Posted on 08/22/2007 3:05:42 PM PDT by DCPatriot
Housing experts painted a grim picture of Los Angeles' real-estate market Tuesday as City Councilman Richard Alarcon called for city, state and federal funds to help bail out city homeowners who can't pay their mortgages.
Warning that the region is embroiled in a foreclosure upheaval, Alarcon said he's also considering asking lawmakers to declare a state of emergency to direct state and federal money to counseling and loans for people about to lose their homes.
"We're in a crisis. We don't need bureaucrats who are going to sit on their thumbs and not get things done. Who do we go to in federal government to ask for emergency assistance to help solve this crisis?" Alarcon asked city housing officials Tuesday during an emergency hearing on foreclosures.
"It seems to me we'd better kick the federal government in the butt to get into action to help us solve the problem, and I don't think we're doing any kicking now."
The hearing came as economists were chewing on new default numbers that show the trend is worsening. Foreclosures hit a record level in California last month and officials said 1,074 homes were foreclosed on in Los Angeles County - up more than 600 percent from last year.
Notices of default, the first step in the process and usually taken when payments are at least three months late, increased 145.3 percent, to 4,009, in L.A. County.
The Inland Empire continues to be one of the most affected areas in the state. Last month, the San Bernardino/Riverside counties region had 1,697 foreclosures, an annual increase of 832.4 percent. Default notices spiked 198.2 percent, to 4,720.
For all of California, foreclosures soared 517 percent, or 7,240 properties.
The numbers have fueled growing concern, advocates in Sacramento on Tuesday push for a moratorium on foreclosures.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailynews.com ...
While I predict government intervention, would prefer that the free market be allowed to work here.
The market works unless idiot politicians get in it's way.
Oh, what the hell. Why not? Let’s do their car payments for them, too! And credit cards, too, of course.
It was the federal government, or more precisely, George W. Bush, who created this mess in the first place.
In 2001, Bush signed the Partnership for Prosperity agreement (with Mexico).
This led to the formation of the New Alliance Task Force, whose job it was to relax banking and lending rules to allow Mexican illegal aliens to use a Matricula Consular card as valid ID and a US tax return with an ITIN as proof of income to obtain US bank accounts as well as home and auto loans.
These illegal aliens were the primary recipients of the sub-prime loans, which are also probably the majority of those defaulting on their loans in L.A.
No, home buyers should not be bailed out. They chose their paths.
Sorry, but this free money train is only for Mexican illegal aliens. (See: New Alliance Task Force)
What is it that they should be bailed out from?
Most of the owners of the homes being forclosed on could not and still cannot afford to pay the real cost of the money they borrowed to buy the homes at ridiculously inflated prices. Most of them put little or no money down and bought under very risky circumstances on the assumption that ever increasing prices would alleviate that risk. Ending this folly constitutes a crisis?
Of necessity, when you bail out a borrower, you bail out a lender. Insulating a capitalist from the adverse consequences of his investment decisions is good public policy?
Yup. It started on the other side of the Mexican border.
Next, was the Mexican Consulate where they obtained a Matricula Consular card and advice from US bankers on how to take advantage of the programs created by the FDIC and Mexican Consulate General.
After that, they got jobs with employers who took advantage of Bush's lack of immigration enforcement.
Then, finally was a stop by any one of hundreds of banks who took advantage of the changes in banking rules Bush put into place so they could obtain US bank accounts as well as home and auto loans.
It's a good thing some of us stood up for what's right because otherwise, they'd be earning US Social Security retirement benefits for themselves and their wives and children back home in Mexico thanks to Bush's Social Security Totalization Agreement with Mexico.
What a shock!! One of the more liberal members of the L.A. city council wants to generate another huge demoratic grab bag..FREE Mortgages..come one come all. This goes along well with free murder on demand(abortion), free health care, free “medical” marijuana, and other communistic ideas.
It makes me sick. Oh and by the way, I live and own a business in Los Angeles.AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH.
Meanwhile, we responsible buyers, who got a fixed rate with 25% down, get a higher tax bill. Brilliant!
Even your headline is wrong.
Should say, "Should US taxpayers bail out Mexican illegal alien homeowners?"
Not everyone of them were 100% loan to value (LTV) mortgages.
On General/Chat 08/09/2007 7:12:13 AM PDT · 48 of 83
Of the hundreds of my listings that sold over the recent real estate boom, many were in the $350 to $400K price range
. As all written offers are presented to the listing agent on behalf of the sellers, I was in a position to see what loan programs were the most popular.
The vast majority of the loans were 100% LTV.
______________________________________________
IOW....DCProfiteer made his living for the past few years from these same loans. Why are we not surprised?
"We're seeing people who borrowed $600,000 and can only afford $300,000," said Lori Gay, president and CEO of Los Angeles Neighborhood Housing Services.
And we're supposed to bail these people out? Out-freakin-rageous!
Excellent plan. People sign up for mortgages with impossible terms because they have a history of not paying their bills, then get foreclosed because of the crap mortgage that was all they could get or because they, well, didn’t pay their bills, and the city should bail them out?????
LOL...
Does anybody know if there is some kind of prize for “most tortured logic in order to make a thread about immigration when it was not”?
Good heavens man. This definitely wins the prize.
Maybe they did it so they can foreclose and pave over all these houses to make room for their new superhighway.
[chuckle]
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