A Lot Of People Are Going To Take A Walk
A report from the Arizona Republic. “When the housing market crashed, inflated appraisals were a factor, especially in connection to mortgage-fraud schemes that artificially inflated home prices and made the fall in values all that much steeper. Julie Friess has been a Sedona appraiser for 22 years and is part of the Coalition of Arizona Appraisers working to strengthen state regulation of the profession. ‘A few years ago,’ she said, ‘we had an appraiser whose motto was he could ‘hit any number’ needed to close a deal with his appraisals, and he was getting a lot of business. He shouldn’t have had a license because he hadn’t completed the requirements. We couldn’t even get his licensed pulled.’”
“In May, a national code adopted by the biggest lenders went into effect, restricting who can order a home appraisal. Called the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, or HVCC, the code was drafted to combat inflated home valuations and has stirred a lot of controversy in the real-estate industry. Some homebuyers and sellers are also unhappy with the HVCC process. They say AMCs hire appraisers who aren’t always familiar with the area, which results in low valuations.”
“‘The appraisers were part of the problem when the housing market was booming by appraising homes above value and collecting their fees,’ said Bob Lightner, who is trying to sell his home in Anthem. ‘Now that the housing market has declined, the appraisers are keeping selling prices low by appraising homes below value.’”
The Arizona Daily Star. “A former Tucson real estate agent faces up to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to his role in a mortgage fraud scheme that he admitted involved taking out fake loans to inflate local home values. Roy Fife pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He and another Tucsonan, Chris Nero, were indicted in June 2008 on 48 counts of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.”
“According to the indictment, Fife and Nero enlisted ’straw buyers’ to take out at least 27 fake loans in their name to purchase at least 17 homes they would neither live in nor pay the mortgage on. The loans would be for above the asking price on the home, with Fife, Nero and the straw buyer sharing in the excess proceeds, according to the indictment.”
“Fife and Nero were two of 36 people in Arizona and more than 400 nationwide that federal authorities targeted in 2008 as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation dubbed Operation Cash Back.”
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel in Colorado. “The owner of failed Valley Investments is to appear in federal court today in Grand Junction to answer charges in connection with the failure of a company that authorities allege operated as a Ponzi scheme. Valley Investments owner Philip Rand Lochmiller was arrested without incident Wednesday. He, his son, also Philip R. Lochmiller, and an employee, Shawnee Carver, were indicted on multiple counts Tuesday.”
“Lochmiller, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, opened Valley Mortgage, later to become Valley Investments, in 1994 as a mortgage broker and originator. Around 1999, the Lochmillers and others entered the affordable-housing, real-estate-development and housing-for-sale business. Valley Investments acquired five properties, which the Lochmillers told investors were to be developed as affordable-housing subdivisions, the indictment said.”
“The Lochmillers told investors they used investment funds only to acquire and develop affordable-housing projects, and that the company generated large profits by selling manufactured homes together with lots within their subdivisions. Some investors were promised returns as high as 18 percent annually. Investor Jacque Loesch of Battlement Mesa said she was pleased Lochmiller had been arrested. ‘He’s pretty well ruined my life,’ Loesch said. ‘It’s a good thing I’m not a real down person. I’m basically living off Social Security.’”
The Denver Post in Colorado. “Developer Erik Osborn testified at his felony trial Tuesday that he spent five years and several hundred thousand dollars working on a downtown luxury condominium project but has not seen even $1 for his efforts. Osborn, on trial in Denver District Court, is accused of two third-degree felony counts and faces up to 24 years in prison if convicted.”
“Osborn’s investors in One Lincoln Park, who also included talk- radio personality Tom Manoogian, paid $1.9 million for the lot where the 32-story building sits and another $3.5 million to build a sales center. ‘I think they’re taking action right now to make sure I don’t ever get a penny from this,’ Osborn said.”
The Aspen Times in Colorado. “The recession has derailed the ‘renaissance’ of Snowmass Village, but a glimmer of hope has emerged with the opening of an upscale ski-in, ski-out hotel. The Viceroy is part of a multi-year building effort by Related WestPac, the real estate development firm behind Snowmass Base Village. The commercial and residential center has yet to be completed due to Related WestPac’s financial woes, leaving the centerpieces — a Little Nell hotel and arrival center — nothing more than concrete slabs at the base of the ski area.”
“The Viceroy is a condo-hotel, meaning that all units are for sale as whole-ownership interests. About 80 units have gone under contract with Related WestPac but none have sold yet. Roughly 19 prospective owners are legally trying to break free from the purchase contracts and get their deposits back. The deposits were 15 percent of the purchase price. Sales price figures were based on a price of about $1,700 a square foot per unit.”
“‘We feel certain we have fulfilled our duties and obligations in those sales contracts, and we look forward to completing the closing process with those purchasers in the near future,’ said Dwayne Romero, president of Related WestPac.”
“Viceroy General Manager Jeff David said opening a hotel in a severe recession hasn’t really changed the business model, but the 2010 budget now reflects a more modest revenue projection. ‘We certainly don’t have the mentality that if you build it they will come,’ he said. ‘If the economy turns, we could break even in two or three years and that’s not a reach. It’s achievable.’”
The Las Vegas Business Press in Nevada. “The hard-money lending industry, which provided fuel for real estate development in Southern Nevada and double-digit interest rates for investors, is a ghost of its former self now that the boom has turned to bust. That’s no surprise to real estate professionals. After all, hard-money lenders made the riskiest of loans to developers who often had no more than a plan and a raw piece of land.”
“‘People are just surviving and trying to take care of investors they have in loans,’ said Jeff Guinn, owner of Aspen Financial. ‘They are trying to hold on until the market comes back.’”
“To put things in perspective, hard-money lenders pumped out $286.2 million in 120 loans in Southern Nevada in March 2007 before the real estate industry imploded, according to the Nevada Mortgage Lending Division. In October this year, Las Vegas area hard-money lenders made 16 loans totaling $2.8 million. That’s lower than the $7.4 million in 15 new loans in September. It’s way below the $23.3 million in 15 loans in October 2008.”
“One company is managing to make new hard-money loans: CM Capital Group, formerly known as Consolidated Mortgage. CEO Todd Parriott said his company has originated about $100 million in short-term mortgage loans, sometimes called trust-deed investments, since the first of the year. The bulk of the loans were secured by real estate in Nevada.”
“CM Capital Group is managing $465 million in assets, including about $400 million in foreclosed properties. Individual and institutional investors have fractional interests in some of the loans. After Southern Nevada’s real estate sector went into a free fall two years ago, about 95 percent of existing loans at CM Capital went into default, Parriott said.”
“‘We weren’t lenders anymore,’ Parriott said. ‘We were asset managers.’”
“Fife and Nero were two of 36 people in Arizona and more than 400 nationwide that federal authorities targeted in 2008 as part of a U.S. Justice Department investigation dubbed Operation Cash Back.”
Hopefully there is more to come from these investigations.
I can’t help but think there is massive corruption and graft leading to the so-called regulators who aided and abetted, IMHO.
More on strategic defaults:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126100260600594531.html
As Karl Denninger points out - Morgan Stanley is walking away from their mortgages, why would any reasonably thinking underwater homeowner do differently?
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) — Morgan Stanley, the securities firm that spent more than $8 billion on commercial property in 2007, plans to relinquish five San Francisco office buildings to its lender two years after purchasing them from Blackstone Group LP near the top of the market.
The bank has been negotiating an “orderly transfer” of the towers since earlier this year, Alyson Barnes, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman, said yesterday in a telephone interview. AREA Property Partners will take over the buildings. Barnes declined to say when the transfer will occur.
“This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation,” Barnes said. “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.”
mariner22,
Well wouldn’t “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation” be the very definition of Foreclosure?
Too funny. Thanks for sharing that. Kind of made my day!
Could technically be a “deed in lieu”, but the end result is the same.
Kim,
I stand corrected, just one of those things that strikes you the minute you hit ’submit’. They can spin it how they like but they’re not foolin’ anyone.
CalPers pulled an identical stunt when they realized they overpaid for the KOIN Bldg. in Portland. Or rather the sub-adviser to CalPers. ( Bot in ‘07 )
“This isn’t a default or foreclosure situation,” Barnes said. “We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.”
No, it’s not a default, we’re just a-walkin’ away from these NoCal albatrosses.
‘A few years ago,’ she said, ‘we had an appraiser whose motto was he could ‘hit any number’ needed to close a deal with his appraisals, and he was getting a lot of business.’
You reap what you sow Sedona. I kinda doubt it was one appraiser, too.
What’s funny about this ’shadow inventory’ game the lenders have been playing is that now everyone can see it didn’t solve anything, but rather is making the situation worse. Many of these ‘investors’ who have been buying the foreclosures are really speculators. And we all know what speculators do when the bet turns south.
‘‘We feel certain we have fulfilled our duties and obligations in those sales contracts, and we look forward to completing the closing process with those purchasers in the near future,’ said Dwayne Romero, president of Related WestPac.’
Is here a place on the globe that Related hasn’t stunk up with these deals? Here’s an offer for people doing business with these guys; give me your money and I’ll give you back half. That way you’ll be way ahead and it’ll save you a bunch of time.
What’s funny about this ’shadow inventory’ game the lenders have been playing is that now everyone can see it didn’t solve anything, but rather is making the situation worse. Many of these ‘investors’ who have been buying the foreclosures are really speculators. And we all know what speculators do when the bet turns south.
Ummm, lemme guess (cue up the sound of Slim’s brain-wheels turning):
They go into strategic default! And they’re foreclosed upon!
“…and is part of the Coalition of Arizona Appraisers working to strengthen state regulation of the profession.”
Yeah ,there’s THAT word again: “Professional” …I’m certain that if I rearrange the letters, I can spell: “Ethical” too!
Here’s an offer for people doing business with these guys; give me your money and I’ll give you back half. That way you’ll be way ahead and it’ll save you a bunch of time.
Good one Ben.
I have stated for a long time that the original problem of people purchasing homes that they don’t intend to live on is still going on. And in many cases, it is even worse than during the peak of the bubble.
And a lot of these ‘investors’ are neglecting to place one expense in their calculations, and that is MAINTENANCE.
They buy a house, and can eke out a $200/month ‘profit’. Doesn’t take for much to go wrong for that profit to be wiped out.
I think this happened to the “investor” who owns the house behind mine. As HBB-ers recall from earlier this year, I had to have my water line replaced. Old line was leaking like a sieve.
Well, things were even worse for the property behind me. Its water line was leaking a lot worse than mine. The plumbing contractor I hired to do my line also did theirs.
And, boy, did the owner of that property (which is a rental) raise a stink about the price. Which, as plumbing contracting prices go, wasn’t bad.
But I think he was raising said stink because he wasn’t making the megabucks on this property that he would. After all, he’d tried to flip it a couple years before. And he failed.
So, he probably decided to rent the place out until the market improved. Which, if one defines “improvement” as “the return of double digit rates of appreciation,” isn’t going to happen any time soon.
And so many people still believe that values will come back ’soon’, it is not even funny.
Plus the hassles involved with being a landlord, the usual house rental ‘profit’ is not quite worth it. Most are banking on values returning for a big payday.
I recall reading a story in Newsweek during the dot.com meltdown of a poor sap saddened by the fact that he could not retire by age 35.
SMF,
PB has mentioned this time and again referring to it as “built IN selling pressure”! Who’d have thought that millions of Americans would all have the same design to be rushing for the exit at once?
“Many of these ‘investors’ who have been buying the foreclosures are really speculators. And we all know what speculators do when the bet turns south.”
I am wondering whether the Fed is trying to play a deliberate role in keeping the specuvestors from dumping their gambling houses en masse. Perhaps that would qualify as a question the Congressional auditors could ask, as I don’t believe that encouraging foolish gambling has much to do with the normal conduct of monetary policy…
Slim checking in from Tucson. The Fife -n- Nero gang are just the tip of southern Arizona’s fraudster iceberg.
Case in point: A few months back, my mortgage originator was the “star” of a press conference called by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
After the press conference, I wrote the following letter to Assistant Attorney General Vince Rabago, who is handling the fraud case that was outlined at the press conference:
Enclosed please find a printout of an article that I wrote for Freelance Switch. The online version:
http://freelanceswitch.com/the-business-of-freelancing/the-masters-of-disaster-promotion-is-not-enough/
While I didn’t name the company in the article, it was Tucson Mortgage. And you may be wondering why things went so badly wrong after my initially positive experience with this company.
I can’t help but thinking that my problems were due to my insistence on a fixed-rate mortgage, rather than an ARM. In my initial interview with a Tucson Mortgage employee, he urged me to consider an ARM, because, as he said, it would lower my monthly payment. I countered by saying that interest rates were going up, and, in 2004, that is what they were doing.
Furthermore, I couldn’t understand why I was being given the ARM sales pitch. After all, I had good enough credit to qualify for a fixed-rate mortgage, so why couldn’t we have just spoken about that? Well, as we know now, ARM sales commissions were higher than those paid for fixed-rate mortgages. And we also know that many homeowners were steered toward ARMs, even when they could have qualified for prime-rate loans.
Perhaps your investigation could be expanded to include Tucson Mortgages sales of ARMs to homebuyers who shouldn’t have put into them. Fortunately, I am not one of them.
“…he urged me to consider an ARM, because, as he said, it would lower my monthly payment.”
aka: a “professional” loan/drug pusher
lower monthly payment = Sweet Treat!
Hwy50,
Years back on Patrick.net we defined CAR’s version of “affordability” as:
“The continual serial-refinancing of I/O loans re-setting the mortgage clock BACK to 30 Years in a vain effort to be able to just ‘barely’ make the payment”
Thus MB’s were only doing us a ‘favor’. C’mon, you know the drill!
“fraudster iceberg” LOL.
Can any of you gifted photoshoppers out there conjure up a visual to go with that? Kind of… ‘murky’ lying in wait, trying to look inconspicuous?
But should it be illegal to sell someone a product of lesser quality? I mean, my Honda Accord has been way more reliable than the Ford I owned, but the law doesn’t step in and ban people from selling Fords.
But look at the “price” for committing MASSIVE FRAUD. This should be up to 20 years in prison and not less than 5.
What does the paper say?
“A former Tucson real estate agent faces up to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to his role in a mortgage fraud scheme that he admitted involved taking out fake loans to inflate local home values.”
I can’t make near the money these crooks got from 2 years at hard labor. It makes crime look like a good deal, which it has become.
…It makes crime look like a good deal, which it has become…
Add to that corporations and financial institutions that
violate the law. They know that the profits [from
illegal actions] will far outweigh the fines and judgements.
Its just rolled into the cost of “doing business”
octal77,
I’m in no way arguing that those @$$clowns shouldn’t be pursued w/ vigor at all?
What I ‘am’ saying is that under the cover of darkness and the media attention placed on Angelo, Bernie etc., all of the little fish are getting away!
What do you want to bet in the transcripts from these lesser offender’s trial are littered w/ big fish references? I’d have to say with the ineffectiveness at prosecuting these scumbags ( it’s a ‘defense’ that seems to be working? )
They missed the biggest ones: Greenspan, Paulson, Bernanke and
the Wall Street gangs.
” About $2.5 trillion in adjustable-rate mortgages are due to reset from July through August 2011, a substantial amount of it in places already reeling from the foreclosure crisis, said Rick Sharga, senior vice presiden RealtyTrac.”
I don’t know much about ARM Resets, but with interest rates at historic lows, wouldn’t a reset be relatively benign, or was the reset rate predetermined at the time the original mortgage was written?
The problem is finding the money to fund those refinances. In the hey days it came from “investors” buying MBSs and CDOs. That’s gone. Now the only entity I know of that has the “money” to “fund” such financings is Uncle Sam as he can create unlimited amounts of pixel dollars into existence. That’s what has kept us going for the last two years, but we’re probably nearing the point of reckoning as money is like everything else: something can’t be created out of nothing.
“Something can’t be created out of nothing.” Great point!
The song, ‘Something Good’, in the Sound of Music has the following lyrics, “Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could.”
View it from an underwriters perspective….. would you refi an ARM into a fixed rate note when the underlying collateral is worth substantially less than the amount you’re underwriting?
Not a chance.
“…wouldn’t a reset be relatively benign…”
I believe reset, in these cases, means going from prime - 1% to prime + 6% (or numbers to that effect.) Or put in words, going from a teaser rate to a rate more in keeping with their risk profile.
And as exeter has pointed out, getting a refi won’t be easy.
Not to mention, I read that something like 70% of the people with pick a payment loans in CA were making, shock!, the minimum payment, which means these people would obviously be even more underwater than just the value of the house plummeting.
Oops, silly me, thinking it was a mere 70%. How about 94%?
http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-09-20/news/OR19N2B1_1_option-arms-fitch-ratings-payment-option
But doesn’t an ARM just reset the rate on the existing mortgage, rather than a true refi in which a new mortgage is written. Again, no experience with ARM’s, but that’s how I thought it works.
Spokaneman,
The term is actually RECAST, not reset.
Recast is a whole different ballgame. Essentially it is a completely new loan, with the overwhelming loans having a far higher principal amount than the original loan.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that RESET is when the interest rate on an ARM resets. RECAST is when some variety of non- or negatively- ammortizing loan switches to an ammortizing rate. Back in the Pileocene (more than 10 years ago) more than 95% of loans were ammortizing. Which means that the ammount you owe and are paying interest on (the principal) goes down every month. A small amount at first, but as the years go on a greater and greater percentage of your payment would go to reducing your debt. Even if you paid an adjustable interest rate, at the end of every month, you owed a little bit less than the month before, even if your payment was higher because the interest rate had gone up.
But people couldn’t afford those payments, and there were enough different people between the person writing the loan and the ultimate lender (the bond holder) that various negative-ly ammortizing loans became popular. Pick-a-payment, Option Arms, teaser rates, and 1% interest rate* loans are all variations of loans that allow you to PAY less than the interest on the loan ammount, so that at the end of every month you owe more than the month before. But only for a limited amount of time (say, a year), or up to certain percentage of the original loan amount. (say 120%) Recast is the switch from non, or neg am to actually paying down the loan.
And back in the old days, there really was no such thing as a neg-am subprime loan. You needed a REALLY good FICO, a solid downpayment, and a reliable appraisal before the bank would allow this sort of risky loan. They were a tiny market for those with large, but uneven incomes: like some salesmen working on comission.
*Because there IS NO SUCH THING as a 1% loan. That headline refers to the PAYMENT rate, the rest of the interest is being added to the ammount that the borrower owes.
I think you can walk away from a purchase loan, just
mail the key to the bank. “Strategic Default”.
If one refinances that loan, the option of walking away no longer there. The bank can go after other asset.
I am wondering if the reset causes lenders to look and see if borrowers are over the 110% loan to value?? (Or whatever the number is in the contract).
From what I understand, in the contracts it states that if a borrower’s loan to balance ratio goes above a certain amount, the borrower is supposed to show up with a fistful of cash to keep the loan from going underwater.
I am going to go way out on a limb here and wildly guess that not many borrowers have any cash to give the lenders to keep the ratios in the lender’s favor.
Gee, I bought the house for $700,000 with a mortgage for $710,000. Since I only made the minimum payment, my mortgage balance is now $750,000 and now the house is worth $250,000. I better get the lender a check for $500,000 so they don’t forclose on me. /sarcasm off
Well no, the borrower just needs to start making payments on the loan sufficient to pay it off in 30 years, often at a fairly high interest rate. Which most of these people have no reasonable expectation of affording. EVERYBODY involved expected the borrower to be able to REFI with SOMEBODY else and pay off the loan. Which couldn’t happen once the houses stopped appreciating faster than the loans were negatively ammortizing.
Don’t forget that many ARMs were not amortizing ARMs. They were I/O and neg-am, probably with balloon payments attached. So it’s not just interest rates; now the FB has to start paying principle. FB’s didn’t bother to look what would happen 3-5 years down the road — they were supposed to sell by then.
“Bob Lightner, who is trying to sell his home in Anthem. ‘Now that the housing market has declined, the appraisers are keeping selling prices low by appraising homes below value.”
Here we go, Bob thinks appraisers are keeping “value” down. Sorry Bob, you don’t get it, however you are not alone, millions of people didn’t and don’t get ‘it’. You may come to understand in the next few years, or not.
Never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.
Cause and effect, ur doing it rong. Which begs the question, how much were the “bad appraisals,” on the way up just an accurate reflection of insane appreciation. There’s tons of annecdotal evidence that there were plenty of “hit the number appraisers,” but during the bubble runup there were relatively few houses foreclosed on because flipping WORKED.
I want to congratulate Ben on being chosen one of the 50 most influential people in real estate by Inman News.
It’s good to see you are finally receiving the attention and awards you so richly deserve for your excellent efforts Ben.
Congratulations!
Happy Holidays and New Year to all.
Jack
“I want to congratulate Ben on being chosen one of the 50 most influential people in real estate by Inman News”.
Fantastic! I didn’t know that. Congratulations!
And again, you saw it on the HBB first!
Yayyyyyy, Ben!
In honor of Ben’s great honor, I just popped over to PayPal and made a donation to this-here HBB. I encourage others to do the same.
Ben –
I promise to send you a little cash as soon as I find any. Things are tighter than usual this year…
Did mine couple of weeks ago. Tight times, but somehow found it to share along with note of gratitude to Ben and this whole great crowd!
I sure hope Eddie ponies up to pay for all the disruptions his off-the-wall nonsense has spawned. I found myself wondering earlier if he is some kind of bank PR guy who was hired to try to knock this blog off topic. If so, he should be fired, not only for failing in his mission but for also convincing everyone who reads here that he is a m0r0n.
Right On Mr. Ben!
And to think this came from “The Flag”
(Hwy notes, that Mr. Cole’s autograph from you is steadily “appreciating”)
Next year we need to make sure he’s included in the Man of the Year nominations.
(Note to micro-brewers in “The Flag”… put Mr. Ben’s MUG on a “Brew”)
Excellent. Contrats BJ.
Jack McCabe,
Thanks for dropping by! ( Next time tell us something we don’t -already- KNOW! )
JK, thanks Jack, you’re a big part of bringing sobriety to the debate as well. Congrats BEN!
ditto.
-evil
I second that, too. Congratulations, Ben.
Another guy that we all know with the first name of, Ben, should be on the cover of Time magazine. Not Ben Bernanke.
Ben, Ben Jones that is, is right on the money. Well, right on the money that SHOULDN’T be flowing into real estate for the average person. For the average person.
Way to go Ben. Always suggest your site to ppl.
Congrats Ben! Well deserved.
Congratulations, Ben!
Thanks for telling us, Jack.
Well done, Ben!
Roidy
How nice of them! Now if only the MSM would come out and admit that they were WRONG and Ben was RIGHT, then we could all be truly happy.
Boy Big V you really are shooting for the moon…..LOL
Ben, congratulations! Another testament to the quality of your thinking, and the level of your discourse. Well deserved!
“Some investors were promised returns as high as 18 percent annually. Investor Jacque Loesch of Battlement Mesa said she was pleased Lochmiller had been arrested. ‘He’s pretty well ruined my life,’ Loesch said. ‘It’s a good thing I’m not a real down person. I’m basically living off Social Security.”
So, Lochmiller is a greedy,lying con-man and Loesch is a greedy,moron.
Here’s a link to an article in today’s Miami Herald I think you all will find interesting.
http://www.miamiherald.com/business/economy/story/1385741.html
We’re well on our way to having the U.S. version of the ghost towers of Bangkok.
“Since then, Related has closed about 100 sales in a project of nearly 1,800 units, which are now listed at an average of $410 a square foot, down from the $650s. Alicia Cervera, president of Related Cervera Realty Services, the company’s sales arm, said 150 more units were expected to close shortly”.
“As long as Related is involved, Cervera said whatever decision was made it would be seamless and “the best thing for the asset and the best thing for the buyers.”
So you have about 100 potential sales out of 1800, in a building that may well be bankrupt in 30 days. Yes Ms.Cervera that certainly sounds like a excellent asset, and great reason to buy in, and what a bargain at $410 a sq.ft.
Jack, thanks for the link.
The following are excerpts from an Jorge Perez interview with Ocean Drive magazine in 2003.
OD: Do you think Miami is immune to the real estate bubble everybody is talking about these days?
JP: You hear about the bubble but I am surprised by the level of demand that Miami continues to experience……
Miami cannot be explained by local demand factors….. ( I guess he’s referring to the fact that, “We’re different.” )
In Miami you’re drawing upon the universe………..
When people buy $500,000 homes, they want to buy from someone they can trust……. ( I guess he’s referring to himself. )
Many people have been taken in Miami in the past……. ( Mr. Perez, how about in the present and in the future? This interview took place in 2003. )
OD: What are Icon’s preconstruction prices per square foot?
JP: Between $400 and $500…… ( Well, in almost 2010 they are. After they hit the stratosphere IN THE UNIVERSE. )
In Miami you’re drawing upon the universe………..
Well, it’s true that a lot of aliens live there.
LOL! That’s for sure.
I only have sympathy for those that lost their jobs. Everyone else, got what they deserve.
FRED,
To be a little more ’specific’, those NON-reic’sters that lost their jobs!
Sorry, but I’ll never consider blowing a bowl in the cab of your pick-up and liquid lunches at the strip club while ‘waiting’ for the carpet guy to show up at your flip necessarily a “job”.
Screw those guys too.
Hundreds if not thousands of Las Vegas homeowners haven’t made a mortgage payment in more than a year and still haven’t received a foreclosure notice, he said.”
Can I get in on this deal ??
Find a house with a market value that has fallen waaay below the mortgage value, and make an offer to the bank to rent it for $1/month until the value returns to book. Maybe even offer to pay property taxes is you’re feeling generous.
I always thought the line, “If it’s too good to be true, it is” made a lot of sense. A lot I know. Silly me!
“Can I get in on this deal ??”
You already have - you’re one of the many taxpaying citizens subsidizing bank REO losses via the Fed, FDIC and Treasury.
Consider yourself enrolled and on board.
+1…Good comeback Cblue…
How dumb can some folks be to think that CityCenter is going to, even remotely, turn the Vegas mess around? That’s illogical thinking. If all of these wonderful resort-hotels haven’t already turned the Vegas mess around, why would another one magically do the trick.
Crazy thinking is just that. Crazy!
Let’s build a huge 10,000 seat ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT restaurant right beside a well-respected Anorexia Clinic. Let’s face facts. An ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT restaurant is not going to be too tempting to people weighing under 100 pounds. No!
until the bulemics show up…
LOL!
Well, the bulemics are probably too busy filling out forms to be on The Biggest Loser.
How dumb can some folks be to think that CityCenter is going to, even remotely, turn the Vegas mess around?
In another dream, Clark County bulldozes hundreds of thousands of houses, returning the area surrounding the Strip to raw desert.
Las Vegas becomes again what it once was - A quirky little burg full of flashy decadence and mystery, 2 hours from L.A.
Er. FOUR hours from L.A.
(Unless you have Leno’s rocket bike)
Glad you clarified that, I was thinking, am I driving really slow?
Judging by those whizzing by me, I’d say closer to 3 hours!
90 mph x3 = 270 miles!
That Vegas even exists is not ‘logical.’
This venture is, however, I think, consistant with Vegas’es modus operandi - if a little vice is good, a lot of vice is better, and over the top vice is best of all. Somehow I just don’t expect a lot of logical problem solving to originate in the gambling mecca of the country, rolling the dice and risking it all on long odds - now that I expect from Vegas.
How about rolling the VICE?
Recently, some local communities are becoming less puritanical. Restaurants and bars that previously couldn’t serve drinks on Sunday, are now being allowed to do so. In this deep recession, it’s all about dwindling revenue. Money is more important than sinning.
Inasmuch as the new laws may allow more drunks on the road, I’m glad to see the puritanical laws go. Evangelicals are upset. So what. Who cares. Let’s have a drink to the new laws.
Let’s have a drink to the new laws.
And a hit off the bong!
Queen Elizabeth goes home for Christmas on regular train. The look on her face is priceless, but then, considering her family…
Babushka (double entendre intended)
Going home for Christmas? LOL!
Isn’t every day Christmas for Queen Elizabeth.
That naughty lass. Showing too much leg there. She can forget about presents from Santa Claus this year.
Whilst her grandson flew the private jet to Copenhagen to chide the rest of us for emitting to much greenhouse gas.
I say good on the Queen.
That one Queen Elizabeth picture is priceless.
That old woman is a barrel of laughs. Look at her face. Look at her smile. What smile? Can’t she even say, “Cheese.”
Instead, someone must have cut the cheese. Obviously, someone was emitting too much gas. Probably herself. Then she probably blames it on the dog. “Bad dog! Bad Corgi!”
But does she still how to change a
tiretyre? http://lancemannion.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/lizwar.jpg“The Mortgage Bankers Association is reporting some 7 million home loans in default, creating what some analysts have called a ’shadow inventory’ of foreclosures on the way. ‘We’re looking at numbers that are somewhat hyperbolic, certainly breathless,’ Sharga said. ‘Of the delinquent loans, the ones that will probably go back to the bank are somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 million. That’s the shadow inventory that will gradually be making its way to the market over the next three years.’”
There is that ’seven million homes in default’ number that keeps appearing again and again. But not to worry, as we have been assured that inventories are falling, home construction is perking up and home prices are rising again — i.e., it is a seller’s market again.
PB,
And shouldn’t the MBA be proud!
Nice work fella’s. Keep it up.
Re-thinking American Dream Of Home Ownership
Joseph Gyourko of the Univ of Penn-Wharton School Real Estate Center and Wilhelmina Leigh of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies discuss home ownership.
http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=121472986&m=121472980
Warning: A minority panderer is in that NPR segment (later on). I’ve been to many “Dine & Whine” for minorities in my career.
Re-thinking American Dream Of Home Ownership
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121472986&ps=cprs
Joseph Gyourko of the University of Pennsylvania’s (Wharton) Real Estate Center and Wilhelmina Leigh of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies discuss home ownership.
Good article and discussion. thanks
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121472986&ps=cprs
Re-thinking American Dream Of Home Ownership
Sorry guys. When my posts didn’t show, I became a serial poster. You can spank me on Christmas eve. I’d like that.