Florida Taking Its Toll (Brothers) On Daughter's Condo (sign of the housing apocalypse?)

You just can’t make this stuff up. Apparently even a big builder’s daughter can’t seem to keep faith in the Florida housing market. According to an SEC filing, Wendy Topkis, daughter of Toll Brothers co-founder and Vice-Chairman Bruce Toll, is walking away from a Florida condo, just like everyone else. A Toll Bros. condo!! The Palm Beach Post says it best: Et Tu Wendy?

Prior to fiscal 2007, the Company entered into an agreement of sale to build and sell a condominium to Wendy Topkis, Bruce E. Toll’s daughter, and her husband for a purchase price of $2,468,075. In January 2008, the buyers informed the Company that they did not intend to make settlement on the condominium. The Company intends to pursue its rights under the agreement of sale.

Does that mean they’ll sue darling daughter? The company’s general counsel says they are pursuing normal procedures.

Daddy is quoted as saying she just changed her mind because she had another child and the place would be too small, but I’m guessing the 13 percent drop in Florida prices was screaming at her a little louder than the baby. So Wendy just adds to the company’s 61 percent cancellation rate in the Sunshine State.

Now, if Wendy was required to put down the same 7 percent deposit on the new home as everybody else, then she could be out $172,765. Of course, daddy made about seven million dollars last year, so maybe he could help out, or perhaps he wants her to learn about fiscal responsibility the hard way. None of my business of course; just family business…or lack thereof.

And check out the video on my discussion about home ownership, with Richard Gaylord, National Association of Realtors president.

ACORN again...

Countrywide debuts new ‘workout’ plan for subprime borrowers
11:47a ET February 11, 2008 (MarketWatch)
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Help could be on the way for some subprime-mortgage borrowers caught up in the twin sagas of the plummeting housing market and besieged Countrywide Financial Corp., after the nation’s largest home-loan lender said Monday that it’s broadening efforts to help prevent foreclosures.

The Calabasas, Calif.-based company is teaming up with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, the advocacy group also known as ACORN, to expand an existing $16 billion program to help subprime borrowers avoid foreclosure and work out more manageable rates on their mortgages.

The new plan will be open to borrowers whether they are current on their payments or not, and they need not have adjustable-rate mortgages to apply, the company said.

It will allow all Countrywide borrowers with subprime loans to seek “workout” options, not just those with ARMs whose rates are due to “reset” at higher levels.

Many borrowers have struggled to stay current on payments that have reset to vastly higher rates — a function of the many “hybrid” loan products popularized earlier this decade as a way stimulate the lending environment.

“The practices set out in this historic agreement fill gaps by providing assistance to borrowers who don’t fit the financial situations covered in the previously announced initiatives, placing Countrywide and ACORN at the forefront of assisting more homeowners across the nation to stay in their homes,” said Maude Hurd, national president of ACORN. “We hope others in the mortgage-servicing industry will adopt similar practices.”

Shares of Countrywide traded more than 2% higher in recent action, changing hands at $6.74, up 16 cents.

Countrywide has struggled to come up with a publicity-friendly plan for dealing with the skyrocketing number of defaults on its books, even as federal regulators have scrambled to put together a plan to help avoid foreclosures.

The Bush administration debuted its own subprime plan in December, under which the government and banks like Countrywide, Citigroup Inc. , Washington Mutual Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. would work together to help keep borrowers in their homes.

Industry research firm RealtyTrac said Jan. 30 that foreclosure filings were up 75% in 2007, with some particularly hard-hit states seeing a 79% rise. The data showed that more than 2 million properties went into foreclosure in that 12-month period, with December seeing an 86% increase in foreclosure activity from the same month a year earlier.

At the end of last year, Countrywide said that nearly 7% percent of loans in its servicing portfolio were delinquent — a jump of nearly two percentage points from the same period the year before. Of those, more than 1% faced immediate foreclosure, with that number expected to rise in the next few months.

Countrywide had been expected to announce Monday’s agreement last month, but that plan was put on hold after news broke that the lender would be acquired by Bank of America Corp. in a $4.1 billion, all-stock deal.

How effective government and industry programs have been is debatable. The Mortgage Bankers Association reported last week that about 40% of the subprime adjustable loans that went into foreclosure in the last three months did so after borrowers could not meet the terms of already-modified loans.

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