The Housing Bubble

The Palm Beach Post reports from Florida. “In the past four decades, the Altman Cos. has profitably built thousands of apartments throughout the eastern half of the country. The developer’s foray into South Florida condos didn’t work out so well, however, and Boca Raton-based Altman Cos. has decided to go back to its roots as an apartment developer. Altman is trying to unload units at the Astor, where all 90 units were presold but half of buyers failed to close, and at the Harborage, where 49 of the 126 units are for sale.”

“At the Astor, it has cut prices that ranged from $300,000 to $700,000 during the boom to between $200,000 and $500,000 now. And today’s buyers get $20,000 in free upgrades, President Jeff Roberts said. At the Harborage, prices have plunged from $300,000 to $700,000 during the boom to a range of less than $200,000 to less than $500,000 now, Roberts said.”

“Mortgage broker Jennifer Bellis closed in April on a $360,000 unit at the Astor Condominium in Delray Beach’s Pineapple Park neighborhood, even though she realized its value had fallen. ‘Ultimately it will be fine,’ Bellis said. ‘I’ll just have to wait for a few years to get my money back.’”

“With the financial markets in turmoil and home prices continuing their descent to unknown depths, more and more home buyers are desperately looking for ways out of pre-construction contracts on new homes. Juno Beach lawyer Gary Nagle is handling a number of…lawsuits, just as he has for many other buyers of new condo projects throughout Palm Beach County.”

“Nagle said buyers are highly motivated to get of their deals any way they can. The condo units have lost so much value since pre-construction contracts were signed a couple of years ago that, in some cases, the lost value is much greater than the 20 percent deposit the buyers handed over as down payments.”

“‘It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that you lose less money by not closing and just losing your deposit,’ Nagle said.”

“Meanwhile, the developer of a Davie housing community says its own lawyers are to blame for home buyers bailing on their pre-construction contracts. Here’s the alleged mistake: One part of the pre-construction contract requires only an estimated timetable for the homes’ completion.”

“Unfortunately, another part of the contract contains a two-year completion date from the date of the contract, the lawsuit says. That paragraph also contains a provision that nullifies the contract and requires the return of buyers’ deposits if the developer misses the two-year deadline, the lawsuit says. Some of the homes weren’t finished in the two-year window. And so because of the conflicting provisions, the developer has had to return buyers’ deposits, leaving Lakeside Village stuck with unsold property at quite possibly the worst ever period in the housing market.”

“‘They have to carry these properties now,’ said Lakeside’s attorney, Howard DuBosar of Boca Raton. ‘It’s devastating.’”

From CNN Money. “The housing crisis is driving unemployment, which in turn has exacerbated the housing crisis - particularly in bubble states like Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Jacksonville, Fla., resident Paula Seabrooks lost her mortgage brokerage company this year. She has worked in the industry since 2001, first as a contract underwriter for companies such as Wells Fargo. She then opened her own business. Her income dropped from nearly six figures in 2006 to less than $20,000 last year.”

“Seabrooks bought a $165,000 home in March 2006 and financed it with a hybrid adjustable-rate mortgage, which recently reset to 8.375% interest. ‘I thought I’d be doing well,’ she said, ‘I took the low rate, intending to refinance within two years.’”

“Seabrooks has a new job, but it pays only $38,000 a year. That is not nearly enough to afford her $1,400 monthly mortgage bill, much less make up the five months of missed payments and fees that now total about $11,000. She’s seeking a loan modification. Ironically, her new job involves handling applications from people seeking to refinance their own unaffordable mortgages into FHA-insured loans.”

“‘Every other loan application I get, it seems, either the wife or the husband is unemployed,’ Seabrooks said.”

The Sun Sentinel. “Coral Springs city commissioners have rejected the idea of the city entering the housing business. Instead, the city will use a $3,378,142 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development…for down payment assistance and repairs of about 50 to 60 homes that are currently owned by banks.”

“The focus of the program will be on foreclosed properties in the 33065 zip code area. ‘There is foreclosure activity happening all over the city,’ Assistant City Manager Erdal Donmez said. “There are 485 homes owned by banks in the city, while there are another 462 going through the final stages of foreclosure. The largest concentration of such homes is in the zip code 33065 area.’”

“The arrangement with CRA helps the city ‘accomplish more with less risk,’ City Manager Mike Levinson said. ‘The funds won’t be used for cleaning up foreclosed homes. The neighborhood stabilization program goes hand in hand with the foreclosure prevention program that we have implemented. We are doing the proactive stuff.’”

The News Press. “A proposed four-story condominium-hotel and its four-level parking garage on Fort Myers Beach are being met with caution by neighbors who worry the project could do more harm than good. The developers want to add the condo-hotel, which would have about 125 rooms, a parking garage that would hold at least 234 cars, a three-level marine building and retail space, according to plans filed by the developers.”

“John Gardner, who lives on Third Street…said about 25 residents of Third Street are worried the tall parking garage and condo-hotel will block their bay views and bring down their property values. ‘People whose houses appraised three years ago for $550,000 are not going to be appraised the same way when you have a parking garage next to it, and we’re concerned about that,’ Gardner said. ‘These are people’s retirement homes, that’s where they’ve placed most of their money.’”

The Petoskey Review. “Petoskey residents and visitors have long been subject to gazing at the hole at the entrance to the downtown corridor and wondering what went wrong? Lake Street Petoskey Associates development partner David Jankowski, of Grosse Pointe Shores, told city council members earlier this week that a new lender recently committed to the project, and that work at the Petoskey Pointe site — which stalled last year after previous financing was lost — likely will resume soon.”

“At one of the entrances into St. Pete Beach, a popular tourist destination in Florida, Jankowski is at the center of another dormant construction project. Corey Landings was to be another mixed used project like Petoskey Pointe. It too originally included condominiums, hotel and retail space. But when the housing market turned, the project was amended to become a hotel with retail space and a marina instead.”

“But similar to the hole in downtown Petoskey, the development site for Corey Landings is bare, years after the city approved the project. However, St. Pete Beach city manager, Mike Bonfield, said that there are a number of sites like that throughout the city and he said it is mostly the fault of a poor market. While the property was scheduled for foreclosure earlier this year, little has happened.’

“Bonfield said that he has also been told more than once that Jankowski was near to securing financing for that project but it has yet to materialize. ‘It appears they got into something that was over their head financially,’ he said. ‘Now they’re scrambling.’”

The Herald Tribune. “Four years ago, the County Commission and SBC Development negotiated an agreement for a 258-condo high-rise on Sarasota Bay — the first phase of a potential 1,658-home community called Long Bar Pointe. But because of the decline in the real estate market, not a single condo has been built or sold. The parkway extension that the commissioners thought SBC would have completed by the end of this year also has not been built because the money for it was to come from the condo sales.”

“On Nov. 18, the commission intends to amend the agreement to push back SBC’s deadline for the two-lane parkway to July 2019. ‘He’s put a lot of money out at our request,’ Commissioner Ron Getman said of SBC developer Larry Lieberman. ‘It’s an issue of fairness.’”

The News Journal. “The Volusia Home Builders Association — whose customers have been socked by more than $66 million in school impact fees over the past six years — filed suit this week seeking to have the practice declared unconstitutional. Impact fees are charged for every new home that’s built. In theory, new construction adds to the burden of educating additional students in Volusia County public schools.”

“But in reality, the school district has lost enrollment each of the last two years. About 2,400 fewer students attend this year than in 2006.”

“‘There is no need for the impact fee if new homes are not creating new students,’ said Stan Janzen, president of the association and Woodmark Construction Inc., Ormond Beach.”

The Orlando Sentinel. “Dead Winter Park developer Steve Walsh owes banks and investors $255 million, his creditors claim, but the lawyer for Walsh’s estate says they likely will never see a penny of it. Charles Stark, Walsh’s attorney, said the estate is worth less than $6 million, however, and that the Internal Revenue Service will take most of it. The claims that have piled up in probate court, Stark said, ‘may just be a waste of paper.’”

“Walsh shot himself in the chest behind his home June 25. As owner and managing partner of Broad Street Partners, he was one of the most prominent real-estate developers in Central Florida. In 2007, before the construction market crumbled, his company had projects in the works valued at nearly $1 billion. One of them, the high-rise Tradition Towers, would have built two 39-story condominium buildings on the site of the University Club in Orlando.”

“He was working on The Residences at Ravina, a $125 million condo development in downtown Maitland, and his company was one of the partners in The Carlisle, the four-story luxury condo proposed for downtown Winter Park that the city ultimately rejected.”

“Walsh’s good-guy profile, though, changed dramatically shortly after his death. One of his biggest investors, J. Steven Schrimsher, quickly filed a series of lawsuits, accusing Walsh of embezzling more than $20 million. According to the company’s pleading, Walsh would shift money without authorization from a partnership account set up for a specific development…and move it to his own business account, where he spent it.”

“Schrimsher also is fighting to get control of Walsh’s three homes: a $1.4 million house in Winter Park; a $2.6 million, 16-acre estate in Highlands, N.C.; and an $800,000 home in Charleston, S.C., owned by a company that Walsh served as registered agent.”

“‘We have financial evidence that the money was, indeed, converted. That we can confirm,’ said Schrimsher attorney Carla DeLoach Bryant. ‘Now, where it all went is part of an ongoing investigation.’”

The Bradenton Herald. “Philip Coon entered a Tampa federal courtroom on Wednesday to accept his responsibility for helping to bring about the collapse of Bradenton-based Coast Bank. Dressed in a gray suit and tie, the heavy-set, silver-haired man entered a guilty plea before federal Magistrate Judge Mark A. Pizzo for his part in skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars off the tops of loans he issued through Coast Bank via an aggressive lending program.’

“The plea agreement Coon signed beforehand with prosecutors acknowledged that he schemed with another individual — John Robert Miller, the president of American Mortgage Link — to add an extra percentage point to home loans financed by defunct Coast Bank and then split the proceeds. With those proceeds, Coon bought things like a $21,000 grand piano, nearly $40,000 worth of jewelry and a home for his brother-in-law, according to the plea agreement.”

“‘Did you conspire with another to defraud Coast in the exercise of a scheme for providing, essentially, a kickback for providing mortgages?’ the judge asked Coon prior to accepting his guilty plea. ‘Yes sir,’ Coon replied.”

“Coon had been the head of construction loans at Coast Bank and was known as a high producer. Many of the loans he issued were for homes being constructed by a builder who eventually claimed bankruptcy. Coon used Miller’s mortgage company to funnel the kickbacks into the account of a shell company. Miller has pleaded guilty to his part in the crime and will be sentenced in January.”

“Coast Bank ended up with $110 million in loans to 482 borrowers, many of whom held mortgages on homes that weren’t completed or never started. Shareholders of Coast Bank’s holding company had lost millions by the time they sold to First Bank at a fire sale price.”

“Philip W. Coon sat down Wednesday in federal court, adjusted his tie, put on his glasses, took a hit of breath spray and was ready to begin serving time. Coon, the former executive vice president at Coast Bank in Bradenton, wanted to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering and start his sentence right away.”

“But he needed a deal — if he found county jail too rough, he could post bond to get out and await his assignment to a less-oppressive federal prison. Magistrate Mark A. Pizzo demurred. He would let Coon enter county jail to begin marking time, but the former banker could not seek release if he did not like the conditions.”

“Coast executives fired him in February 2007 after he refused to cooperate with the bank’s investigation into the loan scam. The bank also fired Melissa Coon, his wife, who was head of retail lending. Coon will lose his Bradenton home, a second house, brokerage accounts, jewelry and other items to pay $1.5 million under the plea agreement. Miller, who pleaded guilty earlier, must pay a similar amount.”

“The judge suggested that Coon listen to his attorney, James E. Felman, who wanted his client to wait until formal sentencing to a federal prison. ‘I’ll take my attorney’s advice,’ said Coon, who had brought along a change of clothes in a bag emblazoned — perhaps appropriately — with the logo of broken mortgage giant Fannie Mae.”

“As for Coon’s attempt to immediately start his sentence, it was a new one for his lawyer. ‘I’ve never seen it before,’ Felman said after the hearing.”