Bits Bucket for May 1, 2011
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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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Name:Ben Jones
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Whew! I’m glad the bubble keeps missing Rochester, NY.
“As many housing markets across the country struggle mightily in the aftermath of the 2007-09 recession, home prices in the Rochester area remain solid and the real estate industry expects a pickup in activity this year after a mild slowdown.”
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20110501/NEWS01/105010354/Rochester-home-prices-holding-steady?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home
The good news? When it finally hits, it can be a surprise and unexpected! Yay!
seeing the same spew in the Boston area. Articles saying there hasn’t been much of a correction here, then when evidence to the contrary arises, the press/NAR crime syndicate, says “well at least we’re not as bad as Fl, GA, CA, NV, etc.” In addition, there is hype that it will never get that bad here. The Boston Globe is the biggest shill I have ever seen…
“In addition, there is hype that it will never get that bad here.”
Probably not hype. Las Vegas, for example, has only one industry and one which does particularly badly in recessions. Plus its in the middle of the desert far from anywhere, its going to be hit hard by peak oil. Remember, 49 states will not have it as bad as the worst one.
Vegas had two industries, one was gambling the other was construction. Both industries depended on money forever flowing in from elsewhere and both are now in the pits.
I think you are leaving out the oldest profession in the world that is alive and well in LV.
LOL! I saw an article the other day about a shapely female card dealer who works wearing nothing but her underwear.
That comment might be true, but for verification we need photos. You know, just for proof.
Orlando is also a one industry town and has very high vacancy and foreclosure rates as well.
Curiously, I understand that both the Mouse and Universal Studios are weathering the recession fairly well. That said, from what I hear, Disney more often than not offers the “free dining plan” throughout the year, when it original was only offered for a couple of months after the summer high season ended,
Huge bogus foreclosure auction price scam in FL:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-foreclosure-inflated-prices-names-20110429,0,4806115.story
Good catch, liz. Ah, Florryduh, what will happen here next? I must say, I never heard of that one. A scam, yes, but apparently not entirely illegal.
“But a Brooklyn buyer who purchased a MetroWest unit with her husband for $65,000 in December was surprised to learn it was bought by an investor at auction two months earlier for $25,000.
Asked whether they would have lowered their offer if they had known how much was paid by the investor group, she said: “I probably would have lowered it quite a bit.”
And the sheeple get screwed again!
This article is interesting in that it just illustrates the systemic breakdown I mentioned in another thread. Public records are no reflection of reality anymore. The end result of such shenanigans, whether legal or illegal, is a lack of confidence. In a fiat system, it’s all about confidence. No confidence = no money.
Here’s an example of where Price equals Value. Note that the “value” of the house was not attached to anything except the price to which the previous buyer paid.
It seems logical to think that value should be attached to something else - such as income - but this doesn’t seem the case when it comes to real estate.
combo, that is an excellent point. Good lesson to be learned here, too.
I personally refuse to entertain a unit that I know is an investor flip. One unit here is advertised as ” not a short sale” just a regular sale.
Looked like a smokin’ bargain at 120k. But wait! I noticed that it was purchased by an investment group for 80k. That definitely affects the price I would pay for it; why pay 40k more than the last buyer who got it who-knows-how for that price?
The good news is now it is advertised at 109k; the flip is becoming less lucrative; the market won’t support it as much as the investors had hoped.
As goes this property; so goes the market. Only value to me is as a barometer.
I would gladly pay 40k more, if the price is still much lower than comparable units offered by regular seller, the title is washed clean, the repair/inspection is done so the unit restored to as new.
For regular buyer who do not have the resource to deal with short sale, foreclosure, it is not such a bad deal if someone had done the extra work for you. Especially if nearby house with 2500 sf are in a range of 600k and up.
This article is interesting in that it just illustrates the systemic breakdown I mentioned in another thread.
Isn’t there potential for tax fraud here?
If they use the inflated value as their cost basis, and the tax stamp to back it up, couldn’t they be paying less taxes than they would if the actual gain was apparent?
Still, I agree…it seems that the 2nd buyer shouldn’t care if they feel they got value for their money. Although presumably previous sales price could be a factor in one feeling whether they did or not…
Never buy a pig in a poke.
“Huge bogus foreclosure auction price scam in FL:”
Welcome to TARP’s public-private partnership complete with government lending programs. Why use your own money?
Son of Resolution Trust Corporation. Once again the insiders make the easy money.
Here is a quote from Ken Smith from one of yesterday articles:
—–
“We could be done with this already and on the upswing if they had just let prices fall. Prices would have fallen more than they did and we’d be on our merry way. Let’s list all the foreclosures and get them out there.”
—–
Is it just me, or does he think that the real estate bubble is going to inflate right back up, just as soon as buyers snap up all that inventory the second it released? That is, a V-shaped recovery. What if he’s right? A V-shaped recovery is what I fear most — where we (I) would have very little time to catch a price on or even near the bottom. That if I don’t pull the trigger right away, all the good SFH will be snapped up and that would be left is junk attached product at inflated prices. (In the DC area, 70% of the listings are attached product.) Realtors are probably already rehersing their high-pressure sales pitch for just such a situation.
Do investors really have enough money to snap up the good stuff and leave the public with the scraps? I really don’t want to be hurried…
“Do investors really have enough money to snap up the good stuff ”
I’m not an investor, just a prior home owner who sold in 2004 due to a location change and hasn’t repurchased yet. I do have enough money to purchase what I want but I won’t buy until I find the right house at the right location for the right price. If that means renting for the rest of my life so be it. My wife and I have done a lot of soul searching of late and find that the best times in our life was when we owned so little and therefore had more time and freedom to do things in life, i.e. be a participant in it, not controlled by it.
PS. This war on savers has pissed me off to where I will now buy as little as possible. When I do buy I try to buy locally from locals and pay cash to avoid taxes as well. The government wants to play so let’s play.
Oxy,
I believe that the chances of your worst fear happening are just about zero. We are just at the very beginning of correcting the biggest credit expansion in history, one that has been building for 60 years. The smaller one, that started correcting in 1930ish was 20 years in the unwinding. Very little of the credit expansion that led up to the socalled crisis in 2008 has been corrected, thanks to the intervention of the FedBank and the FedGov and other smart entities around the globe, to keep the party going. It will still correct, just now more so. Consider timing your house purchase with your ability to pay cash, which I assume will give you some time to enjoy the show.
“Very little of the credit expansion that led up to the socalled crisis in 2008 has been corrected, thanks to the intervention of the FedBank and the FedGov and other smart entities around the globe, to keep the party going. It will still correct, just now more so.”
This really is the crux of the matter:
1. Whether limited ’success’ of government interventions so far will result in renewal or abandonment of further intervention efforts.
2. At what pace or point such renewal or abandonment occurs.
3.a. Under the renewal scenario, how massive will any reconstituted housing market systemic subsidy/support structures be, and for how long will they endure? Recall the GSEs, which effectively ceased to exist in Fall 2008 aside from a Source Code mission to fluff the market, had their origins in the Great Depression era (seventy years or so earlier).
3.b. Under the abandonment scenario, how glacially will, say, efforts to unwind the Fed’s massive MBS security portfolio or Fan&Fred’s shadow inventory holdings play out?
Thank you for talking me down, Blue. However, I don’t how historical data is going to help. Did we have QE2 and QE3 historically? How long can this party last? Until the houses fall in?
I don’t think the basic nature of these things changes much over the generations, just the details.
If I fall asleep waiting, wake me up when we discover our next innovative energy source.
“Is it just me, or does he think that the real estate bubble is going to inflate right back up, just as soon as buyers snap up all that inventory the second it released?”
They are counting on it. They know the Emperor has no clothes, so they are hyping a return of the bubble.
No one wants to tell the sheeple that this is the new normal, and you’d better get used to it. Everyone is hoping that things will soon “bounce back” (and they will still be hoping 10 years from now) and that the home ATM will return.
What I’m wondering is how long will they continue to prop up the stock market? I suppose that as long as there are more QEs the DOW, NASDAQ and S&P will continue to rise. So the real question is: WHat will it take to make the Fed an inflation hawk?
I’m not sure that anything will, because once interest rates rise the Fed Govt won’t be able to service the debt and will default Damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Just a reminder: the S&L disaster took 6 years to hit bottom.
What start and end dates are you using, ecofeco?
Roughly 1989 to 1995. I was working for a newspaper when it began.
Dating the current disaster to Fall 2008 (F&F blowup time), the six-year timing would take you out to 2014. But since the housing bubble was far more ginormous than the S&L-inflated bubble, the time to bottom may also prove greater.
More fun and games here in Salinas-Monterey complex. Houses appearing on lists, disappearing, and later reappearing. The only thing being reported somewhat accurately on the sites are that the selling prices are far less than the asking prices. Property taxes that I know are in the range of 5K to 12K are being reported as last reported in 2009 or 2010 and $600-$1200. Perhaps they put the misdirect there changing from yearly obligation to a monthly without an explanation just to get a sucker in the RE’s door. Wishing prices are largely $250 sq.ft. to $800 sq.ft.. Housing less than 10 yrs. old are being tented and gassed for termites when sold. I think this is a scam to help keep jobs. If gas stays above $4 per gallon or goes higher it should really move some people off the fence as a huge number of high priced house are miles from job sites. Just got our local water bill, new rates assessed and for the same usage it was increased 33 1/3 %. I’ll know who’s hurting by the number of dead lawns this summer. Weeds and dead lawns cannot be hidden by the RE crowd.
“If gas stays above $4 per gallon or goes higher”
Which is nothing more than manipulation, an Enron redux. Oil tankers have formed a conga line back and forth across the ocean. (wish I could take credit for that “conga line” phrase, but I got it from the Al-Jazeera article on price manipulation)
Imagine if we were energy self sufficient, that conga line would come to a grinding halt. Of course that would drop the price and subsizdize sales of the behemoths to which American males have tied their self esteem. We all know real men drive trukz.
What if gas is going up purely because the dollar is falling? In gold prices, oil has not gone up that much.
It’s not. It’s being manipulated.
How do I know? Let’s just say I’m as close as you can get the major oil players without actually working for them.
But if that doesn’t convince you (and why should it being as it’s only anecdotal) just look at the record profits being made the oil companies.
Record. Profits.
Same thing every year
-Gas prices go up in the spring, because of
-”refinery shutdowns”
-”tensions in the Middle East” (BTW, when are there NOT “tensions” in the Middle East?…..Shouldn’t “tension” be priced in by now?)
-”the dog ate my homework”
-etc.
At which time, when the bitching among the serfs start, the Feds loudly announce an “investigation”…….that magically, never seems to find any evidence of manipulation.
If the Feds don’t think/want to find out that the market is manipulated, then it’s not manipulated, all other evidence to the contrary. So you do what you can to avoid exposure to the manipulation that isn’t happening.
Regarding the MSM not reporting the story behind our economic problems, its tough to tell a complicated story in a 30 second sound bite. Even here on HBB a lot of people don’t understand. I’ve lost count of the number of people who claim that banks lend out 9 or 10 times as much money as they get in deposits. Of course its not true as a quick look at any bank balance sheet would show, but they continue to believe it.
Most people can’t comparison shop, understand rebates or realize that 10% discount on a 1000% mark-up is no deal.
Wall St. and Fed collusion and manipulation?
Forget it.
10% discount on a 1000% mark-up is no deal.
Sounds eerily like the mortgage interest deduction…
Bernanke boxed in
2011-APR-30 Author: Alasdair Macleod
Ben Bernanke is in a tricky position After the first-ever Fed press conference, gold and silver rose sharply. This was hardly a vote of confidence in paper money.
Perhaps the event and the Federal Open Market Committee statement that preceded it were over-hyped, but both events were disappointing – ducking as they did the important issue of what happens after QE2 is completed. The statements on inflation did little more than recognise a temporary and small – or “transitory” – pick-up in prices. By revising downwards estimates for economic growth over the next few years, the Committee claims that inflation will probably subside. In any event, the Fed is more concerned with the risk of inflation being closer to zero, given the risk that the economy might then tip into deflation.
All in all, the statement and the press conference exposed the weakness of the Fed’s position. We are left with the thought that if a Paul Volcker were in charge, things would be very different. A return to sound money and a stabilised dollar would be a pre-emptive strike against both global and US inflation, and the experience from the Volcker era is that economic growth was much better than might have been expected following interest rates of 20%.
But there is a crucial difference today compared with 30 years ago. The level of private sector debt is substantially higher, and shows a strong tendency towards contraction. High interest rates are not actually needed to reduce demand, because bank credit, which is the counterpart of private sector debt, has been contracting of its own accord. It is this that frightens the Fed most, because contracting bank balance sheets are very difficult to manage without risking a full-blown banking crisis.
So it is the difficulty of keeping the banking system running while there is credit deflation in the air that actually pre-occupies the Fed. This is more important than the official mandate of maintaining a low rate of inflation consistent with high employment. But by focusing on keeping the banking system solvent, the Fed is taking enormous risks with monetary inflation. The unprecedented growth in raw money, reflected in the increase of the monetary base since the Lehman Bros crisis, has been designed to offset the contraction of broader credit, and is deemed by the Fed to be non-inflationary overall.
Economists generally support this view, taking comfort from the build-up of bank deposits on the Fed’s balance sheet in the form of non-borrowed reserves. They argue that only when the banks draw down on these reserves to use as a base for further bank lending will the inflation risk escalate. But this argument ignores the fact that this money is already in circulation through government spending.
There may have been nothing new from the FOMC statement, and nothing about QE3, but in the absence of more positive measures the markets have the confirmation they need that the dollar is headed lower. The Fed is boxed in. No wonder gold and silver rose so sharply.
Tags: dollar, Fed, inflation, quantitative easing
Tarp money at work…
First Security Group will pay ousted CEO Rodger Holley about $2 million in accrued and vested benefits under a severance agreement signed last week, according to regulatory filings released Wednesday night.
Holley, who headed FSG Bank from its start in 1999, resigned as chief executive last Thursday after the bank reported losses of nearly $82 million over the past two years.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday, FSG said the bank doesn’t believe the payments violate the “anti Golden Parachute” provisions of the Troubled Asset Relief Program that provided a $33 million federal loan to FSG Bank.
In its annual report released earlier this month, FSG reported that despite its losses Holley’s wife was paid $103,000 and occasionally was provided a car over the past three years for design and construction of bank branches and repossessed properties.
As the sole proprietor of Alpha Antiques, Judy Holley was paid $23,000 in 2010, $40,000 in 2009 and $40,000 in 2008 for interior design and other work for the bank and its properties.
During 2009 and the first half of 2010, Judy Holley also was provided the use of a company car “to assist in managing” the bank’s foreclosed property portfolio, according to the bank report.
FSG also disclosed that bank director Ray Marler, who owns a construction and waste management business, was paid $13,000 for advice and services for the bank. Marler also bought some bank repossessed property for $20,000.
In a recently released outside audit of the bank, Joseph Decosimo and Co. PLLC auditors concluded that the bank “did not maintain an effective control environment” and had “a failure to establish a culture of integrity and high ethical standards.”
In its annual report, First Security acknowledged that, “an effective ‘tone at the top’ related to internal control over financial reporting was not embedded in our culture.”
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/apr/28/fsg-pay-2-million-ousted-leader/
And on Sunday they all went to church.
Gotta love those prosperity gospel churches
We are making the Italian government look like a paragon of fairness.
Gotta retain the talent…
Stanley Mum On Pay Vote
As the company released a quarterly earnings report reflecting strong gains from a year earlier, Stanley Black & Decker declined to say Tuesday how it would respond to last week’s shareholder vote rejecting the pay packages of top executives.
The company previously reported that CEO John F. Lundgren received a package worth $7.57 million in 2010, plus stock and options not yet vested, which could total $26.6 million if performance targets are met.
Nolan Archibald, executive chairman of the new company and the former CEO of Black & Decker, received a 2010 package worth $9.49 million, plus stock and stock options with a theoretical value of $24 million.
But under a golden-parachute deal, Archibald will get $43.3 million in 2011 and a bonus of up to $45 million in 2013, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Just seven companies have experienced negative votes in the new say-on-pay rules mandated by Dodd-Frank financial reform, out of hundreds of companies holding votes so far, said Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate with GovernanceMetrics International.
Will Stanley Black & Decker cut back on pay because of the votes?
“The Compensation Committee will take into account the outcome of the Say-on-Pay vote when considering named executive compensation arrangements for future years,” the company said in a federal filing.
http://articles.courant.com/2011-04-27/business/hc-stanley-black-and-decker-earnings-20110426_1_shareholder-vote-financial-reform-stanley-black-decker
How will they respond?
Pay increases anyway. Bank on it.
Well, at least my little corner of the world APPEARS to be stable.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/realestate/foreclosures-rare-in-hillsborough-countys-sun-city-center/1167133
Yeah, but it does have other problems related to the housing bubble. There are many people here who overpaid for their houses and they’re not happy. But since many paid cash, there’s no mortgages to walk away from.
And I can report that one problem that does exist are homeowners who are unable to pay their annual Community Association fees, or even care for their homes. They do have a fund here to help out some folks who are going through rough times. The old timers do take care of their own.
How much do those fees run? Are they higher than the average electric bill for example?
A weird twist on my Abu Dhabi attempt: my wife (English teacher) was offered an interview, but I (science supervisor) was not. As it turns out, they need a bunch female secondary English teachers, but no males.
I’m not used to being treated like a guitarist and a drummer at the same time!
“science supervisor”
Under the right circumstances, San Diego is a good place for a science teacher, as the area has a very large science-oriented subpopulation, and select areas offer plenty of fertile young minds in the classroom for a science teacher to cultivate.
Too bad we currently have very unfavorable circumstances. Was at a school foundation fund-raiser last night (Theme: “Casino Night”
), where I saw a number of expensive vacations ($3K-$7K price range) offered during the live auction with reserve prices* which attracted ABSOLUTELY ZERO bids; seems the travel company who put together the deals has no clue about how broke everyone is around here these days.
I spotted one of my son’s teachers by the roulette table. I asked him whether teachers were allowed to gamble, to which he responded, “This is my only hope for making up for the meager size of my paycheck.”
After that comment I felt the obligation to explain too-big-to-fail banking to him:
“Suppose you put all your chips on that number, and won big time: Then you would get to keep all your winnings, right?
Now suppose your big bet resulted in your losing everything; if you were deemed systemically risky and hence too-big-to-fail, you would automatically get a brand new pile of freshly-minted chips to enable you to foolishly gamble away other people’s wealth.”
*As the auctioneer later explained to my wife and me, the way these deals are structured is the travel company gives the foundation a bottom line cost to cover their cost of putting together the vacation package (e.g. maybe $4K for a week in Honolulu); any excess above that for which the vacation package is auctioned goes to the school foundation. If nobody can pay that price, then nobody takes the vacation, and the school and the travel company get nothing.
I have a difficult time imagining someone from San Diego, CA traveling somewhere in search of nice weather.
San Diego isn’t Hawaii. The beaches are cold and full of smelly seaweed, and are foten closed because of Tijuana sewage spills. When I lived there there were times I didn’t go to the beach even once during an entire calendar year.
Besides that, vacations are about getting away from it all. For most San Diegans, a typical day in San Diego is about fighting traffic and going to work.
“…foten closed because of Tijuana sewage spills.”
These so-called ‘brown tides’ are nasty, and something you don’t see in the relatively more pelagic oceanic waters surrounding Hawaii.
$51K average San Diego teacher salary isn’t that “meager” for nine months of work.
http://www.indeed.com/salary/q-Teacher-l-San-Diego,-CA.html
Salaries start at $38K and top out at $84K, again for nine months of work.
http://www.sdcoe.net/hrt2/pdf/teacher_salary.pdf
You have to compare the salary to housing costs. If you have to pay $500K, minimum, for family-sized housing, $38K ain’t gonna cut it.
Its obviously a front for a sex-slavery racket.
Do they have segregated schools?
I seem to recall reading that the Saudis would sometimes have men teach girls via closed circuit TV, or something like that, if female teachers were unavailable.
Saw some good advice on one of the sites for “contract” pilots/mechanics.
Have the contract (the one in Arabic) reviewed by someone who reads/speaks Arabic before signing on the dotted line. Evidently, in the even of disagreement, and the case goes to court over there, the Arabic copy is the one they will use to determine terms.
Common sense, but it pays to remind yourself.
I figured yesterday that I had no real local observations, but then I went to a kid’s birthday party and got to listen to a guy who’s been looking to buy since last September.
He’d made an offer on some place way out of town, with Interstate access in and probably more land that he’d get on the dinky new lots here. The house had been 1 1/2 yrs DOM and the bank tried to short sale. This guy’s offer is one of three offers coming in, and he’s right in the middle at about $240k. The bank didn’t like what it got so it asked for best and final, but the other two bidders wouldn’t play. So this guy is the only offer and the bank still won’t take it. He had all the stats down cold.
Anyway realtors tell him stuff under $200 is moving pretty well, but everything above that is just sitting. Out of state owners are still hanging on because they don’t want to give it away and all that. Capitulation is going to be a doozey!
Meanwhile a story came out today that local builders predict 2 more years slump in construction.
In the case of housing, Barkey says low sales, falling prices and foreclosures are both symptoms of, and cause of, poor market conditions.
“Falling prices knock out any type of spec investment,” he adds. “Homebuilding won’t take off until prices stabilize. With prices in 2010 averaging 3 percent lower than year-ago levels, that day has not arrived yet.”
Someone please explain, does “spec investment” mean speculation, or individual buyers buying a house built on spec? If it’s the former, then it’s a pretty candid admission of what was driving the market up until 2007.
A spec home is one that is being built without a buyer.
I have heard that it means speculation, and as SV said,they are built without a buyer. When I lived in Socal pretty all tract house were spect houses. Entire neighborhoods were built all at once, and the houses were sold as they were being built, or after they were built if the market wasn’t red hot at the time.
Out here, spec houses are built individually by local and mom n pop builders, or sometimes a big builder like Lennar will build a few to finish off a nearly filled neighborhood, and close the sales office as specs are sold by realtors.
Of course this is all in the past. Lennar had a half finished neighborhood here which it abandoned when it closed its local sales office a few years ago. To this day they are trying to sell those empty lots via realtors as the local mom n pops are pretty much only finishing basements these days.
I wonder how much those empty lots go for. And can the buyer build whatever he wants on the lot, or would he be stuck with a McMansion floor plan?
It would be sweet revenge if I could pick up a 1/4 acre lot for cheap in a McM development and put a small Craftman on it. Of course the HOA would never allow it.
I believe that there are zoning rules. FWIW, Lennar and the other chain builders didn’t build too many McMansions in our town, mostly 2000 sq ft houses.
The local McMansions tend to be mom n pop built spec houses. I knew a few guys who did that for a living. Since the bubble popped they all moved on.
ok I thought it might mean specuvesting a casey serrin.
“A spec home is one that is being built without a buyer.”
Although in most cases….
A spec home is one that is being built without a future victim`s signature on a contract, who after signing the contract and obtaining a loan for the spec home will soon lose their job and contract some kind of serious illness rendering them unable to repay the loan they took out to buy the spec home.
But fortunately for the victim Sheila Bair, the chairman FDIC thinks rotten mortgage documents are so threatening to the economy that the government should force banks to pay into a massive fund.
When asked..“You don’t want to give an exact dollar amount for this cleanup fund, but what are we talking about. Is it billions?” (I think it should start with a T)
“Yes. I would assume it would be billions. Yes,” she replied.
So it all looks good for the victims who buy the spec homes and live there for free for a few years. They can be expecting a check for $20k (as was mentioned in yesterdays Bits) to move out and not challenge the bank over who owns the loan. But if they get a good lawyer with a good sob story who knows, the sky is the limit.
Ask not when will I be evicted.
Ask who owns this loan anyway.
Does each foreclosure “victim” get 20k to leave quietly?
Talk about cash for keys!!
They are redoing my wife’s(BofA); same documentation that was sent out a year ago is being sent again. Once again in quadriplicate.
Of course we want to stay as long as possible as free rent is the best rent, if you can get it….for us at this point, it’s either that or the dole;taxpayers other than ourselves will be helping us whether we or whomever likes it or not. We both work its just not enough to pay for insurance, bills, AND rent…
Cue the small violins
Cue up mini-violin.
If the banks had handled the documents right to begin with, instead of trying to bypass the system to save money, they wouldn’t be looking at this situation.
And remember, a lot of these homes are in default, because the banks were telling people that the only way they could get a refinance was to go into default.
IMO, the banksters and homemoaners deserve each other.
The MERS fiasco is the bank’s Karma.
The homemoaners Karma can be considered the original foreclosure, or it may have not yet occurred. If it hasn’t, it won’t be pretty. Banks have long memories.
As the saying goes, “Payback is a Bi#ch”
“Yes. I would assume it would be billions. Yes,” she replied.
Watch out Sheila, I assumed I would be buying another house for my family to live in no later than 2008 after selling my home of 22 years in 2005 and renting one instead. I assumed that this housing mania which had driven prices to insane levels would surely have ended badly for the refinance kings and queens, the Donald Trump wannabe flippers, the Financial and Real Estate Industry that had fueled and cheered it`s run up. Uh what year is this?
5 Best Countries to Escape America’s Decline
Activist Post
Okay, you’re upset with the direction America is headed and you’ve been thinking of moving to another country. Perhaps you feel exhaustedly cynical about the political, economic, or social situation in the U.S. and think it is beyond repair. You wouldn’t be alone. Many top economists and other trend forecasters are now openly predicting that a total economic, environmental, and social collapse may be imminent in America.
http://www.activistpost.com/2010/10/5-best-countries-to-escape-americas.html
I don’t know much about Uruguay to comment, but the rest of the list, with the exception of NZ, is not the paradise they are claiming.
NZ, like everyone else in the world but us, has tough immigration laws. But if you can make it, that’s the place to go.
I liked the idea of NZ until the earthquakes hit. Uruguay might be a possibility, I’ve actually done a little research on it. Forget Argentina and Costa Rica. Iceland is a little too Northern for me.
How about living out of a van in Santa Barbara? Could live off $800 a month, easily with fun and a gym membership to stay clean. Lots of people doing it.
That is NOT living.
How Goldman Sachs Created the Food Crisis
Don’t blame American appetites, rising oil prices, or genetically modified crops for rising food prices. Wall Street’s at fault for the spiraling cost of food.
BY FREDERICK KAUFMAN | APRIL 27, 2011
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/04/27/how_goldman_sachs_created_the_food_crisis
At what point will the Republican party pull the plug on Trump’s still-born presidential bid?
Trump Steals Attention From Issues, Candidates, Republicans Say
By Sara Forden - May 1, 2011 11:25 AM PT
Donald Trump has been stealing attention from campaign issues and candidates with his focus on President Barack Obama’s birth certificate and school grades, Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain said on network talk shows today.
“There’s a lot of things Mister Trump can be proud of, but some of this rhetoric and this focusing on the president’s birth, I do not think is the way for us to win the White House,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
…
You’re not interested in a Balkan supermodel for a first lady?
Check out the case of Spitzer lips on the face of this blow-hard sourpuss!
Washington, May 2, 2011
Birth pangs for Donald Trump
Obama has his audience in splits at his opponent’s expense.
U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday got back at Donald Trump at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner on Saturday night for the fuss made by the real estate mogul over his place of birth.
Mr. Trump, a possible Republican candidate in the 2012 elections, has relentlessly insisted Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and not in the U.S. State of Hawaii and hence was not eligible to be President.
…the President decided on Saturday night to have some fun at the expense of the mop-haired Mr. Trump, who was in the crowd, warning his audience that he was going to show his “official birth video” as added proof.
“I warn you — no one has seen this footage in 50 years, not even me,” Mr. Obama quipped.
Then, on a huge screen at the cavernous Hilton banquet room came the opening scenes from the cartoon movie Lion King, showing baby Simba being born in Africa.
The audience erupted in laughter.
…
Ha-ha, so funny I fergot to laugh.
The whole birther thing is a red herring, anyway. It keeps people distracted from the real issue, which is right in plain sight: Obama’s father was never an American citizen. For this reason alone, he’s not and never was, eligible. If both parents were citizens, it wouldn’t matter where he was born, he could have been born in Patagonia and it wouldn’t matter.
However, laws, rules, regulations, agreements, etc. seem to be pretty much optional these days. What difference does it make? This country has already been conquered and the citizens are already paying tribute to the “new people” in the form of various forced wealth transfers. Americans must now observe new customs and languages and mores. Get over it.
Nice Bits.
Stung by homeowners who give up paying, banks ask: Who’ll walk away?
Armenti’s townhouse in Emerald Dunes: He bought it in 2006 for $274,100. Now his West Palm Beach home is valued at $77,000. He says it would be wrong to abandon his mortgage while he can still afford to pay it.
By Kimberly Miller Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 10:35 a.m. Sunday, May 1, 2011
Homeowners who strategically default on their mortgages hope to fly under the radar, living payment-free while their foreclosure wends its way through the courts - a years-long process in some cases.
But the nation’s leading credit-scoring company says it has developed a better way to identify borrowers who can afford to pay their mortgage but choose foreclosure instead.
FICO’s new analytical tool, which combines such factors as spending habits, changes in a person’s debt and housing depreciation, is heralded as a way to ferret out borrowers making a business decision to walk away vs. homeowners who truly can no longer afford their mortgage. FICO claims to be able to make this distinction before a borrower is even in default.
For banks, identifying strategic default borrowers early can help them make decisions on how to handle the delinquencies, including what kind of language to use during phone calls, and whether to pursue deficiency judgments.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/money/foreclosures/stung-by-homeowners-who-give-up-paying-banks-1446517.html - -
From comments
We haven’t paid our mortgage in over 14 months. Received a few letters but have done nothing. They have no idea what our cell phone #’s are so they can’t bother us. Saved well over $30,000 in cash, aiming for $50,000. We’re packed and ready to bug out if they come knocking. In the meantime…..
Laughing all the way to bank
12:14 PM, 5/1/2011
How do you protect your cash savings against a potential deficiency judgment, especially in light of the fact that you are living rent-free in what is effectively somebody else’s property?
Despite all the headaches associated with holding down a job in the aftermath of the Great Recession, those of us American men who have them are among the lucky 80%. Good to keep this in mind against the backdrop of ever more work for the same pay…
America’s jobless men
Decline of the working man
Why ever fewer low-skilled American men have jobs
Apr 28th 2011 | PHILADELPHIA | from the print edition
FRANCIS MCCLOSKEY lost his job at the Philadelphia city government’s information hotline in August 2009. Twenty months and more than 1,000 job applications later he is still out of work. He has attended scores of jobs fairs, sought help from job-search coaches and cold-called dozens of companies. This year he has been asked to only three interviews. Soon Mr McCloskey will join the growing ranks of “99ers”, Americans who have drawn jobless benefits for the maximum 99 weeks. His worry is plain: “I’m really drawing a blank on what I’ll do then.”
To William Bradley the labour market looks even bleaker. Despite having a degree in public administration and applying for “more jobs than I can count”, Mr Bradley has had only the odd stint as a telephone surveyor. His problem is that his degree was earned in prison, whence he was recently released. “My criminal record is the primary barrier to getting a job.”
One recent morning both men spent two hours at a weekly “jobs club” organised by the Philadelphia Unemployment Project, an advocacy group. Most who attend are men; most have low or middling skills; several have criminal records. The group helps with computer training, writing résumés and interview techniques. At the weekly meetings tips can be shared (“McDonalds is hiring 1,000 people”) and frustration vented (“If you can’t work, you start feeling less of a man”).
The project is at the sharp end of one of America’s biggest economic problems: the decline in work among men. Of all the big, rich Group of Seven economies, America has the lowest share of “prime age” males in work: just over 80% of those aged between 25 and 54 have a job. In the late 1960s 95% worked.
…
That’s because they’re LAZY, by God! Just because there’s 10%+ unemployment doesn’t mean there ain’t plenty of jobs out there!
The article mentions much higher rates of unemployment for certain American male subpopulations; e.g. 30% of black men are unemployed overall, and 70% of black men without a HS diploma are unemployed. There is some very sad irony in these statistics appearing during the first black president’s time in office.
Realtors Are Liars
Dear Gawd,
Please, please, please protect America from loathsome jassacks who think their billionaire status qualifies them for high office.
Sincerely,
Get Stucco
After Roasting, Trump Reacts In Character
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: May 1, 2011
LAS VEGAS — He was savagely mocked by President Obama and the comedian Seth Meyers at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner — belittled as a political charlatan with an unchecked ego and a dead fox plastered on his head.
But the next morning, Donald J. Trump was not laughing. He was doing what seems to come more naturally: lashing out.
“Seth Meyers has no talent,” Mr. Trump said in an interview on Sunday. “He fell totally flat. In fact, I thought Seth’s delivery was so bad that he hurt himself.”
…
Sounds to me like a pretty entertaining Rump roast:
“I warn you — no one has seen this footage in 50 years, not even me,” Mr. Obama quipped.
Then, on a huge screen at the cavernous Hilton banquet room came the opening scenes from the cartoon movie Lion King, showing baby Simba being born in Africa.
The audience erupted in laughter.
Just to make sure the cartoon excerpt would not be taken seriously by his conservative detractors, Mr. Obama added: “I want to make clear to the Fox News table that was a joke. That was not my real birth video.”
“After Roasting, Trump Reacts In Character”
Repeat after me, in rapid succession:
Roast Trump
Roast Trump
Roast Trump
Roast Trump
Roast Trump
Roast Trump…
Hopefully, the politics of race will not “Trump” America’s growing cohesion into a multicultural, tolerant society.
Opinion Contributor
Racist, xenophobic code underlies Donald Trump’s rise
Trump’s rhetoric comes at a time when the two parties are divided along racial lines. | AP Photo Close
By MICHAEL A. COHEN | 5/2/11 12:54 AM EDT
It remains to be seen whether Donald Trump will officially run for president. But whatever his decision, one thing is clear: His political effort so far may be the most racist and xenophobic on the campaign trail in some time.
Trump is not only directing coded racial barbs at President Barack Obama, he is aiming his rhetorical guns on those he describes as scheming foreigners as well. Scarily, Trump’s words seem to be contributing to his growing popularity in a Republican Party increasingly dominated by, and dependent on, white voters.
Trump’s rhetoric comes at a time when the two parties are divided along racial lines. According to recent polling, nearly 90 percent of GOP voters are non-Hispanic whites. In the 2010 midterms, 60 percent of whites cast a Republican congressional ballot — the party’s highest percentage of that vote in modern exit polling.
While the Democratic share among non-white voters shrank in 2010, it exceeded 70 percent — a number likely to increase when Obama is on the ticket in 2012. When it comes to questions about Obama’s performance or the role of government, the racial divide is even more striking.
At the same time, polls suggest that, more than other Americans, voters sympathetic to the tea party movement are more likely to hold “racially resentful” views of minorities.
…
“In the end, it’s unimaginable that Trump could ever win the White House. But when a wannabe populist politician, using racist and xenophobic language, rises to the top of the list of GOP presidential aspirants, every American should be concerned.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/54040.html#ixzz1LAc6iHmz
NEWS
US has the body of Osama Bin Laden
Bin Laden Dead.
Just under ten years after 9-11-01…
1 May 2011 Last updated at 22:54 ET
Al-Qaeda leader Bin Laden ‘dead’
Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama Bin Laden is dead, according to US media reports citing officials.
The US is in possession of Bin Laden’s body, the reports say. President Barack Obama is due to make a statement shortly.
Mr Bin Laden is top of the US most wanted list.
He is accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.
Sic semper nutcase mass murderers
Chalk one up for the Muslim Kenyan College dropout. Best news of the last decade.
+1.
By the way… he never went to college. His degrees and transcripts are all forged. He’s a high school drop out.
“Flashing faux news report”….stop…former Australian-citizen-now-as-true-blue-as-Kentucky-grass-&-I’m-a-True-American-Patriot-Repuke-Mudruick telegrams from his Corp Inc. offices in the UK: …”lil’ Opie, (The non-Hawaiian) elected on a false birther certificate uses the US military forces to kill “the evil” one. So, that now having destroyed the US eCONomy as well, lil’ Opie can claim his rightful title as “King-Emperor” of all Muslims and resign as “I’m-the-2nd-Decider!” as soon as US Air-Force 1 lands in Pakistan”
Read all about for a fee on your paid propaganda cable new$ channel!
He was in a walled compound in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan. What was he doing there? How long was he there? How did he stay there undetected? Is anyone going to ask those questions or keep drinking the kool-aid provided by America’s greatest ally on the war on terror?
Hmmmmm…
Osama Bin Laden Body Headed for Burial at Sea, Officials Say
May 02, 2011 1:59 AM
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl reports: Now that bin Laden has been killed and his body has been positively identified, what is to be done with his remains?
U.S. officials tell me the last thing they want is for his burial place to become a terrorist shrine.
To avoid that, an informed source tells me, the intention is the bury his body at sea — leaving no definitive location for the final resting place of his body.
A senior administration official tells my colleague Jake Tapper this about the body: “We are ensuring it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. It’s something we take seriously and therefore it’s being handled in an appropriate manner.”
…
Posted by: Allen | May 2, 2011 2:24:58 AM
Just take his corpse and throw it off a chopper with a weight and some shark bait. Screw Osama, he’s an animal who deserves other animals.
Wires - PRNewswire - Wire
Published: Thursday, Apr. 28, 2011
Updated: Thursday, Apr. 28, 2011
State Legislators Soundly Reject Bills to Combat Calif. Foreclosures
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — This week in Sacramento, the banking committees of both houses considered two bills designed to mitigate the effects of California’s foreclosure crisis, and both failed in hearing rooms packed with supporters. Both bills, however, will be re-heard next week.
Even in light of tremendous involvement from constituents, consumer advocates, labor and grassroots organizations — and on the heels of robo-signing scandals that have caused thousands of wrongful foreclosures — legislators continue to oppose fair and simple legislation that would help Californians and the economy.
“Legislators listened to citizens who’d been wrongfully foreclosed and said, ‘too bad.’ What’s really too bad is it appears big banks have more influence than their constituents and their communities,” said Paul Leonard, California director of the Center for Responsible Lending.
SB 729, which would have prevented banks and servicers from pursuing “dual-track” servicing by requiring them to finish the loan modification process before beginning the foreclosure process, failed to pass the Senate Banking Committee by a 3-3 vote. A Senate bill similar in nature made it as far as the Assembly floor in 2010. Sen. Alex Padilla of Pacoima failed to vote.
AB 935 would have levied a foreclosure process fee on banks and servicers to help cover the costs associated with maintaining foreclosed properties, a burden which currently falls to cash-strapped local governments. It failed by 4-4 vote, with four members failing to vote.
…
Stung by homeowners who give up paying, banks ask: Who’ll walk away?
By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 10:44 a.m. Sunday, May 1, 2011
Posted: 10:35 a.m. Sunday, May 1, 2011
Anthony Armenti
Armenti’s townhouse in Emerald Dunes: He bought it in 2006 for $274,100. Now his West Palm Beach home is valued at $77,000. He says it would be wrong to abandon his mortgage while he can still afford to pay it.
Brandon Kruse/Palm Beach Post
Homeowners who strategically default on their mortgages hope to fly under the radar, living payment-free while their foreclosure wends its way through the courts - a years-long process in some cases.
But the nation’s leading credit-scoring company says it has developed a better way to identify borrowers who can afford to pay their mortgage but choose foreclosure instead.
FICO’s new analytical tool, which combines such factors as spending habits, changes in a person’s debt and housing depreciation, is heralded as a way to ferret out borrowers making a business decision to walk away vs. homeowners who truly can no longer afford their mortgage. FICO claims to be able to make this distinction before a borrower is even in default.
For banks, identifying strategic default borrowers early can help them make decisions on how to handle the delinquencies, including what kind of language to use during phone calls, and whether to pursue deficiency judgments.
A study released in March by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business found that 35 percent of mortgage defaults in September were strategic, compared with 26 percent in March 2009.
“It’s critical for the mortgage servicer to understand the motivation, particularly while the borrower is still current on the loan, so they can take preventative action,” said Joanne Gaskin, FICO’s director of mortgage markets. “It’s important to make sure the consumer understands the implications of walking away. They might not be aware of the continued liability.”
A hit of 150 or more points to a person’s credit score can be expected from foreclosure, FICO estimates. Also, in Florida, a lender has five years to file for a deficiency judgment and up to 20 years to collect.
A Palm Beach Post analysis of deficiency judgments showed only 133 claims were filed between April 2006 and November 2010 on foreclosed residential properties in Palm Beach County. But experts said more may be coming as banks work through the bulk of foreclosures or even sell the claims to debt collection companies.
Mark Stopa, a Tampa-based foreclosure defense attorney and proponent of strategic default, said financial institutions are just trying to scare homeowners, discouraging strategic defaults by convincing borrowers they are easily identifiable targets.
“Strategic default is a sound business decision for many people,” Stopa said. “Bankers try to make it about morality, but they have to realize that there is an overwhelming incentive at this point for people to strategically default.”
That’s because home values have sunk so much from their boom-time prices. In Palm Beach County, the median price for an existing home in March was $186,500, down 52 percent from the March 2006 median price of $393,700, according to Florida Realtors reports.
Traditionally, banks have used only the degree of home price depreciation when determining whether a default is strategic. FICO said its new tool considers other characteristics and looks for someone with a good credit history and a low credit-card balance who has lived a short time in the home and has opened new credit in the past six months.
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