The Housing Bubble

The Daily Business Review reports from Florida. “The Whitney, a newly built condo development in downtown West Palm Beach, has joined the growing number of developments hit with foreclosure lawsuits. California-based lender iStar FM Loans is seeking to foreclose on about 146 unsold units, or about two-thirds of the 210-unit building, which was completed in mid-2007.”

“Since Nov. 14, no units have closed at the Whitney, according to Palm Beach County public records. Rosalia Picot, the owner of a real estate consulting, sales and marketing firm based in Miami, said, ‘She heard [from brokers and others familiar with the project] the contractor was not getting paid and refused to complete certain parts of the units. And the lender was not getting paid because there were no closings.’”

“‘It’s incredible how slow closings are happening,’ she said. ‘They are just dragging and dragging.’”

“The Whitney started marketing efforts in 2003. Closings started in July. The Edge, a nearby 307-unit project, began closing on sales in August last year. Only about 135 units have closed so far, according to Palm Beach County records. ‘We used to be able to close a project in 2½ months,’ Picot said.”

“About 200 of the 210 units at the Whitney are under contract, said Maribel Alvarez of Altima International, who handled the marketing and sales for the property and lives on a unit she purchased in the development. Of those, 64 have closed, according to county records. Thirty-seven lawsuits from contract holders seeking to get out of contract have been filed.”

Voice of America reports on Florida. “Across America home foreclosures have reached a three-decade high. Here in North Port, Florida…too many homes were built. Many home prices doubled from 2000 to 2005, but they have now come down by as much as 30 percent. Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Stephen Frater says the air quickly came out of a speculative bubble.”

“‘There are hundreds of unfinished houses,’ he noted. ‘There are thousands of vacant lots. There is no city center. There are infrastructure issues.’”

“Homeowner Harry Bourne, who lives next to one of the unfinished homes, says the market is dead and he cannot sell. ‘If I wanted to sell it, it would require me to lose, you know, about [$10,000-$15,000]. So, at this moment I’m willing to stay and stick it out,’ he said.”

“Jimmy Claydon, facing foreclosure, says the crisis is getting worse. ‘People owe more than the property is worth,’ he explained. ‘So they’re unable to sell the properties. So they have to stay, or they have to go into foreclosure.’”

The Bradenton Herald from Florida. “As a growing number of homeowners are experiencing the strains of the area’s housing slump, local property appraisers are having to field more reappraisal requests from citizens baffled over their property assessments.”

“‘The one problem that we have this year is that for the first time in anybody’s memory, we actually have a situation where prices are going down,’ said Manatee County Property Appraiser Charles Hackney.”

“While the county has seen an increase in petitions filed, Manatee County Property Appraiser Jim Todora said the biggest increase came from the North Port area, which has been hit hard by the struggling real estate market.”

“‘The biggest increase we had came primarily from one area . . . and the petitions dealt with vacant lots,’ he said. ‘We still have about 50,000 vacant platted lots in the city of North Port. And a lot of people bought those lots during the recent run-up in selling prices.’”

“Since vacant lots do not qualify for a homestead exemption, Todora said many of those property owners are finding themselves in a jam.”

“‘Those individuals are looking at paying taxes on a property they are holding now,’ Todora said. ‘Of course, the market has slowed down and they are unable to sell it as quickly as they would like to. So it is understandable that they would come forward and be very discouraged by the situation that they find themselves in.’”

“One of the biggest issues in bolstering the market is eliminating the excess inventory and getting back to a more normal supply of housing. Builders are finding prospective home buyers have higher expectations and want lower prices. Many are giving them just that.”

“Travel to four of Centex Homes’ Hillsborough communities and find houses starting in the low $120,000.”

“Gibraltar Homes will also have several new models opening in time for the Parade of Homes. and co-owner Albert Sanchez thinks it will bring in even more traffic. ‘New homes are 25 percent less than they were in 2004 and 2005,’ Sanchez said.”

“Lee Wetherington Companies has 15 inventory homes and 10 models for sale at discounted prices. At least two of the models, which started in the $2 million range, have been discounted $300,000.”

“Lakewood Ranch allowed 20 percent reductions in lot prices in its new Country Club East community in an attempt to stimulate sales, Sanchez said. The reduction, which expired in December, didn’t lead to any Gibraltar sales but it did start dialogues with a group of potential buyers.”

“‘Our prices are already considerably lower than they were in 2004 and 2005. The current pricing is historically unprecedented,’ Sanchez said.”

The News Press from Florida. “America’s First Home, an Altamonte Springs-based low-end home builder, has apparently shut down operations in Southwest Florida. The company, which Lee County records show is the owner of 187 parcels in Lee County, was started in 1999.”

“America’s First went from building 92 houses in 1999 statewide to more than 1,000 in 2005, according to the old version of its Web site.”

The Miami Herald. “If you put down money to buy a home from Levitt and Sons before the company went into bankruptcy, you won’t be forced to wait around for the home to get built. But here’s the catch: You may lose some, or even all, of your deposit.”

“Those whose deposit wasn’t escrowed get a lien on the property they were set to buy. However, they will have to wait in line to get paid behind Levitt’s lenders, as unsecured creditors. If there’s no money left after secured creditors are paid, customers would get nothing.”

“‘I’m optimistic we’ll get a small percentage back,’ said Richard Gloor, who along with his wife put down a $54,742 deposit down on a house that cost more than $500,000 in Lake Lanier in Georgia.”

“Gloor didn’t see the need to have the money held in escrow, though he said he wasn’t given the option. ‘I was never worried about it. Levitt has been around since 1947,’ he said.”

“Levitt already has abandoned about 4,000 lots secured by loans from Bank of America and Key Bank. If Thursday’s hearing is any indication, few buyers are interested in closing on homes, many of which have fallen into disrepair since Levitt stopped building last summer. All but one of 26 contracts were canceled.”

“‘I think we’re going to be seeing people rejecting contracts in droves,’ said Robert P. Charbonneau, a Miami lawyer who represents some customers.”

The Charlotte Observer from North Carolina. “Some warned in 2003 that builders were selling too many homes. Too many unqualified buyers were getting mortgages with ballooning interest rates. And housing prices were rising too fast, too high.”

“But Beazer Homes USA, one of the largest and most aggressive builders in Charlotte, didn’t see it that way.”

“‘The so-called housing ‘bubble’ is, in fact, a myth,’ it said in its fiscal 2002 annual report. ‘While many continue to wait for this bubble to burst, we agree with most respected economists that there has never been a national housing bubble in the U.S.’”

“In 2005, Beazer cracked the Fortune 500 and ranked among the 10 biggest homebuilders in the nation. But the good times didn’t last.”

“Led by Scott Thorson, the local branch sought to set a divisional sales record at its fledgling Southern Chase subdivision in Cabarrus County. Home prices started below $80,000, roughly half the Charlotte-area average. The unusually low sales prices were a strategic decision for Beazer, build and sell homes for less.”

“Demand was ‘hot as a match,’ says former sales manager Barry Helms, who sold the first homes there.”

“To beat the division sales record, Helms had limousines ferry buyers to closings assembly-line fashion. ‘We moved three people an hour that day,’ he says.”

“Kelly Miles, a former Beazer builder, arrived in the mid-’90s to work on the Southern Chase neighborhood, the subdivision where the Observer found high foreclosure rates and evidence that Beazer sometimes crossed the line between selling to people who could barely afford homes and selling to people who couldn’t.”

“He remembers the company’s go-go sales ethos. ‘We were told to do whatever it takes to get people in the door,’ he says. Sales goals were met, but housing quality suffered, he says.”

“Beazer was aggressively helping buyers with down payments in some Charlotte-area starter-home subdivisions…The Observer found financial documents provided by four families showed their loans were arranged by Beazer Mortgage based on misstated debts or income.”

“Beazer doubled its market share in Charlotte in 2002 when it bought start-up homebuilder Crossman Communities Inc. ‘We bought into the Kool-Aid,’ says Jonathan Smoke, a former Beazer senior VP. ‘We double-downed … on investing in land to meet demand. There was a lot of belief that it was going to be that way for 10 or 20 years.’”

“Beazer had the highest cancellation rate of all major homebuilders in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year in 2007, when 68 percent of buyers backed out of contracts.”

“Analyst Vicki Bryan…ranked Beazer as most likely to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection among its peers this year, followed by Hovnanian Enterprises and Standard Pacific Homes. All have a presence in the Carolinas. ‘Beazer,’ she says, is ‘on the gurney.’”