A Cleansing Of Sorts
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports from Colorado. “Investors who plowed money into Valley Investments are hearing a deafening silence from the Grand Junction firm, which has been closed by a Denver court. The silence for those on the other side of the investments, 100 or more families who purchased homes in the Sunburst Terrace neighborhood outside Vernal, has been resounding for much longer. It’s the first home for Melissa Bishop and her husband, Kyle. The home is buckling as the ground shifts and settles because of the water from the leaks. The exterior fascia is separating, and the walls are pulling away from Melissa Bishop’s kitchen cabinets. The doors hang crookedly, and there’s a hump in her living-room floor.”
“When the Bishops bought their home, they got with it a 15-month warranty, and Bishop said she immediately began telling Valley Investments representatives about problems that cropped up. It will cost the Bishops more than $30,000 to fix all the problems that an inspector found with the home they bought for $149,000, Melissa Bishop said. ‘They did nothing until the warranty was up,’ she said, and when work was done, ‘They kind of half-assed it.’”
“Bishop, who decorated the interior of her house with a designer’s flair, said the reality of dealing with Valley Investments has fallen far short of her dreams. ‘It’s kind of a nightmare,’ Bishop said.”
The Casa Grande Dispatch from Arizona. “Recent reports show that in Casa Grande and western Pinal County, as in much of the state and nation, home sales are rising, but prices continue to fall. The number of foreclosed properties on the market now, and expected on the market soon, seems to be the driving force. ‘We’ve been told [by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that there are thousands and thousands of foreclosures in the pipeline,’ said Darrah Dremler, an agent who specializes in foreclosure sales. ‘Banks are starting to price things a lot lower to clean out their inventory before this big rush hits.’”
“And that’s just the first wave, she said. Another wave is likely by early next year. ‘There were a lot of adjustable-rate mortgages sold,’ Dremler said of the period from 2003 to 2005. ‘They’ve hit the three years [before the interest rate could be raised]. They think it will start again when the five years [many ARMs had five-year terms] is up, and that starts this year. It takes about six to eight months of not being able to make payments before they get foreclosed on.’”
“Federal and state programs to stimulate sales are helping, but only to a point. ‘They’re definitely making it very enticing for people, it’s just difficult to actually qualify for that loan,’ Dremler explained. ‘We see a lot of multiple offers, but we see a lot of fallout because buyers can’t qualify.’”
“Still looking for a silver lining? It sounds as if we have to look further into the future, but there is hope. ‘It will definitely be a cleansing of sorts,’ Dremler said of what the market is going through now. Not just in getting rid of a lot of bad loans, but also weeding out some lenders and others ‘who weren’t doing the right thing.’”
The Las Vegas Business Press from Nevada. “Dropping home prices and rising unemployment are wreaking havoc on Southern Nevada’s apartment market. Local vacancy rates climbed to 8.7 percent in the first quarter, up 1.4 percentage points from last year, while asking rents dipped to $868 per month, a $22 decrease from 2008, reports Applied Analysis. A worsening economy is responsible for the market slide. Nevada’s unemployment rate climbed to a record 10.6 percent in April, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national average, reports the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. At the end of the first quarter, there was an annual net loss of 47,900 jobs.”
“‘Even the recession of the early 1980s is beginning to look relatively mild as the current recession deepens,’ said Bill Anderson, the department’s chief economist. ‘In 1982, Nevada lost 2.4 percent of all jobs. Through the first four months of 2009, Nevada has already lost 5.7 percent of all jobs, with more losses expected as the year unfolds.’”
“‘With bank-owned properties accounting for at least three out of every four sales in Southern Nevada, foreclosures are still forcing home prices to fall,’ said Sue Naumann, president of the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.”
“Back in 2000…Rosemary Murphy used her financial good standing to pay for a house the old-fashioned way. Safely employed by the Clark County School District, she secured a traditional, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. She’s now in trouble. And she’s a face of the next wave of foreclosures: homeowners who thought they were doing everything right but have still been overrun by the recession.”
“Murphy left her job in 2004 and, profiting from the real estate boom, refinanced her home with another conventional loan after its value skyrocketed to $800,000. She used the newfound money to launch her own mortgage brokerage business in Texas, where she and her husband owned land.”
“Murphy’s mortgage business collapsed last summer, and she has fallen behind on her $3,960 monthly payments. The bank is warning her that, come August, the foreclosure wheels will start turning. Last week it turned down her attempts to modify her loan.”
“‘I am so willing to scratch and give them every penny I have to stay in my home, but they won’t work with me,’ she said.”
“Debbie Kohl, housing coordinator for the Henderson office of Auriton Solutions, said the credit counseling agency is increasingly getting calls from homeowners like Murphy. ‘For a while every call was: ‘I have an adjustable-rate mortgage that will reset soon,’ Kohl said. ‘We’re not hearing that as often now.’”
“Many are struggling with payments that were once reasonable for their income but are a hardship now because they’re no longer getting overtime hours, are working 30 hours instead of 40 or have had some sort of furlough imposed, Kohl said. ‘We’re hearing this from all walks of life: plumbers, electricians, dentists,’ she said. ‘I talked with a dentist recently who said nobody’s coming in anymore unless it’s an emergency.’”
“In a healthy economy, a homeowner who suffered a significant loss of income would sell the house and become a renter, but in the current market there aren’t buyers at the prices owners need to get to pay off their loans. So, many are seeking loan modifications. Some, though, are finding it’s hard to get the bank to budge because any modification is predicated on income.”
“‘You have to be employed with a certain amount of cash flow. Otherwise you’re dead in the water,’ said Jaime Lopez of Neighborhood Housing Services of Southern Nevada.”
“Some holders of conventional mortgages are so underwater that they are walking away. ‘Banks make business decisions, and so do individuals. They’re coming to the conclusion that it’s worth the hit to their credit to give the house back,’ said Ian Hirsh of Fortress Credit Services in Las Vegas.”
“That’s the problem confronting Murphy. She has a limited income working as a substitute teacher but expects to be hired full time in the fall. The banks told her that’s not good enough, she said. ‘They said I don’t earn enough money to get a modification. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. That’s why you need a loan modification,’ she said.”
“Michael Joe of the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada said last week he talked with a homeowner who said he could rent a house across the street exactly like the one he owns for $1,000 a month less than his mortgage payments — leading him to wonder whether it’s worth hanging onto the house.”
“A foreclosure will affect your credit for seven years, but Hirsch said as people feel trapped in their houses they are becoming less and less concerned with credit ratings. A foreclosure hit on a credit report in 2008 or 2009 ‘won’t be all that uncommon and certainly not the end of the world for their credit,’ he said. ‘In a couple of years it will almost be something that is a satisfactory explanation in and of itself: What happened to their credit? Oh, they owned a house in Las Vegas.’”
‘We’ve been told [by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] that there are thousands and thousands of foreclosures in the pipeline,’ said Darrah Dremler, an agent who specializes in foreclosure sales. ‘Banks are starting to price things a lot lower to clean out their inventory before this big rush hits.’
‘Any further price deterioration will be caused by foreclosure properties, which account for about 80 percent of Las Vegas home sales, said Sue Naumann, president of the Realtors association. ‘We had a bank moratorium that expired June 1, but I still don’t think they’re going to flood the market,’ she said. ‘It would be devastating if they did.’
Those who have been following along here know that this flood was coming, and I hear it personally in the REO world as well. This is my question for the Ms Naumann; these houses are out there. Is pretending that they are not going to help one bit?
And aren’t we setting up these current buyers, with the ‘bidding wars’ we hear about, for failure when the inevitable does happen?
Sue Naumann, president of the Realtors association. ‘We had a bank moratorium that expired June 1, but I still don’t think they’re going to flood the market,’ she said. ‘It would be devastating if they did.’
I would guess realtores want foreclosures to be put on the market at a slow trickle? The devastation she refers to would be for whom?The buyer? The realtor, as prices would likely continue down? The seller trying to clear the books?
“And aren’t we setting up these current buyers, with the ‘bidding wars’ we hear about, for failure when the inevitable does happen?”
Ben, this is what the markets are all about these days: Getting fresh meat suckered into buying overpriced assets and securities. The Fed, the banks, brokerages and politicos know darn well that all the talk in the world will not keep the cash machine running and prices propped up. They need new buyers for mispriced houses and securities, or another crash is imminent. Guess what, America? Another crash is imminent.
We have zombie banks for real. If they were forced to write down their ACTUAL REO LOSSES, all the big ones would be insolvent. So the crooked govt allows the crooked banks to present cooked books so the the market can trade at 150 times “real” EPS. The longer they can float this top, the more junk they can unload to mutual funds, pension funds, IRA’s and 401K’s, etc. They longer the banks can move REO at todays pricing level, the less hit they will have to take when the next 40% drop hits. And that drop is coming soon, IMHO.
RIght on! But how do we prove it and get the evil manipulating machine (crooked bank-owned government/ i.e. Giethner and Bernanke) to stop this evil crusade? Don’t you think all of the liars should pay somehow? I want justice!
Are you suggesting the Fed sucks fresh meat? Or did I misunderstand your point?
“They longer the banks can move REO at todays pricing level, the less hit they will have to take when the next 40% drop hits. And that drop is coming soon, IMHO.”
I’m guessing the plan is to run the printing press fast enough so the nominal drop doesn’t look nearly as bad as the 40% you suggest…
“And aren’t we setting up these current buyers, with the ‘bidding wars’ we hear about, for failure when the inevitable does happen?”
Of course we are.
‘We had a bank moratorium that expired June 1, but I still don’t think they’re going to flood the market,’ she said. ‘It would be devastating if they did.’
This is just wishful thinking and it’s very common these days. The same people who said that house prices never fall a few years ago now realize that they were wrong, but insist that house can’t fall any further. (Of course, prices will probably stop falling some time in the next 5 - 10 years, so these folks will be right eventually.)
I had a conversation with a neighbor in my basically blue-collar neighborhood in South Scottsdale, AZ. She’s a flight attendant who’s a realtor on the side (nice person, if not too bright). At one point the houses in our neighborhood were going for $200/sq. ft. One couple in the neighborhood recently got an appraisal that put their house at abut $133/sq. ft.
For some reason my neighbor thought that prices wouldn’t fall any more. I explained to her the many reasons why I disagreed. She got upset and said to me, “This is going to hurt you too. Your house is losing value just eveyone else’s house.” Of course, that’s true. We’re all getting poorer, but there’s nothing we can do about it.
Here in flagstaff, az, it’s business as usual. snap it up quick, this one won’t last long, hurry, rates are going up! etc. according to realtytrac, there has been much foreclosure activity. But very few foreclosed homes on the market. what gives?
The home is buckling as the ground shifts and settles because of the water from the leaks. The exterior fascia is separating, and the walls are pulling away from Melissa Bishop’s kitchen cabinets. The doors hang crookedly, and there’s a hump in her living-room floor.”
What Would Bob Vila Do?
Tell Norm to handle it.
“…and there’s a hump in her living-room floor.”
So that’s where they hid that elephant.
WAIT-
There’s more!
“Bishop, who decorated the interior of her house with a designer’s flair,
that’s got to be some powerful flair to draw the eye away from the hump in the floor.
that’s got to be some powerful flair to draw the eye away from the hump in the floor.
“You’re not wearing enough flair”
The A2s always were a bit twitchy.
Hey PhillyGirl,
What’s your take on the situation in Philly and surrounding suburbs?
I have a relative looking for a house who says prices don’t seem to be dropping.
Thanks in advance for your opinion.
WH
Slim has parents who live near West Chester, PA.
Mom reports that house prices seem stuck at high levels. She’s also seeing a lot of properties that toggle back and forth between the resale and rental markets.
I can tell you that down here Atlantic City way the REIC and their cohorts in the media are going full-bore with the “There never was a bubble at the shore so, necessarily, there can be no deflation of any bubble” line. I think Jo6pac is catching on though. The REIC doesn’t like the answers it is getting to their questions, “Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes?”
waaahoo,
prices are down 5-10% from 2006. And that’s the asking prices. When I check Zillow for recent sales, some of the inventory is selling at much lower than the asking price.
It all depends which burb your relative is targeting. Overall, inventory is building, prices are dropping, and job cuts are now hitting our area. We have a pretty diverse job base, but DuPont laid off, so did QVC, big workforce cuts. My employer is requiring us to take two days off per month unpaid. That is as painless a reduction as possible, but just illustrates that employment cuts are happenning across the board. Tell your relative to do some research, and take their time. Prices will continue to slide.
One hump or two?
Better a hump in the living-room floor than a hump on the beach under a full moon, although Manatees may disagree.
DennisN,
LOL! Right, and besides, isn’t it easier to fill a void than level a hump?
Lots of expansive soils in W. Colorado and E. Utah (Vernal is in NE Utah, BTW, more oil patch country). Bentonite clays. I watched a house in Price, Utah, that was on the market for a long time, in a subdivision built on expansive soils (the Coves). The house had yellow tape around it put there by the country safety dept., UNSAFE. The entire kitchen floor had buckled. It was a foreclosure. The bank couldn’t dump it, last I saw, it was for sale for 20k. This is a neighborhood of avg. 200k+ houses. Whoever bought it would have to tear down the house and then rebuild on pillars, very expensive.
You have to do your research out here. I know of another expensive subdivision in Montrose, CO, where the houses are settling. This is old news in this country, many a house has perished from unstable soils. Buyer beware, get a soil test before you buy.
I know of another expensive subdivision in Montrose, CO, where the houses are settling.
Expensive houses on expansive soil.
Solid, baby!
Hi Lost in Utah!
I haven’t posted anything on this blog for a while since a golf course and a 47 unit subdivision were proposed next to our farm in Fruita, Colorado. The golf course is history, but the subdivision is still considered viable. The developers are from the Phoenix area and feel that the market is ripe for 47 houses built on Mancos Shale (a highly expansive soil if ever there was one) with individual leach fields. The subdivision is named “Shiloh” and was approved by Mesa County planning with undue haste. Perhaps their crystal ball is more rose-coloured than mine, but methinks that there are a LOT of lots here to build on out here…!
I moved to Montrose, CO which is 60 miles south of Grand Junction. This whole region is in denial of the housing collapse. I hear daily of how we are different, etc. I am a Vegas native and lived there during the boom and bust and got out in 07 with thankfully never having bought a home. Montrose is prime for major troubles. There are at least 50 subdivided developments in this county with 1-2 homes built on them and nothing else selling. They overbuilt like crazy, or should I say over developed land that no one will build on now. This area of the country but there are very few good paying jobs. Retirees that used to flock here are now not able to because they can’t sell their homes in Cali, AZ, etc. To add to the problem a lot of the homes or most are built very poorly. Typical throw it up as fast as we can with not regard to quality. I foresee myself renting here for at least 5 years if not more. When I try and tell people of the storm that is coming with housing I am accused of being a doomsday type. Time will only tell. Oh and as for Grand Junction, that town is in for so much hurting. Don’t even get me started.
How’s Paonia doing? We had a ranch up that way
for years…for some enjoyable fun, head up
Escalante canyon just north of Delta. There’s some
huge pools carved out of the canyon sandstone and
the swimming is great.
The Potholes. Swim at your own risk, a number have died there. Did you ever go over to Dry Mesa Quarry above Escalante? You can also drive up and over the end of E. Cyn and get onto the plateau, if you have a X4. Neat country. Used to mtn bike there a lot.
Yep, done that. Take Hwy 141 from Hwy 50 going up to Grand Junction and go past Gateway till the road turns south. A bit past the gas station and store, there’s a dirt road
that goes up Brown canyon. It takes you way up
into the mountains and eventually down towards
Moab. Most of that land was bought up by the guy who owns the Weather channel. We spent a lot of time up on the Uncompahgre plateau
exploring in the jeeps.
That’s a nice summer route up to Castleton and on down into the canyon and eventually Moab. A lot of the people who helped Hendricks (actually, Discovery Channel) develop and thus ruin Gateway took that commute from Moab to work over there.
The road I was referring to was up onto the Uncompahgre via Escalante, you’ve probably done that one, very nice. Meets the Divide Road up on top.
This is making me want to go back over there and explore, some nice country.
I have been through Paonia. Very pretty area. Isn’t that where Chaco used be located? I will check out Escalante Canyon. I see the sign every time I am on the 50.
We moved to Paonia to get away from the liberals in Marin, north of SF, and bought a ranch. Found out later the town was famous for their Paonia Gold, more dope there than
in Marin. Oh well………
Mo-town, eh?
The town with no soul is what we call it. Should call it the town with no planning. Beautiful country. Went to HS there, parents lived there for many many years. Just sold my dad’s house there a couple of years ago. The development that went on, like you said, is just incredible, and that doesn’t include the ones not built (Blue Sky, 5,000 homes S. of the Ute Museum).
Montrose is already hurting, nothing is selling. Ditto with Junction (was over there yesterday to the vet). Everyone’s still in denial…
Well I bought a dental practice here and things have been slow for a while. The majority of people coming through the door do not have money for dental care. I pull alot more teeth right now than save them. This area is beautiful. That is what sucked me, and somewhat close to home and wife’s home. I am questioning my decision to come here though. I hope that my housing predictions are wrong, but I do not think that they are. There is no economy here. Time will tell.
Montrose had always been an agricultural hub until the advent of Telluride. It’s now very dependent on that town’s fate, as you know.
Many of us from that area have wondered for years why it didn’t become more of a destination in itself. The Black Canyon is really just a day stop for most, and everything else is too far, such as the San Juans, people stay in Ouray or Ridgway. Montrose couldn’t even keep a good ski shop going when I was there. Something about the city is regressive, they had the chance to get Western State College (in Gunnison) and turned it down, didn’t want college kids. It’s always been that way. Very conservative until it comes to development. It’s a shame what’s happened south of town, used to be beautiful meadows. Good luck, you at least seem to be more aware than the average resident there, the town seems to have a special form of denial. I love the Coffee Trader there, nice people.
Go to the north side of the Black Canyon and
lean over the fence……..2000′ straight down.
I found myself about 20 away in one pico second, never knew I could move backwards
that fast.
Rancher, I helped design the North Rim trail over there in the park. I got to name Exclamation Pint - I mean Point.
K2dental wrote: “…as for GrandJunction, that town is in for so much hurting…”
I had a friend in Grand Junction back in the early 80’s who had this bumper sticker: “Life Is Suffering…and Then You Die.”
This old Buddhist (me) would add : “And Then You Do It Over and Over Again, For Life After Life, Until You Give Up Craving.”
Best wishes to all..and thanks for this great blog.
How sad pristine land was vandalized for those monstruosity… In the end it’s about who made money building s**** boxes no one will want to live in and left as eye sore across the land.
That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard.
This from the lady who refi’d out of a conventional 30 yr. mortgage to the tune of $800k, then quit her job to start a…drumroll please…
Mortgage Business!
Is this the same lady we were reading about last week? Or is it a whole ‘nother “refinance to start a mortgage business” lady?
I don’t know, in my mind they’re all morphing into one ridiculous REIC tycoon wannabe dumbazz.
REIC tycoon wannabe dumbazz.
RTWD. Most excellent moniker.
The story started out well: “30-year fixed rate mortgage”, but then it turned into “silly season” as my dad used to say….”left her job…..refinanced for $800,000….to start her morgage brokerage business…..”
That’s obviously where the wheels fell off. She couldn’t see this coming ? Sometimes staying at your somewhat dull, everyday job is a very, very good choice. Start your mortgage brokerage business in the evenings, eh ?
Bink, I definitely remember the one you are talking about. I couldn’t find it in the stuff that’s still posted on this site; that brings up the question: how does one search Ben’s older posts that were on this site longer than seven days ago?
Read the comments on that story. 90% ripping into Murphy for being stupid and greedy. She basically got tired of plugging away and decided to put everything she owned on the wheel and spin for a fortune. Dang, didn’t work out? I guess that must be the banks’ fault… for being stupid enough to lend you the money.
I always thought in opening a business you were supposed to find an underserved need which suits your individual talents and abilities. I guess she is a contarian.
My understanding of it is that you need to find the intersection of these three circles:
1. What you know how to do
2. What you want to do
3. What the market will pay you to do
And there you have it — a use for those Venn diagrams you heard about in New Math.
She’s now in trouble. And she’s a face of the next wave of foreclosures: homeowners who thought they were doing everything right but have still been overrun by the recession.”
“Murphy left her job in 2004 and, profiting from the real estate boom, refinanced her home with another conventional loan after its value skyrocketed to $800,000. She used the newfound money to launch her own mortgage brokerage business in Texas, where she and her husband owned land.”
What on earth would make anyone in this situation think “they were doing everything right” by refinancing their home and using the proceeds to open a mortgage brokerage business? Even back in 2004 and even using wildly optimistic assumptions not sure how you wouldn’t conclude this is a very risky proposition.
It’s the homedebtorship that’s the big mistake. I quit teaching and research after my mortgage business was doing pretty well. No problem in the 90’s. STILL no problem in 2009. But oh, I’m not a mortgage BROKER. The money is really mine and so are the mortgage deeds.
az_lender,
Right, her’s is primarily just more FB deception. AFAIK MB’s don’t really have any “inventory” there are NO barriers to entry and other than a copier and a fax machine, no real overheads?
And… it wasn’t like she was lending her ‘own’ money? How different would this have turned out had she simply worked at a MB that went belly up? In fact, I’m not sure there’s a connection there at all. Other than being solely reliant on RE appreciation.
Jeanna the realtor from the Housewives of Orange County has a NOD filed on her home in Coto and is in risk of loosing all of her 4 homes. This was in the OC register
This thread is great, it reminds me of the old days.
Anyone else notice a pickup in housing bubble site traffic? Many of the sites I visit have been jumping lately. Canary in the coal mine?
Any sites we should bother with besides this one?
az-lender, for a great commentary on the capital markets these days, I recommend: http://market-ticker.denninger.net/
It’s not about housing per se, but gives a lot of insight into how the stock, bond, and mortgage markets affect housing and the economy in general.
The HBB T-shirts, however, can never be equalled! Ben’s site is still #1!
Right, she has FOUR homes ( one a McMansion ) and she said it’s costing her $10,000 a month? What, were they ALL Int. Only loans?
four homes. disgrace!
What else can I say except…priceless?
Yea, but she was a savvy buyer and knows any minute now that the market will spring right back. And back to being a snapper!
Seriously, they showed an aerial view of her “sprawling estate” and given it’s O.C and conventional financing, $10k would have ‘maybe’ covered that home itself. Taxes? Maint.?
Besides, I thought for big time REIC playahs 10k-a-month was no big deal.
I was wondering when the galz in the “Real Housewives of Orange County” were going to start to lose their fantasticly financially irresponsible lifestyles. It can’t ALL be about diamond-buying parties and serial marriages with throw-away kids from each relationship, can it ? That show amazed me.
Gosh, up all night at ER, ( turns out to be mostly okay ), and I can’t spell. “Fantastically”. Sleep-deprivation. It sucks.
“……certainly not the end of the world for their credit”
Which will happen faster? Banks pulling/reducing credit, or people not borrowing anymore?
If nobody’s borrowing any money, nobody will care about credit ratings. Especially if jus about everybody has a lousy credit rating.
We are well on our way to the C.O.D. economy. Read an article the other day, the hottest thing in the car market right now is the $3-5000 used car in good condition, that people can pay cash for.
I agree loan demand is weak. In the niche where I operate, I attribute some of that to the stickiness of the market — since there’s no foreclosure problem, there are no “bargains.” But I’ve also had a larger-than-usual volume of prepayments, people just trying to get the heck out of debt.
If anyone has half a brain, they will be paying off any and all variable-interest rate debt they have.
J6P is going to get stuck with the tab, one way or the other.
-The government printing money……nothing he can really do about that.
-The banks jacking interest rates and fees on credit cards, and clean up their balance sheets using the profits between to 1-2% interest they are paying for money, and loaning the same money out at 15-20-30%.
The whole point of the exercise now, is to keep the banks and Federal Government breathing………and basically let the rest of the country go down the crapper.
“Read an article the other day, the hottest thing in the car market right now is the $3-5000 used car in good condition, that people can pay cash for.”
I’ve been thinking of selling my truck before the warranty expires, simply because it’s had so many problems that I don’t want to deal with having to shell out thousands of dollars should something else go wrong. Honestly, I don’t think I could sell it. Who has $15k (medium blue book) for a used truck?
Gee, willickers, I can remember a COD economy from my childhood. Use of credit to buy things other than houses and cars was pretty rare until the 1980s.
Not only that, it’s so easy now to charge stuff bought from private parties. So I can buy something and use my CC via PayPal…you could never do that before. It was always, “can I pay you $25 a week - ?”
This is infuriating. Why are people so willing to assign innocence to idiots who made greedy, foolish mistakes with their homes and money???
“Murphy left her job in 2004 and, profiting from the real estate boom, refinanced her home with another conventional loan after its value skyrocketed to $800,000. She used the newfound money to launch her own mortgage brokerage business in Texas, where she and her husband owned land.”
“Murphy’s mortgage business collapsed last summer, and she has fallen behind on her $3,960 monthly payments. The bank is warning her that, come August, the foreclosure wheels will start turning.
“Debbie Kohl, housing coordinator for the Henderson office of Auriton Solutions, said the credit counseling agency is increasingly getting calls from homeowners like Murphy.
“Many are struggling with payments that were once reasonable for their income but are a hardship now because they’re no longer getting overtime hours, are working 30 hours instead of 40 or have had some sort of furlough imposed, Kohl said.”
But Debbie, this is not what happened to Ms. Murphy at all!!!
Ms. Murphy attended the REIT tycoon wannabe dumbazz university in 2003 and blew all her money on beer bongs and koolaid.
Wonder how long these Credit Counseling Agencies will stay in biz. Who pays for them, anyway?
Ms. Murphy attended the REIT tycoon wannabe dumbazz university in 2003
Where she majored in Posing for the Glama-cam and minored in Double Down Theory.
which account for about 80 percent of Las Vegas home sales, said Sue Naumann, president of the Realtors association.”
80%!?! That is nuclear…
got Popcorn?
Neil
This number will approach 100% before this is over. We had this discussion here before.
Speaking of being upside down, Anybody else read the Bloomberg article about Tim Geithner trying to rent out his $1.6M spec home for something like $7500 p/mo? Comps in the area were something like, mid $600’s … ouch!
Here’s my theory: Turbo Tax Timmy isn’t busting his you-know-what to rent or sell. Why? Because he expects to be moving back to that house in a few months.
palmetto
ot, but thank you for your making piece w/-parental units, before they are gone comment yesterday. You are truly a gem.
Hey, wipeout, just saw this and want to thank you for thanking me. I may be a little bit crusty, but empathy is important to me. My parents did more good than harm and looking back, they were far better to me than I was to them.
‘They said I don’t earn enough money to get a modification. That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard. That’s why you need a loan modification,’ she said.”
“Modification” is the problem. Am I going to get a “modification” on my car loan if I cant afford it?
If you arent earning enough money, you cant afford the house, period.
The “stupidest” thing I have heard is this woman’s entitlement and victim attitude..
“The silence for those on the other side of the investments, 100 or more families who purchased homes in the Sunburst Terrace neighborhood outside Vernal, has been resounding for much longer.”
I’ve been through Vernal. When Vernal starts showing up in bubble stories, you really start to get the sense of how pervasive it was.
Yesterdays thread is still up and running….glad I have
my coffee this morning. Nice thoughts of the western
slope of CO last night, the wife and I did some reminiscing over a nice bottle of wine..20+ years ago.
““Taylor, driving across Iowa at the moment, said he couldn’t afford to pay for a mortgage in Detroit and rent for an apartment in Las Vegas. … Paychecks that included overtime, Mitchell and Taylor said, sometimes hit $10,000 a month.”
This guy was making $10,000 per month and he couldn’t pay off a Michigan mortgage? You can buy a Cape Cod in Detroit for $3,000 and a decent 3 bedroom in the suburbs can be found for under $100,000.
Maybe I’m getting cynical in my old age, but I suspect Mr. Taylor was spending his paychecks on something other than housing.
I suspect Mr. Taylor was spending his paychecks on something other than housing.
Big Hint: he was living in Las Vegas.
A good number of the migrants to the area are avid gamblers, and moving there is like giving booze to an anlcoholic. With predictable devastation to their financial health. It isn’t just tourists sitting at those slot machines.