A Free Lunch That Wasn’t Free
A report from the New York Post. “Thousands of Americans expecting to keep their homes after starting trial modifications on troubled mortgages could wind up in foreclosure anyway, thanks to a murky technicality known as the investor-based denial. Since launching its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) last year, the government has buried in the fine print that not all 60-day delinquent loans are eligible — and one major exclusion is investor contracts that preclude modification.”
“In many cases, a shadowy investor or group of investors actually owns the debt. These investors can put the kibosh on converting a trial modification to a permanent deal, without the homeowner even knowing the investor’s identity or reason for rejecting the workout. Many homeowners undertake trial modifications — with a reduction in monthly loan payments — only to be told months later that they can’t convert to a permanent modification because the investor won’t allow it and they now owe thousands in back payments.”
“‘A lot of times there are no restrictions, and if there is one, it is usually limited [and] does not prevent the servicer from modifying under HAMP,’ says Margot Albert, staff attorney with Staten Island Legal Services. ‘[Servicers are] using any investor restriction as an excuse not to modify loans, even if there is another way under HAMP.’”
“Natalie Reyes fears she will lose her home after getting a confusing investor-based denial. Reyes bought a modest two-bedroom house in 2006, moving her twin daughters from a rough-and-tumble Brooklyn to Staten Island and a better shot in life. Reyes scaled her real estate dreams to fit her budget as a single mom and New York City employee. But when an FHA loan at 4.25 percent fell through just days before her closing, she believed a smooth-talking broker who promised easy refinancing on an adjustable-rate mortgage. Rather than lose her deposit and the house, she took an ARM at 7.625 percent.”
“By completing three trial payments and submitting the appropriate paperwork, Reyes expected her loan would then convert to a permanent modification, as outlined in HAMP guidelines. Instead, she got the shocking news that her modification was denied. Reyes continues to make the payments agreed to in her trial modification, and has turned to Staten Island Legal Services for help.”
“‘Hopefully Wells Fargo [and] whoever is making this decision gets to know that behind this loan number there are people, struggling people putting all their efforts and savings on the line,’ said Reyes. ‘If I lose my house I’m walking out with nothing, and hopefully they realize this.’”
The Long Island Herald. “Nassau County financial and real estate experts tackled the problem of foreclosures at a roundtable discussion. Foreclosures and distressed mortgages have been a huge issue in Nassau County for years, with homeowners falling victim every day. ‘Foreclosures in New York are the highest in the nation,’ said County Executive Ed Mangano, whose office spearheaded the event. ‘Our goal here in Nassau County is to keep people in their homes. We have aggressive programs to help people find housing, but there’s no better way to avoid emergency housing than to try to keep people in their present homes.’”
“Mangano concluded that the responsibility to help homeowners in Nassau County fell to the government, because the problem had grown too big for there to be one easy answer. ‘It’s government’s responsibility to help people find housing, because I think that government is somewhat responsible for what has occurred,’ he said. ‘It’s a result of very poor policies with respect to lending. The practical effect of this is that the housing market was artificially heightened.’”
The Buffalo News. “Andrew Cuomo promised to ‘transform the lives of millions of families across our country’ when as HUD secretary he announced his historic plan to increase home ownership. Eleven years later, many experts think that much-heralded transformation played a role in the devastating subprime mortgage meltdown and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.”
“‘They should have known the risks were large,’ said Edward J. Pinto, former chief credit officer at Fannie Mae. ‘Cuomo was pushing mortgage bankers to make loans and basically saying you have to offer a loan to everybody.’”
“‘He was a contributor in terms of him being a cheerleader, but I don’t think we can pin too much blame on him,’ Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said of Cuomo’s role in the subprime crisis. Baker sees Cuomo as a contributor because he advocated a philosophy that almost everyone should be able to own a home. And yet, he thinks others, most notably mortgage lenders and brokers, were the real culprits.”
“Of all the initiatives endorsed by Cuomo, first as assistant HUD secretary and later as the agency’s top guy, none is as controversial as the affordable housing goals he imposed on Fannie and Freddie with the blessing of the White House and Congress. In reality, what those goals meant was to increase from 42 percent to 50 percent the percentage of affordable housing loans Fannie and Freddie were required to buy each year.”
“‘It will strengthen our economy,’ Cuomo said at the time, and ‘it will help ease the terrible shortage of affordable housing plaguing far too many communities, and it will help reduce the huge homeownership gap dividing whites from minorities and suburbs from cities.’”
“Cuomo declined to comment for this story, but his campaign spokesman suggested it was the Bush administration, not the Clinton administration, pushing Fannie and Freddie into the subprime market. ‘The GOP is trying to cover up the Bush administration’s complicity in allowing Wall Street and the banks to turn mortgage lending into the Wild West,’ spokesman Josh Vlasto said in a statement. ‘It is a well-established fact that those institutions were the main source of risky lending.’”
“Not everyone shares the view that Cuomo is completely guilt-free. ‘He definitely played a role,’ said Arnold Kling, a former economist at Freddie Mac who wrote about the subprime crisis on behalf of the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank. ‘Clearly, he decided to make a name for himself by trying to push the envelope.’”
“Why was it so bad, so unwise to expand homeownership opportunities for lower-income families? Kling says the government’s mandated new goals put pressure on Fannie and Freddie to adopt looser lending standards and, in the end, buy the type of risky loans it historically had avoided. ‘It promoted housing speculation, not homeownership,’ Kling said, ‘and the effect on neighborhoods has been devastating.’”
“Experts say the pressure to buy more-affordable housing loans resulted in new mortgage products, most notably low- or no-money down loans that brought more homebuyers into the market and ultimately created higher home prices. ‘He put the kindling on the fire,” said Russ Roberts, an economics professor at George Mason University. ‘What the requirements on Freddie and Fannie did was to push up the price of housing and that made it possible to lend money to people with no money down.’”
“Roberts thinks there’s plenty of blame to go around, but that Clinton and Cuomo deserve some of it. ‘It was a bipartisan mistake,’ he said. ‘And it was a mistake because it promised a free lunch that wasn’t free.’”
“The argument that Cuomo’s expanded housing goals led to the subprime crisis and the collapse of Fannie and Freddie is not universally accepted. In fact, there are experts who say the real culprits are Fannie and Freddie. They argue that the two companies got into trouble, not because of Cuomo’s new affordable housing goals, but because the two finance giants were trying to increase market share and profits.”
“‘I think Andrew Cuomo and his staff have gotten a bad rap,’ said Judy Kennedy, president of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders. ‘It makes me crazy that people blame the goals. It wasn’t the goals. It was plain old-fashioned greed.’”
New York Magazine. “In the wake of Scott Brown’s victory in the race for Ted Kennedy’s former Senate seat, the prospect of passing health-care reform—and the rest of Obama’s first-term agenda—suddenly seemed dim. So the president had decided to pursue the obvious, logical course: He had decided to change the subject. The topic to which Obama now shifted was financial reform, in particular to the matter of speculative, big-casino activity by the nation’s banks.”
“‘I’m proposing a simple and common-sense reform, which we’re calling the Volcker Rule—after this tall guy behind me,’ Obama declared. ‘Banks will no longer be allowed to own, invest, or sponsor hedge funds, private-equity funds, or proprietary trading operations for their own profit, unrelated to serving their customers. If financial firms want to trade for profit, that’s something they’re free to do. Indeed, doing so—responsibly—is a good thing for the markets and the economy. But these firms should not be allowed to run these hedge funds and private-equities funds while running a bank backed by the American people.’”
“Wall Street’s reaction to the unveiling of the Volcker Rule came swiftly and was even harsher than Geithner had feared. The Dow promptly plunged 213 points, with bank stocks leading the way down. ‘It was like the White House said, ‘Okay, we lost Massachusetts, health care is screwed, so let’s go after Wall Street,’ says the CEO of one of the nation’s biggest banks. ‘And for a lot of Wall Street people, it was like, ‘Okay, first you slap us in the face, now you kick us in the balls. Enough is enough. I mean, we’re done.’”
“One night not long ago, over dinner with ten executives in the finance industry, I heard the president described as ‘hostile to business,’ ‘anti-wealth,’ and ‘anti-capitalism’; as a ‘redistributionist,’ a ‘vilifier,’ and a ‘thug.’ A few days later, I recounted this experience to the same Wall Street CEO who’d called the Volcker Rule a testicular blow, and mentioned I’d been told that one of the most prominent megabank chiefs, who once boasted to friends of voting for Obama, now refers to him privately as a ‘Chicago mob guy.’”
“Do all your brethren feel this way? I asked. ‘Oh, not everybody—just most of them,’ he replied. ‘Jamie [Dimon]? Lloyd [Blankfein]? They might not say Obama’s a socialist, but they come pretty close.’”
“Considering the lengths to which the administration had just gone to rescue Wall Street from collapse, all this behavior might strike a (rational) person as ungrateful and even churlish. One explanation for it revolves around the industry’s endemic twin defects: short-termitis and amnesia. Another, not inconsistent, theory is that the money changers aren’t merely forgetful but mildly deluded.”
“‘They’ve created a narrative where irrational actions by a few people plus the nature of government intervention forced them to do things inconsistent with their free-market philosophy and regular way of handling their business,’ offers a Democratic financier. ‘So, yes, they took the TARP money, but only because they had to. None of them are sitting there saying to themselves, ‘You know, I was responsible for this crisis. Therefore, I’m really grateful to the government that it stepped in.’ This is not the narrative they have in their heads.’”
“Considering how close the financial system came in 2008 to Armageddon, the consensus for imposing new rules and greater order was nearly universal (among the sane, at least). Yet that does little to lessen the sense of shock—of violation, really—that Wall Street feels. Whatever the effects of the bill, among them will be neither an end to the too-big-too-fail doctrine nor any curb on what the sharpest Wall Streeters see as the central threat to the system’s stability: excessive financial leverage.”
“Geithner, Summers, and Obama had little interest in tackling those matters, not because they are indentured servants to Wall Street but because at heart they are all technocrats who believe the system doesn’t need to be rebooted or downsized, merely better supervised.”
The New York Times. “The first signs of financial turmoil came at Riverton Houses in Harlem. Then came Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village on Manhattan’s East Side. Now a third complex built by Metropolitan Life in the 1940s for veterans and middle-class families has run into financial distress after being purchased by speculators during the recent real estate boom.”
“The owners of the sprawling Parkmerced apartment complex in San Francisco announced this week that they would default on their $550 million mortgage, which comes due in October. ‘The landscape has changed dramatically,’ P. J. Johnston, a spokesman for the owners, said in an interview. ‘The economy has taken a major hit. Many properties are facing default.’”
“‘It’s pretty interesting that they have all ended up in the same place,’ said Andrew Florio, an analyst at Real Capital Analytics, a research firm. ‘People assumed they could boost revenues by kicking people out and raising rents.’”
The New York Observer. “On the same day that one Times real estate reporter wrote that the office market appears to have bottomed out, another argued pretty much the exact opposite. Thanks to the phenomenon known as shadow space, which The Observer wrote about in 2008, the oft-cited Manhattan vacancy rate—a key measure of the health of the office market—may well be artifically low.”
“As The Times explains it: ‘According to the research firm CoStar Group, nearly 18 million square feet of unoccupied office space in Manhattan has not been factored into the market’s vacancy rate. This so-called shadow space consists of individual desks as well as entire floors that are empty after layoffs and consolidations. Because these vacant areas are not for rent, they are not recorded anywhere and so are hard to pinpoint.’”
The Times Union. “New Yorkers who own homes are proud of their properties. They consider home ownership a key piece of the American Dream. They believe real estate is a terrific investment. But there’s one component to home ownership that New Yorkers consider a major aggravation: Property taxes. Indeed, new poll results from Siena Research Institute found that 75 percent of respondents consider their property taxes too high.”
“Concern about high property taxes was most pronounced among respondents who live in the suburbs of New York City, but upstate New Yorkers were more likely than homeowners in New York to describe their property taxes as too high. ‘The suburbs were off the charts,’ said Don Levy, director of the Siena institute. ‘But upstate, there’s still a strong upswell of opposition to real estate taxes.’”
“The survey, sponsored by the New York State Association of Realtors, was Siena’s first poll devoted entirely to real estate and home ownership issues. Respondents seemed relatively unconcerned with the housing downturn of the last few years, with 62 percent saying they believe the value of their home has increased or at least stayed the same over the last year, while 34 percent believe their home value has decreased.”
“Meanwhile, 69 percent said the value of homes in their community will increase over the next five years. Just nine percent expect a decrease.”
The New York Daily News. “Donld Trump charges would-be moguls up to $35,000 to ‘learn from the master’ at his online Trump U. For the mogul, it’s a win-win proposition. For many who pay up - not so much. Those complaining include dozens of retirees, veterans, laid-off workers and seniors living on fixed incomes, records show. In letters, e-mails and interviews, they charge they were pressured to max out credit cards or draw down a 401(k) to enroll in courses they found useless - then were refused refunds.”
‘The claims, which don’t involve Trump personally, focus on two for-profit firms: Trump University, the nonaccredited, Web-based school he founded in 2005, and Trump Institute, a training center that paid him a licensing fee to hold real estate seminars under his name. Trump execs admit they weren’t happy with the quality of customer service provided at the Trump Institute and say they’ve been phasing out the licensing agreement.”
‘Frank Kruppenbacher, a Florida lawyer who represented Trump Institute, said it was the other way around - the Institute was cutting its ties to Trump. ‘We thought it best to no longer do business with Mr. Trump’s organization,’ he said, declining to elaborate.”
“‘The vast majority of people love us,’ Trump said. ‘Thousands and thousands of people have taken our courses, and very few have complained. … There are plenty of people who went to Harvard and did very poorly, and there are plenty of people who went to Trump University and did very well.’”
“Not all Trump U. customers are unhappy. ‘I’m about to flip a house I bought in foreclosure for a $50,000 profit, and a Trump mentorship made that 100% possible,’ said Marla Rains-Colic, a St. Louis sales rep who paid the school $25,000.”
“Tarla Makaeff, a California fashion designer, lost $80,000, including interest and expenses - and got mentors who disappeared or didn’t return calls, she says in court papers. ‘The primary lesson Trump U. teaches its students is how to spend more money buying more Trump seminars,’ said Amber Eck, a partner in the San Diego-based law firm Zeldes & Haeggquist.”
“For Patricia Murphy, a Bronx teacher, Trump Institute was a disaster. She says she blew $15,000 on ineffective seminars, software and mentoring. ‘I took out most of my life’s savings … maxed out my credit cards and badly damaged my credit rating,’ she said. ‘What do I have to show for it? Big bills, interest payments, finance charges - an awful lot of stress.’”
nice to see all that free government cash pretty much wasted, only lining the pockets of the bankers in the end.
Oh, the cash wasn’t wasted; The cash landed in the banks’ coffers as intended.
Your money used to prop private business…seems fair to me.
“Many homeowners undertake trial modifications - with a reduction in monthly loan payments - only to be told months later that they can’t convert to a permanent modification because the investor won’t allow it and they now owe thousands in back payments.”
Please, Sir, may I have another?
These people walk around with “kick me” signs firmly attached to their bodies.
These are people that ignorantly and recklessly outbid people that simply wanted a decent home for their families at a price that did not substantially deviate from historical norms, or pulled money out to buy crap without worrying about the consequences. It wasn’t just their lives they destroyed as they wrecked this Country and others. Can I be first in line kick the housing scum?
There you have it. A lot of us “lost our homes” to the free-money idiots before we could even move into them!
Thank God for the Natalies and nycjoes. You just described me to a tee. I lost the home I never had because I refused to play this game. I’ll hold em down Natalie, you choke the crap out of em.
Bailout?? NFW
Well said, Natalie!
Some of these loan mod companies charge $6k to help you try and get a loan mod.Unemployed realtors found another way to screw people.
Does anyone konw a homeowner who has had success negotiating a short sale directly with the bank and eliminating the realtor?
I’ve never seen a short sale negotiated on a by owner basis without an attorney involved. I have frequently seen real estate agents get this negotiated without attorney involvement. That said, I wouldn’t sign anything with the bank that didn’t have my lawyer’s seal of approval on it.
Donld Trump charges would-be moguls up to $35,000 to ‘learn from the master’ at his online Trump U. For the mogul, it’s a win-win proposition. For many who pay up - not so much.
Just goes to show how ingrained the “become rich without working” ethos has been ingrained into our overall culture.
When Firms, Companies and Corporations go bankrupt or just “Walk Away” in the night.
It is a another, rarely mentioned and expensive recession associated problem that will hit the many states, communities and the taxpayers.( Disappearing act)
Business
State seeks pieces of bankrupt firms for cleanup
100 industrial sites have closed since early 2008
By Joe Taschler of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: May 31, 2010
From the closed General Motors plant in Janesville to an old engine factory that was shut down in New Holstein, the wreckage of the recession is all around us.
And while much of the cost of cleaning up abandoned business sites is likely to fall upon taxpayers, government officials are doing what they can to recover at least some of those expenses by lining up alongside creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. More and more often, the state Department of Natural Resources and Department of Justice are teaming up and going to court, seeking whatever crumbs might be left over when companies go into bankruptcy or receivership.
“We don’t have a lot of leverage in a lot of these cases, but when we do we’re going to exercise it,” said Richard E. Braun, assistant attorney general. “We have to act if we want to get paid.”
From 2004 to 2008, the DNR filed four such claims in court cases. “We’re up to eight so far this year,” said Darsi Foss, chief of the state Department of Natural Resources section charged with overseeing cleanup of contaminated properties known as brownfields…”
“…We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a challenge,” Foss said. “These all came at once, during that 12-month period when the economy hit bottom.”
“…According to the Department of Workforce Development, more than 100 manufacturing/industrial sites in Wisconsin have closed since the beginning of 2008.”
“…Disappearing act
Mike Stutz, clerk-treasurer for the City of New Holstein in northeast Wisconsin, also has seen the problem firsthand.
About a year ago, the operator of a factory there simply up and disappeared when the economy began choking, leaving behind wage claims, tax liens and drums containing things such as machine oil that have to be disposed of, Stutz said…”
sadly singing….” So bye, bye, Miss American Pie…”
http://tinyurl.com/27b6gqk
Trump U…LOL! I knew it was a scam. If people are that dumb then I just don’t care.
For people who wonder where the dumb money is coming from that is going into real estate, here’s part of the answer.
The mere presence of so much dumb money is all the proof anyone should need that this is only getting started.
This isn’t dumb money; it’s just more dumb debt.
I’m surprised they’re not asking for a bailout while complaining about big government.
Trump University … Learn from The Master … of Filing for Bankruptcy.
Ding Ding Ding!—You got that right. You might as well put that “Columbia School of Broadcasting” degree on your resume.
What do they teach you there? Let me guess:
Trump101 Screwing others using other people’s money
Trump102 Toupee grooming and combing
Trump103 Preening and acting like a pompous ass
You left out Trump104 Screaming loudly about getting rich.
I do like the course schedule though.
Trump 101 : How to have really bad hair and work the bankruptcy court over.
Dirtbag but americans seems to love the guy cause he leads the glamorous life.
Trump105 How to say “You’re fired”
Trump 104: Calling Daddy to pay the interest so you don’t go BK, again.
I don’t know what is crazier.
People dumb enough not to check out Donald Trump’s past to see what kind of businessman he really is, or the fact that Trump has the cajones to charge desperate people 35 large for an online “university.”
The man has more nerve than a toothache.
The man has more nerve than a toothache.
+5. Oh that is SO stolen!
But when an FHA loan at 4.25 percent fell through just days before her closing, she believed a smooth-talking broker who promised easy refinancing on an adjustable-rate mortgage. Rather than lose her deposit and the house, she took an ARM at 7.625 percent.”
In EVERY housing contract I have ever seen - there is always a contingency clause to get out and get back the deposit if the financing falls through…
I also would like to hear the rest of this little yarn. Did they stop writing such contracts at the height of bubble?
there is always a contingency clause to get out and get back the deposit
Does that include the earnest money? For some reason I thought that was committed regardless, as soon as you’re out of the option period?
You can get out of the contract to purchase, but you lose the earnest money, no?
Business
State foreclosure filings rose 5% in May
By Paul Gores of the Journal Sentinel
Posted: June 1, 2010 11:30 a.m.
Foreclosure filings in May rose about 5% in Wisconsin from the same month last year, as consumers continued to face the threat of losing their homes amid high unemployment.
The most interesting thing of this article isn’t the small 5% increase but the very last line of this article…
“While filings stayed steady in Milwaukee County from a year ago at 527, they jumped 51% in Waukesha County to 136 in May of 2010 from 90 in May of 2009.”
The Waukesha County burbs, adjoining Milwaukee County, is considered by many to be more affluent(tons of newer McMansions, Garage Mahols and condoboxes), very conservative and hardcore Republican and therefore thought to be immune to the trials and tribulations of Milwaukee County and the inner-city problems.
If you were a heretic or crazy enough to dare forecast any foreclosures there in 2004, they’d have promptly ordered a straight jacket and had you carted off to the Milwaukee County Mental Health for little tender-loving …long term care.
It’s gonna be a long, hot summer…one way or another.
http://tinyurl.com/287t64w
“Cuomo declined to comment for this story, but his campaign spokesman suggested it was the Bush administration, not the Clinton administration, pushing Fannie and Freddie into the subprime market. ‘The GOP is trying to cover up the Bush administration’s complicity in allowing Wall Street and the banks to turn mortgage lending into the Wild West,’ spokesman Josh Vlasto said in a statement. ‘It is a well-established fact that those institutions were the main source of risky lending.’”
Anyone remember this quote about banks making loans to people who should not get loans:
“No loan is exempt, no bank is immune. For those who thumb their nose at us, I promise vigorous enforcement.” - Attorney General Janet Reno
Applied for a loan mod from Wells Fargo and was denied by “investor guidelines”. Immediately got threatening letters of foreclosure and a balance due of 1000’s. Paid it and got current since I was smart enough to not spend the difference in payment because it wasn’t guaranteed to modify. Did I mention that I was solicited by Wells Fargo to participate in this scam? They offered a trial period, denied the mod and threatened foreclosure at once. It reminded me of the expression, “We’re from Washington and we’re here to help”!
Yup they got more $$$ out of you……are you happy?
A real gem.
Wasn’t there an article lately, about the banks getting the difference between what the house is sold for, and full mortgage amount, from the government? ….Don’t remember if that was for short sale, foreclosure or both.
I thought I saved the link, but I didn’t. I believe it was for foreclosures only, which is part of the reason so many short sales fail to go through (because its more profitable to foreclose).
“‘Okay, we lost Massachusetts, health care is screwed, so let’s go after Wall Street,’ says the CEO of one of the nation’s biggest banks. ‘And for a lot of Wall Street people, it was like, ‘Okay, first you slap us in the face, now you kick us in the balls. Enough is enough. I mean, we’re done.’”
The reality is, most people believe the Obama Administration hasn’t done enough to oppose the high end of finance. For a view from outside their little bubble, check out this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/business/01nopay.html?hp
“A growing number of the people whose homes are in foreclosure are refusing to slink away in shame. They are fashioning a sort of homemade mortgage modification, one that brings their payments all the way down to zero. They use the money they save to get back on their feet or just get by.”
“This type of modification does not beg for a lender’s permission but is delivered as an ultimatum: Force me out if you can. Any moral qualms are overshadowed by a conviction that the banks created the crisis by snookering homeowners with loans that got them in over their heads.”
“They are fashioning a sort of homemade mortgage modification, one that brings their payments all the way down to zero. They use the money they save to get back on their feet or just get by.”
We have friends who resorted to the homegrown modification strategy, pretty much out of financial necessity. After about two years of rent-free living, Megabank of America, who inherited their no-doc Countrywide loan, finally auctioned the home out from under them. Ironically, they now rent a larger home and pay a lower monthly.
The MSM is starting to notice. I recently read a Business Week article that came right out and said that some of the recent increase in consumer spending was due to people not paying their mortgages.
I was tempted to shout something very rude at that magazine, but I was in the public library. So, I kept The Troublemaker (my mouth) on lockdown.
I guess the NY Times is a little behind the times on its real estate stories. To think that renters pay year in and year out, while some homeowners serially refinanced taking all of their equity out, or paying for cars or vacations or anything under the sun. After all that, homeowners still can live a year or more without paying a nickel. While that is true and unfair, these former homeowners have quite an adjustment to make when the day of reckoning arrives.
These financial titans are so stoned on their own ideological dope that they can’t appreciate being allowed to borrow from the Fed at 0% so that the proceeds can be invested in Treasuries at 4%. Oh, there’s redistribution going on all right.
I saw that article. The quotes are pretty bloodthirsty actually, consider this…
“It was a stupid move by their lender, according to Mr. Pemberton. “They went outside their own guidelines on debt to income,” he said. “And when they did, they put themselves in jeopardy.” ” — this, after they refinanced their HOME in order to buy a fancy truck to give away as a BUSINESS promotion.
I mean, it’s basically, “Those morons! They gave me all that money! What were they thinking!!” And while I agree, that’s sort of… cold.
As a lender I remain 100% sympathetic to borrowers who walk away. (Though none of mine has done so in the most recent seven years.) I’m on the side of Mr. Pemberton, “it was a stupid move by their lender.” And I bet besides going “outside their own guidelines on debt to income [ratio]” that the lender also neglected to collect much of a down payment, if any. Duh.
+1, AZ
For the record, I never said that increasing the percentage of homeowners in this country was necessarily a bad idea in and of itself. Properly done ( key word ) there’s no perfectly good reason it couldn’t or shouldn’t have worked for Clinton, GWB, Cuomo, Raines etc.
( I think we all… know where things came off the rail )
What they -didn’t- take into account was the millions of Americans sliding OUT of the middle class and quickly dumped into the ranks of the lower middle and below! Had home prices remained sane and an expanding economy at our backs, there’s no reason it couldn’t have enabled many of us to get a leg up. ( I know, woulda’ shoulda’ coulda’ )
Personally, and in normal times, renting only makes sense for more transient workers, the perm. under class, students and those more focused on partying than doing anything in particular w/ their lives? No grudge there. But when you have virtually -every- monthly expense eating them out of house and home where is the room in a family budget to support and ever-growing mortgage payment to boot!?
How many of these people would have ultimately gotten into genuine trouble with or without surging housing expenses?
As mentioned here before, I’ve done a bit of volunteering for Habitat for Humanity Tucson.
I seem to recall hearing one of the staff saying, at around the time that HFHT was celebrating its 25th anniversary, that they’d only had two foreclosures. That statement couldn’t have been made any later than 2007, as that’s when I became less active as a volunteer.
A big part of the reason for Habitat’s success with its (low income) clientele is the screening process. It ain’t for sissies. HFHT screens the heck out of its potential homeowners.
This is not to say that they’re all perfect angels when they move into their houses. They’re not. But they’ve put in at least 200 hours of sweat equity, and I’ve seen many of them do a lot more than that.
So, here’s one homeownership program that deals with low income people. And, for the most part, it works.
Another good thing about Habitat’s approach is that it’s a great teaching and learning place. I learned a lot there. And, even though I’m not an active volunteer these days, there’s still a sense of camaraderie.
For example, I was the official photographer for this year’s Tucson Folk Festival. It was my big debut as a pro photographer, I was rocking a brand-new, pro-grade camera, I wanted things to go well, and I was stressed to the max.
One of the Habitat staffers spotted me and asked how I was doing. Boy, was it nice to see a friendly face. Especially when I was feeling so frazzled.
I might add that this lady got started on working for Habitat when she was still wearing orange. That’s the official color of the Arizona Department of Corrections. She was an inmate/worker. Habitat hired her after her release.
So, there you have it. An ex-con asking me how I was doing.
Arizona Slim,
That underscores the point nicely. I’m all about bootstrap efforts, sweat equity, you name it. Hell, if it hadn’t been for VA I probably wouldn’t have owned a home until much later in life myself?
It’s possible that a good amount of blame lays squarely at the feet of local city councils that rubber stamped nothing but high end big bucks developments? When what we -should- have been doing is focusing on building homes most local residents could actually make the payments on?
( But where’s the ‘fun’ in that? ) Would we be having so many difficulties if the defaulted homes ( strategically or otherwise ) were 1,200 s/f vice 3,000 s/f? Would it be as difficult for lenders to find a potential buyer that can comfortably make the payments if we were working on a much smaller scale?
OMG DinOR youre talking section 8 housing, only those people could ever squeeze into that little amount of space….plus you are asking peeps to give up the “princess room” or worse asking a man to give up his right to a 100″ tv and 10 channel sound sooper bass boom box room… scary
———————
were 1,200 s/f
“sooper bass boom box room” LOL!
Yes, it would just be uncivilized! The biggest house we ever had was around 2,200 s/f and I thought it was a total pita. I’d never do that again, it was hardly worth it even when we had kids living at home, let alone not.
I keep wondering about steps that could have been taken to lessen the impact. Like “finished” garages? What’s so offensive about exposed 2 X 4’s? How much damage control would we have benefitted from just by using linoleum vice Italian marble tiles etc. etc?
All the upgrades translated into debt, now -defaulted- debt btw…
DinOR:
I think it was all about Impact fees to the city, the bigger the house the more the city got. So they approved everything huge.
Notice there was very few if any “affordable” housing built. They cities could have said build your 3500 sq ft McMansions or luzzury Hi-rises over there but here on the bus subway lines you must build 1200 sq ft affordable units….of course it didn’t happen.
Plus all the agents told people to drive until they could afford to buy. What should have been put out in the middle of nowhere was massive mobile home communities ….Not 3500sqft houses in the middle of a freakin desert..
Plus I wonder how many mobile home parks they told peeps to get out so they could build those $$$$ houses and apartments. Or how many Orange groves they sliced
Mercedes Benz lyrics
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV ?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me.
I wait for delivery each day until three,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV ?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town ?
I’m counting on you, Lord, please don’t let me down.
Prove that you love me and buy the next round,
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town ?
Everybody!
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends,
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Janis Joplin
Gawd mikey,
I loved her voice.
“What they -didn’t- take into account was the millions of Americans sliding OUT of the middle class and quickly dumped into the ranks of the lower middle and below! Had home prices remained sane and an expanding economy at our backs, there’s no reason it couldn’t have enabled many of us to get a leg up.”
Well, now that the “house investment” racket and the stock market circle jerk is circling in the crapper, perhaps some creative soul in this nation of 300 million plus will start a business, make something useful, market and sell it, pay wages and create…a REAL job.
I know that it’s a very old fashioned and a nearly extinct concept but it might still be a workable way to get a leg up !
Well, now that the “house investment” racket and the stock market circle jerk is circling in the crapper, perhaps some creative soul in this nation of 300 million plus will start a business, make something useful, market and sell it, pay wages and create…a REAL job.
I know that it’s a very old fashioned and a nearly extinct concept but it might still be a workable way to get a leg up !
Thwack! (A nail just got hit on the head.)
I still say cash is king. You can get better return on your money by having cash to take advantage of opportunities when they arise. I thought you were supposed to be pretty much debt free except house & car, have at least 6 mos of wages as emergency fund, plus nowadays, have a 401K and college savings account before you should ever invest. When did it become the norm for everybody to become investors?
When investors started being treated more favorably than workers?
You know, like that 15% LT cap gains tax, and carried interest for HF managers?
When workers slave away for 40-80 hours/wk making $1,500-$3,000/mo (before taxes!), why wouldn’t they turn to house flipping when they could net $100K in three months?
Our society idolizes “capitalists” and denigrates workers (union members, laborers, “regular” working folk, etc.). It’s no wonder everyone wants to be the next Donald Trump.
From the Times Union headline:
“Homeowners want services, but balk at taxes”
How will they feel about taxes without services, as more and more money is diverted to debt service, and the pensions and retiree health care of those who retired in their 40s and 50s?
Right-o! The state/muni story ain’t going away folks, ignore it at your own peril. The ownership equation is changing profoundly in many locales. Prices might go down, but if the tax rate goes up, then prices must go down even more.
The state/local story is going to fall out over 10 or even 20 years, if I had to guess.
That being said, local headline in the regional news section of the local paper:
County cuts budget for first time in 40 years
-The Gazette, Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Montgomery County MD is one of the wealthiest in the country and has room to cut a lot without destoying services. Others are not as well placed.
NYS property taxes are so oppressive that they *should* keep a permanent lid on and compress housing prices in any other environment. It was the case for many years until the Great Housing Fraud began.
“New Yorkers who own homes are proud of their properties. They consider home ownership a key piece of the American Dream. They believe real estate is a terrific investment.”
During the inflation economy of the last 38-yrs the home was the primary investment vehicle that kept the working family humble while the fed quietly printed away the country’s debts. That worked fine until the home became an ATM machine.
rms,
That’s really hand-in-glove w/ what I posted above. When I looked around at how ins. costs, taxes, the cost of living in general was doing nothing but escalating, it just wasn’t adding up?
People tend to forget but in the mid-80’s, I was stationed in the Philippines. When we were finally set to rotate back to the States we’d ask other guys what they were paying for rent in San Diego and were absolutely horrified!
So that’s really been my point of ref. for a lot of this. I couldn’t see how they could afford rent ( let alone a house payment? ) I think just the fact sailors were at or near the poverty line was the real litmus test for meeting basic needs. Given COLA has done nothing but spiral ever upward, home prices ’should’ have been trending DOWN over the last 20-30 years? Especially against the back drop of stagnant incomes.
“The survey, sponsored by the New York State Association of Realtors, was Siena’s first poll devoted entirely to real estate and home ownership issues. Respondents seemed relatively unconcerned with the housing downturn of the last few years, with 62 percent saying they believe the value of their home has increased or at least stayed the same over the last year, while 34 percent believe their home value has decreased.”
“Meanwhile, 69 percent said the value of homes in their community will increase over the next five years. Just nine percent expect a decrease.”
And this survey is merely more proof how completely deluded and ignorant upstate NY’ers really are. Of course when your area is ground zero for post-industrial decline, you’re inclined to convince yourself of anything so long as you don’t have to look at the 800 elephant in the room.
Nice mixed metaphor. An 800 (pound) elephant would be a runt
I’m surprised I didn’t say CY(cubic yard) or Ton considering those are the units I deal with much of the time.
‘People assumed they could boost revenues by kicking people out and raising rents.’”
Like Saddam used to say: “Where there’s a person, there’s a problem. Where’s there’s no person (or maybe just fake money?), there’s no problem.”
“‘…behind this loan number there are people, struggling people putting all their efforts and savings on the line,’ said Reyes.”
Is she talking about herself or the investors whose hard-earned savings funded her loan?
Had a long, long conversation with a friend just yesterday about how she was **the winner** if her house was foreclosed on.
She didn’t get it. After extracting over $200K, and paying slightly above local rents on average (had over 6 months of no payments, and had “modified” payments over 9 more months), she still thinks she’s the one who’s losing something in foreclosure.
I had to explain to her that somebody lost real money. Hundreds of thousands of dollars…that went to her, for FREE.
It’s really funny how our society perceives who the “victims” are in all of this.
‘Frank Kruppenbacher, a Florida lawyer who represented Trump Institute, said it was the other way around - the Institute was cutting its ties to Trump. ‘We thought it best to no longer do business with Mr. Trump’s organization,’ he said, declining to elaborate.”
The Trump Institute is cutting its ties to Trump?
Schweet!!!
Donald Trump has possibly done more to promote the “F-U, I’ve got mine” culture in America than almost anyone else. The sooner the memory of his ugly, selfish attitude is drummed out of the American psyche, the better.
And his ugly, gold-encrusted ziggurats razed to the ground … along with their inhabitants, if possible.
We used to have the Yuppie generation of the early 80’s with their “Screw you –I got mine” attitude.
I guess they and their kids just moved on…to Harvard and Wall Street, unfortunately !!
I can’t wait until the pyramid scheme…err…network marking company that Trump has folds. I would really enjoy not hearing him scream on the radio about how great it’s going to be.
Trump is something else. Who could stand to be around him ?
Every time I even hear or see this creep on TV, I hear this little voice in my head muttering…”Don’t you think it’s time for a long hot shower…lots of soap…long hot shower…”
He’s just a rolling fat slimeball under a rug.
“‘I think Andrew Cuomo and his staff have gotten a bad rap,’ said Judy Kennedy, president of the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders. ‘It makes me crazy that people blame the goals. It wasn’t the goals. It was plain old-fashioned greed.’”
Try not to think and open your mouth at the same time, Judy. Or at least crack open an undergraduate economics text and do a little reading before offering opinions on matters of economic policy.
That article and the NY Mag piece reminds of Ben Franklin. He said 6 months after the revolution that so much misinformation had been written about the war that it was already impossible to know what really happened.
Interesting fact about the American Revolution: It didn’t have widespread support. One third of the people supported it. Another third didn’t. As for the other third? They didn’t care one way or the other.
The one third who supported it were willing to fight for it; the one third who opposed stayed inside; and the one third who did not care made money from both sides.
Interesting factoid from “America at War” exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
The camp followers that sold stuff to the soldiers were not allowed to extend credit to the rank and file, only the officers. The leaders of the Continental Army recognized that when you give credit to everyone, all you do is raise the prices and ruin the borrowers.
Guess we forgot that somewhere along the way.
As someone who has long had a problem with the two-tiered system our military uses (officer vs enlisted), I also notice that saving all those enlisted men from their own stupidity also had the side effect of keeping things cheap for the officers. I’m sure that wasn’t on purpose, though [cough].
I dislike officer vs. enlisted just as much as I dislike the financial elite vs. the rest of us. In both cases the immense difference in power corrupts the system in many ways.
I think it is safe to say that in 1778 or so, the difference in financial resources for officers vs. enlisted personnel was real and that the officers were unlikely to be buying the exact same “stuff” as the enlisted. Seriously, this was over 200 years ago. We aren’t talking about getting Charmin from the PX.
The difference is real today as well. My point is that when you have a two-class system, it’s not unusual to see policies put in place to save the stupid lower classes from themselves that also just happen to help the upper class make even more money. And I guarantee those at the top who put the policies in place are well aware of the benefit to themselves.
IMO the honorable policy in 1778 would have been no credit for anybody.
amen on the officer/enlisted deal….HATED the saluting, inferior food and accommodations, etc. when an enlisted man in the Navy but liked the service otherwise…by a stroke of luck and fate was able to get out early on a retention study, no waaay would have considered it as a career with the constant reminders of second class status.
Later was able to buy a place on the G.I. Bill though, no regrets overall….
“Experts say the pressure to buy more-affordable housing loans resulted in new mortgage products, most notably low- or no-money down loans that brought more homebuyers into the market and ultimately created higher home prices. ‘He put the kindling on the fire,” said Russ Roberts, an economics professor at George Mason University. ‘What the requirements on Freddie and Fannie did was to push up the price of housing and that made it possible to lend money to people with no money down.’”
I am so happy that Roberts’ voice has some how circumvented the MSM requirement that any economist they quote on housing economics has to either spout nonsense, politically-correct propaganda, or both.
He produced a YouTube primer on Austrian and Keynesian economics which I find highly entertaining.
“Roberts thinks there’s plenty of blame to go around, but that Clinton and Cuomo deserve some of it. ‘It was a bipartisan mistake,’ he said. ‘And it was a mistake because it promised a free lunch that wasn’t free.’”
I can’t believe they still haven’t invented the free lunch by now; after all, it is already the 21st century!
“‘It was like the White House said, ‘Okay, we lost Massachusetts, health care is screwed, so let’s go after Wall Street,’ says the CEO of one of the nation’s biggest banks. ”
The whole assumption of the article is suspect. The election of Scott Brown didn’t “screw” health care; it enabled it. The Senate always had the option of passing a bill through the Budget Reconciliation process. The Senate has been using budget reconciliation forever, including COBRA* under Clinton and the tax cuts under Bush. It’s just that the Dems were too *ahem* wimpy to try it. The Brown election forced it. The bill didn’t have a PO, but they couldn’t get the PO even when they still had Ted K.
——-
* COBRA = Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act.
It’s just that the Dems were too *ahem* wimpy to try it. The Brown election forced it. The bill didn’t have a PO, but they couldn’t get the PO even when they still had Ted K.
I wouldn’t count the PO out. The health insurance companies, with their huge “because we can” rate increases are going to bring a PO on themselves.
Just you watch.
I agree, Slim. The Exchange won’t kick in until 2014. If there’s a friendlier Congress in the next 4 years (I’m guessing 2012) which puts a PO in the Exchange, then the fight over the PO this year will not have made any difference.
“Geithner, Summers, and Obama had little interest in tackling those matters, not because they are indentured servants to Wall Street but because at heart they are all technocrats who believe the system doesn’t need to be rebooted or downsized, merely better supervised.”
‘Ya see that dead horse lying over there? Go kick it to see if you can make it get up and run again.’
“They might not say Obama’s a socialist, but they come pretty close.’”
“Considering the lengths to which the administration had just gone to rescue Wall Street from collapse, all this behavior might strike a (rational) person as ungrateful and even churlish. One explanation for it revolves around the industry’s endemic twin defects: short-termitis and amnesia. Another, not inconsistent, theory is that the money changers aren’t merely forgetful but mildly deluded.”
The Megabank CEOs almost have it right:
Socialism for Megabanks; unemployment lines for Main Street.
What I didn’t see in the article was the ongoing government support for the financial sector — in the form depressing rates on saving relative to debt, buying bad assets, having the FHA, Fannie and Freddie accomodate housing sales at prices higher than would have been present otherwise, etc.
All while we hear complaints that not cutting off the unemployed might cause inflation.
From the NY Mag article:
“Yet the success of the Geithner plan did nothing to stem the populist tide swelling in the country. Actually, you could argue that it did the opposite. A surging stock market and the return of Wall Street to hyperprofitability sent a galling message to Main Street: The scoundrels who caused the financial crisis were flying high again, having paid no price for their perfidy. And because it was Geithner who had assisted them in getting airborne, he deserved nearly as much scorn—and received it in many quarters on the left.”
“Geithner considers such thinking illogical. His objective was to rescue the economy from ruin, and if the ‘price’ was that a bunch of bankers benefited, he was happy to pay it.”
There are plenty of people who are being illogical about this. But I get the feeling more and more would have preferred a Great Depression II if that meant the rich would have been taken down with them, even if they are willing to acknowledge that’s what the choice was.
It’s not over with yet. There are more weak hands today than in 2008 as households have either drained savings or ran up more debt in hopes of a quick rebound.
Agree.
“Geithner considers such thinking illogical. His objective was to rescue the economy from ruin, and if the ‘price’ was that a bunch of bankers benefited, he was happy to pay it.”
He will get amply rewarded with a lucrative job on Wall Street after he leaves office.
Bankers were the only ppl who benefited. There is no evidence that the TARP money saved anyone else from anything.
Frankly the good old days of financing are going to be a thing of the past. Distressed homes are going to sell for cash prices nationwide. This won’t be a bad thing, but will challenge the traditional view of home ownership.
I dont know about the cash thing.I think the govt knows housing is the economy and will provide low down loans for quite some time.I just dont see them pulling the easy money and watching the market tank.Im waiting for some foreign bank or company to start offering stated loans again.
With no government bonanza we’re about to see the second leg down on the price scale. Houses that were pushing $300K here in Palm Beach County are already selling for $100K or less in many instances especially in the acreage due to the cancer scare.
Paul B. Farrell
June 1, 2010, 3:11 a.m. EDT
American investors: Predictably stupid losers
Commentary: Obama backs status quo, helping Wall Street skim hundreds of billions
By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, I am mad as hell again. Wall Street’s soulless, immoral, greedy bankers really believe that the vast majority of America’s 95 million investors are not only “predictably irrational” but “stupid,” as J.P. Morgan Chase’s chief investment officer put it in Forbes a while back.
Worse, Main Street investors are losers for continuing to trust Wall Street after they lost 20% of our retirement money the last decade. Now, worst of all, Wall Street’s traders have profiled Main Street investors in their algorithms: Yes, investors are “predictably stupid losers,” what Vegas croupiers call a mark, a dumb gambler that can be easily conned out of his money.
…
PB,
As I’ve said before, we really need to change that model. There’s any number of websites ( Fund Fire etc. ) that track inflows from 401k’s practically to the penny. They already know where it’s being adjudicated.
That needs to change. Personally I’d be willing to “fight irrational fire with irrational fire!” and allow employers to set up their own HF’s.
We realize that flies in the face of ERISA/DOL/Plan Sponsers “Investment Policy Statement” but we’ve tried it the ‘other’ way ( and AFAICT it doesn’t seem to be working? ) Just a thought!
“Yes, investors are “predictably stupid losers,” what Vegas croupiers call a mark, a dumb gambler that can be easily conned out of his money.”
Yesterday there was a story in the Sacramento Bee about a woman who couldn’t take care of herself, but she has six children one of whom has serious medical issues that require constant professional oversight. Of course there is no father/husband present. The state is running out of money to support these programs, and the social workers aren’t sure why taxpayers are upset with them. The comments were some of the best yet. Enjoy!
Parents of ‘medically fragile’ kids:
http://tinyurl.com/2dubk93
“Andrew Cuomo promised to ‘transform the lives of millions of families across our country’ when as HUD secretary he announced his historic plan to increase home ownership.”
Finally,a politician making good on one of their promises.
Cuomo transformed the lives of millions of families, all right — transformed them from having a little bit of money to not having a pot to piss in!
‘It’s government’s responsibility to help people find housing, because I think that government is somewhat responsible for what has occurred,’ he said. ‘It’s a result of very poor policies with respect to lending. The practical effect of this is that the housing market was artificially heightened.’”
Ah yes, more government intervention is needed today to fix the damage produced by yesterday’s government intervention. The authors of poor policy can always be trusted to improve things with more poor policy.
Actually it is the citizen’s responsibility to shut off a fraud, waste and abuse machine created by the government. More than one way to do that.
“When in the course of human events,..” etc
Just read where a FL. couple hasn’t paid their mortage for 5 years and still no eviction, they are happy as a lark.
Look, the US hired census workers why not hire people to expedite these foreclosures and throw these frauds out in the street. Then put as many foreclosures as you can on the market get them sold and stop this hemorrhaging of the housing market once and for all?
Was pedaling my bicycle ’round town on errands yesterday. I spied a duplex that was empty. A few weeks ago, I saw a NOTS on the door of one of the units.
Until a few months ago, this duplex had been owned by a real estate agent. Probably was some sort of investment. And then the agent morphed into a “find a renter for your property” kind of guy. Makes sense, as there are a lot of accidental landlords here in Tucson.
Well, a check of the Pima County Assessor records shows that he is still the owner. Despite the visual evidence to the contrary.
I did a little more searching and found that Mr. Agent/Find-a-Renter is now working for a brewery on the East Coast.
His Find-a-Renter partner (who’s now the sole owner of the business) has the same last name as the owner of that college student dump across the street from me. That house had also been bought as an investment, and boy has that family (and their tenants) been good at depreciating it. We neighbors never cease to be amazed at their house-wrecking abilities.
Talk about a small world.
“their homes”. They keep repeating this over and over again. As if these people put 20% down and have any personal stake in it.
Yeah, what about the investors who made this loan possible? They are putting their money on the line too. Not that I feel bad about their loss, but the person who loans you money has every right to be repaid.
You’re right, Mangano (can I just call you “Mannie”?). I think the government should immediately step in, buy up all these houses, and let the people pay them off through exorbitant taxes for the rest of their lives. Of course, this just means we’ll have to convert to a communist form of governance, but who cares? As long as people don’t have to move into rentals, I mean, “emergency” housing.
That makes perfect sense. If you want to make housing more affordable, then you should make it easier for people to borrow money, thereby increasing demand without increasing supply. Did this man graduate from college, dudes? His reasoning is seriously flawed. A child could quickly see through such logic.
Foreclosure has allowed them to stabilize the family business. Go to Outback occasionally for a steak. Take their gas-guzzling airboat out for the weekend. Visit the Hard Rock Casino.
“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/business/01nopay.html?ref=business&pagewanted=all
I wonder how long it will take before this becomes the prevalent course of action…
I think it already is…
IMHO, so much of the “improving” economy is about this “silent stimulus” of not foreclosing on people who haven’t made payments in many months or years.
My guess is there are millions of people riding the free rent train right now.
Unfortunately, we loser renters don’t have that same option…and we get sub-1% interest rates on our savings to boot!
The ParkMerced apartments mentioned in the NYT article are in possibly the worst location in the city of San Francisco (unless you attend SFSU or mindlessly wander Stonestown Mall). They’re practically in Daly City, and it takes at least 35-40 minutes to drive into downtown during rush hour in a city less than 100 square miles. The fools want to continue to expand over there.
Freaking joke.