You Can’t Give These Houses Away In California
CBS 5 reports from California. “In the Central Valley community of Manteca, police have a new job: patrolling hundreds of foreclosed houses left empty and abandoned. They are half million dollar houses, often bought with nothing down, turned into suburban blight. Developers built more than 30,000 new homes in the last six years. But with the spike in adjustable mortgage rates the flood of buyers turned into a flood of defaults, 11,000 in the county in the past 18 months.”
“But for neighbors the problem that really bites is fast-falling house prices. Just-retired Corky Hine wanted to sell for $400,000. Now his home is worth $339,000 and his real-estate agent still can’t get anybody to look.”
“‘I already dropped it $60,000 (from the original appraisal price,)’ Hine said. ‘She said ‘There’s like 500 homes for sale within a two-mile radius of mine, and 150 of them are in foreclosure within a mile or something.’”
“One house will be sold at auction at the county courthouse. It opened for $464,885.15. That’s way below the $620,000 the house sold for two years ago.”
“Still the auctioneer has a lonely job. ‘There’s nobody here,” CBS News correspondent John Blackstone said.”
“The auctioneer, Ted Longley, chuckled: ‘Must not be any money involved in the equity area. I don’t know.’ ‘You can’t give these houses away,’ Osborn said.”
From CBS 13. “Northern California is home to one over the highest foreclosure rates in the entire country. Some homebuilders are leaving half-built homes in new developments. One of 15 sites in Elk Grove are on hold after struggling Dunmoore Homes company sold a local business man.”
“‘My personal best guess would be a few more months. It’s going to take some time. It’s a long process,’ said V.P John Slaughter who thinks it could be a white before the bulldozers break ground again, ‘The market has really hurt us.’”
“He’s also concerned about the half built homes with winter coming. ‘Currently, with our lenders, we’re looking at completing those homes to the point of making their weather proof,’ said Slaughter.”
“‘We asked for a gated community. Anybody can just walk if here in the middle of the night,’ said Sukheinder Kaur, resident.”
“What happens to people who bought homes on spec, or backlogged homes? Savage said nearly two dozen people paid for homes up-front statewide. The housing company offered to refund all of their deposit money, and most all of them took it.”
From News 10. “Roughly 10,000 homes in the Sacramento region are in some stage of foreclosure.”
“Michelle Steeb, the director of St. John’s Shelter for women and children recently checked in a family after their home wound up in foreclosure. ‘The bank showed up on their doorstep on a Monday morning and told them they needed to leave, and they lost everything,’ Steeb said.”
Inside Bay Area. “For the fourth consecutive quarter, the amount of money Tracy collects in taxes has dropped, this time by nearly 6 percent, the largest fall since revenue began declining a year ago.”
“Coupled with fewer new homes being built in Tracy, limited to 100 until at least 2012 through Measure A, the city might have to tighten its belt before the end of the year.”
“Jeff Morri, with Stan Morri Ford in the Tracy Auto Mall, the largest tax engine in the city, said the industry is in a downturn nationwide.”
“‘We all wish we could tell you why,’ Morri said. ‘Personally, I believe, with the housing market as soft as it is, and so many foreclosures, its creating a vacuum. It’s a very symbiotic relationship.’”
The Santa Cruz Sentinel. “After 26 years in business, Santa Cruz Mortgage has suspended operations indefinitely, caught up in crisis in the wake of risky loans gone sour.”
“‘These are unprecedented times, said minority shareholder Tom Powers, citing the difficulty of covering overhead with volume dwindling due to the housing market downturn. ‘There is a lot of uncertainty out there.’”
“Adding to their financial woes, the local lender was sued for breach of contract Sept. 12 by Green Valley Corporation, also known as Barry Swenson Builder, according to Santa Cruz Superior Court records.”
“Santa Cruz Mortgage, in 2002, claimed to be the second largest provider of home loans on the Central Coast. As the local sales volume peaked in 2004 with 2,800 homes sold and a median selling price of $622,000, Santa Cruz Mortgage had grown to 10 offices and opened a regional headquarters in Live Oak. The market was so hot that in 10 months that year, sales topped 200.”
“Since then, the number of homes sales has declined steadily. This year, defaults and foreclosure actions are up; sales are down. Even the summer did not bring the usual rebound.”
“About 650 homeowners in Santa Cruz County have fallen behind on mortgage payments this year, twice as many as last year, and nearly 200 have lost a home in a foreclosure sale. Many of them bought homes with no money down and received adjustable and interest-only loans, which earn brokers higher commissions.”
“Powers said he remained ‘fiercely loyal to Santa Cruz Mortgage,’ but admitted ‘you could see the writing on the wall.’”
“‘Those who have not taken care to trim expenses are going to be in trouble,’ said Peter Boutell, who was a shareholder at Santa Cruz Mortgage before leaving to form Santa Cruz Home Finance in 2001. Boutell remembers when home values fell after the 1989 earthquake and remained relatively stable for five years.”
“‘Our industry has a history of boom and bust cycles,’ he said.”
“‘Companies that made their money taking advantage of less sophisticated borrowers, many of whom had bad or challenged credit, are disappearing quickly,’ said Jim Chubb of Pacific Inland Home Mortgage in Soquel. ‘This is a good thing for the marketplace in general, as many of these companies were merely preying on innocent people and offering no value to consumers.’”
“‘Unfortunately the homeowners who should never have bought may lose their equity when they are forced to sell — many will walk away with trashed credit as well,’ he added.”
From Eye Out For You. “David Crisp is being investigated by the FBI and the California Department Real Estate and now his own home is on the auction block.”
“Public records show Crisp’s two story home on in Southwest Bakersfield is set for auction October 17th. The once, flashy realtor owes over $1.8 million dollars on the ‘Grand Island’ neighborhood home. It’s the same home FBI agents raided last month.”
The Bakersfield Californian. “Crisp…borrowed $2 million against (the) Seven Oaks mansion in January during a refinance. Crisp’s wife, is being sued by Chase Bank USA in a collections case filed late last month.”
“Real estate agents at the partners’ new firms have dwindled drastically, state records show. Cole’s company, Points West Group, listed no sales agents Monday. At least a half-dozen have worked there previously.”
“At the firm’s peak in 2005 and 2006, Crisp & Cole employed about 60 staffers.”
“‘I’m still selling real estate,’ Cole said Monday, but declined to comment further.”
“The 10,000-square-foot Stockdale Highway office Crisp bought this spring, currently in default, is for sale again, said Charles Haberkern, a sales associate at NAI Capital Inc., the company handling the listing.”
“The office is being listed for about $3.5 million, said Peter Yousefi, VP at NAI Capital. Crisp paid $2.5 million for the building in April. By May, he was trying to sell it for $4.5 million. Default notices arrived in late August.”
“An ongoing Californian tally of defaulted and foreclosed properties related to Cole and Crisp’s employees, family members and associates counted 94 troubled properties carrying more than $58.9 million in loans as of Monday. Of those, 34 have so far foreclosed.”
‘City leaders are hoping to do something about homes across San Diego County that are being neglected because of foreclosures, NBC 7/39 reported. Residents in many neighborhoods have complained about vacant, neglected homes that sit abandoned, gathering dust and attracting crime.’
‘On Monday, two San Diego City Council Members proposed a new measure that they hope would eradicate the problem. Councilman Brian Maeinschein told NBC 7/39…’the proposed ordinance will require the respective parties to regularly maintain their property or face fines and penalties.’
Whoever owns these should either be forced to sell them or to maintain them properly. Letting them sit abandoned, gathering dust and attracting crime imposes negative externalities on residents of neighboring homes.
Do they have to force the buyers to buy too? ” you -must- buy this, I can’t mow the lawn!!!”
bwuahaha.
Oh, and ex-nnvmtgbrkr , as for “what business” people have owning a home, is more like, what business do they have owning a 1/2 million or more dollar home. Houses and rent should be based on income, not realtor commissions. Please. It is the american dream to have a “home” and there were too many predators out there taking advantage of people’s (stupid) emotions.
ALSO- many people who are forced to leave their homes do damage before they leave. It is an angry way to act out because they have “lost everything”. Many of the homes that are on the market due to forclosures are then “fixer uppers” anyway…
I’ll take the correction, but try to refrain from using the term “American Dream”. Frankly, it nauseates me. It doesn’t mean what it did 50 years ago.
Hey man, I found your feeder lot
A beautiful sight indeed!
Luckily it’s a “before” shot.
“ALSO - many people who are forced to leave their homes do damage before they leave.”
These people should go to jail. The homes they trash are not their homes; the homes belong to the lender. Because they were once “buying” the home does not make ownership theirs.
you can’t mow this lawn either. you need the weed wacker to get around the posts:
http://patrick.net/housing/contrib/SantaClaraForSale.html
Hi OnlinePhD!
Oh, and ex-nnvmtgbrkr , as for “what business” people have owning a home, is more like, what business do they have owning a 1/2 million or more dollar home.
*Astute observation OLPhD! Good question…how did we become owners of $500,000 homes? (I don’t know the answer).*
Houses and rent should be based on income, not realtor commissions.
*Ah, that pesky word *should*. Check. *
Please. It is the american dream to have a “home” and there were too many predators out there taking advantage of people’s (stupid) emotions.
*IMHO, there are few victims. Relatively few ones are truly ignorant. Business, is, business. If one is not capable of caring for a home, perhaps renting may be a viable option?*
ALSO- many people who are forced to leave their homes do damage before they leave. It is an angry way to act out because they have “lost everything”. Many of the homes that are on the market due to forclosures are then “fixer uppers” anyway…
*Anger, entiltement, justification are not responsible nor honorable traits. Excuses are numerous…hardly justifiable.*
**America. Land of excuses…let someone else think about the consequences. I believe in compassion, but not to a fault.**
P’Bear,
Is that suppose to read:
Sarcasm off?
Humbly,
Leigh
aka The Illegal Alien Full Employment Act
This is more on topic than we realize…
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/LessonsFromTheGreatDepression.aspx?page=3
Call me crazy and slap me silly…that being said, I’m very suspicious of metals.
Intelligently, there is NO explanation for the suspicious nature of my being about the value of metals. Just call it a feeling.
Pehaps there is a more realistisic explanation. I’ve watched gold rise and fall, hear those that speak of it’s instrinctive value, observed governments sell it; abandon it for monetary soundness. And now I’m reading it’s a great hedge.
Why are so many countries abondoning the gold standard?
http://tinyurl.com/36uufd
Humbly,
Leigh
There are no countries on the gold standard. There haven’t been any countries on the gold standard since the 1970’s. They don’t want to be on the gold standard because that would make their money too valuable.
I know that doesn’t make any sense, but that is the reason.
“There are no countries on the gold standard. There haven’t been any countries on the gold standard since the 1970’s.”
One reason is globabalization/IMF/etc. When you can’t control recessions, trade deficits, high unemployment and so on via tariffs or regulation, one resorts to inflating the currency. It was a politically expedient race to the bottom…
“Why are so many countries abandoning the gold standard?”
Because other countries did it too!
Monkey see monkey do…
Gold standard is only as good as the govt. of the country that claims that its currency is backed by gold. We showed the world the truth of this statement. Govts can always devalue their currencies if the choose. It is the ultimate confidence game!
How much confidence do people have in the US govt.? Please check the rates on the long-term Treasuries.
Jas
Hi Jas! Where to begin?
Confidence. Outstanding…US government…many believe that the government will float the fiat confidence.
Others believe gold standard.
A dichotomy on treasury rates…those who hold them, and those who fold them?
Jas, I do not have the answers. The long term US notes are appauling.
My crystal ball is clouded…Yes, I’m joking!
Best,
Leigh
Leigh,
Not all metals are gold. Nor am I a gold fan (market manipulation is extreme).
However, gold has always been a hedge, a protection, a storage of value with thousands of years of history.
Gold is 100% fungible. Convertible into any fiat currency in the world with no questions asked. A money clip made with a $20 dollar gold coin on one side and a $10 gold coin on the other will fly you anywhere in the world at any time.
Gold is relatively portable a 400oz bar is easy to carry.
Gold is easy to leave to heirs.
Your feelings about gold are not illogical due to the vast amount of negative press from Central Bank economists over the last 27 years. However you are not very far from the CME/CBOT. It would be well worth your time to go when the gold shipments are delivered - (I believe it is Tuesday before expiration). When the carts come in with the gold bullion, and each bar is worth half a million dollars. And there is a buyer for each bar. That is value.
Gold is not purchased to make a profit (you buy an ounce of gold and it goes up in dollar value, but you still only have an ounce of gold. If you sell you have to pay taxes. Did you really earn anything? Or were you just robbed?). Gold is insurance against economic disaster.
Thank you Hoz!
I freely admit my ignorance. I am terrified of gold bling significance on the world market.
I admit my ignorance, and thank your viable opinion.
Curtsey,
Leigh
P.S. Thank you : )
–
Gold should be thought of as an insurance against the collapse of the fiat currency regime not a speculative play. I have been recommending 5-10% of net worth in gold since 1997. The best paper currency is Swissie.
Jas
You can buy Gold stocks.
Hoz - much better answer than I gave. I do respectively disagree with Jas, though.
Gold is somewhat insurance, but it is also speculative in nature. I’d really rather not hold the stuff - it costs money to store and there are opportunity costs against interest/divied instruments. Plus, there are no living experiences with a currency collapse. We are all guessing (I think correctly) that gold will hold it’s value/be the the medium of choice if/when we have currency crisis. But we don’t know if governments will attempt outlaw and/or prevent the sale of gold, etc. in that type of scenario.
WTF isn’t truly speculative in nature?
This is sounding like a discussion on buying investment real estate circa 2003…
The gold standard is a huge inconvenience that prevents countries from inflating their money supply. I’m thinking at some point also, we may not have enough gold to make all the transactions of the world work but I’m not enough of an expert to devel.
On the whole, I think you are right to be suspicious. Gold has no intristic value except for 2 things: industrial purposes and jewlery. Other than it’s a non-tarishing lump of nothing that you can’t eat or make houses from or any number of useful needed things.
I’m obvously not particularly gold buggish myself. To me, it really is hedge against the printing of fiat currency because I recongize that for 95% of western history, gold=money.
But I reconginze that PM purchases are speculation and I don’t have all my money sitting there. The speculation makes sense to me given that and commodities are the only things currently undervalued. Once CNN starts telling everyone how to stock up on gold (assuming they can), it’s time to sell.
Hellooooo V!
(gold) has no intristic value except for 2 things: industrial purposes and jewlery. (blush…I do own some jewlery).
Nano. The new bauble. (yes, bauble). I will bore you with references on nano technology, but I won’t…it’s said in some circles to replace metals as conductors. (?)
I’m laughable, for I am not one who speculates! Even my slight observations are laughable!
Thanks for the exchange!
Leigh
Leigh,
Ask yourself two simple, fundamental questions. If you can’t answer them right away, think long and hard about why you can’t.
What is money?
a. medium of exchange. b. store of value. c. unit of measure
What is a dollar?
a silver coin containing 371.25 grains of fine silver.
Of course, if you have alternative answers to these questions, I would love to hear them.
Now see here Sir! I like silver! : )
Money is debt.
A dollar represents a unit of debt.
Dollars are created by banks for loans.
Borrowers then spend their debt dollars on goods and services.
More created debt = more created money.
That’s all there is to it.
I dunno. All but Ron Paul and T Tancredo at the just concluded GOP debate said the economy is great. Guilani said we need to be optimistic.
Don’t worry be happy!
You know…I spent the better part of the day listening and watching to that debate along with the respective dialogue surrounding it. Honestly, I came away with the impression that this country is in serious trouble and the people who are in charge are so disconnected because of their wealth or blinders that they have absolutely no clue what is going on with average Americans. The commentators, the so-called economist, the candidates. Everything to them is peaches and cream. It brought to mind the description China used to describe the U.S. a few years ago “the land of paper tigers”…
Tighten down the hatches and look out below folks the ship is being sailed without a rudder or a captain
Does this surprise anyone? Name the last down-to-earth president? Maybe Truman as he worked in a haberdashery. Good gracious. 99.9% of these a$$whores have no clue or couldn’t care any less about the commoners.
Tragically, we have allowed it to happen. If NO ONE would vote, then no one could claim victory.
proposed a new measure ??
Possibly a nightmare to inforce however….
Nano?
Lawd, is this the Mork and Mindy show. Tooooo Funny…comedy often mirrors truth?
Best,
Leigh
er…Nano-tech…the next bubble? Commidity?
Thank goodness I’m not a specuvestor (Jeesh, is that a Bushism?)
Dang, I make me laugh…snort!
A threat of confiscation followed by auction sale to the highest bidder would do the trick.
A valid use of emminent domain if you ask me. The city can condemn the property, sell it at absolute auction and hand the $3.34 over to the holder of MBS
Wouldn’t a $150k (primary, occupied) residential exemption coupled with a (necessarily) high property tax do the trick? Let the absentee owners pay the property tax. (I would also have a similar exemption on occupied rentals so the tax would not pile on renters…)
Ahem…tis is da delima. (wink)
I think this is how the city of Flint, Michigan cleaned up their city - remember the boarded-up houses in Michael Moore’s Bowling For Columbine? The program is called a land bank.
http://www.mott.org/recentnews/news/2007/landbankreport.aspx
A successful market investment is often thought of as one that yields a financial return. A recent report suggests that the Genesee County Land Bank (GCLB) is helping the greater Flint community realize similar rewards.
“Economic Impacts of Residential Property Abandonment and the Genesee County Land Bank in Flint, Michigan” finds that the GCLB spent roughly $3.5 million between 2002 and 2005 on the rehabilitation of abandoned and foreclosed properties in and around the city. It further suggests that those activities yielded $112 million in economic returns for Mott’s hometown.
Halloween’s coming in 3 weeks.
Maybe Detroit’s arsonist tradition of Devil’s Night can be exported to clean up the glut.
A thunder storm with a lot of lightning. They have a similar phenomenon in New Jersey during every DOWN real estate cycle.
–
SF Fed PresidentYellen: “Repricing of risk will be “contractionary”"
Looks like lot more single women will risk “contractionary” pains than single men. It was just reported that 21% of single women bought homes, in recent years, compared to 9% of single men.
The disproportionate buyers in the recent years have been single women, blacks and Hispanics. BTW, blacks and Hispanics were three times more likely than whites to get subprime loans.
Any conclusion to be drawn?
Just curious,
Jas
Reminds me of the mock headline:
“World Ends Tomorrow - women and minorities worst hit”
–
It just occurred to me that there was a hug push to market to, or target, women and minorities in recent years. It just happened to coincide with the Housing Bubble?
Jas
Government has been pushing women and blacks and hispanics to take SBA loans, mortgages, student loans, etc., for the last 30 years.
Women, blacks, hispanics, et al, did NOT cause this housing bubble.
Yes Jas. Many credit worthy folk bought toxic credit products.
Anecdotal accounts include minorities.
News flash! People of all demographics are bewitched into unaffordable loan products!!
Gulp!!
America duped herself!!
Gotta laugh or I’ll cry!
Best,
Leigh
Jas, you might want to edit your profile link. to: http://financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/jain/archive.html
the “www.” in your existing link is directing to a dead link.
I love that story. The full version from an old editor’s desk:
God decides to end the world. He calls the editor at The New York Times with whom he discusses all his major decisions. The editor tries to talk God out of it, to no avail. So the editor asks if the Times can at least have an exclusive. God thinks it over, but decides that would be unfair. He rules that he will share his decision with three other dailies: The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The Washington Post.
The papers rush to put out their truly final editions. First out is The New York Times: “World to End Tomorrow,” runs a tasteful, smallish headline atop the front page’s right-hand column, “News & Analysis, Page B11.” The Wall Street Journal is next: “Stocks and Bonds Drop Sharply on World Ending.” Then comes USA Today. The paper’s entire front page is consumed by just two words: “WE’RE GONE!” Finally, The Washington Post hits the streets. In bold letters standing six-inches high, it grimly announces: “World to End Tomorrow, Women and Minorities Affected the Most.”
How about targeted predatory loans to a class of people long shut out of the home buying process. Play to their greatest desires, wrap it all up in bullshit stardust, and sell them on a loan package that will get them in the house and kill them softly in two or three years. Just the sad facts.
Bingo!
Best summary I’ve heard yet of this most odious episode in American financial history. Well said TOTL.
Please read “The Two-Income Trap” by Elizabeth Warren for a sobering look at the subprime lending industry. Minorities were much more likely to be offered subprime loans even though their income may have been higher than that of poor whites. The lending practices were egregious and criminal. And the book was written in 2003, BEFORE the subprime loans really took off!
I’ve noticed the publicity about predatory lending toned down quite a bit — once it became obvious that the people who had pushed toxic loans on poor blacks and Latinos were generally their black and Latino neighbors.
Agreed Thomas.
Unfortunate, those whom flock together, screw thy neighbor(hood).
Racist. Ya, that’s the word.
Clean as the air, as long as you’re not making loans outside your (fill in the blank…color, sex, religion…whatever) profit zone.
This is a HUGE issue! Lawsuits for everyone! Cash in on “the fund did not tell me”…only in America.
Coming to a New World Order near you (us).
Sigh.
Leigh
P.S. Debt free once had meaning.
She wrote, with Professor Westbrook from UT Law School, a good book in 1989, “As We Forgive Our Debtors” which took a critical look at who actually was filing bankruptcy in America and why. It shot down a lot of the stereotypes of who had to file. She also has a good blog called “Creditslips” (google for url). She’s a good person and advocate for people who don’t know what they’re getting into until it’s too late.
My thinking has always been that these subprime lenders honed their “skills” by preying on vulnerable people to the point that they could then expand their practices to everyone. Sort of like a virus spreading to the general population after being incubated.
Um, the underclass is more security-oriented? Willing to commit? Invest in the long-term infrastucture?
“In the Central Valley community of Manteca, police have a new job: patrolling hundreds of foreclosed houses left empty and abandoned. They are half million dollar houses, often bought with nothing down, turned into suburban blight.”
You mean they “were” half million dollar houses.
The other side of idiocy: 30,000 homes built in the last six years - in a town with a Census 2000 population of 49,750. You think out-of-town specuvestors might have driven the construction? From Sacramento to Merced, the Bay Area spill over ran wild for 5 years, and now that they all went home the race to the bottom can get going with gusto. The pre-bubble projections would have put housing prices at +/- 200K up and down the valley by 2007. Such a long way to go.
I was going to comment on that too. If you reckon 3 people per dwelling, that’s an increase of 90,000 people - an almost 200% rise in the population of 49,750.
Shurley Shome Mistake, in the immortal words of Private Eye.
More importantly, what the heck is going to happen to all those houses, now that the demand for them is gone.
I used to live in Merced. I bought a house and sold it in early 2006, to someone who tried to flip it and now is renting it out. The flippers and specuvestors I talked to started arriving in 2001. They believed that the prices were going to go up due to the University of California Merced. I remember them saying that they were getting houses and complexes on the cheap and remarked why othher locals weren’t doing the same. I remarked that they remember when Castle Air Force closed and sent to the housing market crashing in the 1990’s. i remeber them remarking that with the university coming that it wasn’t going to happen again. I live in Ventura now. My co-worker wants to take me to look at a housing development called Orbela in Oxnard. I know a poster on this blog has talked about it extensively. I have been told a 2 bedroom 2 bath has been reduced to $375,000 with $80,000 in upgrades. I don’t want to know what the peak price was on that place.
they were NEVER worth 1/2million - that is the problem
No, that is the lender’s problem!
“The auctioneer, Ted Longley, chuckled: ‘Must not be any money involved in the equity area. I don’t know.’ ‘You can’t give these houses away,’ Osborn said.”
Since when is 464,885.15 giving it away?
It appears the market agrees with you. lol
“Still the auctioneer has a lonely job. ‘There’s nobody here,” CBS News correspondent John Blackstone said.”
You really want to see what these houses are worth? Throw away the “reserve price” and start at 0. We’ll be there soon. Reserve price will soon be forgotten term.
Yep. I bet there’d be much more traffic if that was the case. The market is continuing to tell them prices are too high.
Sounded like he was on the courthouse steps ex-nnvmtgbrkr I got the impression the equity sharks weren’t there camped out as usual. No equity sharks on the steps means anything the banks are taking back are well overmarket. Which means you’ll be buying that 424k for 150k or less sooner than later. Just looking at the numbers coming out of there right now. i actually think that area is going to be worst than Az and NV as far as price reduction. It actually seems like they have surpassed those areas as far as a falling market is concerned.
worst = worse
i = I
etc etc
They can’t throw away the reserve price or they will be in the same situation as the MBS market. If fire sale pricing ‘marks to market’, then their own retained loans on their books (all time record exposure) would appear more risky (less equity cushion) as well more illiquid.
The banks, lenders et al will RESIST AS LONG AS POSSIBLE blowing out their REO as they;
1. await a possible bailout
2. await a RE market turn
3. await an easing of mtge credit availability
I would wager that the US gov’t will assist them in resisting by relaxing Bank regulations which will allow them to hold REO indefinitely.
With all this RE (mostly vacant, poorly maintained) overhang, either prices are throttled for years or an avalanche of selling clears the market with (eventually) serious bargains.
Trust me, let them keep those RESERVE PRICES just a few more months.
Hasng on boys and girls, Q1 and Q2, 2008 will warm every HBBer’s little heart. By Q4, 2008 you all should be delirious.
“I would wager that the US gov’t will assist them in resisting by relaxing Bank regulations which will allow them to hold REO indefinitely.”
Alas, I don’t think this is a problem for the servicers. Part of the ‘popularity’ of REMICs/MBS to lenders is they sold the mortgages, thus put them off book. They do not need to heed banking regulations at all. The only limitation are those spelled out in the servicing agreements with the conduits. The couple I have read allow the servicer to hold the REO for up to three years after foreclosure- as long as they are trying to maximize the return to the bondholders. THAT will be the catch- I’ll bet after a short while the bondholders (via the conduit) will force the servicers to sell in order to get their principal back.
(I don’t know how the apparent conflict of interest between the bondholders and the conduit would be resolved- I can think of scenarios where the conduit would want to wait for a possible bailout- if the equity tranche were to be wiped out by short sales, for instance- while the bondholders might want to see money flowing into their tranches.)
With respect to the banks holding onto REO’s I have observed this in Woodland Hills 91364. There are houses that are listed as “Bank Owned” that have been on the market for close to a year with an astronomical price. I just don’t get it!
“Michelle Steeb, the director of St. John’s Shelter for women and children recently checked in a family after their home wound up in foreclosure. ‘The bank showed up on their doorstep on a Monday morning and told them they needed to leave, and they lost everything,’ Steeb said.”
If you’re just one step from a shelter, what business do you have owning a home in the first place?
Everyone was supposed to benefit by joining the ownership society, remember?
No, I don’t remember “everyone” was supposed to benefit by joining the ownership society.
I do remember “everyone” having the free will and adult responsibility to make rational choices given their individual situation however. Been like that forever, it seems.
I love it when people suggest that Greenspan or Bush “told” people to buy, stupidly, and they listened. Does anyone think that more than 3% of the population knows who Greenspan was or what he did for a living? And the notion that people went out and bought because of Bush….is this the same Bush who has been widely decried as an “idiot” since the day he ran for president and portrayed as gigantic liar at least since 2002?
Please, someone educate me. Certainly many people are “sheeple” but how do even dopes “listen to” a lying dope and a man virtually no one knows and ever considers outside of the odd, financial, crisis?
Erm…
“Expanding Homeownership. The President believes that homeownership is the cornerstone of America’s vibrant communities and benefits individual families by building stability and long-term financial security. In June 2002, President Bush issued America’s Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities.”
Although not blatant, this could be seen as yet another green light given to the mortgage industry to play fast-and-loose with qualifying, in this case to give “minorities” a stake in the “Ownership Society”
The repeated speeches of George W. Bush using the word ‘ownership society” are too numerous to cite, as they go on for dozens of pages on Google.
So, I will list from the White House, the major addresses of George Bush and his policy initiatives, to increase home ownership, including stump speeches to largely minority audiences and his expanding home-ownership programs, featuring low or no downpayment.
Maybe this will jog your memory.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeownership/archive.html
He forgot to mention the part about saving up, choosing an affordable home, and staying away from toxic mortgages. I guess things like that don’t figure into the equation when you’re in the top 5%
As of 2005 tax data, per The Tax Foundation, the top 10% of tax filers had an income of at least 103,912.00
So yes, I believe the top 10% knows very well who Greenspan is. In fact, since many teachers, accountants, librarians, and researchers across this country make considerably less than 100k, i would suggest that closer to a minimum of 20% of the country knows very well who Greenspan is and that he was at the time the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
A majority of your fellow Americans voted for Bush for President, twice, so I suspect that those, like myself, who have always despised him, are clearly in the minority. Remember his big election win in 2004, and all that “political capital” he promised to spend? It is fairly recently that people have generally turned against him–including people who voted for him.
So yes, plenty of Americans look to the Fed chair and the President for information on how the economy is doing…it used to be known as leadership.
That this republican administration has turned manipulation and deceit into a fine art reflects on them, more than Americans who have tended to trust their government.
I membrr….The “Ownership Society”….What moron’s….
–
You mean the owners and the suckers society? Suckers might think that they own but owners have the real control to make decisions.
Things are seldom what appear to be.
Jas
My thoughts exactly. They can’t afford to pay rent even after not paying their mortgage for 6 to 9 months but someone loaned them hundreds of thousands of dollars for a house.
“Though you can’t tie anything directly to the economy and the foreclosure rate, something has to be there because we’ve never seen an increase like this so rapidly and so dramatically,” said Steeb, who adds a third of the women have jobs.
“so rapidly and so dramatically” ’nuff said.
In California many landlords use credit reports to screen tenants. A lot of tenant advocates have advised those who were facing foreclosure to rent a house or apartment BEFORE the foreclosure is recorded, as they might have trouble renting with a foreclosure on their credit report. Some people haven’t been paying attention. Others may have been so financially stressed that they don’t even have the money to rent.
It’s likely, though, that once all the foreclosures have washed through the credit system, landlords will just ignore them, simply because so many tenants will have foreclosures on their records.
Also remember that during the height of the boom, tenants had to have better credit ratings to rent than “owners” to buy. At least some of these folks had credit problems even without the foreclosure. Remember that more than half the ARMS in California during the boom were taken out by people refinancing–in many cases to deal with other financial problems.
you don’t know how they got from there to here. Could have been a nice family able to afford their home until a divorce, and fighting between the lawyers made it impossible to divvy up the largest asset. A very sick prime breadwinner and no health insurance. Or prime breadwinner goes to jail, leaving unskilled spouse and kids with no way to pay the mortgage. Domestic violence situation with one spouse in control of the checkbook, and burning their bridges by refusing to make home payments (that could happen in a messy divorce, too.) These situations develop quickly and not everyone can get their home sold before the foreclosure happens, especially when there is domestic chaos.
“‘I’m still selling real estate,’ Cole said Monday, but declined to comment further.”
i would sure like to know how many people are actually buying from this crook.
Who? The people he pays to buy them and then leave the country, ie the “straw buyer”.
Quiz: Who said this ? ‘I am not a crook’. Then he held his hand up and gave the V for victory sign. Another clue: he was born in Whittier. Still don’t know? I give up on you. Turn off MTV or ESPN and read some history books.Go back to school so that you can graduate from the eighth grade.
You’d be surprised the amount of people who don’t read or watch the news and have no clue what is going on around them.
Them=clueless. Not surprised…dumbfounded!
An aware society are ones with eyes open.
Seems we (many) are comatosed?
You just can’t make this stuff up!
I would love to be able to borrow 2 mil against my home. So you see even if this guy loses the assest he still has 2 mil and who knows how much more
Editorial suggestions:
“Just-retired Corky Hine wanted to sell for $400,000. Now his home is worth less than $339,000 and hence his real-estate agent
stillcan’t get anybody to look with his irrationally exuberant wishing price.”Is that the guy from TV’s “Life Goes On”?
Corky Hine…..more like Corked behind. Gonna hurt when that Joshua tree is pulled out.
Hine is pronounced Highnee.
Too funny!
lol
What part of “if you don’t lead a buyer’s market, you don’t sell” is so tough for sellers to get?
Got popcorn?
Neil
Don’t forget to thank Greenspan after you lose your home.
To any thank-you you have 2 sides. One side will sincerely say “thanks a lot” the other will say it with sarcasm and anger. You know which side will say it sincerely the criminals, the home builder executive and the lender working on commision or in the executive suite.
“The office is being listed for about $3.5 million, said Peter Yousefi, VP at NAI Capital. Crisp paid $2.5 million for the building in April. By May, he was trying to sell it for $4.5 million. Default notices arrived in late August.”
Don’t shoot. Let them burn.
(50 cent question - name the movie.)
Saving Private Ryan.
You win the cookie. Good job!
A cookie!!?? I was figuring on that 50 cents to make my next down payment - say around 2012.
LOL
You might as well give away a house…..the cookie’s too valuable, and, thanks to Helecopter Ben, appreciating by the minute.
‘You can’t give these houses away,’ Osborn said.”
“I’m not going to give the house away!” — typical FB
Crispy, you’ve got to be loving life these days. Whaddya say we pool money and bid 500K for the Crisp manse? If we win, we can go in there and kick his greasy ass out.
Count me in. I’ll rent a U-Haul for the Joshua trees he’s got comin’ to him.
Who gets to load those trees?
Before or after they’re used?
“…go in there and kick his greasy ass out.”
Don’t mess with Texas!
Any relation to Dubya?
I went to a Rangers game once.
Where’s Waldo? Everyone’s looking for these clowns!
http://dallas.craigslist.org/rfs/444529773.html
What a friigen idiot….If he sells them to his local people in one or two days why does he need the dough from Cali ??
He’s going to run out of local idiots, sorry *Investors*, soon and he knows it. Now he needs some out of town rubes to buy. Oh yeah, he claims he’s got more listings coming all the time so what is the rush ?
I called the number, (not from my home number!) hoping to ask a few questions, just for the fun of it…wouldn’t ya guess they’re just to busy to answer…leave a message!
LOL,
Leigh
That just so smacks of the high pressure sales tactic where they just have to have you there in person. Everything is just so important, so critical that you MUST BE HERE. Like one of those “weekend retreats” where they try to sell you a time share.
No, that smacks of California Investors have taken their ball and went home and everyone is starting to smell the fart they left when they walked away.
Thanks for the laugh, Stream. I really, really, REALLY needed that one!
Let me correct that headline: Broke Dallas Realtor Seeks Rich But Dumb Buyers. What a load of BS.
Saw a new TV come-on last nite. Called it Equity Repositioning.Com and were looking for the totally braindead to ‘free’ their ‘buried home equity’ and invest it in a ’select investment instrument’ (managed by them of course). Finshed with a nostalgic shot of picket fenced suburbia as dollar bills rained down from on high. Oh Gee. A single tear rolls down my face.
My home equity’s feeling trapped in a dead-end relationship with me. Can Equity Repositioning liberate it?
If the SEC wants to start cracking down on unscrupulous “investment” promoters, all they need to do is start watching late night infomercials. I’m amazed at the type of obvious scams that are advertised.
I just saw that one, also. I wonder how they get away with this nonsense.
“Roughly 10,000 homes in the Sacramento region are in some stage of foreclosure.”
The comparable figure I saw in print just yesterday for San Diego was 8000 homes. This equates to nearly 40% of the current MLS preowned home inventory — currently at 20,646 according to ziprealty.com . (Not sure what share of this 8000, if any, is part of the 20,646, though.)
Does anyone realize what was so attractive about the Central Valley?
Hmm…
Cheap housing!
The valley is flat, leaving an expanse with no real views. Most of the towns were full of migrant workers and their descendants. And they are not known for being full of money.
That there were so many $500K houses in the area is/was a joke.
There is no reason for houses to be over 250k in Manteca. It is 1.5-2 hours from the Bay Area, thus too far to realistically commute to, even though some people actually did, and it looks pretty much like Anywhere USA.
I’m not sure why there’s a reason for them to be even that high. What is the income of the 70th percentile family there?
Especially since they closed the waterslides…. MAAAANNNNTTEECCA!
that there was ‘a’ 500k house…
All those $500K homes in Central valley, Sacramento, Manteca, Bakersfield etc., will be $200K after the tsunami passes. This is going to be a big drop in the national “Wealth”. Since most of our “National Wealth” is in homes, imagine a nation half as “wealthy” two years from now. That is a sobering thought.
You have pinpointed the reason that it is absolutely essential for the Fed to further inflate the currency, as the housing crash will look much prettier when masked by inflation.
–
And how do you propose Fed do it? By cutting rates? Fed is fighting the recession that is already here and the deflation to come. And it will lose. Falling demand will overwhelm whatever the Fed is doing.
Jas
I’m not a huge fan of Bloomberg, so whatever it’s worth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aW_Q0_jJDZ6Y&refer=japan
Sums up your synopsis.
Best,
Leigh
Assuming, of course, they can get wages to inflate along with everything else..
The fed’s attempts to raise wages just cause wage inflation in China.
Where will the pressure to inflate wages come from this time around? I just don’t see it happening in a service economy with no effective union presence, incresing immigration, dual income families, offshoring, etc.
GS - you have pinpointed the reason that you should start making moonshine in your tub: you can mask and make pretty by NOT being sober.
You’d have to inflate wages and everything else by 45% in the next two years to achieve that outcome. Although I won’t argue that the Fed under BB won’t try and that substantial inflation so generated will have some countervailing force to underpin housing prices at some point.
You may be right. Will those here that read Ben’s blog be willing or interested in buying a reasonably priced $200K house at that point?
yes
Sure, but not in Manteca or anywhere in the Central Valley.
That’s part of the incredible waste of the past few years. While the supply of housing was increased, too many of the wrong types of houses were built in the wrong places. How many new “rust belt” cities have been created?
Will we see a situation where occupancy remains fairly high in areas closer to jobs while houses in places like Manteca sit vacant for 5 or 10 years or longer (collectively, not necessarily individual homes)?
Si, yes etc..
Sure, in San Mateo. I’d only pay $200k for a real ranch with a barn and arena for horses in Bakersfield. Oh, and it has to be on the river.
Let’s not forget Patterson. Not too many years ago, if you blinked you wouldn’t see the sign on Hwy 5 on your way to L.A. Except you’d know you passed it when you smelled the cow manure a few miles ahead. Many low income and migrant workers live in Patterson.
You can now find homes prices at $1.5M. I kid you not.
http://homes.realtor.com/search/searchresults.aspx?ctid=79646&ml=3&typ=3&sid=&pg=54
Median HHI: $47,780
Per capita Income: $14,746
8.6% families and 12% of the population were below the poverty line. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson%2C_California
So who are they selling these homes/condos to? Well, we know the answer to this. That’s why so many people are in trouble now.
BayQT~
SMF, I feel eminently qualified to answer your question . . . NOTHING is attractive about the Central Valley.
[Note to self: change moniker to ex-Central Valley Guy]
I went to UC Davis… I loved it there, and the Sacramento area was nice.
“The big barrier to entry in buying houses from my organization has been being able to inspect within a day or two before my local investors make a move on the property.”
Yeah, and my big barrier to entry is the steel underpants I put on whenever I’m around sleazy real estate sellers.
No No, you’re all wrong about him. He’s SUCH a great guy for wanting to share these great deals with us POOR Californians !
You mean like the son of the late Minister of Petroleum export for Sierra Leone is such a great guy for wanting to share 15% of $87 million with me just for being a “honorable person who can help him get the money out of the country”?
What nice people.
It’s kind of frustrating to see these massive drops in appreciation seemingly within my doorstep. Sure- we hear price drops in Sacramento, Tracy, Manteca, Bakersfield, and so on, but the thing is that all of those areas are outside of major metro areas that are in my opinion the worst offenders of the housing boom. Yes- sales have slowed in SF, Berkeley, Oakland, and so on, but the prices are still stubbornly high give or take 30k.
It’s also interesting that there is a measure A in Tracy. The East Bay city I live in also has a mesaure A, passed in the 70’s that was made to prevent the building of new homes. Not that it states this outright, but in order to build anything, first of all it has to be over 2,000 square feet. That alone is enough to prevent any new building since anything that large is easily a million bucks. But… there did build a new luxury home development on an abandoned military base. These “luxury” homes are really just horse-poop stucco Mcmansions doctored up with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. They START at over 850k and upwards of 1.6 million. Funny because the company that builds these also build the exact same houses in Texas for 250-300k or less.
People really clamored for these things despite the fact that they almost touch each other and have no yards to speak of. Anyhow- in reghards to policies like Measure A, I’m sad to admit that these types of laws are rampant all over the Bay Area- especially Marin- and at least for now partially protect area homeowners a bit from a price crash since the laws naturally limit the supply. These laws help nobody except the people who passed them who thanks to their selfishness got to buy the house cheap and reap the rewards of appreciation while we who weren’t even born yet have had to pay THEIR prices… literally.
Thanks for this one:
“These ‘luxury’ homes are really just horse-poop stucco Mcmansions doctored up with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.”
You guys and gals just keep cracking me up. And believe me, after the day I had today, I appreciate your humor — bigtime.
Don’t forget the ‘Open Space’ laws which also artificially supress supply by taking developable land off the market and rendering it economically worthless.
The core areas are not going to drop much. Funny money in the form of options grants are not going anywhere. Just this quarter, a large fraction of Apple’s engineers got grants worth as much as their annual salaries. With injections like that, there’s little chance of a drop in prices any time soon.
“Licensed real estate broker”
Wop-dee-do. Just because you’re a licensed driver, doesn’t mean you know how to drive!
–
During the end of September there was 9.48 months of supply in Santa Clara County. based on to-date for Oct. it is above 12 months. In San Jose it is at least 25% worse.
Jas
Jas
This begs an interesting question. Are the numbers actually increasing this rapidly or is there end-of period window dressing going on? We know that realtors(R) often take properties off the market and then relist them at a later time. If they wish to also make the local market inventory appear smaller, wouldn’t it make sense for them to do so right in front of the measuring period then relist afterwards?
Anybody in RE know if this is going on? I mention it because I’m not familiar with the biz but in hedge and mutual fund companies, variants of this gambit are quite common.
Stealtors let slip that a number of MLS listing services in Bay Area are in the process of consolidating. I would not be surprised if this process is underway to help fudge the numbers (which are negative here in Santa Clara now, very clearly).
–
I collect data more than once a week and the inventory on mlslistings.com is not manipulated. I have heard that on Realtor.com they are in some areas, e.g., Simi Valley.
One of the best monthly data source for SCC is:
http://rereport.com/scc/main.html
The Sep month end inventory for SFH was 4,875 and 514 sales during the month.
Jas
This week’s post at the Santa Barbara Housing Bubble Blog features what’s considered “entry level” new construction on the South Coast — and describes the helping hand that local developers are now offering to aspiring loan owners.
Kickin’ it,
Saint Barbara
Santa Barbara Housing Bubble Blog
The area of that development in Goleta was a former trailer park. The view across the street from the development is a carpet store,business building and gas station. You are in walking distance to the liquor store and Sizzlers among other restaurants.
‘On Monday, two San Diego City Council Members proposed a new measure that they hope would eradicate the problem. Councilman Brian Maeinschein told NBC 7/39…’the proposed ordinance will require the respective parties to regularly maintain their property or face fines and penalties.’
How does the city get to be big brother in the HOA business? Just require them to be boarded up and put a 6 month weed killer on the grass and flower bed area after all who is legally going to define ‘maintain’ after the fact and then grandfather everyone else into their ‘party’. Of course the alternative would be fun if enforced! Mortgage holder be forced to water and maintain grass, lighting after dark, etc would create a mass dumping of property at fire sale pricing that would deplete homeowner equity and the city tax base. Damn city hall meetings could be good entertainment.
This is just a fancy way of the government “taking” property from landowners. Every time they put a restriction of what you can do with your private property, it’s a taking. You shouldn’t be allowed to take something without compensation.
If neighboring land owners want control over this property, they should BUY it!
Amen!
San Diego is pretty much insolvent. They need the fee/fine revenue.
“Northern California is home to one over the highest foreclosure rates in the entire country. Some homebuilders are leaving half-built homes in new developments. One of 15 sites in Elk Grove are on hold after struggling Dunmoore Homes company sold a local business man.”
‘… one over the’ huh? And how was the local business man sold? Did they use a Dutch auction or an English auction?
A nightmare scenario building. RE only goes up.
What do you got to say realtors now?
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://market-ticker.denninger.net/2007/10/tumultuous-tuesday-warning-nasty.html
Spread it around.
Sheez, Denninger has a mouth like a sewer, yet he’s from Niceville, Florida.
He has every right to be pissed off. People just sit on their fat a$$es and do nothing. We are certainly a nation of people who know how to bitch. Anyway, most of the people on this blog are smart enough to know he connects the dots, as do certain others. Just because he throws the f bomb does not upset me one bit.
I often wonder, given the character (and ‘intelligence’) of j6p, if we are not better off by becoming a dumbed down socialist state. I think the dumb masses will easily adapt. And those who can’t will join John Galt….
That is a book. Fiction. As in ‘pretend’. Galt Schmalt.
No, we’re not better off becoming a dumbed down socialist state. Jeeze.
“All the men who have vanished, the men you hated, yet dreaded to lose, it is I who have taken them away from you. Do not attempt to find us. We do not choose to be found. Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don’t. Do not beg us to return. We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.”
John Galt
Yes I know. But he’s right, I think.
The idea is to call your congressfolk and complain.
I’ve seen people here say that a orderly decline would be better than a crash and I agree with that. The more the fed pulls the kind of bull that they have the less chance of the orderly decline and the more chance there is that there will be massive failures that WON’T be able to be covered by FDIC insurance according to KD.
He’s pissed and I don’t blame him. I am too.
The market has been weird. Very low volume and massive price increases in stocks. Not good
Hey, I’m teed off too, but I think that such a point can be made without resorting to the four-letter words. I mean, we keep it pretty clean on this blog, and look at the creativity here. It makes my day — every day.
Fair enough.
The people I speak to immediatly shut down with fowl language also and attribute that to tinfoil.
I hoped someone over there would provide me with a short summary without the bad language of what should be told to people like me, because though I understand it, I have a hard time articulating it in terms of technical stuff etc. No response yet. None the less, I think they are right.
Don’t be mad at me AS, I agree
Also, this blog is very unique like you say. Most people shut off the bad language and OT stuff like nothing I’ve ever seen elsewhere. Good.
Buy gold, oil, and lead. Preferably for your Glock or Dirty Harry. Protect your family first.
Ha! He read my mind!
psst…I sold a home in Niceville…it’s a reeeeely small town.
Looking over shoulder…too funny.
“‘I already dropped it $60,000 (from the original appraisal price,)’ Hine said. ‘She said ‘There’s like 500 homes for sale within a two-mile radius of mine, and 150 of them are in foreclosure within a mile or something.’”
Looks like Manteca is melting. Add some popcorn to the mix.
Yuck, only real butter will do. Don’t you go messin’ up our popcorn with nasty hydrogenated fat.
Ah, it’s nice to see my old haunt making the blog again. From what I know about SC Mortgage they were not involved in shady deals but if you’re broke you’re broke.
Swenson is smart, I thought that the Live Oak Business park would be vacant for a long time when it was first built back 2002. The rents on that place are very pricey. It took a while but it got pretty full with only a couple of vacancies, until now that is.
I love this logic! You know, I live in a 60 BILLION dollar house! I just can’t get anyone to look at it.
Sorry if a bit off topic but I thought this an interesting way the marketers are training future debtors:
http://tinyurl.com/yruvau
If someone buys that for my kid this Christmas they are going to get the joshua tree treatment.
Hmmm, I tell my kids marketers are evil and television eats their brains. With no TV signal in the house and my wife and I getting to him first, he might survive.
Yeah, I’m the guy who’s kid cries in the store because I won’t buy things. Sometimes I explain it is too much money (yes, we have a budget). The kids cry and learn it doesn’t work.
I like screaming kids in stores; it suggests their parents aren’t caving in to the massive push to consume.
When my kid is old enough he’s getting an ox-plow for his birthday. He’ll ask me what do to with it and I’ll tell him “start saving up for an ox.”
I hate that kind of “let’s teach them to shop”toy junk. It’s almost all marketed to girls, too. The only “activity” modern marketeers can come up with for girls is princesses and shopping. No caring for people or children, or sewing or crafts, or learning to be a physicist or play the stock market. Just go “shop” - the worst kind of selfish airhead. *sigh*
http://tinyurl.com/yqd2l2
From The Times
October 10, 2007
Tom Bawden in New York
US mortgage crisis predicted to get worse as home loan defaults soar
“America’s mortgage crisis is likely to get considerably worse because the level of fraudulent lending to unsuitable borrowers was much higher than previously estimated, Standard & Poor’s said yesterday.”
“Mr Wyss told a conference in Bombay: “The panic has subsided, but the housing market has not hit bottom yet. Housing prices won’t hit bottom until next summer and the losses won’t peak for another two years, until 2009. We are not halfway through this crisis yet.”
Even as they try to cover their asses for the coming storm, they continue to spin… prices will hit bottom next summer? We’ll still be in the meat of the first wave of ARM resets!
NEW YORK, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Countrywide Financial Corp … Chairman and Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo has resumed selling his stock in the troubled mortgage lender under a provision in a prearranged trading plan that has no threshold.
http://tinyurl.com/2mmcgn
“The upcoming sales are driven by rules within the 10b5-1 plan that were established long ago, and should in no way be viewed as any indication of my future outlook for Countrywide,” Mozilo said in a statement last week.
black = white
up = down
yeah, right. :MAD:
An article I read recently said that Mozilo may have some legal troubles later as he has changed that prearranged trading plan several times. It didn’t sound like everything he’s being doing has been on the up and up.
“Countrywide Financial Corp. Chairman and CEO Angelo Mozilo cashed in $138 million in stock options over the last year, switching his trading plans as the mortgage company went into a tailspin, it was reported Saturday. ”
“Mozilo adopted a new trading plan, added a second one and then revised it while the housing and mortgage industry slumped, the Times reported, citing regulatory findings.”
“The changes allowed him to sell hundreds of thousands of additional shares before Countrywide stock plunged. ”
http://tinyurl.com/34q9wn
Collections Ken and RepoMan Blaine sold seperately.
LOL - don’t forget the Barbie McMansion that turns into a 2 bedroom apartment and/or the Lexus that transforms to a 10 year old Civic
Try a garden apartment with a 15 yo Buick - 2 bdrm apt. and a 1997 Civic is far too generous.
Flat Broke Barbie- crumpled loan docs and maxed out credit cards not included
The headline for this thread sure is correct. After 4 months, 80K in price drops, help with buyer financing, we’re off the market. We did learn alot about the people that came through and looked at the house, though. #1…location, location, location doesn’t matter if you don’t have #2…the granite counter tops, and the so-called “bling” factor. (I will never install granite counter tops and the house isn’t a dump, btw. I can’t wait for all those people who installed and/or had to have granite because everyone else had it, realize that it’s no longer in style). Many would rather live in the stack’em and pack’em neighborhoods with no yards, through streets (as opposed to culdesac’s) and no character. Whoever coined the term Sheeple sure had it right.
I always thought it was funny how no one could see all the old fads and see thats exactly what is happening now. Really cheap fake wood floors, ugly counter tops, over the top bathrooms with no useful space. So many new and old remodeled places I saw were so pointless and stupidly planned. I don’t think anyone ever understood when I would talk into a place and say what are people going to think about this in 10 years? Won’t it be just as cheesey as using wallpaper is considered now?
“It’s at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys.”
Emil Zatopek
One thing I’ve noticed about the granite kitchens is there is no food preparation done lest the counters get *Gasp* dirty or chipped. Me, I like to cook, give me some cheaper Corian any day.
I had a bathroom redone about 10 years ago. I had some nice expensive tile for the shower and wall, but when it came time for the counter top I said: CORIAN! I actually like this stuff. It’s extremely durable, and looks OK.
I wish I had it in my kitchen instead of the tile countertops there.
I like to cook too. I’d rather have something more functional…you watch…granite will be the next shag carpet.
Or the next fake wood paneling.
This is referring to a topic from yesterday concerning a very unhappy homeowner in Signal Hill CA. The article was in the Long Beach Press Telegram, Business Monday. He took his complaint into his own hands and set up a web site blasting his realwhore. The article did not list the web site but it is http://www.sellersbeaware.com. It is well worth the look and I expect many more people who are unhappy with their real estate transaction to do the same.
I like stainless steel countertops myself with a nice piece of hardrock maple inset for chopping.
Nice
I also need a marble insert for baking.
Wow, Karl Denninger is mad. And right. But it does no good, Karl, you live in a nation of brainwashed cheap pleasure zombies. The outrages perpetrated by BuchCo. are far, far worse than any official scammery I’ve ever been witness to, and that includes Nixon.
As the guys said in my old neighborhood, “whaddayagonnado?” Fascism will be popular here as long as they keep the cable TV on and Wal Mart open late.
A house three doors down - same yard, circular drive, pool, 300 sq ft smaller and one less bedroom - sold last year for $1.125
8326 Jamieson Ave, Los Angeles, CA 91325
$850,000 5 Bedroom, 3 Bathroom House 3,621 Square Feet
UNCOOPERATIVE OCCUPANT*DRIVE BY ONLY*SALE IS SUBJECT TO INTERIOR INSPECTION*SHERWOOD FORREST ADJ MOSTLY REMODELED 5BR+3BA*THE CHEFS KITCHEN HAS NEWER CABINETS*GRANITE COUNTERS & STAINLESS APPLIANCES*THE LARGE FAMILY RM IS PERFECT FOR ENTERTAINING OR A GAME RM*THE ENTERTAINERS YARD US HUGE W/A SPARKLING POOL, PATIO & GRASSY PLAY AREA*THERE IS A 3 CAR GARAGE*CIRCULAR DRIVEWAY & 2 RV PARKING LCATIONS ALL AT THE END OF A PRIVATE CUL-DE-SAC
http://lalife.com/address/8326_Jamieson_Ave_Los_Angeles_CA_91325
“UNCOOPERATIVE OCCUPANT”
Why? Because they had to endure dozens of visitors while the owner reluctantly trailed the market price leaders? How many DOM?
I believe it’s a foreclosure.
No, it’s not. The last sale was in 1998 for $400,000. There could be a NOT on the property but it’s not bank owned, yet.
I really wish they’d quit saying “you can’t *give* these houses away”…as though they’ve tried to do that and it hasn’t worked.
In Detroit or Buffalo, yeah maybe you can’t *give* the house away. In SoCal, I doubt they have that problem yet.
In fact, if they got the prices down to 120K, I bet they’d SELL ‘em all in a month.
They asked me to invest in some houses in Manteca, but it didn’t sound kosher to me.
instant classic
“Michelle Steeb, the director of St. John’s Shelter for women and children recently checked in a family after their home wound up in foreclosure. ‘The bank showed up on their doorstep on a Monday morning and told them they needed to leave, and they lost everything,’ Steeb said.”
If they made no downpayment when they obtained the mortgage, then actually they lost nothing.
The reality in southern California at least is that house prices need to drop at least 40-50%. When I first heard about this steep price drop, I didn’t believe it, but now looking at the housing market — its become very realistic. Sellers continue to refuse to face the fact that their so-called “half-million plus” houses are not worth that much anymore. The housing boom has come and gone and it’s over…many made their fortune/retirement from their homes, that’s it. It was all about timing. What’s sad is the housing inventory is growing and growing and will continue to do so until sellers come to their senses or foreclosure catches up with them. The housing market is at a “real” standstill and don’t let a realtor tell you otherwise. I was just talking to several realtors lately, and they both said that they’re doing business, but it’s slow…but are selling houses. Well, someone tell me why the three houses on my block with open houses every weekend have not sold for 8 months. Buyers aren’t even looking at them at all….open houses are just a house “open” with a lonely realtor sitting in a chair. The honest truth is NO ONE can afford a house in California at these sellers’ asking price. If sellers don’t lower their prices, they might as well take their home off the market, because it will not sell period.
CBS 5 reports from California. “In the Central Valley community of Manteca, police have a new job: patrolling hundreds of foreclosed houses left empty and abandoned. They are half million dollar houses, often bought with nothing down, turned into suburban blight. Developers built more than 30,000 new homes in the last six years. But with the spike in adjustable mortgage rates the flood of buyers turned into a flood of defaults, 11,000 in the county in the past 18 months.”
Too bad some of that misery isn’t hitting the Glendale/Burbank/Pasadena/Toluca Lake/Etc….areas….people here are still too stupid.