“Very Successful Until The Market Tumbled”
The News Press reports from Florida. “A Michigan credit union has collapsed following hundreds of questionable loans to people buying First Home Builder houses in Lee County. Meanwhile, some buyers have filed suit against First Home, the credit union and others, alleging fraud and conspiracy in the marketing, sale and financing of the homes.”
“The credit union also made loans for building houses that may not be worth the full amount of the loan after the housing market collapsed last year, say those involved. Fort Myers-based attorney Richard Ingalls said he has five clients with contracts to buy First Home houses that are worth far less than the amounts of the construction loans.”
“Often they have no way to close on their houses because they can’t get permanent financing for the full loan and can’t make up the difference, he said. ‘These are people who initially got into these investments with good credit scores but not many assets,’ Ingalls said.”
“Larry Sorsby, CFO of Hovnanian Enterprises, parent company of First Home, said ‘up until two or three weeks ago we had no idea Huron even existed. We had no direct dealings with Huron; we were dealing with a local mortgage company that I guess made the loans and may have assigned them’ to Huron.”
“Sorsby said he doesn’t think any fraud occurred. ‘What we’re faced with is a classic situation where a market in Southwest Florida experienced an intense boom’ and then collapsed, leaving prices lower than what some had agreed to pay, he said.”
“Lawyer Steve Carta said there was no fraud and the lawsuits concerned a program in which First Home provided tenants for the homes that it sold. ‘That program did exist and was very successful until the market tumbled,’ he said.”
“Michael Timmerman, the Naples-based managing director for Florida at Hanley Wood, said that if a substantial number of the mainly moderately priced homes involved go into foreclosure, prices likely would come down for that sector of the housing market.”
“Timmerman said there will be a lot of shaky home loans at all levels of the market. ‘I think we’re going to see more distressed sales in 2007,’ he said.”
The Miami Herald. “The owners of Holiday Isle announced Monday they were scrapping plans to finance a new luxury resort there with condominium sales and will seek a traditional commercial loan to build the project instead.”
“The decision reflects South Florida’s growing disillusionment with condo-hotels, where individuals own the rooms and share in the rental revenues.”
“Robert Falor, once South Florida’s most prolific condo-hotel converter, said he has dropped plans to convert South Beach’s Royal Palm, Breakwater and Edison hotels in the face of a slow real estate market that helped push the Breakwater and Edison projects into bankruptcy.”
“‘The market for the condo-hotel has just gone sideways,’ said Gregory Rumpel, executive VP of the Jones Lang LaSalle hotel brokerage in Coral Gables.”
“With the housing market slow, sales of Miami-Dade condominiums dropped 44 percent in February from a year ago…Rumpel said hotels are looking more lucrative than condominiums for some real estate developers.”
“Adam Schlesinger, whose company paid $98 million for the 151-room Holiday Isle in February, said weak sales forced him to switch gears after only two months, despite a lavish launch that included glossy full-page newspaper supplements for the planned Ocanos resort.”
“‘It is simply a victim of a skeptical housing market,’ Schlesinger said.”
From USA Today. “The housing market in Sarasota, Fla. hit the brakes in spring of last year. The median price for a single-family home was down 18% in the fourth quarter compared with the same quarter of 2005.”
“At the height of the boom, ‘People were buying sight unseen,’ says Russ Marquardt, an agent in Sarasota. ‘It’s not similar to that now by any means.’”
The Naples Insider. “At the end of March, Naples had a slightly less than 12,000 homes listed for sale. Which is three times higher than a balanced market. But, during March the number of homes listed for sale peaked at over 12,300 homes. The reduction down to 12,000 homes is the first noticeable decrease in the number of homes listed for sale, since late 2005.”
“The reduction is not due to increased buying activity, but rather by sellers taking homes off the market at a greater rate than those being added.”
“Of the 12,000 homes listed for sale, approximately 35% were purchased in 2005 or later, pretty much making the original purchase price for that group of homes higher than current market values.”
“Those high price sellers waiting for the return of peak prices might have a very long wait. Using the Cedar Hammock example, where a 1,232 sq. ft floor plan sold at peak prices at $425,000 and then later sold for $280,000 in 2007. If a $280,000 purchase increased in value 8% a year going forward, it would take over 5 years to return to peak price levels.”
The Tampa Tribune. “A sluggish real estate market and a glut of vacant land in some areas have KB Home, one of the nation’s largest home builders, trying to unload land in three Bay area counties.”
“Los Angeles-based KB isn’t the only builder finding that it overestimated demand for new homes in some markets. Blake Whitney Thompson said he is in talks with several other major builders that want to shed land. This could mean less expensive homes and property for consumers and developers who have been used to dealing with high prices in recent years.”
“‘It’s a very poor market in Florida right now,’ said analyst Greg Gieber. He covers KB and other home-building companies. ‘Builders have too much land and aren’t in the position to hold on to it for very long.’”
“Now that market conditions have changed, some of the planned subdivisions no longer are profitable, said Joseph Narkiewicz, president of the Tampa Bay Builder’s Association.”
“‘Builders are evaluating their holdings; some are trading sites, selling some and buying others,’ Narkiewicz said. ‘Some may want to shake loose lots, because you can only hold on to so many lots and build so many houses.’”
“The Cypress deal is expected to close June 1. The purchase price for the land was not disclosed, but Thompson said his company generally is offering about $14,000 to $17,000 per home lot. By comparison, the same types of lots typically went for $50,000 to $60,000 last year, Thompson said.”
“The KB contract doesn’t surprise some analysts, such as Paul Puryear of Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg. ‘All the home builders are trying to sell off excess land, without exception,’ Puryear said. ‘This is good for consumers who are trying to buy.’”
I’ve always thought of credit unions as amongst the safest of our financial institutions…
If only my fellow fair citizens had some money in the guise of savings, we could have a good old fashioned run on the bank~
But you can’t get there from here.
The LA Times is now using the term “housing crash”: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bust10apr10,0,754268,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Good catch. For the LA Times to print anything remotely like this is definitely progress.
Come on Florida!
Send all that housing mojo to California and bring our prices down as well.
Now that RE magnate, Sam Zell, owns the Tribune Corp, which owns the LA Times (and many other papers), I wonder if they’ll try to be even more bullish in the future.
Zell sold Equity Office for top dollar because he found a GF. He’s no RE bull, he knows exactly what’s going on.
Agreed, Brian. After decades in the game Zell is an apex predator. The smart money is long gone. It was the perfect time to sell EOP, as the office market is way overbuilt and will suffer a good pull back as the economy wanes.
“At the height of the boom, ‘People were buying sight unseen,…”
Yep, and that is exactly why that boom is going to suffer a major bust. Anytime that you have to wait in line or sign up for a lottery in “hopes” of buying a mass-produced home, you can be guaranteed that you are getting screwed. So no sympathy for the sheep will be coming from me.
Yeah, “housing crash” … but only in the Antelope Valley, and maybe in Rancho Cucamonga. Blames the problem of walk-aways on the commute. Even ends on a slightly upbeat note about Palmdale and Lancaster and their “job growth” (?????????) … I am not impressed.
Job growth? Jesus, I’m so sick of all the so-called experts getting quoted. Sorry nimrods, but service jobs paying $10-$15/hr do not equate to $400K+ homes. People are so financially/economically retarded.
What?
You’d expect the housing crash to effect Beverly Hills, first?
But this Credit Union was owned by a major Homebuilder (Hovnanian Enterprises) and affiliated with a shady mortgage outfit called “Construction Loan Company Inc”.
A hyena pretending to be a veterinary surgeon. No surprise when the patients get mutilated.
When I lived in Ann Arbor, I had an account with Huron River. They were a fine institution to be a part of. I’m sorry to see them go under.
I had a loan with construction loan service’s for a spec home was going to build and had second thoughts about.
this was about 2 some years ago now and remember at the time, they told me they had a large amount of loans out in FLA, I thought it was strange at that time [before crash] that they were down there.
Think I still have $10 in an account with Huron Valley.
Hopefully, NCUA/NCUSIF will take care of you.
in the orlando sentinel today they talk about realtors going overseas to find buyers….
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/orl-europe1007apr10,0,1731847.story?coll=orl-realestate-headlines
Buy now before you’re priced out of America forever!
Actually SW Florida is becoming very popular with the Scandinavian’s. Supposedly they feel safer on Floridas west coast vs. Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. My sister-in-law sells RE in Cape Coral and says that the falling US dollar is making RE in the US very attractive to Europeans. Since the rest of the worlds’ economy appears to be doing OK, they see the RE in Florida as a bargain.
FWIW, the total number of Scandinavians is rather small. For instance, the total population of Sweden is 9 million. I wonder how many of those people can actually afford to drop 300K for a vacation home in Florida.
Not many. A good friend of mine recently sold her condo in the US and moved home to Stockholm. Went and visited, stayed in the residential area of the city, met lots of normal people. Suffice it to say that your average Swede isn’t thinking about buying a place at home until they are in their 40s or 50s, never mind a vacation home in Florida.
Brian,
Did you, by chance, check what the median income to median home price ratio was?
No I didn’t check that out. The average 20 or 30-something over there seems to think they hit the lottery if they can find a first-person lease on an apartment. The average person is in an apartment lease with layer upon layer of subleases, with each one adding a few crowns to the price of the rent.
Maybe nhz has some insight into the Swedish markets.
I’m in Sweden now… I’ll send some pics in if I get a chance. The bubble is here too…
here is a 4 page special on the mess on msnbc
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17929461/
Great article in today’s WaPo about mortgage fraud, not that it’s anything we didn’t know already.
The upshot: “Federal law enforcement officers say that with heavy demands on them from homeland security, they have had the resources to shut down only the worst offenders.”
While the cat is away in Iraq, the mice have been playing.
http://tinyurl.com/34t5jo
I was thinking back to the el lay riots of 15 years ago and how calm was restored eventually, when the national guard units showed up…
Back then, the national guard was a way to make $473.00 more a month, by playing soldier, once every couple of fortnights~
Things Change
It just wasn’t the National Guard the showed up. I remember, back in the day, a guy in my unit told me he was stationed up in Fort Ord and his infantry battalion came down and helped out (active-duty Army).
This is classic:
“At trial, defense attorneys argued that Hill was unaware that his “business model” was against the law and that his underlings doctored loan applications without his knowledge. The jury did not buy it. On March 14, Hill was convicted of 166 counts of fraud and money laundering. He has not been sentenced, but after the verdict, Judge Thomas W. Thrash said Hill “is looking at spending the rest of his life in prison.”
A life sentence, that will cost taxpayers even more money. Way to go judge!!! What a moron. This is the perfect crime to try alternate sentencing. Make the guy wear a GPS bracelet. Make him live in a public housing apartment and garnish 50% of what he earns — for life. Make him the ultimate FB.
Judges are part of our problem.
That’s too harsh. Felons who are totally unredeemable sociopaths get to live out their lives at our expense.
I’d like to see a return to the kind of justice described by a docent at the Colonial Williamsburg jail. Lawbreakers were held for trial. If convicted, the sentence was either a public whipping (along with restitution if it was a property crime), or execution by hanging. The colony didn’t have the resources to lock up, feed and guard lawbreakers for any period of time.
Unfortunately the prison-industrial complex has too much influence for us to ever go back to that kind of justice.
yes that sounds great to us all, but the problem is they will then hang you for making a joke about ‘nappy headed hos’. thats illegal ‘hate speech’.
Please take your race baiting to another blog.
Quote: “”The upshot: “Federal law enforcement officers say that with heavy demands on them from homeland security, they have had the resources to shut down only the worst offenders.” ”
Which is ironic since we had some Egyptian “business men” here is Ohio rack up >$500,000 in mortgage fraud with 100% financing-cash back at closing scams. They then skipped town, supposedly back to Egypt.
Quote: “”The upshot: “Federal law enforcement officers say that with heavy demands on them from homeland security, they have had the resources to shut down only the worst offenders.” ”
Which is ironic since we had some Egyptian “business men” here is Ohio rack up >$500,000 in mortgage fraud with 100% financing-cash back at closing scams. They then skipped town, supposedly back to Egypt.
Doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the government’s ability to do either, does it?
I wonder how much money al-Qaeda raised through mortgage fraud. Might as well drop money from Apache helicopters in Pakistan. God damn it this pisses me off
” wonder how much money al-Qaeda raised through mortgage fraud. Might as well drop money from Apache helicopters in Pakistan. God damn it this pisses me off ”
You’re not alone. I’ve been thinking about this ever since those news stories about the convicts buying re from prison with no doc loans. If sub-literate illegals were in on the game, you know that Al Qaeda, a much more sophisticated group, had to be in there making bank. Why does Homeland Security and the FBI seem so frigging dense…seem incapable of action until long after the fact. When it’s useless.
wonder what builder lots are going for ?
since they’re not making any more
Looks like Falor is not an option…
Houston: to the shuttle:
Go for throttle up
“Of the 12,000 homes listed for sale, approximately 35% were purchased in 2005 or later, pretty much making the original purchase price for that group of homes higher than current market values.”
This is a good statistic to start looking at; what % of homes on market are likely underwater.
Why are so many homes (both ‘new’ and old) that were purchased in the last few years for sale again? I see this in my market too. There are very few long time owners cashing in… It is mostly people who bought in the last 1-3 years. I’m sure many are flippers, but most can hardly be considered flippers by the traditional definition.
It could be that people realize what life with a mortgage that size will be like and try to sell homes they had planned to live in.
It falls into three catagories:
(1) flippers
(2) ‘I got a new job in X’ and all its variations
and that new hit
(3) oh my god prices are falling like a rock I gotta unload
I think (3) is relatively uncommon, even though my own sale of last June was in that category. Some friends in the same area also put one of their two houses on the market last summer, but they were less panicked, so asked too much; of course the house hasn’t sold. Hence, unfairly(?), I put them more in ed’s category (1).
Recent buyers used suicide loans which they can no longer afford?
Yeah, but if it is #2 (got a new job) or #3 (falling prices) wouldn’t this effect all owners? Why would it effect new owners more?
Sure, suicide loans are part of the problem, but I’m looking in areas where those loans are not done much and still the inventory is mainly made of recent buyers regardless of the age of the home…
Liar loans are morphing into neutron loans…
People realize how shoddy construction is these days and no longer want to deal with the defects.
At least in Florida, insurance has doubled or tripled and is a lot harder to come by even at those premiums. Plus I think a lot of people realize that their houses, even after what’s already taken place, may never be worth as much as they are right now. The ship has sailed, but a few people think they can swim out and catch it.
I think people bought to get in on the real estate ladder, and didn’t think about their long term needs. Now their property doesn’t meet their needs so they want to move on. The whole five year to break even thing never entered their mind when buying and it’s probably not entering their mind now.
A house down the street from me in Cooper City, FL, that’s been for sale since summer 06 had auction signs on the lawn this morning.
FYI
I’m renting a house - sold in 06, netted 280K and now it’s parked in CDs while I wait this mess out
Where in cooper city? I hope to close on my house and net $200K on April 30th. We are planning on renting as well. However, we hope to buy in cooper city. We have been watching a neighborhood call country glen. We like the schools.
It’s in on Forest Circle (I think it’s #23), in the Rockcreek community, off Sterling RD. Zip=33026. The sign says the auction is 4/29
If you netted $280K then the interest just about covers your monthly rental - doesn’t it? Must be nice!
Got 10% down?
“The reduction is not due to increased buying activity, but rather by sellers taking homes off the market at a greater rate than those being added.”
A key point, seen in my area (NoVA) as well.
inventory is high in 22151 ,but low end stuff is selling
flipper,improvers are stuck
Some stuff is selling in 20152. People who bought 10 years ago and listed their place for $380k were able to sell. Their dumbass nextdoor neighbors that bought an identical townhouse in 2005 for $450k and are listing for $500k, are unable to sell.
“The reduction down to 12,000 homes is the first noticeable decrease in the number of homes listed for sale, since late 2005…… The reduction is not due to increased buying activity, but rather by sellers taking homes off the market at a greater rate than those being added.”
“…Using the Cedar Hammock example, where a 1,232 sq. ft floor plan sold at peak prices at $425,000 and then later sold for $280,000 in 2007”.
I would think there is an obvious correlation between these two happenings, since the 2005 buyer would need in excess of 150k to get out now. If you don’t have the money, you can’t sell. If you can’t sell, What choice do you have but to remove it from the market, pay the alligator and begin the process of searching for a great renter.
Could walk away, no?
The ‘for sale signs’ are fairly absent this year in my neighborhood. I think people realize that this is not a good time to sell. We’ll see what its like next month.
“Michael Timmerman, the Naples-based managing director for Florida at Hanley Wood, said that if a substantial number of the mainly moderately priced homes involved go into foreclosure, prices likely would come down for that sector of the housing market.”
Oh, thanks Mike. I undestand now it’s a
M-A-R-K-E-T type of thing……ahhhh……
“Lawyer Steve Carta said there was no fraud and the lawsuits concerned a program in which First Home provided tenants for the homes that it sold. ‘That program did exist and was very successful until the market tumbled,’ he said.”
Translation…the ponzi scheme was a success until we ran out of GF’s to roll.
Steve Carta described it another way: “It was like when we were in college and all went to Vegas. We pooled our money and started playing craps. Man, it was great. Free drinks. Hot chicks winking at us. Then. WHAMO. a seven.
Everything was going great before that. It wasnt fraud or anything, just totally out of the blue………………
“Michael Timmerman, the Naples-based managing director for Florida at Hanley Wood, said that if a substantial number of the mainly moderately priced homes involved go into foreclosure, prices likely would come down for that sector of the housing market.”
This should probably go in the California section later today, but it is so well researched, you all should see what the affect the distressed properties are starting to have in Sacramento.
http://sacrealstats.blogspot.com/2007/04/distressed-properties-update.html
17% of the listings are distressed, the distressed listings are growing at a rate of 20% per month. Refer back to first paragraph…”if a substantial number of moderately priced homes…”. Change “if” to “when”. Actually, change when to “Now that”.
Ouch.
I was struck by the assertion that First Home “provided tenants”. That means they were specifically targeting specu-vestors as the most likely buyers. Whoever was willing to hold the bag on loans like that has only himself/herself to blame.
“‘The market for the condo-hotel has just gone sideways,’ said Gregory Rumpel, executive VP of the Jones Lang LaSalle hotel brokerage in Coral Gables.”
Ah, so, when something is plummeting at 9.81 m/sec^2, it’s now “going sideways”….
He rotated the chart.
Tampa- look at this.
If you want a good laugh this morning,
go to relator.com in zip code 33618
MLS I.D. # T2198393
This home has been for sale for 6 months
at $750,000, now the owner has dropped the price to $749,500…………LMAO
Is that a price reduction?????
Yes the owner has been forced to eat his words, and now he is giving it away.
At this rate he should be able to close a sale in 2020, just in time for the next bubble to start forming …
This owner paid $352,000 back in 2000.
For an even better laugh, look up zipcode 33612 MLS I.D. T2235303.
http://tinyurl.com/2wgbqt
I can’t believe they actually RAISED the price from 158,300 to 183,500. Yeah, that’s the way to get a house sold. idiots. And it case you’re not quite sure where this house is, it is north of fowler, south of fletcher and 2 lots west of I-275….you know, right around the corner from suitcase city…..definitely not the best neighborhood.
I got that beat.
Check out http://www.hiddenvalleycustomhomes.com 2318 Hogback was at $2,690,000 in late ‘05, now at $3.1 mil and 2538 Hogback was $2,485,000, now at $3.35 mil. Both specs . . . still unsold.
I guarantee you a bad appraiser has his hands in this. Builder taking out seconds and thirds to feed the interest beast.
Maybe they transposed the numbers when it was first listed in the MLS. You know put 158300 instead of 183500. Lots of really stupid realtors out there. They should at least check their data entry info before they walk away from the computer.
Yeah, but the problem is that this house isn’t even worth 158,300 even in this (still) inflated market. Even at the peak of the bubble, the most this house could have sold for was maybe 125K. To list it at 158K is idiotic and to increase that price to 183K is lunacy.
Is that an apartment complex overlooking his swimming pool? Yech.
All of your eggs in one basket?
Our houses were that basket, and the eggs, as well.
Whoops.
‘What we’re faced with is a classic situation where a market in Southwest Florida experienced an intense boom’ and then collapsed” … said Larry Sorsby, CFO of Hovnanian Enterprises
That sounds like an excellent description of a bubble from an industry insider.
Easter Sunday visited Casa Bella by Engle homes in Delray Beach.
Yes open Easter Sunday, the place was empty. The tract of land is right up against the Fl turnpike with a 30 foot sound barrier on the west side of the commnuity. The lots farthest from the turnpike are approx 60% filled with $700k+ homes. The remainder are apparently reserved in the hopes more $700k buyers show up. Looks like they cant find anyone to build a $700k home on lots right next to the highway so they are now offering homes for $430-$460k. The salesman was friendly and asked me what I was looking for. I expressed that $350-$375 is the max I can afford for Mtg+Tax+Ins+Maint. However I wouldnt want to live on top of a highway in a zero lot community. I told him to call me when the prices fall to that level. He looked at me like I was an alien and stated you think they’ll drop further? . I said of course, look at all the other new homes within 5 miles that are down to starting prices of $350 from a high a year ago of $525+. He said “We’ll we sell 10 a month, no I mean a week.” I said “We’ll which is it? 10 a mont or a week.” I wonder how the owners in the 1st half of the community feel that paid $700k for these 4,000+ Sq ft mansions on zero lots knowing that the rest of the community is being deeply discounted and will eventually go lower and probably end up in an auction. I’ve already seen several new developments in which the builder auctioned off the spec homes as they were completed.
Rigth now in South Fla you can build a new home for less than an exisitng one on several communites.
Does anyone know anything about Monterra by Engle in cooper city? This development took several years to get off the ground. Supposedly due to negotiations with the city. I’d been in contact with a sales rep since early 2004. They were supposedly going to sell out. The last available land in broward. Approx. 1700 homes being built. Estada their estate section has been on sale for months. They’ve cleared the land very slowly. I pass by regularly and don’t see much action. Anyone have any other info?
I would hate to buy in that area with all of the pesticide/herbicide run off from surrounding nurseries. Nasty ground water. Check out the canals.
“These are people who initially got into these investments with good credit scores but not many assets,” Ingalls said.
Note to speculators: Sometimes you lose when you speculate.
That’s why it’s called “speculation” and not “printing money”.
If it was a sure thing, everyone would do it you f**ing idiots. It’s like a total shock to people, even today, that RE can go down. Of course it can go down!! What on earth made you think otherwise?
CNBC sponsored today by National Association of Realtors. CNBC just said it was a good time to buy in Florida!!
how many did they buy ?
lieRAH has a new book
whatever credibility CNBC had just went down the alligator hole.
If there even is such a thing.
Well there’s the corroboration I’ve been looking for. If the spam in my inbox agrees with CNBC, it most certainly is a good time to buy in Florida!
CNBC just told me it’s a good time to buy in Ft Lauderdale. Interesting. I would have taken another tact on that market, that’s for sure.
I am happy they are running the RE all day, but a bit more balance in the reporting would be nice. How on earth could anyone think that buying in S. FL is a good idea today? You have to be kidding me! If your paying more then 100/sq/ft for a condo you are going to risk a huge bath.. And prices are nowhere near that level yet. So, no, the time to buy is definately not now for condos!
That is pretty disgusting, the NAR buying the financial “news.” Don’t get me wrong, I know that’s how the game is played, but this is getting ridiculous. Realtors and Wall Street are getting to the point where they don’t even try to obscure the fact that they are buying the news. Might as well put “this is a paid advertisement” across the top of the screen at CNBC. Reminds me why I never watch their crap.
I was watching CNN at the gym yesterday evening. They were full of doom and gloom about the housing market and America’s crushing level of consumer debt.
If CNBC doesn’t get it, CNN certainly does.
Might as well post this here:
Kara Homes buyers may lose deposits
6 unfinished developments sold
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/10/07
BY DAVID P. WILLIS
BUSINESS WRITER
Story Chat Post Comment
TRENTON — Several prospective Kara Homes Inc. home buyers all but lost their deposits Monday after a bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of six uncompleted developments to developers and a bank.
An option now is to try to recover a portion of their money as unsecured creditors in the bankruptcy case, said Barry W. Frost, a lawyer for some of the Kara buyers. They would only recoup their money once secured lenders, such as banks, are paid.
Jerrold Fried, 42, of Berkeley, who put down $135,000 on a house at Kara’s Dayna Estates in Toms River, is not hopeful he’ll see any money.
“Unfortunately, in the end of the big bankruptcy, my wife and I are the ones that are going to suffer, and my children,” Fried said. “Everybody else goes before me even though he used my money to build the development.”
Two weeks ago, Kara sold six uncompleted developments for about $19 million at an auction that failed to generate much interest.
One, Dayna Estates, was purchased by Metropolitan Mortgage and Realty Inc. of West Orange and APS Contractors Inc. in Paterson.
Three others, Prospect Ridge Estates in Stafford, Hartley Estates in Little Egg Harbor and Sterling Acres in Monroe, were bought by Magyar Bank, the bank that loaned Kara Homes money to build the projects. Magyar will try to sell them on its own.
The two remaining developments, Woodland Estates and Park Meadow, both in Edison, were purchased by Fenix Investment & Development, a Morristown-based home builder that agreed in December to buy the developments. The sale was subject to the auction.
The projects were sold free of any contractual obligations.
“No great solutions”
Of the more than 20 prospective home buyers with deposits, four buyers at Woodland Estates have signed a new contract with its new owner, Fenix, with another expected to be finalized shortly.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Michael B. Kaplan said he hopes Magyar Bank will make “similar accords” with other home buyers.
“There are no great solutions,” Kaplan said. “There are no great answers.”
Kaplan resisted calls by lawyers for home buyers, some of whom put down more than $100,000 in deposits, to reject the auction’s results. The deposits “for the most part are the life savings of the contract purchasers,” Frost said.
The sale is a “foreclosure in disguise,” said Lacey lawyer Joseph Albanese, who represents Fried. “There is nothing in it for the creditors (home buyers).”
But Kaplan said the auction generated about $500,000, money that can go to Kara Homes creditors in the bankruptcy case. To reject the bids would force Magyar and Investor Savings Bank, which loaned money for the Edison projects, to seek to foreclose on the properties, he said.
“The court is not persuaded that it’s in the best interest of all parties that a foreclosure occur,” he said. The process, which would take more than six months to complete, would cost money in legal fees and increase Kara’s debt, the judge added.
Kaplan noted the arrangements made between Fenix and prospective buyers at Woodland Estates. “There are five families that are going to see a home long before any foreclosure is completed.”
The terms of the sale, the judge said, were “fair and reasonable.”
Bank open to negotiations
Magyar lawyer Joseph Lubertazzi Jr. said the bank was willing to spend time with people who had deposits if they want to buy their lot. “We are still willing to talk to them,” he said.
Some prospective Kara buyers wanted their deposits back. “Magyar is not in a position to refund their deposits,” Lubertazzi said.
East Brunswick-based Kara filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Oct. 5. The company reported $350 million in assets and $227 million in liabilities. Since then, the company and Perry Mandarino, its chief restructuring officer, have been identifying which housing developments Kara should sell off or finish.
Kara Homes lawyer David L. Bruck said Kara Homes could not get money to complete construction of the Magyar-financed projects. “The debtor could not keep all its projects,” he said.
The auctions of the six developments won’t be the last. Last month, Kaplan agreed to allow Kara to auction off the uncompleted portion of Hidden Lakes at Lacey Township, which includes five partially completed homes with contracts.
Fried said he used savings and money from refinancing his Berkeley home to pay for the Dayna Estates downpayment.
“It’s a shame,” he said. “It’s unfortunate for the small people . . . are the ones in the end that are going to lose their hard work and money.”
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Information from previous Press stories were included in this article. David P. Willis: (732) 643-4039, or at dwillis@app.com
Why would you put down a $135k deposit? I can understand a large downpayment, but for a deposit?
What’s unfortunate is that Kara management, the people who took the deposits and squandered them get off scott free. Limited liability is one of the biggest threats to capitalism. The people most responsible lose the least. The judge may know the “law”, but he seems to have a warped concept of fair.
From Minyanville (bond guy)
I am hearing from several good sources that there is a deal in the works for Ginnie Mae (GNMA) to help bail out the subprime mess.
GMNA would help to fill in the gaps of people that can’t afford to buy homes.
…..
This makes sense to me as we are in the third year of a Presidential term and this would certainly be stimulative to the economy.
Any ideas as to how Ginnie could fill in those gaps? All I can say is, what a total crock of sh*t that is should it be true. When are people going to realize that homes are not productive, that high housing costs actually make a region less competetive and detract from quality of life? I swear they must have mandatory labotomies when you get elected to D.C.
That is indeed terrible news!
The goal here is to keep the prices paid for over-priced housing “stable”, so to support the ponzi scheme.
The job of the FED was to keep the DOLLAR stable. My dollars were put in the toiltet……….Thanks, Greenspan & Co.
This will help keep over-priced housing above “market” values.
The Borrowers need to go down with the Lenders!
Let them rent!!! Stop the war on Savers !
“Stop the war on Savers !”
Hallelujah!
With the “full faith and credit backing of the Federal government”, I disagree. The federal government is already in a credit bind. With 2.2T of loans going to reset, the Federal government cannot take on any new debt. 200B maybe, but that is just the tip of the iceberg.
The WP:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/09/AR2007040901463.html?hpid=topnews
That’s a startling article - thanks for posting.
This snippet:
Mortgage lenders in theory have a right to compare loan documents to a buyer’s tax returns, but they rarely do. In the few cases where it has been done, results were startling. In a study published by the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, one lender sampled 100 stated-income loan applicants and found that 90 had exaggerated take-home pay by 5 percent or more and that nearly 60 inflated their pay by more than 50 percent.
is really old news. When is someone going to look at a larger batch of loans and really quantify the extent to which the incomes and assets were fabricated?
I love the story on MSNBC that said the borrower didnt read the fine print about her new NegM loan. What a joke. If the lending insitutions start bailing these people out than every lawyer should line up to get people out of any contract that has “fine print”.
The clean up is going to be just as bad as the bubble breaking. Also, I was looking at another article that listed the culprits of the the housing boom/bust but they failed to mention title companies that pound consumers with junk fees.
This whole thing is a joke like Don Imus vs. Al Sharpton.
Trouble is the joke is on the financially prudent.
“title companies that pound consumers with junk fees” - too true. Eventually I started doing title searches and recorded DOT’s myself, even though I was never interested in “working”, only in collecting interest. I just found that the title companies’ charges were way beyond any reasonable fraction of my borrowers’ mortgages.
What exactly is a title search and how do you do this?
Got 10% down?
While I agree with you, I’m wondering if the way house closings are handled varies around the country. In NY I received the documents ahead of time and had a chance to read thru them. In Ohio, I got draft loan documents right after I applied for the loan, but then a month passed before the actual closing. I received a copy of the financial settlement papers the morning of the closing (and scrambled to get them fixed), and received a new set of loan papers at closing itself. I reviewed the main parts of the loan papers to make sure they had not changed, but the entire closing takes less than an hour, including formalities at each end. I’ve been to 3 closings in Ohio and no one reads the documents at the closings. They just say ‘this is the xxx document, you need to sign here and here”. I probably reviewed them more than most people, but there was no time to read any details at closing.
Is this typical across the country?
“Of the 12,000 homes listed for sale, approximately 35% were purchased in 2005 or later, ”
———————
flip city
So the failed credit union was owned by Homebuilder Hovnanian … and when you tour the houses for sale in developements they want you to use their ” preferred” lender … which is now bankrupt.
Connect the dots never ends when you trace the path through all these companies… !!
Just watched CNBC’s “Reality Check.” WT Economist posted the link in the Bucket:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17929461
Go to minute 02:50. Margaret Brennan quotes figures from Property Shark, saying, I believe, that in Miami for the quarter there are 127 foreclosures per 1,000 households. That would be 12.7% of households in foreclosure. I’m a super-bear, but even for me that sounds high. While the implication would seem to be that one in eight households in Miami is in foreclosure, there might be more to the numbers quoted than that. Maybe she meant a subset of Miami.
It has to be wrong. Probably means 127 foreclosures per 100,000 households. That would be kind of in line with other info sources.
So in this instance the MSM was only off by two orders of magnitude. They are improving.
Got 10% down?
The NAR/REIC/MSM “DreamHOUSE” stranglehold on the minions minds loosens a little with EVERY Foreclosure and Bankruptcy report.
You can judge the effectiveness of these long over due (although questionable) reports from the screams and tantrums from the greedy housedebters to Wail Street.
Bring ON the Fat Lady !
The lenders had a duty to not allow tracts to be sold to short term flippers /speculators (without a higher down payment ). I have never seen so many borrowers needing to sell within a short time of purchasng a home ,expecting a profit .
Note to lenders : If the borrower lives out of State ,it’s not likely that they are going to live in the property ,especially when they didn’t get a job transfer .
Note to Lenders: How dare you give loans to flippers and speculators without considering the neg. cash flow on the house as part of their debts . How dare you people screw with the property tax base in most towns and cities with your bogus lending . No bail- outs for this real estate mania .
Right on! Let the neg. cash-flow “investors” burn. I don’t think I can stand to hear one more person talk about their “investment” property that costs them money every month. WTF, are they stupid? I could just strangle them at times. I’ve written to both of my senators and told them very plainly that there should be no bail-out for any FBs or their enablers. Of course, CA’s senators (Feinstein and Boxer) leave me reeling with nausea any time I see or hear them. Regardless, let the mother-effing FBs learn their lesson.
Right on brother CA Guy
Meanwhile, some buyers have filed suit against First Home, the credit union and others, alleging fraud and conspiracy in the marketing, sale and financing of the homes.”
Isn’t that special. Do you suppose these same highly-moral individuals thought, at the time when the lender was telling them to write whatever they wanted to write on the docs, were saying “but as my homes vaule increases 20+% per year aren’t I commiting fraud by stating income that I do not possess?”
I would venture that if they released every drug offender from federal and state prison and replaced them with REIC fraudsters, they would still have to build more prisons.
But then the cries would be: But I was “High” man…when I signed the toxic loan doc’s…
Not sure if anyone has posted this yet. DR Horton is reporting “sagging” sales and price reductions:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2007-04-10-dr-horton_N.htm
Excerpt:
FORT WORTH (AP) — D.R. Horton (DHI), the nation’s largest home builder by deliveries, said Tuesday its fiscal second-quarter sales orders fell 37%, led by even steeper declines in California and the Southwest.
“We continue to sell more homes than any other builder, even though the spring selling season has not gotten off to its usual strong start,” Chairman Donald Horton said in a statement.
Net sales orders for the quarter ended March 31 totaled 9,983 homes, down from 15,771 homes during the prior-year quarter. The value of the orders dropped to $2.6 billion from $4.4 billion in the previous year.
Net sales orders over six months fell to $4.9 billion, or 18,754 homes, from $7.5 billion, or 27,234 homes during the same period in fiscal 2006.
Cancellation rate for the quarter was 32%.
BayQT~
Hah - $649K per unit for that now-stalled condo-hotel development. For a HOTEL ROOM (although I am sure there are also some suites and places with little kitchenettes). That’s BEFORE the renovation/upgrades needed (I looked on the hotel website - it seemed nice, but not luxe) I do not know Florida that well - is Islamadora really special?
So sorrrrry to see what would have been a disasterous condo-hotel not even make it to the sales stage.
I live in Palm Beach, and I have never heard of Islamadora. If it was that special; the buzz would be deafing in Palm Beach, trust me.
So, no, I can pretty much promise you, it’s nothing you have never seen before.
Honestly, I have only been a few places on earth that I consider “that special”. Palm Beach Island is one of them. As is Beverly Hills/Mullholand Drive area. 5th Ave in NYC. These places are special; they are unique, and if that’s what you like, you must pay the premium to live in these areas (I would also put SoBe on the list, but not for the same reasons).
All these other places (manufactured communities, “new” town centers, mall access, etc, etc) are not at all special. If they were, you could not build them! The simple fact that you can build them every 10 miles up and down the coast of FL is the definition of “not special”.
Islamorada, perhaps? That’s in the Florida Keys, and yes, it’s very nice!!
Too late for anybody to read this…
Adam Schlesinger, president of Ceebraid-Signal, was also the person / entity behind the at-one-time-bankrupt Eden condo conversion in Boca Raton. At one point the city was threatening to demolish it. Ceebraid was also in the headlines recently for suing Eden condo buyers to force them to close.
http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2005/12/05/story5.html
I think it’s in the Keys.
‘These are people who initially got into these investments with good credit scores but not many assets,’ Ingalls said.”
Maybe these people should have realized that “investments” don’t always make money and borrowing money to make an “investment” can put you deep in a financial hole.