistake that the REIC knows that cash backs are a no no . Your are not allowed to inflate a purchase price so you can give cash back on a real estate deal . I think we all know that this would make the appraisal false . It would also make the lender lend more money than the paperword looks like they are lending . Buyers are suppose to put money into the purchase transaction , not take money out . lenders are entitled to know what their risk is on any deal . Also it would be a false inflating of property values for property tax purpose ,which is something thats affects everyone . So fraud involving real estate is a very serious crime . Investors in the secondary market (possible pensions funds ,bank deposits ,etc) are entitled to not be victims of fraudulent loans/appraisals .
You have to think about the fact that there are people that have to sell their house because they can no longer afford the property taxes that were based in part on a market inflated by fraud .
So…this is a very serious matter that cannot be taken lightly .
I don’t think the assessor cares if the value is inflated. They get more taxes!!
Buyers are suppose to put money into the purchase transaction , not take money out…
Damn you Carlton Sheets!!
Zillow is Crap!!! The place I rent is zestimated at 513K, no way this crap hole sells for anywhere north of 400K. More likely 375K MAX.
It did swing from 383K to 513K in under a month. Yeah RIGHT.
The only stuff I see selling here in Westlake Village is selling at 20-25% below the zestimates.
Same here in Ventura.
“Housing Fetish”
From the article………
The whole racket floundered when several things changed or went awry. One was the sheer saturation of markets. Sooner or later, everybody who might possibly buy a house, got a house. The racket had had the perverse effect of stealing demand from the future by making house-buyers of those who were not really ready to buy — e.g. very young adults with no savings or people with bad credit records. And not every immigrant from Bangladesh, El Salvador, or the Central African Republic could be positioned as a house buyer — even under the now nearly nonexistent lending standards.
The next thing that went wrong was affordability. If absolutely everybody’s house rose ten percent in value every year for years and years — including every “pre-owned” raised ranch shitbox — then sooner or later every house in America would cost at least half a million dollars. And with wages stagnant among the 90 percent who worked outside the financial services industry, sooner or later no house would be affordable to that 90 percent majority under even the most supernaturally lax lending provisions.
The final problem would come when central bankers had to raise interest rates so that customers for debt would accept the risk of investing in a national economy that was increasingly seen to be based on the engineering of modalities to get something for nothing.
This is the point we’re at now. The whole system was greatly underwritten by the final peaking of available energy, chiefly oil, which made it possible in the first place to sell so much real estate in the farthest-flung outlands of the American landscape, including not only desert and swamp, but also prime farmland. The housing bubble began to collapse at exactly the moment that the world reached its all-time oil production peak: the summer of 2005.
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/837/81/
nnvmtgbrkr:
Do you know anything about the market it Ely? If so, could you email off board at shauntaalburger@gmail.com?
Thank you!
You should DEFINITELY rent in Ely before you even think of buying. After a few months in that godforsaken place you’ll be looking for any way out. Miserably cold and dry winters. Hot as hades in the summer. Other than ranching, I don’t know why the hell anyone lives there.
LMAO…Ely is my favorite place on Earth. (It takes all kinds, doesn’t it?) My family and many friends are there. I live in Hades. Believe me, Ely isn’t it. Vegas is hell. The summers in Ely are heaven compared to the summers here. It’s a lovely little mountain town.
P.S. If there was anything to rent there, I’d already live there. My husband and I both were offered jobs, and couldn’t find anything to rent. There are people out there living in the hotels waiting for something to open up.
I agree. Isn’t Ely up in the Snake Range of E. Nevada? I passed through there once and thought it was kind of nice. But I like the Great Basin…elbow room.
Home is where the heart is, that’s for sure. I meant no disrespect. From an outsiders point of view, Ely would be a hard place to lay down roots. Makes sense for you since it is an area you have grown to love. That said, surely you know enough people in town to get a pulse on the local market, right? A trip to the local eatery or watering hole would probably do. I mean, last time I was through Ely, there were but a few thousand residents total! Seriously, could it have grown much in the last 5 years?
As people on this blog predicted, bail out is coming. We should email
Dodd to stop this nonsense:
Dodd Working on Foreclosure Bill
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., says he is working on legislation to prevent an “unprecedented” wave of subprime foreclosures and to give homeowners a grace period so they can get back on their feet. “This is a homeownership crisis of unprecedented proportions,” Sen. Dodd told a group of mayors. He is planning to hold hearings soon, possibly in two weeks. The committee chairman indicated that the legislation might include a rescue fund. “That is a possibility, but it would have to be paid back,” he told reporters. Sen. Dodd also told reporters that he wants to move quickly on GSE legislation to strengthen regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and pass a bill in the next two months. He said the Senate government-sponsored enterprise bill will be a “little different” from the House bill. And he declined to take a position on raising the GSE loan limits. “I have to be careful about jumping into that,” Sen. Dodd said after speaking to the mayors. “I want to talk with my colleagues first.”
The committee chairman indicated that the legislation might include a rescue fund. “That is a possibility, but it would have to be paid back,” he told reporters.
Good Lord. Lending these people money that needed to be “paid back” is what got them into trouble from the beginning. They’re not going to “get back on their feet” since they were never standing up in the first place.
Aren’t you all glad that the Democrats are now in power?
Is there any question that both parties are the same damn animal? A skunk.
Raise GSE loan limits to prop up housing prices. Check.
Create a FB bailout fund by taxing responsible people. Check.
ROFLMAO. Does anyone want to move to Australia or Costa Rica? I’m ready to max out all my credit and take off, leaving this mess behind for all the FB’s. First, I’ll have to hold off on paying FICA taxes as long as possible to screw this bastards.
I have my “indefinite validity” residence visa for New Zealand ready to use as soon as I see bastard Uncle Sam reaching for my wallet.
Move to Iraq. Plenty of US spending going on over there. I know a 140-acre place that’s being built as we type.
Dont let the door hit you in the a$$…but you might wanna take your bannana republican mentality a little further south so you dont destroy another country like you did this one.
“Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., says he is working on legislation to prevent an “unprecedented” wave of subprime foreclosures”
And some say we are at the bottom……..B/S
“he is working on legislation to prevent an “unprecedented” wave of sub prime foreclosures’
Why does he think there will be so many foreclosures? They tell us the economy is great, and that everybody is working. Does he know something the rest of us don’t know? And since the economy is so great, why do bad credit risk people need to be given a bail-out, can’t they just take on a second job and work harder to pay their bills? Wouldn’t this encourage even more bad credit risk people to take on more bad credit? So many questions, and no one smart enough to answer them.
He wants to bail-out people who should never have been given such crazy mortgages in the first place, at tax-payers expense. This doesn’t make any scenes. I think this congressman should be impeached for incompetence. I hope this passes though, because it will make the whole shit-house collapse even faster.
Why don’t they just raise everyone’s wages by 50% so the FB’s can bail themselves out of debt. Time to crank-up the printing presses!
Senator Dodd sees subprime borowers as victims and therefore they must be saved from their own idiocy, even if that drags out this correction/crash an extra 10 years
However no need to worry as any rescue fund will be “paid back.”
In the Land of Oz no doubt
Right, and if prices had continued to skyrocket like they apparently have in London, these same victims would be rich. They gambled with someone elses money and lost.
Are they going to bail out fraudelently obtained loans? Those applying for help should have to provide full documentation showing they qualified for the loan and did not lie in any way. The relief should only be for those who legitimately lost a job and need temporary help, and then only for a short time period, say for 6 months, and then only to make up their shortfall. The money given should be considered like school loans with no forgiveness, statute of limitations or mercy shoud the borrower default and lastly (gasp) only to those who can reasonably make the help work to keep their property. In other words, some speculator with an income of $5000 a month and monthly payments of $4000 obviously cannot be helped and would not qualify. Since very few would qualify under these conditions since most lied to get their loans apparently, what would be the point? And for those horribly upside down what is the point? In fact thinking about it, I doubt this will have much impact at all even if it were to fly.
Wow …Its starting …
You know I don’t mind it if they try to re-write some of these toxic loans ,if they can save a borrower from foreclosure ,but a bail out is a piss off . If they give borrowers a grace period ,the lenders should pay for it ,or it should be added to the borrowers interest somehow . Why should my taxes go for this,I wasn’t a flipper or a crooked lender or a liar borrower ?
…but doesn’t it feel good to know that your hard earned money is going to help people like Casey Serin?
I’ll hit the Vegas craps table next week. If I lose, do you think Senator Dodd will introduce a bill to bail me out?
that is classic
It won’t make feel good the Republic of China which will reuse the $ US like the toilet paper it is now…
I want to see who has the last laugh when the barrel of oil is at $250 while it would be at $30 euros and everyone else can afford it but us.
Like many said HW, no surprise if everybody has to pick up a piece of the tab for this clusterf*ck. Time for some serious evaluation of options over the next year as this plays out.
Senator Dodd is easy to reach. Tell him how you feel:
http://dodd.senate.gov/index.php?q
Thanks for the link! Here’s mine to the esteemed Senator …
Dear Senator,
I recently read that you were working on legislation to prevent an “unprecedented” wave of subprime foreclosures and to give homeowners a grace period so they can get back on their feet. I urge you to consider the broader impact of such legislation for one simple reason. The majority of people who will end up in foreclosure overextended themselves financially in the hope that the property they were purchasing would continue to appreciate in value. Despite mounting evidence that such appreciation could not continue many of these current owners proceeded. Despite a significant voice of concern over the past 3 to 5 years, these folks made a personal business decision to “invest” and take the risk. What message do you send to the good people who acted responsibly and did not over extend themselves? Who worked hard, saved, rented and had to suffer the shameful ridicule of those who “Played the game”? While I am in support of compassion, I do not support a state sponsored delay of the innevitable correction that must occur in the housing sector before true economic health can even begin to set in. We need to get to the real bottom in prices as quickly as we can. With all due respect, I request that you research this. Speak with non Real Estate involved economists. Dr. Schiller of Yale comes to mind. Sometimes the natural reprecussions of our actions must be the cross we bear if we are to learn from our mistakes. If you must proceed, I would hope that funding would come from the sectors who profited so greatly by luring so many into such misfortune. Again, I am stalwart in my opposition to any relief, but should it come then tax those who did profit, the Realtors, Lenders, builders, and the entire structure that manages Mortgage Backed Securities. I thank you for the audience and I do hope you will do the right thing.
Right on
Oh, and you even wrote in the only kind of pompous language that they understand. Very good.
I’ve sent my commen…errrr…diatribe to him as well (example in a later post).
Dear Mr. Do-right Dodd,
O.K. feeling a need to help…O.K., install catergorical imperative language in your bill, like: “Did you buy more than one house in the last 10 years?” “Yes” = NO HELP FOR YOU! “Do you own more than one house?” “Yes” = NO HELP FOR YOU! “did you lie on your loan application?” “Yes” = NO HELP FOR YOU! “did you put $0 down?” “Yes” = NO HELP FOR YOU!
i have:
I have just read that you are going to sponsor hearings on foreclosures and are pushing a foreclosure relief plan.
Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should those who took part in the last few years lunacy of real estate debauchary be rewarded for their greed and disregard of all financial fundementals. It is that disregard that has gotten us to the sorry state we are in.
Go after the loan orgs, the appraisers, the RE professionals who allowed people to get in over their heads instead. Or provide the wage inflation necessary to support the current outrageous prices.
But loaning more money to those who have shown they can’t carry their current loan balances is imprudent, unwise and unjust for those, like me, who keep their financial house in order even in the face of a mania.
Shame on you Sen Dodd.
Senator Dodd, D-Conn is now proposing that our tax dollars be used to bail out these gamblers, liars and morons. Amnesty for criminals, flippers and illegal immigrants. No amnesty for responsible, sane American citizens. Only in America.
Now that this housing crash has been averted by the government, they can get to work on healthcare.
Next time I go to Connecticut I am going to go by Dodds house and drop kick the commie bastard.
There’s something very wrong with trying to save herds of lemmings from doing what invariably they would do anyway…recommend no safety net for all these morons.
crush
I’m guessing this has more to do with a bailout of the GSE’s than the subprime borrower.
yeah, somebody’s got a hand in the Doddsters pocket
yeah, somebody’s got a hand in the Doddster’s pocket
Exactly. This is the S&L/LTCM issue all over again. “Too big to fail.” All these companies borrowed short and lent long, hired all kinds of people and are now all faces insolvency. The last gasp of a dying industry is Congress.
I’m hoping that there just isn’t the money to do a bailout or that it comes too late. I think it depends on how connected the Countrywides are. LTCM was run by Nobel prize winners and connected w/ all the bluebloods and Ivy league funds, etc. I don’t know about the Lennox financials of the world - I’m thinking they are too nouveu riche and Congress will take their money but eventually leave them hanging.
“I’m hoping that there just isn’t the money to do a bailout”
Just like with the war, they can keep printing up those federal reserve notes.
Yup. It was only a matter of time before some politician jumped on the fb bandwagon. Now we will have a bunch of Washington hack politicians from BOTH parties, watching closely to see if Dodd’s plan has any legs and, more important, sympathy from non-fb’s who will foot the bill. If it does have legs and there is sympathy, more politicians will start jumping on the exploitation/photo-op train to show how they are, “Looking out for the American people.” Good election material.
The next move will be a “bi-partisan” flood of hearings in Washington (with 2 hour breaks for expensive tax payer paid meals) complete with a parade of tear wracked fb’s telling their sad story of how those nasty mortgage men and realtors misled them. How their lives are ruined. How they thought if they bought a house they could build some equity to buy little Jimmy those leg braces so that one day he would walk again. Give me a break.
Then we can expect to see a couple of mortgage guys and realtors who were involved in these scams and were caught and offered a “get out of jail free” card if they became whistle blowers. Here’s how that one will turn out. “Well Senator, I was told we had to meet our target. It made no difference if the numbers we put down on the applications were false. If we didn’t make the numbers we were out on the street. Somehow the applications were always accepted. I had one case where a 23 year old named Casey Serin bought 4 or 5 houses in different states but he had no income. I’ve drawn up mortgage applications for illegal immigrants making $18,000 a year who were buying $600,000 properties.”
Of course the a**hole politicians will looked shocked - SHOCKED! SHOCKED! that this has been going on without something being done to protect the American people (for 6 years!)
Well, they got it right about the mortgage men and the realtors BUT most of the fb’s knew what was going on with the toxic loan mortgages (despite their denials) and submitting non-verifiable incomes but the thought of all those thousands of dollars flooding in, without even having to work, which would enable them to buy that $120,000 RV they’ve always wanted, was too much for the greedy a**holes to resist.
Now comes the piper who played at the party…and he wants his money but walking next to him will be the politicians to see if they can suck some juice out of the situation for their own benefit.
Any bail out will have to include more strigent lending standards which will still lead to extended FB’s not being able to refinace in the future. This will lead to a more prolonged decline.
The one point I believe that homeowners are missing is that the inflated current “value” of their homes is a complete fantasy. There simply are very few people out there willing to pay the price. As this train wreck slowly moves forward and lending standards tighten up the number of potential buyers for these fantasy prices will dry up even further. For who else but those who are getting free money is willing to shell out this kind of cash? Once owners who are not in deep doo doo see this they may also see themselves as targets of any bailout funding and join the call against it.
This is really big news and it point to how the lawmakers/powers that be are going to try to approach this mess . It’s really a bail out for the banks in the guise of being a bail out for borrowers .
The banks/lenders liability in this mess is so huge if you look at it from a legal stand point I think .
I don’t think the public would want to bail out all these people if they really knew they were gamblers and liars ,but they got to stop the foreclosures to stop the crash .The inventory of foreclosures would be so massive within a short amount of time that everything would go haywire. Wow .
Mike ,I didnt see your post before I posted mine but I agree with your points . I just think they want solutions before exposure of the problems ,if you know what I mean .
“As people on this blog predicted, bail out is coming. We should email
Dodd to stop this nonsense:Dodd Working on Foreclosure Bill”
[AG just shakes his head in sadness...]
Senator Dodd, there is one thing I’d like to bring to your attention. No one forced these people to buy a house. They could have done what I have been doing for a year and a half: namely rent a house. However, using their free will, they decided that they wanted to buy a house. Yes, the REIC may have been complicit in putting these people into loan programs that they had no business being in, but the ultimate responsibility is with the buyers. At the end of the day, they decided to sign on the bottom line.
Sometimes I feel that it just doesn’t pay to be fiscally responsible. It’s exactly like the Savings and Loan debacle: Risky behavior is rewarded and subsidized (guaranteed) by The Federal Government, to the point of having a vast upside and almost no downside. And who gets to pick up the tab? The risk adverse people that display fiscally prudent behavior.
Senator Dodd, how about amnesty for mortgage fraud while we are at it? After all, these people were “victims” too…they were just trying to get their part of the American Dream. Let’s also have an income tax “holiday” for those that had to sell their homes “short” to avoid foreclosure. We wouldn’t want people to have any downside to buying real estate now, would we?
I knew something like this would come along, but actually seeing it happen just makes me sad.
Arroyogrande:- sarcasm rhymes with suggestion and your letter to the doody is just rife with scary ideas to the barely literate senator.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.
The site’s overvaluations are harmful to home sellers, making them think their property is worth more, Zink said.
Oh I guess the last 5 years of cheerleading from the REIC had nothing to do with making them think their properties were worth more.
“If people that are nearing foreclosure actually buy into it (and) list it too high, they may actually go into foreclosure when the property could have sold earlier and saved them money and heartache,” she said.
Maybe it would have saved them money and heartache if some realwhore wouldn’t have sold them that over priced sh*t shack they couldn’t really afford in the first place.
I am so sad and depressed about it also arroyogrande for the reasons you stated in your post . Some fu-king flipper might get bailed out on the peoples dime . The same flipper or unqualified buyer that drove up the market that helped in pricing normal people out of the market .Makes me sick also .
i’m not sad. i’m pissed. i’m beyond pissed. yeah, let’s reward fraud, greed and stupidity, and then tax fiscal responsibility. i’m for voting with our feet and getting out of this country.
perhaps dodd would like to pay more than half his salary towards the bailout?
really, if i’d had known that a bailout would come i’d have jumped in this housing bubble with both feet. what’s the risk? just flip as fast and as much as you can until everything crashes and then hold out your shakey hand with teary eyes for a handout of other responsible people’s money. of course the crash would have been even worse then. i hope this thing raises so much rage throughout the country that the politicians won’t believe it.
“really, if i’d had known that a bailout would come i’d have jumped in this housing bubble with both feet.”
Exactly.
Oh look, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif) is going to me holding hearings as well:
http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/fraud/
“Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., says she suspects that subprime lending is responsible for rising foreclosure rates, and she is planning to hold hearings soon. “Foreclosures are on the rise, and most evidence points to predatory and subprime lending as a major cause,” the chairwoman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on housing told a Women in Housing and Finance luncheon. The chairwoman noted there are some areas with high foreclosure rates where economic problems and job losses cannot be identified. “We are really going to have to take a close look at what is going on with these foreclosures,” she said. The housing subcommittee’s first hearings will focus on housing problems in the Gulf Coast states that are still recovering from the 2005 hurricanes. Rep. Waters is planning to hold a hearing in New Orleans before the end of January.”
=====
“The chairwoman noted there are some areas with high foreclosure rates where economic problems and job losses cannot be identified.”
Wow, that’s strange. How can that be? Low unemployment, no recession, and yet NODs going through the roof. No one on Earth could have predicted this, right? Maybe it’s poltergiests causing it.
[sorry, Dodd put me in a foul mood]
And another thing…
Maxine, how about holding these hearings here in California, where your CONSTITUENTS actually reside? Oh, I see, not as good a photo-op as newly destroyed New Orleans.
You’ve got to love politics…
Newly destroyed? In yours and Bush’s mind… no hurry actually DOING anything about it… after all, it’s a bunch of stupid poor folks that didn’t vote GOP anyway.
I don’t see any way to bailout the FB’s.
OK with me to have hearings on subprime. I don’t see anywhere where she is reaching for my wallet - yet. I’m all for exposing the bastards but I’ll jump on her like I did Dodd if she expects me to pay for it. And I’m a pinko commie fag liberal who always votes Dem. I’ll tell you, if the Dems get behind a FB bailout, no more.
Why are they trying to push a bill through Congress when they haven’t even had senate hearings on why the FB’s are going into foreclosure ? If the FB’s never qualified to begin with ,how is buying them time going to make them qualify ? If anything the interest rates are going to go up more and the FB’s are still sunk . This is just a big waste of bail out money .
“Why are they trying to push a bill through Congress when they haven’t even”
Photo-op. The presidential elections are only a year and three-quarters away.
How about passing a bill that allows only owner occupiers who are foreclosed on, to be placed on the fast track of filing for bankruptcy? No waiting period or road blocks.
Right . What is Congress going to call this bill …The 2007 Welfare Relief Act For Gamblers/Liars/Banks ?
I posted this to the “Chris Dodd for President” web site/blog:
http://www.chrisdodd.com/node/785
Don’t penalize those of us that are financially responsible
If people have indeed been the victim of predatory lending practices (e.g. being put in a loan program that was more costly than their credit or situation would warrant), then have the loan officer that put them in the questionable loan program bail the buyer out. Don’t penalize the taxpayer for the transgressions of the loan industry.
In addition, if a person’s credit situation were such that they could ONLY qualify for a sub-prime loan, then I would expect no help from the federal government if or when they default. If there is no indication that the home purchaser was put into a more costly program than they could reasonably qualify for, why should the federal government be expected to bail them out?
The reason for the recent rise in Notices Of Defaults (NODs) is simple. People bought houses they couldn’t really afford, except by using teaser rate and ‘exotic’ loan products (Pay Option ARMs, Interest Only ARMs, etc.) with the expectation that real estate prices would forever go up. As long as prices kept going up, people could continue to refinance to a new ‘teaser’ rate or, in the worse case, sell the house for a big profit.
However, with house prices plateauing (or even declining), this strategy no longer works. Hence, all of the people that really couldn’t afford $500,000 houses in Los Angeles (except by playing the ‘appreciation game’) are now finding out the true costs of their mortgages.
This situation was exacerbated by the fact that people could get loans with no money down, no closing costs, and ‘cash back at closing’. We have actually come to the absurd situation where you have to have more money to rent a house (because of the required deposit) than to buy a house.
It is morally wrong to expect those of us that didn’t play the “appreciation game” (renters for example) to bail out those that did. If a person made the choice to buy a house that they could not reasonably afford, instead of rent, then they should take responsibility themselves if the housing market doesn’t work out as they planned. After all, if housing price appreciation continues, would we be looking to give renters a portion of the gains from the appreciation game to make up for the fact that they were “left out”?
- financially responsible
The FBs have voting power… end of story. Your hard earned $ US will be wasted on the inflation of the printing press.
Heck nowadays the governement can just issue debit cards with endless amounts in them.
I am opening an account in $ CAN in my hometown in Montreal, and also one in Euros…
I am serious. I am also transfering 30-50% of my US assets there. It will be all fun to watch with popcorn.
Great letter .
You know if a big employer laid off a bunch of homeowners in a town and they were having a hard time “getting back on their feet “,I could maybe understand some relief ,or the lender delaying interest to be paid by the borrower after the homeowner got re-employed .
But the current market mess is the result of a speculation mania ,faulty lending ,and greed .
I wonder how the NAR is going to spin this news about bailouts ?
What Maxine Waters is planning:
http://tinyurl.com/36ha48
“The new Congress will make affordable housing and homeownership a major priority. Working with Chairman Frank and other Members of the Financial Services Committee, we will pick-up where we left off last year by re-introducing the FHA Modernization bill to increase the loan limits and make FHA backed mortgages available in high cost areas like my State of California and the City of Los Angeles. The bill will use risk-based premiums to make mortgages available to many first-time homebuyers. Most important, the bill will be an alternative to the numerous sub-prime loans that are being made across this country.
Another major initiative will be a Government-Sponsored Enterprise (GSE) bill. The GSE bill will provide more than $500 million for affordable housing nationwide. This will be an important measure because it will enable the GSEs to better serve the housing needs of low- and moderate-income families in America.”
===
Kind of a Plunge Protection Team for housing. Who needs the hassle of sub-prime when you can get the FHA to pick up the tab. A kleptocracy of the people, by the people, and, more specifically, to the people.
It is very important to steal money from people to use it to drive up the prices of things they can’t afford.
More inflation on the way!
Makes me sick.
Will there be an official announcement that capitalism is dead in America? Possibly we should request it be given a decent funeral, and the official date of it’s demise should be noted.
As for that dumbazz Waters, there are plenty of options forsection 8 folks–and more in the pipeline–unsold condos everywhere.
The American Dream is life,liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Nowhere is homeownership mentioned. But if Waters can find it, I’d like her to point it out for the rest of us.
“You know if a big employer laid off a bunch of homeowners in a town “and they were having a hard time “getting back on their feet “”
HW, at the very least, I would have some sympathy.
However, for those that chose to game the system, and thought that they were such smarty-pants doing it…well it turns out they were right.
Sadly freedom and justice are only incident to law and order… that is the laid off people in a town are a small number, whereas all you have is to look around and see FBs everywhere.
Aristotle democracy concept would work in a demographically stable environment, but when idiots breed like rabbits democracy will never work… or at least be very close to a dictatorship. Yuk!!!
The bail out is not about helping the individuals (although that creates great PR & photo-ops) who are over their head……It is all about the banks/mortgage co’s GSE & MBS. At least Dodd figured it out…..if the NOD/Foreclosures were to continue at the current pace then we would see a crash to our economic system worse than the depression. CFC, WAMU, Wells, HSBC Fannie et al would be insolvent as they simply cannot take back billions of dollars of real estate worth 50% or less than book value, at liquidation sales. What happens to all financials, employment, US dollar, etc? PANIC is what happens and that is what Mr. Dodd is trying to prevent……It is sad that the truth must not be spoken in America…..He should have said “The USA citizenry, it’s government, and financial pillars are at huge risk for insolvency and systemic shock due to poor planning and historic levels of greed. We need to start planning now to mitigate the oncoming disaster and find a way to insure a half decent future.”
“The USA citizenry, it’s government, and financial pillars are at huge risk for insolvency and systemic shock due to poor planning and historic levels of greed.
Yeah, as predicted by many on this blog. Systemic shock–what, to the Goldilocks economy? Did you not listen to the state of the union address…”the economy is strong”. Did you think they were lying?
The country’s best hope is the oncoming “systemic shock” which will shake the entrenched power players from their perches.
Pain for the little guy–that’s built into the system. Pain for the Big Boyz?? Bring it on! Market forces are all that’s left to cleanse the country of systemic corruption, fraud and the misallocation of power and resources.
“We need to start planning now to mitigate the oncoming disaster and find a way to insure a half decent future.”
Pardon me, but you want to entrust the “planning” to the same corrupt cabal of power brokers who brought us to our present situation, in some lame hope that they will “ensure a half decent future”.
Let the market work–it is detached, decisive, and unforgiving of fools, greedheads or politicians.
http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysell/markettrends/20070129-fletcher.html
Stretched Out
In many parts of Southern California, prices are still on the upswing, although analysts such as Celia Chen, director of housing economics at Moody’s Investor Service’s Economy.com, says the area is at “high risk” for a fall. Although the local economy is strong, incomes haven’t kept pace with the sizzling double-digit price increases these markets experienced from 2001 to 2005. And with federal regulators pressuring lenders to cut back on creative financing, fewer buyers are able to stretch their incomes to buy million-dollar homes.
That’s what banker David Jaffe discovered when he put his five-bedroom stucco home in Ventura, Calif., on the market 2½ months ago for $979,900. Ventura’s prices are still rising — they increased 4% from 2005 to 2006, the study showed — and Mr. Jaffe attracted an offer close to his asking price soon after he listed it. But the deal fell apart in escrow when the buyer couldn’t qualify for the loan.
Mr. Jaffe bought the place in April 2005 for $935,000 in a bidding war, and still hopes to find someone who will meet his asking price. But he doesn’t expect to see lines forming at his door, especially since homes in his price range are affordable to fewer people and no longer have quite the cachet that they once did. “The market is changing,” he says. “It’s definitely a buyer’s market now.”
“‘I think (prices) are pretty close to bottoming out,’ said broker/associate John Vettel. ‘Everybody knows a sustained rate like that can’t continue. Already we’ve had indications that the market is receding.’”
Yea, the market is indicating that its receeding. Yea a sustained rate like that cant continue. As we all know, everyone wants to live in Carson City Nevada and yea we all want to buy $464,000 houses. After all we are all executives here in Carson City NV and we make an easy 150,000-200,000 a year average. Easy. Desert engineering. Where we maintain the desert the exact way it is, and we govern the tumbleweeds and manage their finances, lots of money in that, and stable jobs too.
Cool.
Cow_tipping.
The desert has a way of destroying things that aren’t kept up and there’ll be a lot of unkempt houses waiting for the forces of nature to do it’s trick…
For a preview, take a trip to the Salton Sea and see gobs of localized bubble housing, circa 1964~