Posted on 04/02/2013 8:26:29 AM PDT by whitedog57
It's foreign investors buying some of these homes as the foreigners turn around and jack up the prices tens of thousands more than they purchased them for, as many of these investor purchased properties just sit on the market, month after month after month.
What a vicious circle...
My $0.02? You need to live somewhere. It won't be free. You might as well have something to show for it, when you're done living there.
The Congressional Hispanic Institute, Inc, is an entity organized by Cong Joe Baca (D-Cali) in his capacity as head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Cong Baca created "HOGAR" (Spanish for home) in 2003 to work with the mortgage industry, F/M, lenders, banks and latino community groups to increase mortgage lending to what savvy observers consider to be unqualified Latinos.
"HOGAR" colluded w/ Cong Baca in what was to become a massive bilking of taxpayers. Cong Baca calculatedly hyped the fact that the national Latino homeownership rate was 47%, compared with 68% for the overall population.
HOGAR was coached to call the figure "alarming," and to say "a concerted effort was required to ensure that by the end of the decade Latinos will share equally in the American Dream of home ownership."
HOGAR and Cong Baca conned the public, failing to note that most of the "dreamers" were illegals, citizens of Third World countries who had violated US borders.
Predictably, HOGAR colluded w/ co-conspirators which included:
(a) shaky mortgage companies that ran into big trouble;
(b) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both now under federal control after billions in taxpayer bailouts;
(c) Countrywide Financial Corp., sold to Bank of America Corp;
(d) Washington Mutual Inc., taken over by the US government and sold to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.; and,
(e) New Century Financial Corp. and Ameriquest Mortgage Corp, both now defunct, killed by defaulted subprime Latino mortgages.
HOGAR's ties to the subprime mortgage industry were substantial. Bribery and self-dealing were rampant:
<><> Companies that donated $150,000 to Cong Baca got the right to have their own research fellow who would conduct fraudulent studies, which were cunningly used by industry lobbyists to pump lending.
<><> Bribery and extortion in the form of $100,000 annual donations to Cong Baca, for which HOGAR provided phony news releases from Cong Baca's Hispanic Caucus promoting a lender's commercial products to the Latino market,
<><> The most shocking example of bribery well-substantitated by Hogar's literature..... HOGAR announced it worked with Freddie Mac on a self-serving two-year examination of Latino homeownership in 63 congressional districts.
The "study" found Hispanic ownership on the rise thanks to "new flexible mortgage loan products" that the industry was adopting at the urging of Cong Baca's collusive coterie.
<><> HOGAR conned lenders into even more lenient down-payment and underwriting standards.
<><> As the subprime debacle unfolded, HOGAR declined repeated requests for comment despite the economic havoc their activities precipitated.
The mortgage schemes demonstrated the criminal activities of border violators with multiple identities---perhaps violent, terrorist-connected foreigners---colluding and conspiring to defraud private companies and public entities. And mortgage racketeering enterprises which employed sub rosa finance and business practices to carry out deceptions and frauds.
Having a monster mortgage is the worse thing one can do in today’s America.
Excerpt ...Ten years ago the typical conforming mortgage required a down payment of 10-20%, and low-down payment mortgages were considered too risky. But then we helped to standardize the 3-5% down payment loan, brought it to global capital markets, and made it available to lenders and communities nationwide. Now low-down payment loans are commonplace. And we just adopted a new variance in our underwriting standards that will make the $500 down payment loan widely available as well...
In 1994, we pledged to provide $1 trillion in capital to ten million underserved families by the end of 2000. Thanks to our housing and industry partners, we met that goal early.
Then in 2000, we launched our American Dream Commitment, a pledge to provide $2 trillion in capital to 18 million underserved families by the year 2010, including $400 billion targeted specifically for minority families (later raised to $700 billion in response to President Bush’s Minority Homeownership Initiative). After four of the strongest years in housing and mortgage finance history, we’ve already surpassed the top-line goals of this commitment. But our work is far from complete.
So in January 2004, we announced our Expanded American Dream Commitment and pledged significant new resources to tackle America’s toughest housing challenges. Our new commitment has three main goals.
First, we will expand access to homeownership for six million first-time home buyers in the next ten years, including 1.8 million minority first-time home buyers.We also will help raise the national minority homeownership rate from 49 percent to 55 percent, with the ultimate goal of closing it entirely.
Second, we will help new and long-term homeowners stay in their homes through a series of initiatives, and commit $15 billion to preserve affordable rental housing and $1.5 billion to support the revitalization of public housing communities.
Third, we will increase the supply of affordable housing and support community development activities in at least 1,000 neighborhoods across the country through our American Communities Fund, and through targeted investments like Low-Income Housing Tax Credits that help finance affordable rental housing.
It is because of initiatives like our Trillion Dollar Commitment and our American Dream Commitment that we have exceeded our HUD affordable housing goals for ten consecutive years. (End Raines excerpt.) (NOTE Raines is a Clinton appointee)
Agreed. Heartless, but agreed.
I've owned a couple of houses. Each one I bought was within my means, and I had a plan for making the payments, as well as a backup plan, and a backup to the backup plan, for how I'd make payments if something awful happened.
Bottom line? IMHO, an affordable house generally is a good investment. But if you can't afford it, then it's not.
Fannie/Freddie are centerpieces of the criminal enterprise called the Democrat Party-—where Dem cronies and collaborators loot the organization, get cushy jobs, bonuses, and the like.
Fannie Mae’s political machine dispensed campaign contributions, gave jobs to friends and relatives of legislators, hired armies of lobbyists (even paying lobbyists not to lobby against it), paid academics who wrote papers validating the home ownership mania, and spread “charitable” contributions to housing advocates across the congressional map.
Fannie Mae serves as an industrial-sized patronage factory — sharing profits with political allies, spreading taxpayer funds to voting blocs——like ethnic groups-——and doling out jobsto left-wing academics, Washington has-beens and back-scratching buddies.
Obama insider Fannie Mae exec Jim Johnson got sweetheart loans from shady subprime Countrywide. Pols raked in six-figure salaries as F/F engaged in Enron-style accounting, plunged into debt and helped usher in the subprime housing meltdown through cockamamie lending practices.
Bill Clinton appointed Franklin Raines, Daley and Rahm Emanuel just as the quasi-governmental F/M engaged in rampant book-cooking so that F/M insider could help themselves to massive bonuses.
The Chi/Tribune exposed how political whore Rahm Emanuel’s “profitable stint” was low-show w/ no work involved. Emanuel was not even assigned to committees, according to company proxy statements. Immediately upon joining the board, Emanuel and other insiders qualified for $380,000 in stock and options plus a $20,000 annual fee, public records indicate. W/ Wall Street Rahm Emanuel at F/M, accounting tricks were used to mislead shareholders about outsize profits F/M reaped from risky investments.
The goal was to cook the books to keep fraudulent earnings on the books, to make Freddie Mac look profitable on paper-——AND to fraudulently obtain humongous annual bonuses for political insiders.
=========================================
FRANKLIN RAINES----THE BIG F/M FISH THAT GOT AWAY WITH A BUNDLE
The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s report says that F/M CEO Franklin Raines---a Clinton appointee---and other Fannie Mae bigwigs, deliberately and intentionally manipulated financial reports to artificially hit earnings targets in order to trigger multi-million dollar bonuses for senior F/M executives.
Ex-Fannie CEO Franklin Raines should be behind bars for life. He is a crook of the first order. This thief Raines cooked the FM books precipitating losses of $9B (that we know of) for the single purpose of creating bonuses for himself and other F/M insiders. The SEC said Raines broke accounting rules by playing with risky derivatives.
RAINES COOKS THE F/M BOOKS---WALKS AWAY A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE After Raines was fired and exposed as a fraudster for cooking the govt books, Raines walked away w/ $90 million dollars, a $26 million parachute, PLUS..... Raines gets a MONTHLY pension of $116,300 for life. Raines had already collected $4.87 million in "special performance" shares. Raines owns options giving him $5.8 million in net profit after redemptions, plus another $8.7 million in deferred compensation for his six years at the F/M helm. There's more.
Raines keeps $5 million of paid-up life insurance. He and his spouse get free medical and dental benefits for life, worth over $1 million. NOTE: Raines earned $20 million in salary, bonuses and stock awards (that we know of) in one year.
To keep Raines happy within philanthropic circles, Fannie Mae will match Raines' charitable contributions by $10,000 a year.
After he was fired, Raines told the F/M board that he's entitled to get paychecks until June 22 giving him another $600,000, which triggers a $2,000 monthly rais
Not wanting to bail other unprepared people out may seem heartless, but where does their lack of preparation and diligence equate to my or your problem? People need to be realistic and set priorities, like instead of movies and delivered pizza, taking a job delivering pizzas instead.
My early years growing up were in a three room house with pine ridge poles for rafters. Pot bellied coal stove, no running water taking tub baths (galvanized tubs), and only REA electicity. You swept the floors and didn’t need a dustpan - just push it through the cracks to the dirt below. I learned you don’t buy what you can’t afford - ever.
The problem is to have something to show for it, takes YEARS....Fact is buying a home takes real secure jobs, good paying jobs, long term jobs, and two incomes to boot, not to mention outstanding credit...lol...
Two secure jobs, good paying incomes, outstanding credit histories? In today’s America??
This eliminates most...
So what the banksters will do is eventually lower the qualifications to suck in the suckers... They’ll let them walk in with 20 or 30k down, pay the bank tens of thousands for 2 or 3 years or however long their jobs lasts....Then WHAMMO...They take the home and everything the suckers put into it....
And on to the next sucker.....
20 or 30 K down? hahahahahaha....they were getting 110% of the loan value for cripes sake. The gubment extorted banks to loan to minorities! Banks did what any business would do - offload their liabilities to credit bundles full of gubment minority loans.
Mr. Sanders,
If you would define “zombie homes” maybe the rest of the article would make more sense. I hope you get a chance to respond but I won’t hold my breath because I looked at your posting history.
You can always go with a whopping big-ass mortgage and be too big to fail. You could even wangle a third, fourth or fifth mortgage to pull out a lil bit of cash to “remodel” for resale. Plenty of thieves went this route. Not one nail hammered or board sawn.
Absolutely...
Then they tightened the qualifications? No?
What I am saying is the same damn thing is going to happen again...They’ll lower the qualification to drag in more suckers..Then when their jobs go belly up, the banks repo the homes again...On to the next suckers.
This is how it works in today’s America.
Well, I agree on that. It will happen again, and the banks and mortgage holders will figure out how to protect themselves before the Obama Government can figure out they don’t know what they are doing because they are incompetent.
IF you’re an Obama voter or you are on WICs, EBT, EITC, SNAP, Section 8 whatever, you’ll get a loan and you’ll be under water in 6 months and crying because ‘the bank screwed me’. It won’t make you any smarter, or any richer.
You bet...I tell every young person I see...DO NOT BUY A HOME....that is unless they have TWO bullet proof secure incomes, medical benefits, no other debt etc...
Otherwise, they are being set up by the banks to totally lose their butts.
The landscape is littered with people who spent 5++ years of sweat, savings and incomes and just lost it all.
I dunno about that. I know plenty of couples who both work, and a good handful more who get by on one salary. My neighborhood is filled with them. Their credit is good enough to buy a house, at least, and they make enough money to keep it.
Now - back in 2000-2008....I totally could see your point. First place I bought was in 2001, and the bank wanted to loan me so much money that my monthly payment would have been larger than my monthly salary. (I know, it didn't make sense to me, either). Being smarter than the average bear, I bought something I could afford. However, I could see where a person could easily get into trouble.
By 2010 (another home purchase) things had utterly changed. Way more hoops to jump through. Bank found out *exactly* what I needed, and gave not a penny more.
Things have changed. I dunno if it's for the better - for people in my situation..."Look, I know what I'm doing, this is what I need and it shouldn't take 6 months to drive through the paperwork for a re-fi...." - I'd argue that things are needlessly difficult. However, for people who think a 105% mortgage with no money down and no credit check is a good idea - tightening up the regs is likely a good idea.
One income my butt. Those types are the one's that lose their azzes the fastest..
No sale...
If ya think all these young folks have secure long term good paying jobs and incomes, you should be working for Obama.
Have a good afternoon.
BTW, where is your neighborhood, where many are able to purchase homes on one single income and is filled with people with good paying, long term secure jobs?
Where is that?
Yep. It’s sometimes frustrating to hear Freepers whine about people who are struggling as if THEIR fortunate situation isn’t a blessing. I made pretty decent money for 20 years, lived off the savings of that or as long as I could with piece meal work here and there. I’m not a bum, but the situation isn’t good. It’s hard enough to find a minimum wage job, much less one that pays enough to raise a family.
Some Freepers are either in a bubble, or willfully ignorant. This country ain’t what it used to be.
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