It Was A Heck Of A Parade
The Mansfield News Journal reports from Ohio. “Ralph Hunt, emeritus professor at The Ohio State University-Mansfield, found himself caught up in a local real estate vortex. Hunt started out asking about $170,000 for his Woodland-area home. The two-story, Tudor-style house, for which he paid around $129,000 about seven years ago, has been on the market for almost two years. Though the sour market has been frustrating, he said, Hunt stuck with his original team of real estate agents. In the meantime, Hunt moved out of his Edgewood Road home and bought a house near Akron.”
“Hunt’s housing arrangement may be coming to an end, as his agent thinks they may have a buyer. ‘I’ve had to come down about $40,000,’ he said. No papers have been signed yet, but Hunt estimates he’ll have to let the house go for around $125,000. ‘Since I bought another house, assuming mine would sell, I’ve had the expense of two houses to maintain,’ he said.”
“For Terry Booker, losing his home in 2005 was so stressful and embarrassing he avoids thinking about it. As president of the Sherman’s Estate neighborhood watch group, Booker invested in his house for 11 years, growing equity through a conventional home loan from Mechanics Bank. But when a mortgage company called promising to lower his interest rate, and encouraged further home improvements, he signed.”
“‘They had an appraiser coming in and saying, ‘This will be worth $150,000,’ he said. ‘Since I bought it for $40,000, I thought ‘That would be fantastic!’ Almost immediately upon signing the papers…the problems started.’”
“Mansfield-Richland County Fair Housing Director Don Mitchell said out-of-state lenders began targeting neighborhoods close to the city’s center several years ago — aggressively contacting property owners to offer refinancing. Mitchell said homeowners sometimes settled on terms that practically guaranteed their eventual inability to make mortgage payments. But Census Tract 6 also took a hit from what Mitchell called speculative buying. ‘A lot of speculators came in and bought up properties. When those things didn’t materialize, they kind of walked away from it,’ he said.”
The Toledo Blade from Ohio. “Matt Ruetz spent three months trudging through dilapidated foreclosures looking for a place to call home. Luckily for the 20-year-old Toledo college student and stock clerk, he didn’t find his diamond in the rough until a few weeks ago. As a result, he’ll be able to take advantage of a federal program that gives tax rebates of 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $8,000, to first-time buyers. ‘It’s a little bit of a sweetener,’ said Mr. Ruetz.”
“Homemaker Christina Williams and her husband, Shawn, a refinery worker, are debating whether to relist their mobile home and restart a search for their first single-family house. The tax credit program is a consideration, she said. The couple took the mobile home off the market after about a month, she said.”
“But so many houses are available in the $115,000 price range in Perrysburg, where they hope to buy, that they are beginning to think it would be best to buy now. At current prices, they could swing an additional mortgage payment if the mobile home fails to sell quickly. ‘We’re trying to decide whether to wait a year and save more,’ explained Ms. Williams, 37.”
The Dayton Daily News from Ohio. “The house at 6250 Wooden Shoe Lane, Washington Twp., is an upscale dwelling on a quiet street in a community many find desirable. It has no serious defects, Realtor Dennis Graf said, yet when it eventually sells, the price will be less than the $390,000 the same house fetched 13 years ago. The asking price is $45,000 less than the most recent owner, insurance agent and former University of Dayton basketball star Al Sicard, paid for it in 2003.”
“‘And it’s still not selling,’ he said, ’so that tells you enough about the market.’”
“‘I think the word for the market right now — I don’t want to use the word ‘dead,’ but it’s droopy,’ said Murray Chapple, who started selling real estate in 1971. ‘The foreclosures have put such a glut on the market, I’m seeing a supply like I’ve never seen in my life. It’s hard to sell a non-foreclosed home anywhere near market value. I’m seeing nice, big houses that are selling for 50, 60 percent of value.’”
“For those who can swing it, ‘there’s never been a better time to buy — and that’s not just the old Realtor’s line,’ Graf said. ‘You’re buying at yesterday’s prices.’”
The Columbus Dispatch from Ohio. “With wide inventory and competitive pricing in their favor, folks in search of frequent leisure (and perhaps retirement) could score a deal that puts relaxation within reach. ‘Now that people are able to afford it or justify it, the market has become extremely hot’ for vacation homes, said David Nourse, a real-estate broker who splits his time and clientele between Columbus and Naples, Fla.”
“Claiming that he hasn’t been as busy in three years, Nourse said Naples-area homes that might have sold for $450,000 at the start of 2006 are being snapped up for as little as $300,000. He added that smaller inland properties can be found for even less, prices that didn’t exist several years ago, when the housing bubble and building boom fueled sky-high sale prices.”
“‘With the economy the way it is, a lot of people have decided to give up a second place,’ said Jerry Chapman, a real-estate agent who represents towns surrounding Indian Lake in northwestern Ohio. ‘A lot of them are willing to take less than what they paid.’”
“Real-estate agents who represent popular Ohio vacation spots say their markets are in much healthier shape than Sunbelt destinations, with far fewer (if any) foreclosures and more stable prices. ‘We never really had that bubble,’ said Port Clinton real-estate agent Donna Schoonmaker.”
“Average local sales prices for single-family homes on the MLS dropped 9.3 percent in 2008, to $125,348. That’s nearly $10,000 less than the previous year, and the lowest average since 2000. The region includes Montgomery, Greene and Preble counties, and northern Warren County. ‘These values were punched up pretty aggressively with loan products,’ said agent Scott Kichline in Beavercreek, who works with banks to get homes in foreclosure back on the market and sold. ‘The idea they’re coming down now should be no surprise.’”
“‘I don’t want to come off as insensitive to the people’s plight, but the way to deal with it is to get on it. The longer it takes, the worse it gets,’ Kichline said. ‘I consider myself helping to clean up the mess, kind of like the guy who follows up the parade. It was a heck of a parade out there for quite a few years.’”
The Post Tribune from Indiana. “Argyo Tripodis and Nick Simmons are the local poster children for the national home foreclosure crisis, albeit for two different reasons. Tripodis was one of millions of Americans who fell victim to a predatory mortgage loan, in 2002, that came with a fine-print adjustable rate. It eventually skyrocketed to nearly 15 percent, forcing her family into bankruptcy and looming foreclosure.”
“‘”We knew the rate would go up, but nothing like this,’ said Tripodis, a Hobart resident who is married with three children.”
“She and her husband, Yiannis, initially paid $1,300 a month for their home, now appraised, but not market valued, at $250,000. After the rate increased, they tried to refinance but were denied repeatedly. In 2004, they filed for bankruptcy, thinking they could patch up their credit woes and get back on track. But their monthly mortgage payments kept rising, as well as penalty fees that are now up to $11,500.”
“Simmons, of Gary, has also filed for bankruptcy and is going through the foreclosure process after his home’s ballooning property taxes caused his monthly mortgage to jump from $394 to nearly $1,100. He and his wife are losing their home of 21 years and they’re planning on moving into a beat-up mobile home on a separate property next to his home. When Simmons, a county maintenance man whose take-home pay is about $1,600 a month, asked his bank representative for guidance, he was told to get a better job, he said.”
“‘The government has you coming and going with these new taxes, and the bank has you, too,’ he griped. ‘You can bet that after the bank gets my house –which I owe only $15,000 on — it will turn around and sell it for at least $40,000 to $50,000. That’s a tidy profit, isn’t it?’”
“Bankruptcies, which are often tied to foreclosures, also have spiked in Northwest Indiana, with a 25 percent increase from 2007 to 2008. And a 23 percent increase in the first two months of this year, according to the Northern District of Indiana Bankruptcy Court. ‘I have never seen so many people walk away from their homes as I have in the last 18 months,’ said Highland bankruptcy trustee Daniel Freeland in a Post-Tribune story last week.”
“‘Their idea was to get into the mortgage and to refinance in one to two years before the ARM adjusted, using the rising home values to build equity,’ said Stephanie Shappell Katich, an attorney with Indiana Legal Services Inc. in Merrillville. This concept was sold by mortgage brokers and the real estate industry because it was expected that real estate prices would continue their upward trend. Of course, they didn’t.”
‘My clients are people who purchased or refinanced a home with no mortgage because they were generally victims of the great mortgage scam,’ she said. ‘This is the category of people for whom the term ‘predatory loan’ was invented,” she said. “These are not people who purchased $450,000 homes with values inflated by a sky-rocketing market, or who bought as an investment strategy.’”
“Katich cited a study showing that roughly 30 percent of home buyers who were accepted for these ’subprime loans’ were, in fact, qualified for the 30-year fixed-rate ‘traditional’ loans. ‘Why weren’t they put into them? Because the lending industry, underwriters, brokers, (and) investors made more money off of subprime loans,’ she said.”
The Journal Sentinel from Wisconsin. “James Lytle and Martin Valadez met in the Walworth County Jail in 2001. Three years later they were business partners - tapping the mushrooming subprime mortgage market for $4 million in fraudulent loans. Lytle pleaded guilty in 2007 and is serving a seven-year sentence for masterminding one of the largest mortgage fraud schemes in Wisconsin history. A top state banking regulator says Lytle probably never should have received a broker’s license.”
“Lytle devised the scheme to take advantage of the frenzied subprime mortgage market. Lenders eagerly approved loans that sent billions of dollars to borrowers who often supplied little or no proof of their income or employment status. The risky loans were then packaged and sold to investors around the world. Some lenders and investors who bought the securities say they were clueless about fraud and other problems occurring at the street level. But some other people find that hard to believe.”
“‘They knew what the hell was going on and they didn’t care,’ said Rodney Cubbie, a former federal prosecutor who, as a defense lawyer, has defended people charged with mortgage fraud. ‘They’d take these loans, bundle them and sell them off as investments.’”
“Cubbie’s comments were not aimed at the Lytle-Valadez case but rather the overall attitude in the subprime mortgage market that lasted until it crashed in 2007. That hear-no-evil, see-no-evil approach allowed unscrupulous local brokers to game the system and feed the demand created by national lenders and securities dealers. ‘If you’re going to prosecute any of these guys on the local level, you need to prosecute those guys too,’ Cubbie said, referring to the national players.”
“Even now, mortgage broker’s licenses are doled out with little oversight. A Journal Sentinel investigation published Sunday showed that more than 340 admitted criminals, including burglars, drug dealers, thieves and a killer, had loan broker’s licenses last year.”
“Regardless of their records, each man should have been denied a license for at least two years for lying about their criminal pasts to Department of Financial Institution regulators, said Michael Mach, administrator of the department’s banking division. Even in hindsight, Mach said he believes there was little state regulators could have done to keep Lytle and Valadez from entering the mortgage business and running a scheme that authorities are still unraveling.”
“‘Do we have regrets? In retrospect, I guess we could have regrets,’ Mach said. ‘We followed the procedures that we had at the time. In this business,’ he added, ‘you don’t get do-overs.’”
The Michigan Messenger. “In Cleveland, Detroit, and elsewhere, speculators from out of state and even overseas buy bank-owned foreclosed homes on places like Craigslist or eBay for pennies on the dollar, then try to quickly flip them for a profit, or to rent them out before abandoning them.”
“In Chicago, once-hot neighborhoods on the city’s North Side have become ‘condo ghost towns’ because of foreclosures — and children are afraid to go out after dark because the empty properties have been taken over by drug dealers and criminals, the Chicago Tribune found.”
“A house that might sell in Detroit for as little as $10,000 still would command rent of $700 a month or more, because the rental market hasn’t collapsed yet, said Alan Mallach, a housing and community development expert who spent time in Detroit last fall researching its housing crisis. Speculators can collect that rent, while spending very little on minimal repairs, and within three years they’ll get their money back with a nice profit. Then, having taken all they can out of the property, they walk away. The house is ‘exhausted,’ in further decline, and left to sell again for even less or to sit empty.”
“Speculation has gotten so out of hand that there are some neighborhoods in Detroit where every single house is owned by a speculator, Mallach said.”
“One speculator who bought a handful of Detroit properties at fire-sale prices recently described his interest this way: ‘I thought it would be quite good fun to have a look,’ Darren Veness, who lives near Brighton, England, told the Associated Press.”
The News Democrat in Illinois. “The number of home foreclosures sought last year surpassed the total recorded in 2007. In Belleville, Realtors Association of Southwestern Illinois Executive Director Stephanie Tonnies said realtors are working to help educate future homeowners as regulations have tightened and new laws are being pursued in an effort to prevent the loose lending practices that fed the housing boom before it crashed.”
“‘We want to try to prevent some of what is occurring right now,’ Tonnies said. ‘We can all agree that was a result of lending that was occurring a few years ago and partly because of the economy job loss and income. What we can do educationwise, that is what we want to focus on: How can we get beyond this and look to the future?’”
“Tonnies also said that most of the predatory lenders who fed the housing market’s swift rise with subprime loans before the market fell are gone. Restrictions have been placed on lending practices. The Senate has just passed an appropriations bill that would permanently ban banks from getting into real estate.”
“‘In reality, that is what we have been talking about for years in the National Association of Realtors,’ Tonnies said. ‘That’s why it’s good legislation, so that banks are not both lending and selling houses at the same time.’”
The Star Tribune in Minnesota. “A couple sued Edina Realty for not telling them that a murder took place in the house they bought. The case raises questions about what real estate agents and sellers have to reveal about a home’s past. In general, real estate agents and sellers should disclose to prospective buyers if a murder has taken place on the property, experts say.”
“‘There are some exemptions, but murder isn’t one of them,’ said Chris Galler, chief operating officer for Minnesota Association of Realtors. ‘If a licensee is aware of a murder and the seller is aware, they both have an obligation.’”
“Despite a swift and steep downturn in the region’s housing market, some homeowners are receiving property assessments that show only slight declines in their home values for tax purposes. ‘This is ridiculous,’ said Randy Kirihara, of Bloomington, who recently discovered that the taxable value of his home has been shaved by a mere 1 percent compared with last year, even as the market tanks. ‘I was looking forward to a substantial drop.’”
“‘We bought our house in January for $155,000,’ said Kate Gens of south Minneapolis. ‘The taxable value at that moment was $214,000. And now they’re saying it’s still as high as $189,000? Ridiculous.’”
“The main reason for the disconnect, assessors say, is a factor nobody complained about over the many years of rising values: The deliberateness of the process, coupled with the need for as large a sampling of sales as possible to estimate values, causes a six- to 18-month lag between tax assessments and the churnings of the real-time market.”
“Anoka County’s assessor, Mike Sutherland, says he has given, in some cases, a slight break to the more recent developments. He knows of a townhouse in another county, once worth $190,000, that sold for $60,000. ‘Anyone in our business would have to be under a rock,’ he said, to miss what’s happening in the real world.”
“‘Most of my appraisers under age 40 have no idea,’ Sutherland said. ‘They have never seen anything like this. Things don’t always go up.’”
“In Dakota County, where after double-digit percentage increases earlier this decade, residential values dropped an average of 8 percent this year. In Dakota County, as in many other spots, townhouse and condominium values dropped faster than those of single-family homes, in part because so many stand vacant, hit harder by foreclosures or never purchased after the real estate bubble popped.”
“‘We’ve never seen the market fall like this before,’ said Bill Peterson, the county assessor, who has 30 years of experience. ‘There are people that are calling to say ‘You’ve not reduced them enough,’ Peterson said. ‘We’ve also had people call concerned that the values are dropping as much as they are.’”
“The whole sequence leaves many homeowners confused, upset and suspicious. ‘I doubt I could sell this place for $228,000 right now,’ said Amy Fastenau, who lives in south Minneapolis. ‘There used to be huge difference in our favor; now it’s the opposite. It seems like they have to find some way to charge more for taxes. It seems sneaky.’”
The Pioneer Press from Minnesota. “Brad Krogman, VP of loan administration for Bremer Bank, said his company expects to participate in the Obama plan. The steps outlined in the loan modification portion of the program are tools that banks already use to modify loans, Krogman said, so the program makes sense.”
“But unanswered questions about exactly how the program will work make it difficult to say how many customers of the St. Paul-based bank might take advantage of it. One of the concerns is that consumers might get the idea that there will be no more foreclosures. ‘As a general rule, most of these customers want to make payments,’ Krogman said. ‘One of our challenges is to manage that expectation. This plan or any plan doesn’t mean that it’s for everybody — there are some people that we just can’t help, and we’re not going to be able to help.’”
“The intervention could delay recovery in the housing market, said Tom Kelly, a senior fellow at a conservative think tank in Minneapolis. He estimates that this decade’s housing bubble caused home prices to appreciate roughly 35 percent beyond where they should have been considering their historical relationship to income.”
“‘That needs to be resolved,’ Kelly said. ‘Everything the government does to prop up prices prolongs the economic pain.’”
Luckily for the 20-year-old Toledo college student and stock clerk, he didn’t find his diamond in the rough until a few weeks ago. As a result, he’ll be able to take advantage of a federal program that gives tax rebates of 10 percent of the purchase price, up to $8,000, to first-time buyers. ‘It’s a little bit of a sweetener,’ said Mr. Ruetz.”
20 year old college students with a job as a stock clerk should NOT OWN HOUSES. PERIOD. EVER. With taxpayer money, no less. We still have so far to go to sanity.
I am fraking speechless. When I was a student, I had trouble qualifying to rent an apartment. Now they are supposed to be able to buy houses?
When I was in college, I didn’t have time for a house let alone be able to afford one.
You old timers gotta stop using phrases like “responsibility” and “common sense”. Under the “new paradigm”, this makes about as much sense as anything else.
-Buy a trashed out house, using government money as a deposit.
-Get 2-3 roomates, and probably pay less per person than renting.
-Put NOTHING into upkeep/improvements, in year 4, stop making mortgage payments…..by the time they get around to evicting you, one of the buddies you rented out to can go out and buy ANOTHER place. And, if they actually DO manage to evict you, by year 4 of college, you should have a network of friends to crash with for a few months.
-Graduate, move on.
This is a viable plan for any college town in flyover country.
When the PTB keep coming up with these plans for doing it to them doggie-style, and they keep begging you to have at it, at some point in time you put your scruples aside, say “screw it”, and let ‘er rip.
When I was in college, I don’t think that ever woke up in the same off-campus house twice, never mind the dorm rooms….augg…it’s all a blur
When I was in college, my rent was $50 a month, and I could barely afford that!
I never wanted one until I was in my 30s and knew I wanted to stay in MT. A mortgage was a ball and chain to the boomers back then. How things change.
I actually don’t want the house I have now. I’m just not sure whether or not we should sell eventually. After all, the day will likely come when we can’t handle the upkeep.
It’s the hip, young Obama voters getting what they voted for.
Hope.
Change.
A free mortgage in every pot.
A free Escalade in every garage with free gas provided by THE ONE.
Next up: free health care, free education, free retirement funds, free iPods, free iPhones, free Macs.
Another reeking pile of steaming horsesh!t brought to you by the Democrats with BHO as Precedent. Billions for ACORN and the vocal social engineers with such good intentions.
What a breath of fresh air - NOT.
Such Hope and Change - NOT.
All these voters served - NOT.
Real progress - NOT.
Change You Can’t Believe In
Plus you’re right in that I’m not sure BHO is doing anything differently here as compared to Bush. Under Dubya, the buzzword was “ownership society”, whereas under Obama it’s all about “keeping people in their houses” and “making home ownership affordable for all”.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
why don’t you two idiots go to a Republican Wingnut board on Rush’s site ? The steaming Pile was left behind by your failed party and we’re still trying to find a shovel big enough to clean it up.
Two party system is just a distraction.
Anyone watch “The Obama Deception” ? It mentions housing bubble. And Turbo Tax Timmy.
Take it personal if you wish, but there are an equal number of “Democratic Wing Nuts” on this site as well.
Both parties have their own “utopian dream world ideas” (usually diametrically opposed), that make sense in their isolated, wish-it-were-so dream world’s, but don’t pass the test when you get real world and real people involved.
Both parties have advocated policies that seem like a good idea on their own; but combined, they have created the “Mother of all Charlie-Foxtrots”.
Our new president promised “change”……it’s early yet, but so far they have basically picked up the game of “whack-a-mole” that the previous administration started. The “plan” seems to be quarterly bailouts, and throw out enough pork and happy-talk to restore “confidence”.
That, and let the Democrats in Congress throw money at every pet project that they have had to put on the back burner for years…..some of these are valid things to do, but the free-for-all still bothers me.
Also, they seem more interested in filling positions with party loyalists looking for a promotion, rather than find a few smart prosecutors and regulators that want to give a biblical-type retribution to anyone involved in creating this mess.
Geitner’s appearance on Charlie Rose last week was an eye opener…….basically said the “stress test” is for determining how much money the banks need to be bailed out, rather than determine if some should be put out of their misery.
“why don’t you two idiots go to a Republican Wingnut board on Rush’s site ? The steaming Pile was left behind by your failed party and we’re still trying to find a shovel big enough to clean it up.”
Mo money…did you even read what I wrote? I’m no Republican wingnut - in fact I despised Bush and voted for Barr in this last election. My point was that we’ve gone from having a liberal “conservative” to having a full-blown liberal. I too think the two-party system in this country is utterly broken, and I don’t vote for either major party in elections.
In other words, dear sir, read and think before mouthing off.
First post eaten.
Anyway, Mo money, did you even read what I wrote? My point was that we’ve essentially gone from having one liberal to another. I wasn’t at all fond of Bush and I voted for Bob Barr in this last election cycle. I’m no Republican wingnut - in fact I strongly believe that the 2-party system in this country is broken beyond repair, and I don’t vote for either major party in elections. That doesn’t mean I have to like BHO, either.
I don’t like having words put in my mouth and you would do well to read posts and think about them before blindly talking trash.
I read a few Blogs and post very infrequently. One of the things that I have noticed of late on most of them is a hyper defense on the Obama side. Instead of looking at what is being done they roll back to “Bush is to blame for all, even the current Bailout strategy”. We saw a similar defensiveness from the Bush cronies as well, until they were broken. They seem to be taking a certain glee from the failures of the current administration. Not at all good form. I suppose on the other side the Liberals enjoyed bathing in the Blood of the Bush failure. It’s always nice to be right, I guess.
As both the current and previous positions were utterly stupid, we now have to prepare for the anger than disillusionment of the Economic Blogosphere Obamanites. Nothing but catastrophe can come from many of the things being done now. It is what it is. And of course the Conservatives will dance gleefully around and be thankful its not their guy.
We sure need a third party, or at least another option.
yes, the typical response is Bush Screwed up the last 8 years. The unsaid corrollary is that Obama can forever be blameless even though his policies are even more socialistic.
I resent that type of reasoning.
However I am giving Obama a chance. I’m a social liberal and am glad a Bible thumper is not CINC.
I agree with OC Bear that it’s always nice to be right; however, it’s even nicer to be right all of the time. Which would include absolutely none of us on this blog, most of us being mere mortals.
I also agree with Bill in asking folks to cut BHO some slack. I’m not enamored of Tim, but time will tell.
The second the populace stops the political party name calling and finger pointing, and turns its attention to the real problem, which is the continued abuse and rape of the system by ALL politicos regardless of party affiliation, the sooner recovery begins.
I give that about one snowball’s chance in hell…
Rob
I second that with an amen.
Thanks for your sanity. If we were in a leaky boat we’d be sunk by now with all this caterwalliing.
“Booker invested in his house for 11 years, growing equity through a conventional home loan from Mechanics Bank”
Apparently the irony of that sentence was completely lost on the writer. And the insanity continues.
We all know equity grows from debt right? All this gets you is a worn out circular ring in the carpet.
And I work longer hours so I can make more money so I can buy more cocaine so I can work longer hours so I can make more money so I can…
Rob
“Speculation has gotten so out of hand that there are some neighborhoods in Detroit where every single home is owned by a speculator”
…? I just don’t even know, what to say to that? It’s like the Motor City has become some sort of cottage industry for exploitation or something.
I think Miami has the trademark/patent on that (exploitation). Not that Detroit can’t give it a run, but, of all the places I have ever been/worked in my life, nothing compares to Miami. Everyone trying to exploit everyone else, it’s rather unique across the country (perhaps Washington DC can hold a candle to it).
“Speculation has gotten so out of hand that there are some neighborhoods in Detroit where every single home is owned by a speculator”
Isn’t that true aeverywhere, even where most are owned by banks?
I know the Dayton market and this has been coming for quite some time. Sprawl, over building and loss of jobs are really putting the whammy on the area. My ex wife was a successful mortgage broker and I was wondering in 2001 who could afford these houses as the incomes did not compute in my world.
interest rates that are at a place I haven’t seen them in 40 years
One man’s good omen is another man’s red flag for the future.
This is the part that gets me riled - predatory lending
“‘Their idea was to get into the mortgage and to refinance in one to two years before the ARM adjusted, using the rising home values to build equity,’ said Stephanie Shappell Katich, an attorney with Indiana Legal Services Inc. in Merrillville. This concept was sold by mortgage brokers and the real estate industry because it was expected that real estate prices would continue their upward trend. Of course, they didn’t.”
‘My clients are people who purchased or refinanced a home with no mortgage because they were generally victims of the great mortgage scam,’ she said. ‘This is the category of people for whom the term ‘predatory loan’ was invented,” she said. “These are not people who purchased $450,000 homes with values inflated by a sky-rocketing market, or who bought as an investment strategy.’”
‘Their idea was to…using the rising home values to build equity,’ said Stephanie Shappell Katich
If their idea was to get money for nothing, how is this even close to being “predatory”?
“predatory lending”
So…….their mortgage stalked them like a leopard, then, after creeping thru the underbrush to attack range, ran down the vunerable/unwary/slower-than-the-herd homebuyer, and made them their victim by forcing them to sign the mortgage papers?.
Yeah, and I weigh too much because of these “predatory cheeseburgers”.
That was funny, I don’t care who you are.
:Predatory cheeseburgers” are much more fun, especially if they come with bacon.
Don’t forget the cup of deadly hot steaming coffee served along with the predatory cheeseburgers.
Predatory cheeseburgers? Howzabout the new pizza-crepe-pancake-chili-bag from Taco Town!
“Pizza? Now that’s what I call a TACO!!”
nbc DOT com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/taco-town/229053/
When I think of predatory lending, I think about a little old lady getting cheated out of $250,000 in equity, not some douchebag that lied about his income to get into an expensive place and never having any skin in the game in the first place.
These persons were not victims. They were predatory buyers or predatory refi junkies, looking for a quick buck and to screw the next person down the line. When you set out to commit crime (I admit im playing somewhat loose as screwing people isnt actually illegal per se), don’t complain about ending up in a body bag. Shed no tears for the guilty.
Of course it’s not their fault! It’s obviously the fault of the 5% of the population that pays most of the taxes, and we must punish them severely for taking advantage of these folks who just wanted to get rich quick without working.
“With wide inventory and competitive pricing in their favor, folks in search of frequent leisure (and perhaps retirement) could score a deal that puts relaxation within reach.”
There could be a great time to buy that Sunbelt retirement home coming up. The problem is, I think most people can kiss retirement itself goodbye.
WT Economist,
Hence the primary reason many here even bothered to track this train wreck. Our target market was always either LV or PS. You’re right, this may well be the time to pick up a deal.
However, we’ve looked on C/L etc. and many of the homes that have gone into FC are already being vandalized and neglected. No way to tell which way the neighborhood is going to turn out?
DinOR,
I thought you were moving to K-Falls? What with all o’ those sweet deals out there you just can’t make up your mind, can you?
sleepless,
Oh goodness no! Our daughters and (1) grand daughter are right here in Marion County so all I have ever really sought is a reprieve from the relentless rain! ( But you wouldn’t know anything about ‘that’, would you? )
For me… it’s always been about MAY & OCTOBER! If I could -just- get a break once in awhile there ( like uh… most the rest of the damn country ) I know my attitude would be a LOT better. Since June, July & Aug. are tolerable here, those (2) months are the Big Problem.
We were strongly considering LV for years but that was before I was back in the Reserves. I really should say ‘we’ as anyone in the military will tell you your spouse is really ‘in’ too. We still have our properties in the Philippines but if we bought a $7,000 lot in K’ Falls we would be very happy just to stay in a rental/hotel if we wanted to break things up by going to the Big Island?
Oh… May on the Big Island and October in K’ Falls or… vice-versa? By not having a major investment in -either- we would feel free to visit ( or not ) as weather dictates.
I’d love nothing more than to believe the next 10 or 15 years in the Willamette Valley would be warmer and drier, but that doesn’t look like it’ll be the case. In fact sadly it looks like cooler and wetter!
15 years from now I’ll be 65. So who will care? Not me. It’s what happens ‘now’ that counts and also what made waiting for the bubble to burst look like it took an eternity!
Well, Slim was there in the chair at the hair saloon yesterday. And the latest news is my tress-cutter’s sister and husband had to sell their Tucson residence. They also have another one in Chicago. Call it the summer place.
Their Tucson pad was where they went to escape those flinty-tough Chicago winters. But, due to the current state of the economy, they had to downsize their real estate holdings. So, goodbye to the second home in Tucson.
I can’t help thinking that in the coming months and years, many more second homes will be jettisoned.
They say the Hamptons are hurting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/realestate/keymagazine/15Key-Hamptons-t.html?_r=1&ref=realestate
There was a time when not all the towns out there were exclusive, with some either blue collar or affordable to moderate income artist/writer types whose “wealth” was the ability to earn a living in a remote area.
The place actually only got expensive in the 1960s, and only became a playground of the rich in the 1980s and after.
Mansions are mansions, but the rest could be a lot cheaper.
Arizona Slim,
Ah… my favorite pet peeve about this entire mess! Yeah, here in OR we have people that own 3 and 4 homes all within the same freaking state!
Over the weekend we had to visit the in-laws out in Lincoln City and I swear it rained the whole way there and the whole way back! Four hours of constantly adjusting the windshield wipers every 15-30 seconds? I asked the wife, I say; “Who would buy a home out on the coast to live like this!?”
When I got back I did a little research and their area gets almost 8 FEET of rain a year! Not inches, FEET! Although they only have (2) homes, I got the definite sense that (1) gotta’ go.
The banks, lenders and RE crooks knew. Even the Cities, Counties and State Officials knew. Any clerk of court, registrar of deeds or tax assessment employee could have picked up on the pattern of these Fraudsters.
“Even now, mortgage broker’s licenses are doled out with little oversight. A Journal Sentinel investigation published Sunday showed that more than 340 admitted criminals, including burglars, drug dealers, thieves and a killer, had loan broker’s licenses last year.
Sheesh, if mikey, with his 2 common cents, can spot RE Fraud, figure it out and CALL this SCRAM on the local level, ANY regulator in the State of Wisconsin or the nation with a little Business or Enforcement education could have spotted this on the horizon like a monsterous Harvest MOON at midnight
I have called the these brokers, bankers and their RE friends a bunch of thugs, hoodlums and criminals in Wisconsin for some time now.
I’m vindicated! Begins jumping up and down with his little sign reading, “The End is Near..unfortunately, it’s JUST beginning”
Oh..a couple…errr..ummm…MOST of you guys saw this type of stuff and had it figured out too
“Even now, mortgage broker’s licenses are doled out with little oversight. A Journal Sentinel investigation published Sunday showed that more than 340 admitted criminals, including burglars, drug dealers, thieves and a killer, had loan broker’s licenses last year.
By 1928, bank mortgage loan officers and Realtors ™ in Florida were derided. Those professions still have a little luster now. By 2011… not so. That’s the earliest time its great to buy.
Yea… I’m still looking at buying in 2010. At least I’ll knife catch with knowledge.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
James Lytle and Martin Valadez met in the Walworth County Jail in 2001. Three years later they were business partners
Don’t you just know that this story isn’t going to end well?
“The Senate has just passed an appropriations bill to permanently ban banks from getting into real estate”
There. Problem solved. It’s just a shame that many of these smaller banks that have gone under may not have to face class action lawsuits as the number of shareholders involved just aren’t big enough to garner the attention of law firms that deal in this type of BS.
I’d LOVE to see a broad-based Class Action where you just fill in the blank that says: “I got ripped off by ____ bank”.
Not only that, but doesn’t this practically guarantee NAR’s continued control over the house selling business?…For years they’ve been battling banks’ requests to enter the house selling biz.
Is this another unintended consequence, or are they of the belief that realtors (and their klan) are completely innocent in this mess?
sleepless,
Near as “I” can tell, they’ve been completely exhonerated. And not just in their own minds. What with everyone up in arms over AIG etc. they’ve little energy left for some of -the- most direct culprits.
Unless there’s a major shift in sanity you can look forward to paying 6% with “minimum service laws” until doomsday. Marvvy huh?
F*** them. When I buy a house I’m going directly to the seller and cutting the whore out of it. I can hire appraiser, title search, and RE lawyer on my own.
Only REwhore worth their pay is the one who convinces their seller client to price aggressively below comps!
“It’s hard to sell a non-foreclosed home anywhere near market value. I’m seeing nice, big houses that are selling for 50, 60 percent of value.’”
They aren’t selling for 50, 60 percent of marketvalue. The sales price is the market value. If it won’t sell, keep lowering the price. Once it sells, you have the market price. Market price is not what your neighbor sold their house for two years ago. That’s now the wishing price.
One of the things that erks me more then anything else is the idea of selling something IN THE MARKET at “below market value”. The ONLY way to actually sell something below market value is an insider sale (to a relative, for example). If it’s on the OPEN market; a sale, by definition, SETS THE MARKET VALUE.
Totally burns my a** when I see comments like this. Especially when you buy a home in FL for 100K and find out that the market value (for tax purposes) is 200K. How on EARTH can that stand?
Some of those people in Florida are getting screwed on their taxes. Then there’s the example of the cheapskate in San Diego (from today’s U-T):
“Stennett, who used to sell real estate, acknowledged that she and her husband did not have much to complain about. They bought their 13th-floor unit for $351,240 in 1988, but were able to retain their $95,225 assessed valuation from a previous East County home under a tax provision benefiting owners 55 years or older.”
“The annual Proposition 13 cap has lifted their assessed value on their condo to the present level of $138,746, still far below its $800,000 market value.”
“Her tax bill last year was $1,657, after deducting the standard $7,000 homeowner’s exclusion and adding on special fees and charges. Another 2 percent increase will boost the tax bill by $28 this year.”
What type of idiot trudges into the county assessor’s office to argue over $28?!
Well, our great town’s tax appeals board got out of lowering our property taxes by declaring that we couldn’t use foreclosures in our comps because they “unnaturally lowered” the market. Never mind that we’ve had 6 foreclosures out of about 15 houses on our subdivision’s circle in the last 4 years. Yes, I guess those foreclosures “unnaturally lowered” the overall average value of our homes, just a bit, just a bit. So how come we have to pay the old amount of taxes when everything around us is down 50 percent ? We requested a hearing fair and square 2 years ago, and got out asses served up on a plate back to us. Do you think we’re going to stay in this town indefinitely ? Not hardly.
“Simmons, of Gary, has also filed for bankruptcy and is going through the foreclosure process after his home’s ballooning property taxes caused his monthly mortgage to jump from $394 to nearly $1,100. He and his wife are losing their home of 21 years and they’re planning on moving into a beat-up mobile home on a separate property next to his home.”
Ok first how the heck did property tax go up by $700 a month? That’s like at least $8400 a year in taxation how much was this property worth?
Second you been in the home 21 years, 21 years and know you can’t afford it. Something was left out of this story as it usual is, the reporter never gives us all the facts. They tend to write sympathetic story when under the surfaces there is a lot more going on.
Agree. I read that during lunchtime today and suspected something was fishy. Was he not paying taxes for years or something? We may never know.
Not only that. He thinks it is worth $40,000-$50,000 but only owes $15,000. So why doesn’t he sell the place and pocket the $25,000-$35,000 before moving into the trailer next door? This story stinks.
Gotta read this. From jackass Cramer:
http://www.bankingmyway.com/article/03/16/cramer-govt-housing-plans-will-work?cm_ven=tscdmbmw
Gosh I hope this comes out okay.
Link to John Mauldin.
Seems he is a day late in his charts etc. You guys rock, always ahead of the curve especially with the great charts.
http://us.mc311.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showMessage?fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&.rand=1169379328&da=0&midIndex=2&mid=1_1084697_ACjIjkQAAKF7Sb7vZAv7xWVuAFo&prevMid=1_1083300_ACTIjkQAACHTSb7uAgh%2FIGAtPpM&nextMid=1_1084029_ACPIjkQAAIIQSb7uZwpHkHnNwsA&m=1_1085420_ACPIjkQAAT4WSb79tQI1zk%2BYA%2FI,1_1083300_ACTIjkQAACHTSb7uAgh%2FIGAtPpM,1_1084697_ACjIjkQAAKF7Sb7vZAv7xWVuAFo,1_1084029_ACPIjkQAAIIQSb7uZwpHkHnNwsA,1_1081433_ACPIjkQAAO27Sb7W%2FwS8LSQyTxo,1_1080795_ACnIjkQAAOPpSb7Paw4Ob2SBz4U,1_1079107_ACnIjkQAAFKYSb7CsQwcUQOjXbQ,1_1078253_ACjIjkQAAPJASb60mQce0A7Cx3U,
Desert, not meaning to imply that your contribution is unappreciated, but that url is extreme. If there ever is to be a poster child for tinyurl, it is this.
Dismal Scientist reports an interesting article from Moody’s on home ownership. Suggests the housing interest deduction may be easiest way to get steer people away from overinvesting in residential housing and improve labor mobility in the US.
http://www.economy.com/dismal/article_free.asp?cid=113126&src=highlight
“Suddenly, everything stopped.”
It’s called Musical Chairs, moron.