April 8, 2007

Bits Bucket And Craigslist Finds For April 8, 2007

Please post off-topic ideas, links and Craigslist finds here.




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123 Comments »

Comment by Muggy
2007-04-08 05:15:40

For anyone considering a gated community in Florida (this demonstrates how secure they are):

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/specials/popular/article.aspx?s=popular&storyid=52363

Comment by Dawnal
2007-04-08 07:26:20

Buying is better than renting?

This guy is really off base.

http://tinyurl.com/2unltb

Let him know what you think of this…. scott@scottburns .com.

Comment by Paul
2007-04-08 07:39:38

According to his assumptions he is dead on right. But unfortunately, his assumptions, and the riskes associated with them are not necessarily sound.

1. 200k income doesn’t exactly apply to everyone.
2. Most people spend like 5 years in their house.
3. Most people “liberate” equity.
4. Most people get divorced.
5. Most people change jobs or have various income-challenging events.
6. Housing will lose value of 10-20% over the next few years, not 2%.
7. Tax benefit calculations always seem to leave out the cost of the interest paid.
8. Etc.

Paul

Comment by BM
2007-04-08 11:59:18

May I add one more:

Inflation is not necessarily in the bag. We might have deflation–of wages! Then his mortgage grows in real terms while rents would decline.

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Comment by in Colorado
2007-04-08 14:47:51

#4 is a biggie. I know personally know of three households on our street that had to sell their house for this very reason.

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Comment by Happy2Rent
2007-04-08 14:23:12

I did.

Dear Scott,

I read your article: “Even in sky-high market, buying beats renting”. Here’s another real world example for you:

My husband and I have an after tax income of $8000 per month. Our jobs are secure, come with benefits, and provide a pension. We are looking at a 1/3 increase to our income in 2008. We live in the Bay Area, land of obscene home prices. We also enjoy what you could call ‘country living’, keeping horses (3) and chickens. The median home prices where we live are just under 500K for an average tract home. Assuming we took out a 30 year fixed for a house with a purchase price $400,000 putting 20% (80K) down and financing $320,000 at 6.125%, our monthly mortgate payment (property taxes and insurance not included) would be $1944.35 per month. However, $400,000 here in the Bay Area gets you (in some of the outlying areas), a very average tract house on about an 8K square foot lot if you are lucky. Where to put the horses and chickens? Well, the chickens would have to go (darn, no more fresh eggs for breakfast!) since there’s no such thing as chicken boarding stables. The horses on the other hand could be boarded out at an average of $300 per horse for a total of $900. We are now up to $2844.35 (not including property taxes and insurance). With this lovely arrangement, we would pay about 7K less in taxes per year, which according to the tax information extrapoloted from our last two years would be a refund of about $3000. How nice - this will pay for the mortgage and the horses for one month. In addition, we would be solely responsible for any repairs needed for this average tract house.

Here is our residential reality: We found a piece of property (almost two acres) with a 2 bedroom 1 bath house perfectly suitable for our DINK selves about 34 miles from my husband’s job in Oakland (I telecommute). The land is zoned for horses and we can keep our chickens. We pay $925 per month in rent and there’s no extra charge for keeping the horses here. Our landlord loves us and we pretty much have carte-blanche over how we use the property. The landlord gets to fund any necessary repairs on the house as well. As renters, our tax liability for 2006 was $4,500 between federal and state taxes. Now on the face of it, this seems extreme, but if the costs are averaged over a year, this works out to be $375 per month. Add this to our rent and we have a grand total of $1300 per month. If we were homeowners using the example give above, our baseline would be $2844. A year of the first works out to be $15,600, a year of the second works out to be $34,128 for a difference of $18,528. Because we rent, we get to keep that $18,528 and use it for investing, playing, whatever. This is a much greater return, I’m pretty sure, than allowing the government to hold a lousy $3000 tax return and renting an average tract house from the bank. Eventually we plan on buying, but not until prices are more economically justifiable and we can actually get something with a little acreage. In the meantime, we’ll continue saving for a down payment and be more than happy to rent.

Now is not a good time to buy in California and it makes way more sense to rent, in most cases, and most specifically ours.

Regards,

MK

 
 
 
Comment by Muggy
Comment by mjh
2007-04-08 09:17:10

That’s insane, thanks for the links.

My favorite part was in link 3: The loss is estimated at $4,000 ($4,000 Structure & $0 Contents).
I see he got his TV’s out before torching it.

 
 
Comment by say what
2007-04-08 05:30:48

Never mind the cows, as they are known to graze where they wish, how about the subdivision street names? While these divisions where put together at the speed of light the street names demonstrate certain lack of something….Nickelodeon Lane anyone?
I know it has been brought up before but everytime I see them I still get the same barfing feeling….

Comment by NYCityBoy
2007-04-08 05:40:35

Say what touches upon something that I’ve ranted about during this housing stupidity. These new developments are an awful disaster when it comes to planning. Everything is a lane, cul de sac or circle. God forbid any of these new Yuppy subdivisions gets setup as a grid with streets and avenues. How many people have looked down during a flight and thought that these new developments must have been designed by a spider on crystal meth?

Look down when flying over some of these old East Coast cities. For all their shortcomings at least they are setup in nice rows. There are streets and evenues, not just an endless flood of boulevards, lanes and awful sounding drives. You can find where you are going and not end up hitting twenty-three dead-ends. The complete lack of long-term planning shows just how stupid everybody was during this McMansion boom. Buffy and Kyle just had to live at the end of a cul-de-sac. They would accept nothing less if they were going to park their BMW SUV and let little Britney and Hunter play with the nanny from Trinidad. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh.

Comment by Dan
2007-04-08 05:53:50

NYC, you do have a point. Trying to find a particular address this past week was a nightmare. Turn off onto a street name, then it intersects with a street who’s name is the same; one syllable removed, onto another slightly different, onto another with the same exact name, except it’s a “Way” instead of “Place”. Everyone wants to live on a “special” sounding street.

Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:16:22

Try old Seattle if you really want to have fun…

34th Ave. NE
34th Ave. S
N 34th St.
NE 34th St.
NE 34th Ct.
NE 34th Pl.
SE 34th St.
SE 34th Pl.
34th Pl. S
34th Ave. SW

Just picked “34″ at random and cruised around Seattle on Mapquest. I’m sure that a missed just as many 34s too.

Maybe this was the start of it all.

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Comment by Matt_in_TX
2007-04-08 15:30:28

This is the founding shyster’s plan to keep Californians from being able to find Ballard.

 
Comment by synthetik
2007-04-08 20:58:07

I think Ballard can only be improved. What a dump.

 
 
Comment by glorgau
2007-04-08 07:51:02

navigating is going to end up like doing your taxes. You need a program for anything more than the simplist return, and your going to need a GPS enabled device for anything you haven’t memorized.

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Comment by speedingpullet
2007-04-08 10:35:02

hehehe…try growing up in London, if you want labyrinthine…

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Comment by travanx
2007-04-08 11:09:27

I like the way you find addresses in London though. That zipcode thing is pretty interesting.

BTW the reasons the streets are set up like that in Southern California are because those are kind of the rules to follow. In our office when anyone takes a look at some of those gridded style communites they look terrible. The design is supposed to be different throughout the neighborhood, not be gridded. We only do hillside developments so there is more reason to design like this as well. But unless you know why its being done like this, you cant really knock the reasoning.

Its very interesting when you see how some of the hillside tracts are trying to hide the majority of the housing from the view so it keeps the natural mountain looking like an actual mountain.

 
Comment by waitingitout
2007-04-08 12:21:38

Actually, grid patterns are better for traffic. Here in Florida the developments are enclosed and therefore each development funnels all of it’s population to one road causing traffic nightmares. If we had grid patterns with cross streets, people would have more than one way to get home. I used to live in Chicago, and we have more traffic issues here in Florida than there. I only have 2 ways to get home. In Chicago I had too many to count.

 
 
 
Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:04:04

Can’t you let the market work? These developments are laid out that way because the buyers want it that way - not because they dropped out of the sky that way. There’s plenty of screwed up things to complain about, like mortgage fraud that makes accurate comps impossible, or loans made to people who’s only hope of repayment is 10% (or more) appreciation - and then having our retirements linked to that idiocy, or a real estate cabal that is NEVER held accountable when predicting future prices (thereby making us bloggers look like the kooks, while we’ve been right, as far as I can tell, EVERY time).

It’s annoying, but true, that most home buyers want the HOA police in their neighborhoods, and they want that granite and wood floors, but couldn’t care less about junk inside or under the walls. They also want all those local services (parks, libraries, perfect schools for their perfect kids, etc.), but then complain when they don’t like the tax bill.

That’s just life.

Comment by NYCityBoy
2007-04-08 06:13:36

Pretty incomprehensible post, Rocks.

I hope you never have cardiac arrest and are relying on some guy behind the wheel of the ambulance having to drive through one of these new hair-brained developments. While he’s trying to navigate down Babbling Brook Circle you will be turning blue and cursing Ginger and Cody’s need for that damn cul-de-sac down the way. Not only are they eyesoars but they are also a public safety disaster.

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Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:25:11

Typical of me.

Free Market: Where people are allowed to choose what they want (within agreed to bounds), and others respect (or at least tolerate) those choices.

I get ticked off at the people gaming the system, there the ones that tick me off.

As to you’re cardiac comment - I grew up next to NYC and I’d hate to be stuck in an ambulance behind triple-parked traffic (unloading something, of course) on some east/west street. Every place has problems.

Having said that, the city is a blast - the pizza is outstanding - and I go out of my to make it there every time I’m in that part of the country (once or twice a year).

 
Comment by NYCityBoy
2007-04-08 06:28:39

“Free Market: Where people are allowed to choose what they want (within agreed to bounds), and others respect (or at least tolerate) those choices.”

That is not the same as local governments letting developers do whatever the hell they want because they are somehow getting something out of the deal. A free market does not imply complete stupidity but it did in the past few years. Local governments jumped into the pockets of the developers and sold the souls of their cities and towns. It is funny to see words like “Planning Board” and “Planning Commission” being thrown around in the past few years. They should have been called the “Build Whatever the Hell You Want as Long as We are Getting Something Out of it in the Short Run Board”.

 
Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:44:08

Tough call. I think that most of us on this blog would have liked the local governments to have done something to prevent the extra 1M or so houses on the market that were never needed - and are in the process of sending our economy into gyrations. But only because the lenders, and everyone up the chain, thought it was fine to give money to people who simply could not pay it back.

I have trouble blaming the local govs for this. We all know that it was not a conspiracy between the govs, rather it just happened. If one gov decided to prevent it, then the developers simply would go elsewhere and leave that town as a black hole (to some extent). It all comes down to the end-users, and they want this stuff. I lived in a HOA for 4 years in TX, and HATED it. Now I live on straight street (still in TX), with 1/2 acre lots. But there are a lot of empty lots (even though I’m withing walking distance to over 10,000 jobs) - people still love the HOAs - what can you say?

 
Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:45:36

Sorry - forgot to mention the Sabretts - my other reason for visiting NYC whenever possible.

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2007-04-08 06:49:31

Reminds me of the DEVO song Freedom of Choice

Freedom of choice is what you got, freedom FROM choice is what you want.

 
Comment by in Colorado
2007-04-08 09:16:48

“I hope you never have cardiac arrest and are relying on some guy behind the wheel of the ambulance having to drive through one of these new hair-brained developments.”

FWIW, if resuscitation does not happen within 10 minutes, you are as good as gone. If the paramedics are not nearby, you are toast.

Your best bet might be to buy your own AED.

 
Comment by Lionel
2007-04-08 10:28:45

I’d heard on NPR that fewer than 2% of patients in hospitals who require paddles to bring them back actually recover without significant brain damage.

 
Comment by waitingitout
2007-04-08 12:27:37

That is true. It’s nothing like ER. Usually, if you can bring them back from the dead they are in a coma and will have to be taken off life support and die anyway. Those who come out of coma do have some brain damage and in many instances would have been better off dead. If you’re in your 80’s or 90’s and have had a good life. Sign a DNR. The brutality of resusitation is not pretty.

 
Comment by in Colorado
2007-04-08 14:54:21

The rule of thumb is that for every minute that elapses before treatment begins reduces survival chances by ten basis points, so after 10 minutes its 0%. In reality its not a linear line. If they get to you within two minutes you have a good chance, otherwise its sinks fast, then hovers down to 0%.

So if the code blue team takes more than 2 minutes to arrive, your chances are slim.

 
 
Comment by Incredulous
2007-04-08 07:46:24

Several years ago a local television news program showed a family from Ohio that had moved into New Tampa. There were eight children, and the mother was complaining that they couldn’t all go to the nearest New Tampa school, which was packed and couldn’t fit them all in. The tax rates there were (and still are) far, far lower than here in South Tampa, and her yearly contribution couldn’t possibly have covered the cost of even one child’s education. I was astounded at her hubris moving here in the first place (we were bursting at the seams), and then bitching because things weren’t absolutely perfect (translation: made to suit her dream “lifestyle”). If she’d had to actually pay for her kids’ education with her property taxes, I might have cut her some slack.

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Comment by BubbleViewer
2007-04-08 07:47:33

Yeah, Americans love suburbia! It’s such a fulfilling experience on so many levels.

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Comment by Portland Mainer
2007-04-08 06:20:50

“Everything is a lane, cul de sac or circle.”

In Maine we have dead ends - no cul de sacs.

 
Comment by crash1
2007-04-08 06:31:09

I can say there’s absolutely no consideration for being able to find places around here. Yes, everybody wants a street with a special name, and planners have no concept of “planning” or navigation. Like everybody else, they want something “out of the box”. The original pioneers had the right ideas about laying out streets and naming them. Here, streets inexplicably change names without warning, change directions with a corresponding change in numbering, and are discontinuous where you can’t get from one end of the street to the other without some kind of detour. Who causes the most urban destruction-planners or developers?

 
Comment by optionedunarmed
2007-04-08 06:50:08

How many people have looked down during a flight and thought that these new developments must have been designed by a spider on crystal meth?
Watching the sprawl below is the most depressing thing about flying, for me. But aesthetics aside and returning to the issue of the housing bubble, from the airplane it is easy to see that right beyond the edge of the sprawl there is generally lots of more empty land, some of it with the cul-de-sac mazes already mapped out in brown dirt that has been cleared of trees. Makes it really obvious that in most places there is plenty more room to build more houses, lending weight to the argument that supply is not limited and that prices are too high. Flying in airplanes is a great way to get a birds-eye view of what the bubble looks ike.

 
Comment by Bad Chile
2007-04-08 06:50:14

You have never been to Boston, have you? :-)

Locals say the roads follow the old cow paths. Being a native westerner, I say no cow wanders that much, it must have been drunk Redcoats instead.

Comment by Rob Dawg
2007-04-08 07:20:40

As my grandparents and now cousins live on OldConneticut Path in Massachusetts I can confirm this. The road was originally a deer path, then Indian path until eventually the route west out of Boston.

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Comment by Wickedheart
2007-04-08 08:16:40

You wouldn’t like San Diego much. It’s all set up in cul-de-sacs and dead ends because of all the canyons. Dead ends and cul-de-sacs are great streets to live on, especially when you have kids. I find my way around just fine with a little help from the Thomas Bros. sometimes. :)

Comment by CA renter
2007-04-09 00:22:46

I’m with NYCityboy. We grew up in the SFV part of LA with nice, well-designed grids running all across the Valley. Even though there are millions of people living there, you can easily get from one place to the other by surface street, and experience only light traffic.

Then, we moved to San Diego where EVERY dang street ends/changes names/curves around onto itself, etc…and absolutely cannot stand it.

During rush hour, if the freeway is too busy, you can take the coast, along with everybody else. No other way through. Most amazingly stupid road design I’ve ever seen.

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Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 06:11:27

Census data show that fewer people than usual moved into Florida last year. And an abrupt halt in the growth of public school enrollment this year suggests that families are leaving. Despite dropping prices, communities like Naples, Miami and Sarasota still have some of the most overvalued real estate in the nation, according to Global Insight, a research firm in Waltham, Mass.

“People are packing up the equity and moving to North Carolina and Tennessee,” Mr. Snaith said.

http://tinyurl.com/3cvjd6

Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:29:07

You think that’s bad. When I was there a couple of weeks ago, it was worse than I even thought (and I thought the worst). I actually saw a billboard for a development where they showed something like 10 happy people, and all were non-minority. It was obvious that the developer was so desperate that he willing to have the full force of the feds come down on him - he’s just figuring he’s got nothing to lose now. It’s that bad.

Comment by foreclose_me
2007-04-08 09:42:14

What are you talking about? Every agent knows the racial factor is key in where people buy.

CNN just had a video news report on CNN.com about a nice suburb in Georgia that was all Black. And it even said they bought just because of that.

Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 10:31:07

“Every agent knows the racial factor is key in where people buy.”

Of course - but you don’t show it publicly, you do it in more discreet ways, such as “whitening” the required minority faces on your brochure, which, believe it or not, I saw done (they looked almost like ghosts, but at least they didn’t look as threatening to property values - and don’t blame me, I didn’t retouch the photo).

But never on something as prominent as a billboard, not when you’ve got the NAACP literally taking each company’s print ads and tallying the number of this type of person and that type of person, and if the numbers don’t work - extortion time.

Don’t you love our melting pot.

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Comment by waitingitout
2007-04-08 12:32:06

I work in a hospital and usually Jan thru March is high season and the hospital is maxed. Not this season!! It’s been unusually slow and that’s not just an observation. Our patient numbers prove it.

 
 
Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 06:16:33

In one hint of how much Floridians were relying on property wealth during the real estate boom, 16 percent of new car purchases here were being made with home equity loans in 2006, compared with 7 percent nationally, according to CNW Marketing Research, an automotive research firm in Bandon, Ore. In California, the percentage was even higher — about 30 percent, said Art Spinella, the firm’s president.

During the last few years, families in much of the country have relied on the cash from mortgage refinancing, made possible by rising house values, low interest rates and a bevy of creative new loans, to make up for stagnant wages. From 2001 to 2005, even as the economy was growing at a healthy clip over all, the pay of most workers failed to keep pace with inflation. Now the housing slowdown is making it more difficult to take equity out of a house, and an improved job market is finally causing wages to rise.

http://tinyurl.com/3cvjd6

Comment by Penina
2007-04-08 06:51:32

Hey Palisades… you’re stealing Ben’s thunder.

By beating him to the punch you risk watering down the quality of this blog.

Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 07:06:24

I’m not sure I understand. Contributing a bit to the bit bucket waters things down? I think it’s the opposite, no?

Comment by Sunsetbeachguy
2007-04-08 08:44:10

I agree with Palisades Park.

Ben has admitted that most of his content is sent to him, either in the bits bucket or via email.

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Comment by Neil
2007-04-08 09:25:14

I think Penina was doing a “back handed” compliment.

Interesting information. Scary… 30% of car purchases in California were view MEW.

This has me ROTFL whenever anyone tries to follow the NAR line of “all real estate is local.” Yea… but all jobs are mobile now and this is the first housing boom that was done on a purely national credit bubble.

Got popcorn?
Neil

 
 
 
Comment by REhobbyist
2007-04-08 10:45:22

Today’s New York Times business section contained so much housing-relevant news that Ben is probably having a hard time deciding what to include. There’s so much in the press now about the housing decline. On the other hand, most of it is repetitive. I like the releases that Ben posts showing real-life examples that support the hard statistics. These also generate some hilarious and/or cutting responses from the blog.

 
 
Comment by ronin
2007-04-08 07:47:46

30+ years ago, interest on your car loan was deductible from your federal income tax. Now it is not, but interest paid on your house is.

That sounds like good enough reason for house loans being increasingly used to obtain cars.

Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 10:36:13

PLUS - even in BK you get to keep a car. So if you you paid cash for the car (via HELOC or cash-back, or builder incentive), lose your house in foreclosure, you get to keep your new car while you start over. If you never intended to keep your side of the mortgage, it’s brilliant way to game the system. Perhaps a lot of these FBs are much smarter than we assume.

But it all goes back to the dingbats that allow these loans to be made in the first place - and those are the buyers of mortgage-backed securities (including, unfortunately, my pension plan).

 
 
 
Comment by Sniggle
2007-04-08 06:28:07

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/bal-te.bz.foreclose08apr08,0,2164186.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

The new wave of mortgage defaults hitting the region, part of a nationwide spike, is not primarily a city problem. Foreclosure filings rose four times faster last year in Baltimore’s suburbs than in Baltimore - up 15 percent versus less than 4 percent in the city, court records show. To the south in Montgomery, one of the nation’s wealthiest counties, filings were up more than 30 percent.

Comment by NYCityBoy
2007-04-08 06:31:32

And once again the veil is pulled back on the myth that the high-end areas will be unscathed. During the mania the wannabes had access to financing, for the first time ever, to get them into those never before accessible high-end neighborhoods. They helped drive up the prices for the Westchester Counties of this world. They will also help to pull them back down.

Comment by watching the river flow
2007-04-08 06:35:32

“Some states have defied the trend, chiefly among them New York, where the housing market has been bolstered by sales in Manhattan. The prices and number of apartments selling in Manhattan rose in the first three months of this year, according to data released last week by several of New York City’s largest real estate brokerages”.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/08/us/08housing.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

 
Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 06:51:33

You gotta love these people. Anyone making even 100k that doesn’t have a life-changing event, but then loses their house anyway (like via a loan reset), is an absolute moron.

I have a lot more sympathy for the middle class and lower. These people used to be protected by a system that demanded a reasonable chance that the loans would be paid back - and then that system simply disappeared (and they weren’t even told).

 
 
Comment by MDBill
2007-04-08 10:06:27

From the same article:

The problem isn’t limited to subprime loans. Baltimore-based First Mariner Bancorp, which doesn’t offer subprime products, said bad loans contributed to its nearly $4 million loss in the last three months of 2006. Brett Carter, president of First Mariner Mortgage, whose loans are primarily on Mid-Atlantic homes, sees a mix of homeowners in trouble and investors who speculated badly.

 
 
Comment by ByeByeFL
2007-04-08 06:44:27

$200000 Malibu Bay - Pembroke Pines Foreclosure
Reply to: hous-308113725@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-04-08, 8:31AM EDT

3bed/2ba on lake. One story villa foreclosed by US marshall.

Photos, exact location and details at Foreclosed properties

US Marshall, WTF????

Comment by KIA
2007-04-08 06:59:26

US Marshalls usually foreclose “seized” property or property which is forfeited under federal drug laws.

Comment by ByeByeFL
2007-04-08 07:01:55

She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie;
Cocaine.

 
 
Comment by Bad Chile
2007-04-08 07:06:28

Current law allows police entities to claim any physical property that was used or suspect of use, or is the result of, the comission of a crime. A 3bed/2bath home foreclosed by the US Marshalls could be anything from a home purchased with the gains due to illicit drug sales to money laundering schemes to evasion of taxes. The burden of proof in asset seizure laws is not with the charging party, it is with those charged. To quote Cato:

“Once the property is seized, the burden is upon any owner who wants to get his property back to prove its “innocence”–not by a probable-cause but by a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard. Yet that is possible only where innocent-owner defenses have been enacted or allowed. In defending the innocence of his accused property, the owner must prove a negative, of course. “

Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 07:24:35

The funny part is that the feds often become the “FB”, in the sense that every penny they get from the foreclosure sale goes right to the first lienholder (who, by they way, loses big-time).

 
 
 
Comment by submitter
2007-04-08 07:04:54

Here is an item from Sunday’s Baltimore Sun with some stuff in the DC area(Rockville=Montgomery County) as well. It had an example of 3 people, upon research should never have been given a mortgage and probably had bad credit since their initial ARM interest rates were very high.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/bal-te.bz.foreclose08apr08,0,2164186.story?page=1&coll=bal-home-headlines

Guy in Rockville-Purchased in 2006 with 100% finanicng with inital ARM for the 80% part at 7.95 that will adjust to 5.25% above libor in 2008. Plus another note for 55k. Lender on both is Encore Credit of Irvine, but the first mortgage was sold to countrywide in Aug 06. He has a lien from the condo assoc staring in Oct 2006 which means that he probably never made any condo payments. This is a former apt complex built in the early 60s and converted in 1980 with high condo fees because it has lots of grounds and utilty costs are included.

Lady in Middle River’s house was built in 1934, purchased in 2005 with 100% financing, and then refinanced with an ARM with an initial rate of 7.5%.

Lady in Anne Aurundel had even wilder terms, second purchase in less than a year with 100% ARM financing with an initial rate of over 9%.

 
Comment by SDMisfit
2007-04-08 07:12:57

I’ve been visiting this site since 2004. Good website, but the tone has changed radically. Most of the free info is gone. The numbers dont seem right. He used to be strictly downtown only. Now he’ll take any job in the entire County - (even Jacumba) to “make a living.” Based on the average condo price, if he sells one condo every other month he’s got a six-figure income. Whats the problem?

http://www.sandiegodowntown.info/downtown.html

“Please read: This is not a large real estate company’s website, nor meant as a free information service. I am an independent real estate agent and I do all of this by hand. When I learn that you’ve purchased a condo, used this website but used a different agent, it’s discouraging. I only make a living when I represent you as your real estate agent. If you are a property owner, I want to represent you on the sale of your property. If you are a buyer, I can represent you on your purchase of any condo listed on this page, or the entire County of San Diego. If you find value in my site, please use me as your agent, or someday this site may cease to exist.

 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 07:25:20

“Biggest Real Estate Myths
On The Web
By Vivian Marino
Published: April 8, 2007
Full text available online
on Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Whether you’re buying or selling a home, be sure to keep in mind the five common real estate misconceptions.

Read, print and e-mail the full text of this article on Parade.com starting Tuesday, April 10″

In case you don’t get a Sunday paper, here are Parade’s “5 Biggest Real Estate Myths”:

1. Only a licensed real estate broker should sell your home.
2. Your broker wants to get the highest price for your home.
3. A low credit score means you won’t qualify for a mortgage.
4. The advertised mortgage rates are what you’ll get from a lender.
5. Your home must be turned into a showplace before it’s listed.

I agree these may all qualify as “real estate myths,” but the 5 biggest?! I am not so sure. Here are a few more that merit consideration:

1. Real estate always goes up.
2. Buy now or you will be priced out forever.
3. It’s different here.
4. All real estate markets are local.
5. The subprime problem is contained.

Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 07:42:41

“I agree these may all qualify as “real estate myths,” but the 5 biggest?! I am not so sure. Here are a few more that merit consideration:

1. Real estate always goes up.
2. Buy now or you will be priced out forever.
3. It’s different here.
4. All real estate markets are local.
5. The subprime problem is contained”.

My take on these:

1. RE does not always go up, but longterm it does.
2. I would alter that to “Buy when you still have good earnings years ahead of you or it may be a struggle later.
3. It’s different “here” because it’s different everywhere - see # 4
4. Every market reacts to its own supply and demand and indeed, at any given point in time, these will be very divergent by market.
5. Subprime is not yet contained - we’re still in the process of that.

As for what they listed, I would say:

1. For most buyers and sellers in most states you probably want a licensed agent, or at least be involved with something like FSBO.

2. Brokers simply want to sell your house and move on to the next sale. The highest price only works in a bullish market.

3. In the future this will hopefully be more true.

4. Too much bait and switch.

5. It doesn’t need to be a showplace, but in a slow market, you should try and fix the obvious problems buyers will object to. In a crazed markets with multiple offers, “as is” often suffices.

Comment by ronin
2007-04-08 07:53:05

“1. RE does not always go up, but longterm it does.”

Long term the value of the dollar is debased, so it takes more of them to buy the same house. In other words, the value of the item stays more or less the same, but the value of the unit of measure falls. So…

1. RE does not always go up, but longterm it takes more dollars to buy the same house.

Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 07:59:16

“Long term the value of the dollar is debased, so it takes more of them to buy the same house. In other words, the value of the item stays more or less the same, but the value of the unit of measure falls. So…

1. RE does not always go up, but longterm it takes more dollars to buy the same house.”

I agree - it may very well NOT go up in real dollars. But because it will go up longterm in nominal dollars, and because you can control a lot of money via a small downpayment (leverage), it’s almost never a bad bet if you are buying with a longterm horizon. All the better if you can avoid buying at a market high.

It’s not all math either - the math has to be balanced against life’s needs. Tell a pregnant woman who wants her own house that renting is superior because you will save $23,000 over 30 years (if you don’t blow the savings as everyone does) and it will not fly.

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Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 10:58:47

“But because it will go up longterm in nominal dollars, and because you can control a lot of money via a small downpayment (leverage),”

Last time I checked, the median SFR list price in San Diego was only $599,000. A small 10% downpayment of $59,000 is nearly the median annual household income for San Diego county. Nobody here except for the wealthy can qualify to buy a home priced at $599,000 on up on a fixed income mortgage with a downpayment.

 
Comment by REhobbyist
2007-04-08 10:59:09

Palisades: I can’t decide if you’re a real estate employee, someone who recently purchased a home, or just argumentative. Which is it?

 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 11:46:01

fixed income rate mortgage

 
Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 14:53:48

““But because it will go up longterm in nominal dollars, and because you can control a lot of money via a small downpayment (leverage),”

Last time I checked, the median SFR list price in San Diego was only $599,000. A small 10% downpayment of $59,000 is nearly the median annual household income for San Diego county. Nobody here except for the wealthy can qualify to buy a home priced at $599,000 on up on a fixed income mortgage with a downpayment”.

I agree, which is why if I were starting out, I’d begin in a starter home, not one priced at the median. I also might be willing to put up with a less than desirable commute and maybe evn enter an arrangement with relatives to go in together on a multi-family residence. Maybe after being in the housing game for years I would hopefully have enough equity buildup to have a larger downpayment so that I could buy something at a price as high as the median price. Actually, saving $59,000 these days should not take that many year, particularly if we are talking two earners.

 
Comment by hllnwlz
2007-04-08 16:11:13

Palisades,

I don’t know where you are, but you don’t seem overly familiar with SoCal real estate prices. A starter home in a safe neighborhood in whicc you could raise a family runs, at the bargain basement end, 500K. Now, if you want a condo or a townhome, you could probably find a decent one for 425K+. But then you’re paying HOAs, which can easily run into the $300 range.

There are no bargain starter homes here.

But there will be.

 
 
 
Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 07:54:22

My Turn:

1) Always is a strong word. In Tokyo, recovery will likely be after the FBs are dead - and then there’s inflation and the cost of the money that’s tied up in the devalued asset.

2) Buy when the market is favorable (as defined many times on this blog). Just because you can earn money later does not mean you should put your retirement income at stake (i.e., dump an extra thousand or two into mortgage interest, rather than a 401k).

3 & 4) All markets are different (different land supply, different jobs base, etc.), but there are also overriding trends, such as interest rates, and the idiocy of lenders to give money to people who cannot repay. So it’s both local and national, and neither can be ignored.

5) There will be big-time damage above subprime. Basically, everyone who took out loans that they cannot repay (including Alt-A and Prime) will be hosed on resets - once appreciation stops in their local area. It cannot be contained.

 
Comment by mjh
2007-04-08 09:27:33

Wait, did I read what you wrote correctly???

Article myth: 3. A low credit score means you won’t qualify for a mortgage. (i.e. a low score really means you WILL qualify)
Your response: 3. In the future this will hopefully be more true.

You want more low FICOs to qualify for loans? Isn’t that pretty much proven to be a bad thing? Or did you just misread their double negative?

Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 10:38:26

Hopefully people with bad credit will find it more difficult getting mortgages.

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Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 10:38:59

Well, if it’s a true 50% LTV, who cares what the credit score is. But if higher, the score better be a factor.

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Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 11:01:15

“You want more low FICOs to qualify for loans?”

The troll unwittingly wants the market to crash, which would pretty much invalidate his point that “real estate always goes up in the long run.”

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Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 14:56:47

When you’re out of ideas, resort to name calling.

Hey love the picture of your house at http://tinyurl.com/38bknj

 
 
 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 10:54:17

“1. RE does not always go up, but longterm it does.”

I should have added that to my list of myths, as after you subtract the costs of ownership, I believe this is patently false.

Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 14:41:01

Are you comparing a one bedroom rental apartment to a 2500 sq foot 3 BR house though. Thein lies the difference. Look, it’s not all about math. And I promise you that the supposed savings that acrue from renting are rareley saved in full. In other words it looks good on paper.

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Comment by Army No Va
2007-04-08 18:35:34

There are long periods in history where real estate did not go up nor was a good investment. In US history, 1869 to 1896 come to mind immediately. Then, of course, was significant swaths of the South that purchased before 1861 would have been a bad investment (unless held for a very long time in some cases). Eastern European real estate purchased in 1913? Roman RE in 400+ AD? Japanese RE in 1930s or 1989? German RE in 1938?

Please don’t tell me we are “smarter” than these people were. I’d say we are more programmable and vulnerable than many of these people in the past.

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Comment by Paul
2007-04-08 07:55:11

Get Stucco,

I think you nailed it! These are truly myths. The others are simply information that may help you get a better deal. A deal that would be easier to get with out the widely-held belief in the myths of your list.

Paul

 
Comment by REhobbyist
2007-04-08 10:51:57

Perfect, G.S.

 
 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 07:29:20

‘HOUSING SCENE
LEW SICHELMAN
Latino lending barriers fall slowly
April 8, 2007

NANCEE E. LEWIS / Union-Tribune
Ron Jauregui, head of the San Diego-based Hispanic National Mortgage Association, wants lenders to adopt its underwriting system.

WASHINGTON – Five years ago, the Latino home-buying market was largely invisible.

Now, it is not just a so-called “emerging” segment of the housing market, but a market unto itself. And it’s one that needs to be reckoned with.

Back then, many Latinos had the capacity to become owners, but the mortgage business didn’t see them. Some wannabe owners didn’t speak English, so they had no idea what the home-buying process was all about. Others didn’t participate in the American banking system, so they had not established the all-important credit histories lenders require to determine if they were creditworthy.

Nowadays, a fair number of lenders are finally reaching out to Hispanics, as well they should. But Latinos still face the same barriers to ownership.

They continue to be penalized for dealing in cash rather than checks and credit cards. And they still lack an understanding of mortgage programs.

So what’s the problem? After all, at about 43 million, or roughly 14 percent of America’s population, Latinos constitute the country’s largest and fastest-growing minority group.

And they’re not just recent immigrants, or illegals, either. In fact, the majority of the country’s Hispanics are native-born U.S. citizens. Perhaps more appealing to lenders: almost half are under the age of 25, the beginning of the prime home-buying years.

Nevertheless, their homeownership rate is roughly 50 percent.’

I’ve recently seen in print at least twice that the (national) hispanic share of subprime loans was 40 percent. So where is this situation headed going forward?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070408/news_lz1h08latino.html

 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 07:31:31

Yet another version of credit fraud…
————————————————————————————-
NATION’S HOUSING
KENNETH HARNEY
Questions swirl about credit-score repair offers
April 8, 2007

WASHINGTON – When your credit scores don’t qualify you for the home mortgage you want, where do you turn? That’s an especially timely question now, as banks and mortgage companies tighten underwriting standards for applicants with less than perfect credit.

But federal and state authorities fear that some borrowers are turning to a fast-growing business on the Internet: companies that claim to boost credit scores by transplanting the credit DNA of people with excellent payment histories into the credit files of people with sub-par histories – ostensibly without breaking any law.

The companies claim to raise FICO credit scores by 50 to 250 points or more by adding low-scoring borrowers as “authorized users” onto the credit card accounts of people with FICO scores well in excess of 700. The positive payment information from such cardholders then flows into the files of the persons with sub-par credit.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070408/news_1h08harney.html

Comment by Hoz
2007-04-08 08:18:06

By itself that is not fraudulent. eg. I put my grandkids on my card. It appears to be fraudulent only when the revised credit is used to obtain a loan that by intention will never be paid back. $750/ credit line seems like an incredible amount of money.

Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 11:04:02

“By itself that is not fraudulent.”

If it is legal but opens a door to fraud, then I guess it is a pretty darn good scam.

Comment by seattle price drop
2007-04-08 14:16:45

A Seattle brokerage was busted for lifting FICOs from qualified people and transferring the scores to unqualified borrowers. The people with high FICOs were strangers to those who used their scores. All parties except the brokers were unaware of what was going on. This happened last summer.

There were no follow up stories on what happened to the brokers once the scam was revealed. Or at least I didn’t notice any.

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Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 14:24:34

“But federal and state authorities fear that some borrowers are turning to a fast-growing business on the Internet: companies that claim to boost credit scores by transplanting the credit DNA of people with excellent payment histories into the credit files of people with sub-par histories – ostensibly without breaking any law.”

Legality would appear to turn on whether the “people with excellent payment histories” know their “credit DNA” is getting “transplanted” into the “credit files of people with sub-par histories.”

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Paul
2007-04-08 08:04:17

A low income aquaintance of mine has been saving to buy a car. She scraped together almost $2000.00 and had started shopping for a good used one.

Then along comes some FB with a sob story about losing her house and borrowed the money from her. The FB’ll pay it back, of course.

How sad. She’ll never see that money again. There are so many people stuck in this downward housing credit cycle, and throwing money into it in a vain attempt to keep their head above water.

I hope that even the FB’s realize that the current is now flowing the other way, and are smart enough to drop those Huge Iron House Keys, rather than let go of their bouyant 401k’s and IRA’s in a futile attempt to stay afloat. The end is now pretty much inevitable.

Paul

 
Comment by Bernadette
2007-04-08 08:20:10

Re gated communities in Fl. Here in Broward County, they are difficult to escape, anything decent comes with HOA.
Did anyone see Casey on Suzie Orman last night?
CNBC has a special “Buyer’s Market” programming all day Tues, April 10; proxy NAR marketing?

 
Comment by OC_Stomp
2007-04-08 08:30:03

I’d like to the thoughts from you all on whether it’s a good time to “invest”, if that is the right word, in subscribing to one of the foreclosure websites (and if so, which one)? Given how close we seem to be getting to more and more FB’s who are desperate to sell, I’m thinking it might be the time to start getting educated (with foreclosure data) today.

I’m assuming much of the information would be available if I had the inclination or time to drive down to the local courthouse(s) and/or pour though other sources, but I don’t have either at the moment. Work is simply too busy right now (which is why I’m spending the rest of my Easter holiday getting caught up), so I’m looking for a good source that has most of the information nicely laid out. I’m willing to pay a premium for that given the cost of any potential puchase.

Any thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated.

Comment by GotRocks
2007-04-08 10:49:11

Just be real careful. Among a few things:

1 - Liens on the property (you won’t be told - you have to research), maybe even new liens that show up the day before the sale.
2 - Hidden Damage if unoccupied (a big problem here in TX is mold, if you leave the AC off for an extended time, ugly things often start growing)
3 - Intentional damage by current “owners” (often they exact revenge)
4 - Eviction of current owners/renters (state laws may protect them, and cost you big-time to get rid of them)
5 - Shill Bidders (people trying to get you to up your bid, but will never actually buy the property). Probably not legal, but…
6 - Competition against professionals (their list, no doubt, is much longer than this list - they know where to draw the line on cost)
7 - Who knows what else?

The bottom line - do not bid very much!!, especially if the market is tanking. What you may want to do the first few times is set your own price (but never bid), and then see what the properties go for - that would help calibrate you.

 
 
Comment by DAVID
2007-04-08 08:44:23

Here is nice remodeled home in the hood of Sacramento, where shootings are common.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/rfs/304288908.html

Comment by spacepest
2007-04-08 12:30:31

Is that a home or a converted trailer? And $200K+ for it. Hahhaah, insane.

 
 
Comment by DAVID
2007-04-08 08:58:07

Another major hood area of Sacramento, funny thing about this one is realtor.com has the same condos for sale for $30,000 less. These things are worth maybe $5 bucks.

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/rfs/308000978.html

 
Comment by Hoz
2007-04-08 09:02:13

A lot of news out of China this weekend, some good, some ?:

“China will ban processing trade in more categories of chemical and resource products in the latest move to restrict the export of resource-intensive products and to balance trade.” China Daily

(checking out one of the “banned products” “to balance trade” - lanthanon - from Yahoo “China tops of the world in rare earth reserves, production scale & output, export and consumption, yet Chinese rare earth enterprises are obsessed with lower price…there are 154 million tons of exploitable rare earth reserves globally, among which 89 million tons (about 58%) are distributed in China. …global demand for rare earth in 2020-2025 will reach 2 million tons.” So China reacts to the paper tariff. If you are curious about Lanthanon - it is used in any hydrogen-to-electricity battery model. Buy what China Buys, sell what China sells.)

next: China suggests US heed own human rights

“We repudiate the human rights report of the US Department of State, which ignores basic facts, slanders and attacks China’s human rights situation,” he said.

“We express our strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition,” Qin said in a statement posted on the Ministry’s Web site. “A lot of efforts have been made to expand democracy and reinforce the rule of law in China. Human rights in China have made new progress constantly.”

The international community has spoken highly of China’s human rights practice, the spokesman said. …

“It’s the consensus of the international community that the U.S is not qualified to be the ‘human rights guard’ at all,” Qin said. “We strongly advise it to focus more on human rights problems within its own boundary and stop its erroneous activities of interfering in other countries’ domestic affairs with the excuse of human rights.”

(Not very much I can opine on China’s human rights records as I have only been to the major cities and seen what the guides let one see. There is not much to dispute about the Chinese and world’s current observations about the US ‘world in our image’ policies.)

lastly: Companies lick lips as Beijing Olympics loom

“Beijing plans to spend 290 billion yuan on Olympic-related projects. Goldman Sachs predicted that Games spending would add 1,376 billion yuan to China’s GDP, close enough to the country’s estimate of 1,500 billion yuan.”

(Chicago is trying to get the Olympics with a bid of “The City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a $500 million guarantee to back up Chicago’s Olympics bid, despite skepticism from some aldermen about the Daley administration’s plan.” LA’s bid is ~ the same including the Carson center. “In an effort to bolster Los Angeles’ bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, the state Assembly approved legislation Thursday under which the state would shoulder up to $250 million of the cost if the games don’t make a profit.” The difference between China’s Olympic expenditures and the US proposals is ~ $38B. Just goes to show what you can do if you have money.)

A pleasant day to all!

Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 16:50:24

“The international community has spoken highly of China’s human rights practice, the spokesman said. …”

YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME.

 
Comment by CA renter
2007-04-09 01:33:12

Thank you, Hoz!

I’d like to add to Palmetto’s (?) post yesterday. Your posts are much appreciated. It’s always been obvious that you had a good deal of knowledge & understanding of the markets.

Many thanks for the lessons & enlightening discussions! :)

 
 
Comment by bradthemod
Comment by Soliel
2007-04-08 12:57:57

Okay this is heresay from a 35 year old acquaintance of mine who is married to an ARgentinian. Both of them have traveled South American many times. Costa Rica is very natural, very beautiful and many Americans go there to travel. But she felt it was kind of boring after awhile, nothing to do. She said it’s still a “Banana Republic”. No cultural offerings, just nothing to do. They prefer Argentina…it’s like Europe but in South America.

 
Comment by Future Expat
2007-04-08 14:09:29

I was told by some Canadian expats in Belize that Costa Rica had liberal squatters rights.

 
Comment by Palisades Park
2007-04-08 16:58:47

Land Ownership and Shoreline Property: U.S. citizens are urged to use caution when making real estate purchases, and consult reputable legal counsel and investigate thoroughly all aspects before entering into a contract. Coastal land within fifty meters of the high tide line is open to the public, and construction on the next one hundred fifty meters inland is possible only with the approval of the local municipality.

Squatters: Organized squatter groups have invaded properties in various parts of the country. These squatter groups, often supported by politically active persons and non-governmental organizations, take advantage of legal provisions that allow people without land to gain title to unused agricultural property. Local courts may show considerable sympathy for the squatters. Victims of squatters have reported threats, harassment, and violence.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1093.html

 
 
Comment by txchick57
2007-04-08 09:14:17

I didn’t know that 580 was a “descent” credit score.

http://dallas.craigslist.org/acc/308087791.html

Comment by JWM in SD
2007-04-08 10:24:49

Sure it is, it is on a “descent” trajectory. ;-)

 
Comment by BubbleWatcher
2007-04-08 10:27:55

Definitely. You get it by descending from 800.

Comment by Matt_in_TX
2007-04-09 19:35:35

How do you make a small fortune in real estate? Start with a large one.

 
 
 
Comment by lalaland
2007-04-08 09:19:07

Here’s today’s San Francisco Chronicle real estate cover story, “Bloom and Gloom,” a shill-a-thon for local upscale real estate markets.

Note the TOTAL lack of reporting on actual inventory numbers or prices, whether in the beauteous places where “prices” are supposedly going “up” (i.e., Marin County), or crappy places where “prices” are supposedly going “down” (i.e., Antioch). And note too how real estate agents get to make whatever claims they want to — again, all without even having to use numbers!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/08/REGMQP3Q4J1.DTL

 
Comment by az_lender
2007-04-08 09:35:29

Furious to see Casey Serin on Suze Orman’s show last night.

Comment by bradthemod
2007-04-08 09:57:02

Did he discuss his programming skills? :

http://www.freewebs.com/creepyoldman/CaseyChart.html

Comment by BM
2007-04-08 12:49:54

That’s fantastic!

 
 
Comment by seattle price drop
2007-04-08 14:26:10

Yeah but it was kind of funny to watch her strongly advise him to just walk and screw the banks now since his credit was already ruined anyway.

Or maybe he should take Dodd’s advice and try to hang in there a while longer. Ahh… choices, choices..

 
 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 11:51:32

Update on bailout proposals:

“Jeffrey R. Scharf, Everybody’s Business:
Ohio bailing out subprime borrowers

The state of Ohio is getting ready to spend $100 million bailing out homeowners with subprime loans. The state will make money available so troubled borrowers can convert from adjustable-rate loans to government-issued 6.75 percent fixed-rate loans. The loans are available in unlimited amounts so borrowers can potentially obtain a loan for more than the value of their property.

In addition to being bad economics, the Ohio program is bad public policy. Moral hazard occurs when bad behavior goes unpunished. If the government is going to bail out subprime lending when it goes bad, lenders have no incentive to stop making subprime loans. If the state is going to bail out borrowers no matter how much they pay for houses, buyers will keep buying regardless of price.

Reportedly, California and New Jersey are considering subprime bailout programs of their own. Congress has already held hearings on the issue and sentiment toward an FHA bailout of subprime borrowers and lenders is building.

While the government has a role in obtaining restitution for victims of fraudulent lending, there is absolutely no reason for the government to save either borrowers or lenders from outright folly. The government doesn’t rescue automobile owners and lenders when cars are repossessed. It doesn’t rescue credit card borrowers and lenders when bills aren’t paid. It shouldn’t treat homeowners and their lenders any differently.”

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2007/April/08/biz/stories/03biz.htm

 
Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 11:55:54

Will a rerun of the Keating Five play out in the current bust?
——————————————————————————
New subprime surprise: Gov. had board ties to 2nd lender
By Scott Van Voorhis
Boston Herald Business Reporter
Friday, April 6, 2007

Gov. Deval Patrick’s radio silence on the subprime lending bust - one that is already pushing hundreds of Bay State homeowners to the curb and threatens thousands more - becomes more awkward by the day.

But Patrick’s decision to stay quiet on this crisis is doubly intriguing given he oversaw, as a one-time board director of ACC Capital Holdings, not one - but two - major mortgage lenders with dubious track records.

During his years as a director of California-based ACC, Patrick collected hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for overseeing not just Ameriquest, a connection widely reported, but also its sister subprime lender, Argent. ACC is the holding company for both Ameriquest and Argent.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=193143

Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 11:57:41

P.S. If any journalist cared to lift a finger to connect the dots, I am pretty sure one could make a similar case for Senator Dodd and all of his banking industry contacts…

Comment by John Law(Duke of Arkansas)
2007-04-08 13:11:37

does dodd sit on a board?
has he been silent during this housing bust?

Comment by GetStucco
2007-04-08 14:16:45

Read the comments on this link if you are missing the point…

http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/cc_insider/2007/03/senator_chris_d.html

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Comment by MaryLee
2007-04-08 18:48:40

I believe it has more to do with his contributors…. which are listed for your viewing pleasure on opensecrets.org

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Comment by spacepest
2007-04-08 12:05:44

Coming home from work last night (about 9 pmish) I noticed there was a tow truck in our neighborhood, repo’ing a shiny new looking truck from my heloc’ed neighbor’s driveway. I was like “Wow, how sneaky, the night before Easter. But what a perfect night to repossess stuff!”

Haaha, I’ll bet repo man was busy last night.

Comment by seattle price drop
2007-04-08 14:31:40

Nah, that was just the Easter Bunny, the little trickster, needed new wheels for the basket deliveries.

 
 
Comment by SLO Bear
2007-04-08 13:01:47

The San Luis Obispo Tribune today published 2 articles on the housing market on the Central Coast.

http://centralcoasthousingbubble.blogspot.com/

The first article, which is not available online, is basically an interview with a local mortgage broker who believes that SLO County will not experience as many problems with subprime lending because the brokers “are more ethical here”. Yeah sure - do some research on YSP’s (broker kickbacks) or interview someone in default and then get back to us.

The second article looks at the rise of foreclosures in the County. We have seen on this blog that foreclosures are up dramatically and even the Tribune’s data shows a YOY increase for March NOD’s (up 58%), NTS’s (up 258%), and Trustee’s Deeds (up 567%). But as you might expect, local “experts” don’t find these numbers alarming.

Do you have any suggestions for the Tribune’s business editor, Julie Lynem? If so, please email her at jlynem@thetribunenews.com.

 
Comment by aladinsane
2007-04-08 16:37:20

We party’ed like it was 1999, over the weekend…

Anything happen?

 
Comment by JJo
2007-04-10 09:44:52

Why no one is condemning the role the governments (federal to local) have played in the housing bubble? If you go to VA Fairfax County’s property assessment site (http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/Search/GenericSearch.aspx?mode=ADDRESS), and enter a street name you pick from Google map, you will find the assessment values of many properties were more than tripled between 2000 and 2006, while 250% increase is the norm. The fed lowed interest rate to encourage the bubble and the local government happily rode the wave to rake in property taxes. The proper taxes in Fairfax county have been more than doubled while county has symbolically “lowered” the tax rate.

 
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