The Housing Bubble

The Dahlonega Nugget reports from Georgia. “Lumpkin County began feeling the the building bubble burst in mid-2005, says Clarence Stowers, who has been in the construction business for 29 years. That’s when ‘calls and inquiries sort-of went away,’ he says. ‘With so many houses available, there just wasn’t any need to build more.’”

“‘I listen for good news, but these days it’s hard to find in construction, or anything development related,’ says Lumpkin County Development Authority Executive Director Bruce Abraham. ‘I’ve had grading contractors calling just begging for work. Engineers and architects are offering to do free consultations just to get a foot in the door in hopes of a contract.’”

“‘I usually have had two or three on-going jobs,’ Stowers says. ‘In the past I’ve been able to pick and choose, but right now I’m basically bidding just to get a job, and there are 30 contractors bidding on the same job. Profit margins are really, really low.’”

“Michael Gilstrap’s grading business had 17 employees last year. Now he is down to three-himself, his son and one other long-time employee. ‘We haven’t got anything to do. I’m looking at selling two or three pieces of equipment and probably going to work for someone else for a while,’ Gilstrap says. ‘I can’t compete with all the people who are underbidding jobs. If there’s no money to be made, what’s the use of going out there’”

“‘It’s amazing what this slowdown has done to people’s morale and attitudes,’ Stowers says. ‘There’s a place I’ve been doing business with for years, and they are not longer allowing people to charge. I had to wait the other day for them to clear my check. It’s tough, it’s hard times. Never in my life have I seen it this bad in Lumpkin County in construction.’”

“The glut of houses on the market, a cautious buying public and the increased difficulty of getting loans is having an effect on the residential real estate industry as well. Local realtor Vic Dover of Dover Realty says he began seeing the slowdown at the end of 2007.”

“‘There was a brief flurry in January, but it’s dropped off to very little activity. The number of phone calls and of people actively seeking to buy has dropped off precipitously,’ he says.”

“Sue Jones with Coldwell Banker says last year her sales were $6 million, but ‘this year is a lot different. Eight months into this year I’m probably not at $2 milliion.’ Raw land sales for residential sites are down. ‘I have parcels listed with some of the lowest prices in ages and it’s just not selling,’ Jones says.”

The Palm Beach Post from Florida. “A Palm Beach County real estate investor has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and one count of mail fraud. Berry Louidort agreed to forfeit $6.5 million and a 2008 Mercedes, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday in federal court.”

“According to the latest indictment from federal prosecutors, Louidort was part of a scheme to land bogus mortgages on 37 properties in Palm Beach County and seven in Naples.”

“In one example, Louidort convinced a lender that he had paid $1.03 million for a house west of Delray Beach and walked away from the closing with an ‘assignment fee’ of $250,000, federal prosecutors said in April. The house soon went into foreclosure.”

“The ring also enlisted straw buyers, such as the part-time Publix cashier whose income on loan applications was inflated from $13,000 to $344,000 so she could qualify for $1.3 million in loans on a Boca Raton home.”

“After nearly half a century of building Florida neighborhoods, Oriole Homes Corp. finally met an economic downturn it couldn’t survive. ‘I have shut them down,’ said Phil von Kahle, the court-appointed assignee.”

“The liquidation means Oriole Homes has stopped work on its Mayfair at Lawnwood condos in Fort Pierce and another development in Celebration, von Kahle said. Founded in 1963 by the Levy family, Oriole Homes survived deep real estate recessions in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. It also weathered a stormy spell from 1995 to 2002, when losses rose as high as $21 million a year. The company eked out only two profitable years.”

“The economic vise gripping many of Florida’s businesses and residents is prompting Florida Power & Light Co. to slash expenses, and is expected to stunt profits for its parent company.”

“Meanwhile, FPL’s parent company, Juno Beach-based FPL Group Inc., announced Wednesday that its earnings would be less than expected in 2009 - largely because of the housing-driven downturn. ‘This one is much longer and much steeper than we would have ever expected, and it has not bottomed out yet,’ Chief Financial Officer Armando Pimentel Jr. told investors.”

The Marco News. “As with many financial institutions, Marco Community Bank suffered significant losses due to unpaid loans and foreclosures over the past two years. But Marco Community Bank is among one of the smallest to date to file a lawsuit against the mortgage lenders who may be responsible for the situation.”

“The suit alleges that Atlantic Capital, a loan originator and underwriter, along with the other two companies, caused the bank to suffer nearly $20 million in damages by creating, marketing and selling impaired mortgages between June 2006 and April 2007.”

“‘All (mortgage lenders) were thinking about were the fees … They wanted to just push stuff through the pipeline. Far too many people put in sludge that turned to sewage and sometimes it was toxic,’ said Mark F. Raymond, a litigation attorney with Broad and Cassell Associates which is representing Marco Community Bank in the suit.”

The Naples News. “Southwest Florida’s largest privately held community bank has caught the eye of federal regulators. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and Florida’s Office of Financial Regulation have taken a formal enforcement action against Naples-based Orion Bank, requiring it to strengthen its board oversight, improve its assets and change its loan policies.”

“The bank will also have to develop a plan to better manage its real estate loans, including reducing its risks, and revise its loan policies, including its standards for renewing, extending, or modifying existing loans.”

“Within 10 days, the bank will have to ‘eliminate from its books’ all assets, or portions of assets, that have been classified as a loss that have not be charged-off or already collected.”

“Since 2007, Orion has filed more than three dozen foreclosure actions in Lee and Collier counties. The bank has branch offices in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Estero and Marco Island. It’s also had problem loans in such counties as Manatee and Sarasota, and on the east coast of Florida, where it has a handful of branches.”

“Orion has been making adjustments in its operations since the shift in the market, said Jerry Williams, Orion’s chairman, president and CEO. Last year, it formed a special assessment department to deal with problem loans, he said.”

“‘You don’t know your roof leaks until it rains,’ Williams said.”

“In August, new foreclosure filings fell for a second month in a row in Lee County. There were 2,154 filings last month, down from 2,301 in July, according to the Lee County Clerk’s office. They reached a record high of 2,518 in June.”

“‘It’s trending per day downward, but the backlog is increasing,’ said the county’s Clerk of Courts Charlie Green. ‘We now have over 22,000 that have not been disposed of. There is not a final judgment.’”

“He expects to see more declines in coming months. ‘The number one reason is they are just running out of foreclosures. There are just not that many more properties to be foreclosed.’”

The Bradenton Herald. “The number of foreclosure filings in Manatee County fell slightly in August from the record-breaking heights the month before. August saw 456 foreclosure filings, according to Manatee County Clerk of Court records, bringing the total for the year to 3,616.”

“The number of foreclosures so far this year has eclipsed the number of foreclosures in all of 2007 by nearly 1,000, and there are still four months to go.”

“While local Realtors report that much of their recent business has been in distressed sales, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the property is being given away. The median price of existing homes sold in Bradenton-Satasota in July was $230,100, well above the state average, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.”

“‘It’s very difficult to work with a buyer who is looking at short sales or foreclosures because they think they are going to get it for a steal,’ said Ron Cornette, director of training and marketing for Wagner Realty.”

“Since the beginning of the year, only two homes in Manatee County have been listed in MLS as being sold in time to stop the home from becoming bank-owned. What many people making offers on these homes or even the bank-owned homes aren’t taking into consideration is that the banks are hurting, too, Cornette said.”

“In some cases, banks will have to take losses because they are owed more than the home is worth, but that doesn’t mean they will sell the home at half of its market value. ‘We spend a lot of time making offers that are never going to fly,’ Cornette said.”