The Housing Bubble

The Enquirer reports from Ohio. “Owners of low- to mid-priced houses aren’t the only ones losing their homes to foreclosure in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. Expensive homes are falling into foreclosure, too. Thirty-two homes valued at $200,000 or more were scheduled for sheriff’s sale between Oct. 11 and Nov. 15. Fifteen were valued at $300,000 or more.”

“Of those, at least six owners or their spouses were involved in the mortgage banking, property title, real estate or home-building industries.”

“Robert Goering is a bankruptcy lawyer and Hamilton County treasurer, responsible for initiating foreclosure proceedings against owners who don’t pay their property taxes. He says it stands to reason that those who made the most money off the booming real estate cycle are now most vulnerable in the bust.”

“‘Realtors, for example. Realtors were making big money and have nice expensive houses, and then the housing market went the other way,’ he says.”

“Likewise, he says, investors could be stuck with mortgages on houses they planned to fix up and sell. ‘If you can’t rent them or sell them, then you’re in big trouble,’ Goering says.”

“On the outside, 4-year-old Regency Park in Hamilton Township offers everything Middle America wants: New, three-bedroom homes with an average appraised value of $151,000 that people can afford.”

“But on the inside, some suburbanites are hurting. Seven percent of homes are or have been in foreclosure, their owners caught by escalating mortgage rates or tough economic times.”

“Tim Armstron has watched more than one neighbor move out in the middle of the night. One even left his car behind for the repo man. ‘My neighbor was in foreclosure. There’s one across the street and more around the corner. It’s a real problem out here,’ he says.”

“Armstrong is anxious about his own situation, too. More than two years ago, he refinanced his house with an adjustable-rate mortgage. The rate began to climb after 24 months, and in the spring his payments jumped $400 a month to $2,100.”

“‘I kind of brought it on myself - I didn’t read the fine print,’ he says.”

“He’s trying to refinance, but he’s worried that neighborhood property values have fallen. Financial institutions have told him they won’t write him a new loan for the $160,000 he owes on his house.”

The Beacon News from Illinois. “In the Chicago area, housing prices stayed flat in more than half of neighborhoods and suburbs and dropped significantly in one-third of those areas, according to Chicago Magazine.”

“Kevin and Earleda Parrishs’ one-time home remained on the market for about six months after the family was sent packing. The family bought the house for $169,900 in spring 2005. After it was repossessed, note holder Fannie Mae put it on the market for $158,900, Earleda said. The home eventually was sold, but only after the price was knocked down to $149,500.”

“‘Home builders were extremely aggressive to fulfill Wall Street expectations,’ said Hugh Smeed, VP of community development for Naperville-based Crown Community Development. ‘They continued to build housing even after the market started to deteriorate.’”

The Courier News from Illinois. “In just a 20-day period in September, the number of foreclosed properties in Elgin increased 15 percent to 153. Of that number, neighborhoods in the southwest and northeast sides of the city showed the highest concentration of foreclosed homes.”

“On one street alone, Wilcox Avenue on the city’s southwest side, six homes in a span of four blocks have been foreclosed upon. On Moseley Street, a few blocks east, are four more.”

“Elgin has had 516 foreclosures from the beginning of the year until the end of September, a 42 percent rise from last year’s number of 363 over the same period.”

“‘I have at least one or two cases every week of someone who is unable to make (mortgage) payments and they’re thinking just to let it go, and to allow the bank to take over the house because they can’t afford the payments,’ said Elgin City Councilman Juan Figueroa.”

“Christen Wiggins, a director at the nonprofit organization Neighborhood Housing Services in Chicago, said it was estimated that for every house foreclosed in Chicago, the value of the surrounding homes have dropped by around 1 percent.”

“‘If you are living on a block that has a lot of foreclosures, you’re seeing your own property values go down,’ she added.”

The News Democrat from Illinois. “A record number of properties are being repossessed in St. Clair and Madison counties, and signs indicate that it could get worse.”

“The St. Clair County circuit clerk’s office has processed about 1,200 foreclosures so far this year and is on pace to surpass the total of 1263 reported in 2006. Madison County foreclosures are also on the rise with 896 having been recorded so far this year. Three years ago, that number totaled 958. By last year, it had soared to 1,278.”

“‘I don’t think that people actually understand,’ said University of Illinois professor Lynne Dearborn. ‘A lot of people are getting into a mortgage without having enough information. The lenders are not the culprits. It’s a series of events. People that are in foreclosure often do not realize what they did. It’s of their own doing. They think that they knew everything, but they do not realize there was more to know.’”

The Capital Times from Wisconsin. “As VP of commercial lending at M&I Bank in Madison, Dennis Sandora is on the front lines of the local real estate scene. And Sandora doesn’t see much hope for a quick end to the housing slump, which has brought construction of new homes to a standstill and left financial markets reeling.”

“‘I’m afraid we’re still at least three years out,’ Sandora said Wednesday during a conference titled ‘Reacting to a Troubled Real Estate Market.’ ‘It’s going to get worse before it gets better, especially on the residential side,’ he predicted.”

“Madison landlord Fred Mohs, who was active in buying distressed properties in the early 1980s, still sees too much air in the market. ‘We’re nowhere near the bottom,’ said Mohs. ‘I’d say we’re five years away from a turnaround.’”

“M&I’s Sandora said the glut of homes on the market here should eventually translate into falling prices. ‘I know there are entire subdivisions that haven’t had a sale all year,’ he said. ‘Builders are just sitting on things.’”

“Attorney Harvey Temkin noted that sale of developable farm land in the area has also slowed to a trickle, but prices haven’t yet come down. ‘Vacant land was very hot here just a year ago,’ he said. ‘Now, nothing is selling but we haven’t seen anything repriced.’”

From WTMJ in Wisconsin. “There is a crisis in Milwaukee. There are almost three dozen foreclosures everyday and the problem is getting worse. Last year 46 percent of homeowners who bought homes in the city used sub prime lenders.”

“‘It’s been called an epidemic; it’s been called a tsunami. It’s a crisis and it seems to be getting worse,’ Bethany Sanchez, a Fair Housing Advocate said.”

The Gazette Extra from Wisconsin. “Despite the nationwide housing slump, developer Tom Keller said he’s pushing full speed ahead to find tenants and businesses to occupy Fulton Square, the $6.1 million project that broke ground this week in Edgerton (and) will include 26 one- and two-bedroom condominiums.”

“‘Obviously, the market’s a little slow, right now, but I think at the end of the day it’s going to rebound,’ he said. ‘If you wait for the market to get better, you might be too late.’”

The Pioneer Press from Minnesota. “For those tracking the Twin Cities condo woes, there are about 10,630 brand-new condo units actively being marketed around the metro area, with nearly 11,000 more proposed, a new report says.”

“Author Ryan Jones said it’s unclear how much of that new condo construction is captured by the local Multiple Listing Service, the basis of the official ‘for sale’ inventory. That means there may even be more housing on the local market than the already record 34,000 total listings suggest.”

“As of the third quarter, about 75 percent of the 10,630 units were under construction, and slightly more than half were reported as presold but not closed.”

“Farmers Market Flats developer Brian Sweeney said he’s confident in the project because most of the area’s condo glut is high-end units costing $299,000 to $525,000. They shrunk their units to make them cheaper and more attractive in the current market, Sweeney said, and fit a niche for units priced between $144,000 and $244,000.”

“‘The market is still selling units at that price point,’ Sweeney said. ‘There’s just a glut of $350,000 condos.’”

“When he moved to Grey’s Riverview Terrace three years ago, Christopher Rocco figured the town home association that runs the complex was in good enough shape.”

“He never envisioned the jam Riverview Terrace finds itself in today. The wave of foreclosures sweeping across the Twin Cities has hammered the little community on St. Paul’s West Side.”

“Of the 21 town homes, nine are in foreclosure, according to Rocco, the association’s president. The group can’t fix Riverview’s rotting siding because it has just $37 - plus $5,000 in debt it can’t pay and a ledger filled with unpaid monthly dues and late fees totaling more than $35,000.”

“‘We are on the verge of losing everything,’ Rocco said. ‘It’s a lot of stress.’”

“Minneapolis attorney Patrick Burns said he represents more than 75 homeowner associations in the area, nearly all of them struggling with foreclosures that either the bank initiated or they did themselves because owners hadn’t paid their dues.”

“Rocco said he suspects many of his neighbors had high-interest-rate subprime mortgages, or adjustable-rate mortgages such as the one he had until he and his wife refinanced it last year into a manageable fixed-rate mortgage.”

“‘I think people got in over their heads,’ he said.”

The Star Tribune from Minnesota. “The head of a nonprofit group bought 8 foreclosed houses in north Minneapolis as bidders vied for 300 properties in Minnesota.”

“Dave Flatum, a general contractor from Osceola, Wis., paid $97,500 for a Ham Lake house that last sold for $147,500. Amy Anderkay was the winning bidder at $67,500 on a three bedroom house that had sold for $265,500 a few years ago.”

“Thousands of Americans with checkered credit couldn’t handle higher adjustable-rate payments when rates starting rising last year and walked away from their houses or were forced out by foreclosure. Many big lenders and investors in such mortgages lost millions or went out of business.”

The New York Times on Minnesota. “In the loud, overcrowded hall, the misery of subprime loans, exploding adjustable rate mortgages and slumping sales meant one thing: opportunity. ‘Who’s got $150,000?’ said the auctioneer, Mark Buleziuk, motor-mouthing the sale of a four-bedroom house that he said was worth $234,000. ‘It’s a buyer’s market,’ Mr. Buleziuk urged.”

“‘The market’s really low right now, so you can get a good price,’ said Lori Crook, a food server at Keys Cafe who said she was looking for a place she could fix up and sell. ‘Even if you can’t sell it right away, if you just sit on it and sit on it, it will go up.’”

“Representatives from two big lenders that have been hit hard by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, Countrywide Financial and Bear Stearns, were on hand to provide mortgages — fixed, adjustable, jumbo or interest-only. Both have been criticized for giving loans too freely, leading to a wave of delinquencies and a rush to sell debt securities backed by those loans.”

“‘This is such a stark and dramatic illustration of how serious the problem is,’ said Ron Elwood, a lawyer at the Legal Services Advocacy Project, which lobbies in the interest of low-income residents.”

“‘The reality is, half the reason 300 homes are being auctioned off is that speculators tried to make a killing and failed to do so.’ Elwood said. In Minneapolis, 55 percent of foreclosures this year involved houses not occupied by their owners, according to county records.”

“But instead of alarming buyers about the risks, the auction of so many foreclosures at once was an invitation to speculators, small and large. Some, including Bryan Kihle and Jim Casha, who bought a four-bedroom house for $145,000, bid without seeing the properties.”

“‘I just looked at the picture and thought if we got it cheap enough, we could rent it for a year, then sell it when the market goes back up,’ said Mr. Kihle, a building contractor.”