Bits Bucket for December 25, 2010
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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‘Stanley Weintraub’s book is entitled Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce. This remarkable story begins to unfold, according to Weintraub, on the morning of December 19, 1914: “Lieutenant Geoffrey Heinekey…wrote to his mother, ‘A most extraordinary thing happened. . . Some Germans came out and held up their hands and began to take in some of their wounded and so we ourselves immediately got out of our trenches and began bringing in our wounded also. The Germans then beckoned to us and a lot of us went over and talked to them and they helped us to bury our dead. This lasted the whole morning and I talked to several of them and I must say they seemed extraordinarily fine men . . . . It seemed too ironical for words. There, the night before we had been having a terrific battle and the morning after, there we were smoking their cigarettes and they smoking ours.”
“The soldiers emerged again on Christmas morning and began singing Christmas carols, especially “Silent Night.” They recited the 23rd Psalm together and played soccer and football. Again, Christmas gifts were exchanged and meals were prepared openly and attended by the opposing forces. Weintraub quotes one soldier’s observation of the event: “Never . . . was I so keenly aware of the insanity of war.”
“He concludes his remarkable book with the following: “A celebration of the human spirit, the Christmas Truce remains a moving manifestation of the absurdities of war. A very minor Scottish poet of Great War vintage, Frederick Niven, may have got it right in his ‘A Carol from Flanders,’ which closed:
O ye who read this truthful rime
From Flanders, kneel and say:
God speed the time when every day
Shall be as Christmas Day.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig2/denson4.html
I’d heard another aspect of the Xmas truce. The tune “God save the King” is recognized in the US as “My country ’tis of thee” and in Germany as another hymn. According to wiki, “The first German national anthem used the melody of “God Save the King” with the words changed to Heil dir im Siegerkranz, and sung to the same tune as the UK version.”
So the British and the Germans came out of the trenches singing their national anthems to the same tune. Had the US been in the war then, doubtless our soldiers would have come out singing My country ’tis of thee.
Minor nitpick: The Star Spangled Banner is our national anthem.
But good point otherwise. “My country ’tis of thee” is pretty much our second national anthem.
I never said it was our national anthem.
Sorry. My damn dyslexia again.
Thanks for posting that wonderful story, Ben.
Wishing you and all the other HBBers a Merry Christmas, and a healthy, happy 2011!
And I second that. A wonderful post, Ben. People can and do get along, when not stirred up and forced into opposition by evil men (and women).
One of the best gifts anyone can give is the gift of enlightenment, a gift given us by Mr. Jones.
Merry xmas ben and all of you who make this site fun and educational!
May God bless you and keep you, everyone.
Merry Christmas Ben
Thank you and everyone here for all you have taught me over the years.
Incredible. That was a much more civilized time (if there can ever really be such a thing in war), I fear those days are gone forever. I doubt the soldiers would have spent the holidays mingling with the Vietcong or the Taliban.
It’s an incredible thing to think about though. And incredible to think that, 100 years later, we’re still doing the same things (fighting like savages in the “trenches” in some desert somewhere).
Maybe because the Vietcong and the Taliban don’t celebrate Christmas. Religious wars are different from political or economic wars, which is why I never understood the Troubles in Ireland.
Let me try and explain it. The people of Ireland are mostly Catholic and wish to have a separate way of living than the British. They should be allowed to govern, by the laws of nature and nature’s God, according to their own desires and wishes, separate from the British. In other words, they should be able to disband themselves and live separate and equal lives, as neighbors. Sort of like we wrote up in the Declaration of Independence.
Instead, the British maintain an occupation force and dictate to the Irish what rules they shall live by, and force them to pay tribute to the British. It’s a lot like our own “American Revolution”.
It’s about freedom to choose.
Instead, the Irish are living in a forced “integration” system, living under a government they would rather overthrow. It’s as much about the right to choose as it is about “religion”.
It’s a lot like us siding with the Muslims in Bosnia, and bombing the Christians on the Serbian side. Rather than let them live as separate, but equal countries, we decided to integrate them.
Ironically, we tend to side with the Israeli’s in building a wall, rather than forcing them to “integrate” with the Palestinians.
Let’s use that same “multicultural” philosophy that gets pushed on us here on the Israelis. Don’t create a Palestinian State, keep it all own nation under Israel, fully “integrated” and Muslims living peacefully alongside their Israeli brothers. We can even ship them some yellow school buses to get Muslim children into Jewish schools and force them to change their teaching and curriculum. Think that will work out pretty easy?
yeah, the trenches and poison gas were far more civilized than today… not
I’m always skeptical of the notion that humans were ever “better then”…generally speaking.
As you should. ‘Cause we weren’t.
Case in point, Michael; Check out this description of the lingering battle scars of Medieval Warfare in the latest edition of The Economist:
The battle of Towton
Dec 16th 2010 | TOWTON | from PRINT EDITION
THE soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out.
Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.
The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his head—picture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25’s brain, felling him.
His enemies were not done yet. Another small blow to the right and back of the head may have been enough to turn him over onto his back. Finally another blade arced towards him. This one bisected his face, opening a crevice that ran from his left eye to his right jaw (see picture). It cut deep: the edge of the blade reached to the back of his throat.
…
Fascinating article. Thank you!
That was a much more civilized time
no it wasn’t Battle of Verdun over a million artillery shells were fired
a very good movie Passchendaele shows the Canadian army in 1917
http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=passchendaele
there was a discussion at work who lost most soldiers in the First World War Canada or the US?
answer: Canada 65000
US 120000
Great Britan 880000
the point is war can be worse than what we have seen in Iraq or Afghanistan
a whole lot worse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLkABxWn8wU
Paul McCarthy has a popular Christmas song, “Pipes of Peace,” about the impromptu WWI truce. Millions of young Europeans and British were slaughtered in that senseless, unnecessary war. Woodrow Wilson’s internationalist meddling prolonged the war and enabled the imposition of such grossly unfair armistice terms on Germany that it virtually guarenteed the rise of a Hitler-type ultranationalist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgDKtLPp46s
Another wonderful Christmas hit (though not a Christmas song, per se) that most of you probably never heard of from the Flying Pickets, a British a cappella group and one-hit wonders.
And not to forget the ultimate WWI X-mas truce song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7MwXniOD44
Isn’t that the Taco Bell canon?
Thanks, Ben, for this story, which reaffirms the ability of the human spirit to create peace and harmony even in the most adverse of conditions. Christmastime in the WWI trenches - what a contrast.
Thanks also, Ben, for starting and continuing this blog, which has helped so many people. And people, a Christmas donation toward the maintenance of this gem of the blogosphere would be a real Seasons Greeting!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a safe and productive New Year to all!
It cannot be refuted that there is no good guy/bad guy dichotomy in war but the wealthy elite have succeed it floating this lie. Both sides are evil. The human fodder seeks peace as BJ’s excerpt proves. The elite warlords heartlessly and casually sacrifice peon and peasant blood while they and their punks are safe, protected and wealthy.
US soldiers can quit anytime and it would certainly be the right thing to do. Soldiers are 100% responsible for their participation in the mass murder of…whoever.
When a loser politico or commanding officer tells you to go kill someone then said soldier must take the responsibility that comes with executing such evil orders.
No soldiers = no wars.
US soldiers can quit anytime and it would certainly be the right thing to do.
Not true, unless they want to spend an unlimited time in prison. You are correct that they are responsible for illegal acts even when following orders, though. Even when not given the tools to even know what acts are illegal…
So then it would be better to mass murder your fellow man than to go to jail?
That has nothing to do with your previous incorrect statement. I’m actually with you in spirit, if you’ll stick to the facts. I was unhappy about how the system worked most of the time that I was in the service. Doesn’t mean I could quit, though.
Excellent post, Mr.J.
That was indeed a poignant episode in an otherwise incredibly ugly display of useless human destruction and carnage.
I forget, what was the reason for World War I?
While waiting for WW3, I’ll wish Mr.J’s HBBers a very Merry Christmas, a Happier New Year and the hope that the world comes to realize the value of Peace and tranquility.
The reason for WWI?
Books could be written on the subject.
Normally, the cause of a war is to be found in the outcome of the previous war. In the case of WWI, the previous war was the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. At the time there was no such country as “Germany”, only a collection of small German states. A nightmare of the French would be that these German states would unify under the King of Prussia, so France provoked a preventative war to prevent this from happening.
The French invasion of the German states caused exactly what they feared. The German states went for protection to Prussia, and a German army under Prussian leadership crushed the French in a lightning campaign lasting only a few weeks. The German army occupied Paris, and there the princes of the motley German states swore fealty to the King of Prussia as the Emperor of United Germany. A new country was born.
So one cause of WWI was a French desire for revenge, even though their drubbing was their own fault.
In 1890 US Navy Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan published “The Influence of Sea Power upon History” whose thesis was that a country’s greatness was caused by its naval power. This book was eagerly devoured by politicians all over the world. It was a profound influence on Theodore Roosevelt, Kaiser William II, and the entire Japanese naval elite. All three embarked upon massive naval shipbuilding programs in their respective countries. The Kaiser in particular was a threat to the domination of the Royal Navy, and hence a point of confrontation between Germany and the British Empire.
The polyglot Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire was in a state of revolt, the revolt being supported by the outside-agitator state of Serbia. The Serbs really behaved like bastards, but were stupidly supported by the Russians as “brother slavs”. So there was a point of contention between the Hapsburgs and the Romanovs.
The Ottoman Turkish Empire was in a similar state of revolt, with the Armenians and Arabs unhappy with their lot. The Russians wanted to take advantage of Ottoman weakness and seize the Bosporus. The British wanted to take advantage of Ottoman weakness and protect the Suez canal - and maybe take the oil fields of Iraq.
For all of these reasons, the countries in Europe nursing similar grievances banded together into two armed camps. The Germans, Austro-Hungarians, and Turks formed the “Central Powers”. To face them, the British, French, and Russians formed the “Allied Powers”. It was thought by most that any war between them would be so horrible that they would be deterred from fighting. This was similar to the theory of Mutual Assured Destruction in the Cold War.
Tragically, a trivial incident sparked fighting between the Austro-Hungarians and the Serbs, which brought in the Russians, which brought in the Germans, which brought in the Turks, which brought in the French, which brought in the British. Nobody in a position of authority had the balls to say “STOP!”
Good post, Dennis.
Dennis —
You da’ man! What an enlightening post.
It occurred to me when we met up for dinner earlier this year that you could have probably held forth on whatever subject we veered onto for many hours. Sorry I had to get up early the next day for work.
Here’s to hoping you continue sharing your bounteous wealth of knowledge with others in the New Year of 2011.
Sincerely,
PB
The reason for WW1, perhaps the most destructive war in history, was a single gunshot in Sarajevo.
I has been said that war lasted until no men were left to fight. And for at least a generation French women, at least, could find no one to marry.
Serbia has had a knack for landing in the middle of modern history’s major conflicts.
Sarajevo, June 28, 1914
The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
by Micheal Shackelford
…
The July Crisis
The murders of Franz Ferdinand and Sophie brought Austro-Serbian tensions to a head. Serbia had been fomenting trouble for Austria for many years. For many in Vienna, the double murders provided the ‘last straw’ for a get-tough showdown. The trail back to the Black Hand would not be unraveled for years to come. Vienna felt she could not wait for conclusive proof and acted based on the mass of circumstantial evidence.
As Vienna took a hard line against Serbia, the other powers in Europe took sides. The wheels of war gained speed. The stakes far outgrew the squabble between Austria and Serbia. The Crisis of July turned into world war, just over thirty days after Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot.
Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary at first exclaimed “Thank God” or words to that effect when he heard Archduke Ferdinand had been killed. Franz Ferdinand was sort of the “Paris Hilton” of the Habsburg family, and once he was dead the honest and sober Karl was in line to succeed Franz Joseph to the throne.
It took a day or so for Franz Joseph to conclude that, while it was good that Franz Ferdinand was dead, it was bad that he was killed by Serb-backed terrorists. “This Chief of Intelligence of the Serbian Army held membership card No. 6 in the Black Hand.”
How would people in the US have reacted if it was found that Lee Harvey Oswald had been recruited, equipped, and paid by the KGB?
The CATALYST for WWI may have been a single gunshot, but the reasons were myriad, and had mostly to due with the British Empire’s inability to compete with Germany.
Leave it to the HBBers to get all esoteric and factual!
What, no mention of the “Kaiser’s” game arm and inferiority complex? The family squabble of cousins?
The question was:” What was the reason for World War I?”
The best answer I’ve seen was the Dada Art Movement..to wit:
There was NO “reason.”
No one can truly explain the carnage and stupidity, but Woody Wilson’s toyboy, Edward Bernays (Freud’s nephew), used it to manipulate the American public into consuming bubble after bubble.
Check out Adam Curtis’s “Century of the Self” and you’ll never look at ads or politicians the same again.
Let’s hope that next’s year’s Christmas is even Merrier!
Huh, I thought it was the other way around. Germany wanted more colonies like Britain had.
Except that they were mobilising for a couple of months before hand.
If you want to know the REAL reason for WWI look at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSTuMqVK7P4
Thanks so much for posting this link. I had no knowledge of this history between Britain and Iraq during the early 20th Century.
All war has but one reason: profit.
Follow the money to find the cause.
Who benefits?
Financiers.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and the happiest holiday season. Thanks for all the hours of information and entertainment over the years.
Mammoth Lakes Buried in Snow
(iReport CNN) “From Friday PM to Wednesday PM a series of powerful storms slammed into the high Sierra’s and buried the town of Mammoth Lakes. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area reported 17 feet of snow during this time with wind gust of 164 MPH. The town of received 9 feet of snow as reported by the Mammoth Ranger Station. Heavy snow snapped trees and created power outages as well as property damage to several homes and vehicles.”
CNN has a nice slideshow on the website.
I used to ski there in the eighties and nineties. I read that the mountain accelerates the weather that hits it. It is kind of isolated from the section of the Sierra Nevada where it is located. Even though many other peaks in the range are above 14,000 feet, 3,000 higher than Mammoth, it creates it’s own weather. I was there for four days of skiing. On the morning of my last day I borrowed a shovel to dig three feet of snow off my car from the storm during my stay.
17 feet? I am sure many people are going to be staying put for awhile there!
Skied there in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s. Merry Christmas to all and Best to Ben in the coming year. No forecasts for the new year from this end other than an avalanche of change is inevitable and I hope all of you come through with little scarring.
Has anyone seen Igor lately ? Notice that the EPA is going after Texas. Come on Barry and Big Sis, call off your dogs. Michelle, my butt, is waiting for you in HI.
its snowing again today but we got a nice 3-4 day break.
things are back to normal but it looks more like the end of march then the end of december.
261″ of snowfall by christmas day, seasonal avg = 342.5″
All the snow went south this year. Here in Boise there’s no snow on the ground and it got up to 50 degrees F yesterday afternoon. The local ski resorts are open but they only have a few feet of snow. Bogus is reporting a 36″ base and Sun Valley a 39″ base. That’s not much.
seems like the snow always goes south anymore..
Still no snow in Larimer County. The forecast is for the low 50’s today.
You can get almost anywhere in Idaho today - the roads are in great shape considering the date. Only the tail of I-84 going off to Salt Lake City is coded red.
http://511.idaho.gov/default.asp
Normally Idaho Highway 21 going off into the Sawtooths is simply closed for a 12 mile stretch due to avalanch danger.
Merry Christmas to all, and many thanks to Ben and
the rest for a great blog and the information that has
benefited us all. Many thanks.
Merry Christmas fellow bloggers!
Although I don’t comment much anymore, after having found this site in late 2005, I can say it–along with the insightful comments from all of you–kept me from making a major mistake in buying a house in Eureka, California.
Well, now I am getting to move finally, back to my home area (Kansas City). I’ve been looking at JoCo; prices look like they’ve come down there a bit, but they still seem relatively high (of course, they are really cheap compared to stuff here). Olathe looks a lot like Central Valley bust towns like Visalia, Bakersfield, Modesto–basically lots of crappy, tract homes cheaply built with no yards. OP looks better, and we’d probably be looking in a more established ‘hood. Although I’ve read the SM school district is starting to close schools, a sign that probably its better days are behind it.
Would anyone who has been in the area more recently have any advice for/against buying in that particular market? I think home prices there will fall more, but the rent/buy proposition looks reasonable and unemployment is fairly low. And, the wife is getting antsy to buy after having sat the last 5+ years out. Any advice from the “professionals” here would be most appreciated!!
I’m a big fan of Westwood, Fairway and parts of Prairie Village KS, because they’re established areas with houses that have some character, mature trees, close to the Plaza, easy access downtown, not too far from the highways depending on the direction of your commute, etc.
Asking prices have definitely come down. If you watch the MLS and Craigslist you will sometimes see homes that have been on the market a while that are also offered for rent. And if you watch zillow, there are a number of pending foreclosures you might keep an eye on.
If you need public schools JoCo is probably still better, the KCMO schools are in real difficulty.
As for the Shawnee Mission schools, that may partly be the result of the “graying” of those areas, so how/if it negatively impacts the school quality probably depends on how they go about restructuring, which I think has not been finalized.
Personally I’d rather NOT raise a child in a “cookie cutter” suburb like Olathe.
Planners must account for ‘graying’ suburbs
“The Shawnee Mission district boomed with Johnson County, growing from 6,793 students in 1950 to 45,700 students in 1971. Today it sits at 27,717 students, which goes a way toward explaining why the three schools being shuttered were operating at about 50 percent of capacity.”
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/18/2529560/the-stars-editorial-planners-must.html#ixzz199SeS79I
First off Ant, I would like to say hohoho.
Secondly, although I’ve never been to either of the Kansas Cities, I would advise you to buy a house that you like at a price that is competitive with rents. Don’t you even dare to drive till you qualify or to buy something smaller or in a worse neighborhood. If you could afford to rent it, then you should be able to afford to buy it.
That’s all I’m sayin.
Anthony,
I live in a small area called Leawood off of 119th and state line rd barely on the Kansas side of the line, south of the metro. The area from 119th to 127th and state line over to nall is a wonderful area for the price. The homes have some character, built 73 to 85 and the sq footage is 1800-2500. If you have some patience, some of the nicer updated homes will be on the market this spring. Go to reece and nichols dot com, the best site for the metro area home search. Start with a map search. I think prices will go down, but for the rent/buy ratios, it is very reasonable. For tax info, aerial maps, plot info, property, utility, school info etc go to aims dot jocogov dot org and choose online mapping, somewhere there you can enter addresses for any location in the county, such as olathe, sm, leawood op, mission etc.
Thanks Ben & HBB’ers for all the fun, cat fights, information we couldn’t get anywhere else.
This collapse has played out in many we we didn’t expect….and I for one was surprised at how much money Bernake thew at this…in the wrong direction.
We are still surviving but there are days when things look bleak and moms basement is inevitable, but then I get a breath of fresh air (money) and trudge on.
So the fresh air today is cat sitting..we have a lot of kitties to see today…while their owners are on vacation….
Oh, that’s cute. That’s what I will do after I become a millionaire and don’t need to earn much $$ anymore. What a cute thing to do for money.
I bet Santa had to change his snowpants after this. Merry Christmas everyone!
MIDVALE, Utah – If only Santa was as good with hot air balloons as with reindeer sleighs.
A man in a Santa outfit took a wild ride through Utah skies Christmas Eve when his balloon took off without a pilot.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Santa was tossing candy to kids from the balloon during a Midvalley Elementary School fundraiser when the craft landed too hard and the pilot tumbled out.
That left Santa alone and the lighter balloon shot back into the air.
Police Sgt. Torin Chambers says Santa traveled 1.7 miles across Midvale before the craft lost enough air to come down.
A crowd at the school tailed the balloon through town and helped hold it down once it landed.
Chambers says neither Santa nor the pilot were hurt. “Santa’s fine and everything’s good.”
Merry X-Mas, HBBrs. The kids are all awake, eyeing the presents, but for the time being, I am protecting Mrs Claus’s sleeping rights.
Please go see this movie over the holidays if you have not already done so (especially Joey and Eddie), and ask all your friends and relatives to see it as well. Knowledge is power, and all Americans should empower themselves with this powerful knowledge.
‘Inside Job’ Director Charles Ferguson, Taking Wall Street Firmly To Task
05:33 pm October 1, 2010
by Trey Graham
“I thought I was prepared,” says documentary filmmaker Charles Ferguson — prepared for what he’d learn about the “bad behavior” among Wall Streeters that led to the global financial meltdown.
Not so much.
“I had grossly underestimated the level of extraordinarily unethical and even fraudulent behavior that had occurred on such a large scale,” Ferguson tells All Things Considered host Melissa Block, in a conversation airing Friday.
Investment banks selling defective securities — even designing securities to be defective, so they could make a profit betting against them?
“If somebody had told me in the fall of 2008 that this had gone on on a huge scale — tens of billions of dollars — I would have said, ‘No, that’s just too extreme. People don’t do that. And if you do do it, you would go to jail.’ They did do it, and nobody’s gone to jail.”
…
Thanks for posting, PB, and I’ll definitely send this to friends & family. Unfortunately, 95% of the populace remain sheeple, as evidenced by the support for statists like Obama and McSame, and virtually every Establishment GOP and Democrat politician. Until the financial reckoning day comes the sheep will continue to be just that, I’m afraid.
Only one political philosophy out there that opposes the initiation of force, the threat of force, or fraud. Only three percent of the Americn public ever vote for it. The major reason is most people want something for nothing.
I keep looking for data on when the DVD version will be released.
Perhaps I am too naive, but the most surprising thing about “inside job” was how academia is owned by Wall Street.
In medicine, there are strict rules about academic presentations and disclosure of conflicts within seconds of starting your presentation. How business faculties get away with nondisclosure is criminal!
“How business faculties get away with nondisclosure is criminal!”
If you have read much here, then you doubtless are aware that Chris Thornberg left the Anderson School Forecast to strike out on his own a few years back. I can only conjecture to what degree that was driven by his tendency to shoot from the hip and to avoid painting lipstick on dying pigs. But I did notice the Anderson School was one of the business schools mentioned in the Inside Job movie as on Wall Street’s financial support gravy train.
It occurs to me that the threat of withdrawing money flows gives Wall Street a powerful lever over academia, the accounting profession, the rating agencies and the accounting profession. Small wonder so many seemingly-bright people ‘couldn’t have seen it coming.’
Inside Job - Charles Ferguson - Variety Interviews
Thanks for the suggestion, PB.
Merry Christmas to you and your family!
Merry Christmas and good riddance to Chris Dodd. Here’s to hoping the 2011class of new Congressmen will better serve the interests of Main Street America, and help Wall Street learn to follow the law of the land.
Here’s to hoping the 2011 class of new Congressmen will better serve the interests of Main Street America, and help Wall Street learn to follow the law of the land.
PB, my good fellow, do you still believe in Santa Claus, too?
Absolutely — at least the Hope and Change version of the story…
Of course PB and the rest of us all believe in Santa Claus. Don’t you go getting us in trouble with the Red Man, Sammy.
OK, let’s leave the native Americans out of this….
Santa Claus was a native American? I never gave it much thought, but it kind of makes sense; wasn’t he born somewhere in the neighborhood of Madison Avenue, New York, New York?
Foreclosure investors, take heed. Didn’t I warn you often enough not to try and catch yourselves falling knives?
Originally published Friday, December 24, 2010 at 3:26 PM
Foreclosure expert finds herself in trouble
Alexis McGee, founder of Foreclosures.com, made a national reputation by helping investors find and buy distressed properties whose owners were struggling to stave off foreclosure. She now finds herself in the same boat.
By Robert Lewis
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Alexis McGee, founder of Foreclosures.com, made a national reputation by helping investors find and buy distressed properties whose owners were struggling to stave off foreclosure.
Those investors now have an unlikely prize in a large, new Craftsman-style home that’s scheduled for sale on the courthouse steps in Fair Oaks, Calif., next month.
The distressed owner?
McGee.
McGee started her website in 1995 as a place for investors to find information on buying distressed properties. The site, which caters to paid subscribers, has grown in popularity. McGee became a renowned expert — writing books, offering seminars and being quoted regularly in media nationwide.
But McGee started having money problems nearly two years ago, records show.
The state in March 2009 filed a lien against her property for $127,000 in unpaid taxes. The federal government last August filed a lien for $210,000 in unpaid taxes.
McGee and her husband went into default in June on their Fair Oaks home and on a property at a resort in Squaw Valley. As of June 15, the two were behind $65,000 on their Fair Oaks mortgage. As of June 28, they were $25,000 delinquent on their resort-property loan.
The resort home was headed to a foreclosure auction, but McGee said she was able to work out a short sale, in which a lender agrees to let a home sell for less than what’s owed on the mortgage.
The lender this month filed a notice of trustee’s sale showing McGee and her husband owe $1.7 million on the Fair Oaks property. She said she’s trying to arrange a short sale of it as well.
“We didn’t want to sell it,” McGee said. “It does not make financial sense to keep this property.”
…
LOL.
Any decent stock or bond trader would’ve told you this.
The problem with humans is that they just don’t know how to sit and do nothing. And I speak as a fiery impulsive type who’s ironically admitting the exact opposite.
When in doubt, do nothing.
One of the lessons I’ve learned in life is that it often is better to do nothing than run off half-cocked just to do “something”. Often times issues in business resolve themselves just as time passes.
The Confederates would have won the Civil War if they had sat there and done nothing after seccession. Lincoln had no cause to go to war. But by firing on Fort Sumpter, the Confederates handed Lincoln a causa bella on a silver platter.
Recently learned that in medicine there’s a term, “tincture of time” regarding certain ambiguous ailments that, if you just wait and see, resolve themselves without any intervention.
Lesson learned:
Never fire the first shot unless you are 100% certain you will also be around to fire the last shot.
We certainly have seen how the political impulse to “do something” can get policy makers into deep holes from which even the cleverest propaganda message is inadequate to extricate them.
Those who believe “doing something now” always beats the option value of patience might consider the medical practitioner’s doctrine of “first do no harm.”
So true. Thanks for that thought. I remember being told, while in the Army, that a leader should, “Do something resembling anything” and thinking, “What a terrible idea.” Doing nothing can be just as powerful.
Back from Oz just in time to miss flying in all of these storms. Good to be home, but the new in-laws expect us back in case of Palin ‘12. My partner has OZ and EU citizenship, so there are some escape routes!
MrBubble
PS: Ho ho ho. There’s an interesting article on “It’s a Wonderful Life” at salon.com It’s a family staple at our house and we’ll be watching it come this afternoon… Oh wait. It is afternoon. Better put some pants on!
Fools abound.
Read 3/4 of the blogs and saw no mention of Palin’s kids purchase of a house in AZ. She bought in Maricopa county ! The home of Sheriff Joe Airpeo (sp). Best and safest place in the state to buy.
No, she bought in the incorporated town of Maricopa; the town is in Pinal county.
Further, the unincorporated areas of Maricopa county where Sheriff Arpaio is the chief LEO have seen a dramatic RISE in violent crimes while the state overall has experienced a modest decline.
http://washingtonindependent.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/AmericasVoiceCrimeGraph2.png
Sheriff Arpaio is a caricature of buffoonish and misplaced authority. Petty humiliation & degradation of inmates only erodes the legitimacy and dignity of his office. This clown should’ve been sent packing a long time ago.
Throwing $32 million at the black hole of California’s housing implosion seems likely to have about as much impact as taking a leak into the Pacific Ocean.
Restitution for “Pick-A-Payment” mortgages not planned in Connecticut
Rob Varnon, Staff Writer
Published: 08:16 p.m., Friday, December 24, 2010
While they had the same loans and encountered some of the same disastrous results, Connecticut residents who lost homes to foreclosure after taking out World Savings or Wachovia “Pick-A-Payment” mortgages don’t have the same access to restitution funds as residents of some other states.
Wells Fargo & Co., which now owns Wachovia, has reached agreements with 10 states to offer modifications to homeowners with Pick-A-Payment loans and to establish funds to help those who already lost their homes to foreclosure.
In California, where the most recent agreement was struck, an estimated 14,900 borrowers could still have these types of loans and be eligible for modifications that could reduce principal and interest.
A fund of $32 million was also established to help Californians who already lost houses.
The loan’s name is an exact description. Each month a borrower could choose to pay one of three payments. The minimum payment was so low that if a person continued to pay that amount, they could end up owing more than they originally borrowed.
Three of six World Savings foreclosure cases reviewed this week in Connecticut indicate borrowers were in just that situation.
The Wells Fargo developments are more fallout from the excesses in the mortgage lending market in which certain exotic products were overused, leaving banks and investors looking at portfolios filled with bad loans and families being forced out of houses. As the cleanup moves forward, the difference between who is receiving restitution and who is receiving a modification, in the case of Wachovia customers, appears to be a matter of timing.
…
But but, Real Estate only goes up.’They said I could refi in six months and everything would be ok.’
$32 million in California is about 64 houses. Big big Whoop di do ! hahahahahaha Send them 1099s.
“…about 64 houses.”
Hence my comment about relieving one’s self in the Pacific Ocean…
As a rule of thumb, it seems like Wall Street profits and bailouts come in the billions, while fines and restitution for fraudulent activities come in the millions.
Apparently, home ownership is not always the great benefit to American society that it is so often touted to be.
Man wanted for trying to harm himself, daughter in fire
Posted By - Melissa Mack
Last Updated On: 12/25/2010 1:06:41 AM
Gwinnett Couny fire investigators are trying to find the father who they say took his 6-year-old daughter to a house in Lawrenceville, then set the home on fire.
Witnesses say they saw Roberto Fernandez-Centana carrying a gas can as he walked his daughter into their former home Friday morning. The home is currently under foreclosure and vacant.
A few minutes later, witnesses told investigators they saw flames coming from the home as the child ran out, yelling for help.
Investigators say the little girl told them her father set the house on fire and was trying to kill himself. She was treated for smoke inhalation and is currently with relatives.
Fire investigators say Fernandez-Centana was not at the home on Daisy Court when they arrived to extinguish the fire. They believe he ran off into the wooded area behind the house. And, now they’re desperate to find him.
“Based on the circumstances, Roberto is considered a threat to himself and anyone he may come into contact with,” said Gwinnett Fire Captain Tommy Rutledge. “It is unknown if he is armed with any type of weapon at this time.”
…
Murder suicides are up all over.
Foreclosure mills prompt more law firms being questioned
Attorney says he knows of 2 more
Posted: 12/24/2010
Last Updated: 18 hours and 7 minutes ago
* By: Katie LaGrone
As foreclosure filings continue to knock Florida’s housing crisis, more attorneys hired to process these cases, are now finding themselves defending their actions.
That’s according to Palm Beach County attorney, Gerald Richman.
“They’re sending letters of inquiry out to other law firms, I know of at least two and I’m sure there are more,” Richman said.
…
Merry Christmas to all. It’s been a little over 5 years now since I discovered the HBB and I’ve read almost every message. That became much easier with Jason’s plugin. Thanks to him and Ben and everybody else here…it’s helped me to know I’m not crazy as “they” keep dragging it out.
Well, we never exactly said you weren’t crazy. (kidding, just kidding, step away from the gas can)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/8223574/Oil-pushes-closer-to-100-as-cold-snap-stokes-demand.html
Oil closing in on $100 a barrel, as commodities and foodstuffs soar. Can any of our resident Republicrat voters explain to me why Bernanke is justifying his endless “quantitative easing” (creating trillions of $$$ out of thin air, for the rest of us) because he claims we need to fight deflation?
Sammy, Sammy, Sammy.
You’ve got the whole idea wrong about what that “deflation” is. It doesn’t have to do with your BBQ expenses. It has to do with what’s cookin in the back room at the member banks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/8225044/China-raises-interest-rates-on-Christmas-Day.html
China raising interest rates in reaction to soaring inflation and speculative hot-money flows by TBTF banks and hedge fund managers taking advantage of the “Bernanke Put” under the markets, and the Fed’s injection of trillions in liquidity (to the same banksters whose fraud & swindles almost crashed the global financial system) under the false pretence of “stimulus” (for Wall Street, that is).
So does it mean inflation here?
Nahhh…thank goodness we don’t buy many chinese goods…or we would be in big trouble.
We’re seeing inflation all over the place here.
Note what’s been happening with the housing, stock, bond, and commodities markets. All UP during the “Greatest Recession Since the Great Depression.” I call that massive inflation.
Gasoline is up about (7/30)*100 = 23.3% over the past couple of months in San Diego. Luckily, energy is not part of the inflation the Fed worries about (aka the “volatile food and energy sector”) so we have no need to worry.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/8223050/Record-spike-in-EMU-default-risk-on-Portugal-downgrade-and-Greek-restructuring-scare.html
Joey & Eddie assure us that all is well, DOW 12,000 is assured (which it probably is, given Uncle Ben’s gift of trillions in free money for the Wall Street grifters to speculate with). Meanwhile, those subterranean seismic rumblings keep coming with greater frequency & intensity, despite the corporate-owned US financial media’s desperate attempts to convey that all is well and “recovery” is just a quarter or two away.
Wait — Eddie said the DJIA would hit 12K by year-end 2010.
I’m sure he is right about the 12K part — at least by year-end 2030.
Merry Christmaaaaaaaaaas!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/03/copenhagen-summit-carbon-trading-scam
Algore’s carbon trading scam has claimed its first, but by no means last, victim, with the foolish left-leaning Danish government being ripped off to the tune of $7 billion.
Carbon trading closed in Oct at CBOT. Barry still wasting ‘your’ money on electric cars,ethenol and solar subsidies.
Spain, as part of its belt-tightening, has cut back sharply on gov’t subsidies to the inefficient solar energy sector, which is now collapsing now without massive taxpayer subsidies.
There’s something going on in the Netherlands: http://nos.nl/artikel/207170-oproep-…strafbaar.html
Calling for a “bank run” in public will possibly become a criminal offense. Ministers Opstelten of Security and De Jager of Finance are preparing a proposal for a new law.
They want to be able to penalize people who are openly calling for a “bank run” a maximum of 4 years or a fine of 19.000 euro. According to the ministers a bank run can seriously endanger a bank.
The ministers say that the collapse of a bank in case of a “bank run” is a question of hours instead of days, since a call for this can be spread fast, using prestent methods of communication. Banks cannot defend themselves from this, and thus must acquire protection under the criminal law, is their thought.
DSB: Reason for the tightened methods is the demise of the DSB Bank. Account holders took out 600 million euro from their accounts in this bank, after the call of Pieter Lakeman, of the Foundation “Hypotheekleed” (Motgage suffering).
The bank run was the initiation of the bankruptcy of the bank of Dirk Scheringa.
Would it be illegal in the U.S. to call for a boycott of residential real estate purchases? (Just askin’ — I’m not calling for one…)
Like yelling fire in a crowded theater…The GovREIC will not stand for it!
So who’s gonna protect the depositors of unstable banks, when they are not allowed to know just how unstable said bank really is?
Um…nobody.
Exactly. The very same people that protected everyone this time around.
So does this mean that we should go after Sen Schumer (D NY) for causing a ten billion dollar run on Countrywide ? Come out where ever you are Exeter ! Tulip mania anyone.
Can anyone make recommendations on e-book websites with low cost/no costs books, in particular for young adults?
Project Gutenberg has lots of out-of-copyright books, including some Twain, H G Wells, Bronte, Dickens, Dumas, etc.
TY
Check Amazon, of all places. Many of the classics — Complete Works of: Shakespeare/Doyle/Tolkien are available for less than $5 each.
Google Kim Komanando free books. It’ll bring up her site with links to free downloads for PC’s as well as ebooks. Haven’t figured out that linkly thing yet.
I hereby call for a bank run in the Netherlands.
It’s your First Amendment right to do so…
Oh, I thought you said “beer run”. Never mind.
Next thing you know, someone will try to outlaw suggesting that it is a dumb idea to buy residential real estate in America at a time when prices are falling. Or is it already illegal to suggest that?
The Associated Press December 23, 2010, 4:33AM ET
Dutch consider outlawing calling for a bank run
AMSTERDAM
The Dutch government says it studying a law that would make it a crime to call publicly for a run on a bank.
The move stems from the abrupt October 2009 collapse of DSB Bank NV. The regional Dutch bank was facing claims it overcharged mortgage clients, when a well-respected industry commentator called for all retail clients to pull their deposits.
Investors, skittish after the 2008 financial crisis, followed his advice and the seemingly healthy bank collapsed days later.
…
You’re so going to get extradicted.
Santa Claus brought me some reading materials.
“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.”
— Shakespeare, The Tempest –
…
Among the devils you’ll meet in vivid detail:
* Angelo Mozilo, CEO of Countrywide
* Roland Arnall, founder of Ameriquest
* Hank Greenberg, CEO of AIG
* Stan O’Neal, CEO of Merrill Lynch
* Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs
* Franklin Raines of Fannie Mae
* Brian Clarkson of Moody’s
* Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman
I like the cover art. Just watch out for “basement cats”.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2010/08/12/funny-pictures-basement-cat-forcloses/
Opening quote in the introduction to John Cassidy’s How Markets Fail:
“I am shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!”
– Claude Rains as Captain Renault in Casablanca
———————————————————————————-
I will be interested to see how he develops his case for the “failure” of “free markets.” My prior impressions are the following:
1) Adam Smith, father of capitalism, never suggested that capitalism would work without a rule of law. So why should anyone have expected the “free market” to work, given the backdrop of a deregulation juggernaut run amok?
2) Given the heavy hand of Uncle Sam in the housing market, and of the Treasury and the Fed in the (predictable) financial sector bailouts, how can one be sure that it was not too much government-sponsored market-distorting intervention, rather than “deregulation,” which led to the financial collapse?
Free markets might work a lot better with jail time for investment bankers who deliberately blow up markets, rather than too-big-to-fail bailouts. Of course, if they didn’t face the moral hazard of prospective bailouts, they would have no motive to blow up in the first place. The
free market version of Darwinian evolution would drum banks that are prone to blowing up out of existence.
So again, with a rule of law and without the wrong kind of market-distorting interventions, I suspect free markets might work just fine. IMO, we haven’t given free markets a fair shake. (Note I take the liberty of excluding the market for political kickbacks from my definition of “free market”).
Did you see the post yesterday about RE brokers who collude on pricing?
I’d worry LESS about government interference and MORE about the DAILY proven track record of businesses colluding and conspiring.
Griftopia
Matt Taibbi
Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America
From the jacket, inside the front cover:
The dramatic story behind the most audacious power grab in American history
The financial crisis that exploded in 2008 isn’t past but prologue. The stunning rise, fall, and rescue of Wall Street in the bubble-and-bailout era was the coming-out party for the network of looters who sit at the nexus of American political and economic power. The grifter class — made up of the largest players in the financial industry and the politicians who do their bidding — has been growing in power for a generation, transferring wealth upward through increasingly complex financial mechanisms and political maneuvers. The crisis was only one terrifying manifestation of how they’ve hijacked America’s political and economic life.
…
Most of it’s not complicated at all. They just passed laws that said it’s okay for them to now do what was once illegal.
And their accomplices have been every imbecile that voted for Establishment Republicrat candidates. Including McCain and Obama. And these same fools will be duped by the next bankster-owned “champion of change” that is annointed by the Grifter Class in 2012. Such is the nature of sheep.
Thanks for posting that link, PB.
Santa brought me Charles Hugh Smith’s Survival+ for Christmas…who knew he was an HBBer!
Did any of you see the movie There Will be Blood, starring Daniel Day Lewis as a California oil man around the turn of the 20th century? I keep thinking of the scene where he explains how he used the engineering equivalent of a long, giant straw to suck all his neighbor’s oil wealth out of the ground.
Isn’t this directly analogous to how QE siphons away wealth from Americans owed fixed dollar obligations (e.g. those on fixed income pensions) and transfers it to Wall Street gunslingers?
Classic film line: “Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that’s a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake… I… drink… your… milkshake!’
QE = Bernanke’s straw
The repeal of the Glass Steagall Act was the financial equivalent of horizontal drilling.
The American public got drilled, all right.
Backdoor drilling…(what FPSS might refer to as “horizontal dancing”).
Merry Christmas, Ben and fellow HBBers! I hope your holiday is filled with peace, rejuvenation, and some quality time with loved ones…
Me too, but that ain’t gonna happen for me.
Which part?
At least you got some quality time with your HBB loved ones…
To all fellow HBB-ers, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
The recent hairsplitting concerning politically correct Christmas greetings left my particular Christmas spirit feeling a tad bullied.
Not to put too fine a point on it, anybody who doesn’t like “Merry Christmas” might want to consider going to whine before an audience with like minds. Y’all can have a proper circle jerk for your complaining.
Seen from a distance, subject PCs are the ones who shuffle along at an angle, twisted to one side by the weight of the chips on their shoulders. In profile, they are profiled by virtue of their out-thrust lower lips.
When the Christmas spirit moves, I do not consider the vocabulary I use in a free and open expression of good will to be subject to scrutiny. I extend the same degree of graciousness to others.
Amen to that, Jane. I like this story of how persecuted Chinese Christians are celebrating the birth of Christ the Savior (not some insipid, polyglot PC “Happy Holiday”):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8224841/Christians-celebrate-Christmas-against-the-odds-in-China.html
KRUGER: George, I don’t get it. If there’s no Human Fund, those donation cards were fake. You better have a damn good reason why you gave me a fake Christmas gift.
GEORGE: Well, sir, I - I gave out the fake card, because, um, I don’t really celebrate Christmas. I, um, I celebrate Festivus.
KRUGER: Vemonous?
GEORGE: Festivus, Sir. And, uh, I was afraid that I would be persecuted for my beliefs. They drove my family out of Bayside, Sir!
Duplo train = awesome.
I think this is great.
An Irishman abroad tells it like it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koY6kXhQDQo&feature=email
If a bank does it, that makes it legal, right?
A Mistake That Stole Christmas? A Foreclosure Story
by Chris Arnold
December 23, 2010
Like many Americans, Jennifer Ryan-Voltaire is trying to get ready for Christmas in her home outside Boston.
She and her family have their tree on display. “We’ve decorated the outside of the house,” she says. “We’re trying to get into the spirit of things, despite what’s going on.”
Wells Fargo recently foreclosed on the family’s home and owns the property.
“We’re trying to make it as fun for the kids as possible without them knowing or having to worry about what we’re going through,” says Voltaire, an office manager at a medical practice.
She hasn’t told her three kids that they don’t own their house anymore.
Across the U.S., state prosecutors are investigating whether the nation’s largest banks have been improperly foreclosing on thousands of homeowners. The banks say they do not seize people’s houses without justification.
The Voltaire family bought the house, situated in a middle-class neighborhood, four years ago. They’ve always made their payments. But after Voltaire’s husband had his hours cut back at work a year ago, they couldn’t afford their loan anymore.
So they applied for and got into the Obama administration’s loan modification program, which starts out with a trial period. Voltaire made lower monthly payments while faxing in proof of income and other documents to Wells Fargo. But she says the bank kept losing the paperwork.
A paperwork debate dragged on for more than six months. But Voltaire says she always re-sent anything the bank wanted and she thought everything was in order.
An Auctioneer In The Front Yard
But one day this past July, Melissa Mercogliano — Voltaire’s cousin who lives across the street — saw an auctioneer from the bank standing in the front yard, selling the house in front of a crowd of about 30 people.
Mercogliano ran over, waiving her arms and shouting that the house was not for sale. But the auctioneer told her that Voltaire no longer owned the property.
Voltaire tried calling Wells Fargo. She says she knew Wells Fargo had said it was missing a tax document again and had scheduled a foreclosure. But she says she faxed the document to the bank and a call center worker confirmed that Wells Fargo now had all the documents it needed and that it would call off the foreclosure sale.
Meanwhile, when buyers at the auction saw Voltaire’s neighbors running and yelling into cell phones, it scared them off. No one bid on the house. The bank ended up foreclosing and taking ownership.
Voltaire was shocked, since she’d always made all her payments and appeared to be qualified for permanent help through this federal program.
“What they did was illegal,” she says. “I mean, how do you just take somebody’s house?”
…
“I think very clearly the bank made a mistake. This is something that we see over and over again — people are sending in their documentation and still get denied.”
- Gary Klein, lead lawyer for a group suing the major banks
Why Bank of America Forces Unlawful Foreclosures
Posted by Erin on December 23, 2010 in News, U.S. | 0 Comment
In another public relations nightmare, Bank of America is accused of breaking into a woman’s home and stealing her possessions. Among her possessions that the megabank took was her late husband’s ashes. Can it really get much worse for BOA? I think it will. The bank is reportedly the next target for the whistle-blowing site, WikiLeaks. Mimi Ash is one of the growing numbers of homeowners who are claiming that they have been wrongfully foreclosed on. In a lawsuit filed in October, the New York Times reports, Ms. Ash claims she was behind on payments on her Truckee, California home and was in the process of working out a mortgage modification with Bank of America when the bank seized her home and possessions. This seems to be happening much more frequently and has been the subject of several state investigations that specifically target Bank of America.
…
Foreclosures hit small town America:
News
Foreclosure rates increase in 2010
Published: Sunday, December 26, 2010
By LINDA GITTLEMAN
Gratiot Managing Editor
From last year to this year, the mid Michigan area saw a significant jump in home foreclosure rates.
Michigan scored fifth highest nationwide for foreclosure rates in the month of October. While mid-Michigan communities don’t come anywhere close to the numbers in the metropolitan Detroit area, there’s no doubt that the local cities followed the trend.
Ithaca was one of the few cities that didn’t. Its foreclosure rates actually decreased in part.
In October of 2009, it had a total of four foreclosures. In September of this year, that number had grown to five. But, bucking the trend, in October it was only two, according to published reports.
Like most other cities, Mt. Pleasant saw an increase: from 13 foreclosures in October 2009, to 21 in September of this year and 27 a month later.
…
Flipping up nickels in front of steam rollers can be highly lucrative!
Flipping foreclosed houses
Sonoma County real estate crisis proves lucrative for investors who buy distressed homes at auction, resell for sizeable profit
Christopher Chung / The Press Democrat
The house at 151 Francis Circle in ROHNERT PARK: InvestorTed Dyer, the former general manager of a car dealership, bought the property at auction for $174,240 in July 2008. He sold it 35 days later for $409,090 — a gain of $234,850.
By NATHAN HALVERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Published: Sunday, December 26, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, December 25, 2010 at 7:46 p.m.
Flipping homes, where an investor buys a house, makes some improvements, and then quickly resells it for a big gain, might seem like a relic of the real estate boom.
But it has again become big business.
Real estate investors are buying homes at foreclosure auctions from banks and then reselling the properties within months or even weeks for large gains — often reaping bigger profits than speculators enjoyed during the heyday of the real estate run-up in the first half of the decade.
The lucrative business has attracted local players such as Hank Trione, a member of one of the county’s wealthiest families, and Chris Peterson, a prominent home builder who teamed up with investors to launch a house flipping operation in 2009 that now spans Northern California.
The financial returns can be eye-popping. One investor purchased a Santa Rosa home at auction for $153,575 and sold it 30 days later for $330,000 — a 115 percent markup.
Those payoffs have allowed a handful of investors to generate tens of millions of dollars in profits, according to a Press Democrat analysis of the nearly 700 Sonoma County homes sold to investors at auctions between January 2008 and last October.
About 1 one in every 10 homes foreclosed in Sonoma County was sold at auction to a third-party investor such as Peterson, according to foreclosure records provided by MDA DataQuick of San Diego.
…
You have no idea how much this flipping bothers me. I thought we’d be largely done with these vermin when the bubble collapsed, but they’ve been going strong right through the collapse — and making money in almost every case, I might add.