Posted on 01/03/2009 9:21:57 AM PST by Para-Ord.45
he story of the two-bedroom, one-bath shack on West Hopi Street, is the story of this year's financial panic, told in 576 square feet. It helps explain how a series of bad decisions can add up to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Less than two years ago, Integrity Funding LLC, a local lender, gave a $103,000 mortgage to the owner, Marvene Halterman, an unemployed woman with a long list of creditors and, by her own account, a long history of drug and alcohol abuse.
For a $350 fee, an appraiser hired by Integrity, Michael T. Asher, valued the house at $132,000. Mr. Asher says although he didn't personally believe the house was worth that much, he followed standard procedures and found like-sized homes nearby that had sold in that price range in 2006.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Amazing what can happen when it is “give them the loan, no matter what!”
yea but she's also gonna need a coverter box for her TV antenna if she wants to continue watching TV come February.......
Where are the wheels and trailer hitch ?
“Looks like a little fixer-upper in Hollister, CA.”
I don’t know about Hollister, but the homes they were fixing up on “Flip this House” in L.A. were not much better looking and going for around half a million.
I knew the world was insane at that point.
ROFLOLOLOLOL
Capitalism sans morality is simply piracy. We now have such a large percentage of people who will do just about anything to be rich that the system is breaking down. Probably is already broken down beyond repair.
And they vote...
At least the front step is wheelchair-compliant. ;)
That alone should be adequate evidence for fraud (Asher) and conspiracy (Integrity). Especially since there's probably a lot more examples in their files.
For a $350 fee, an appraiser hired by Integrity, Michael T. Asher, valued the house at $132,000. Mr. Asher says although he didn't personally believe the house was worth that much, he followed standard procedures and found like-sized homes nearby that had sold in that price range in 2006.... <snip> ...
T.J. Heagy, a real-estate agent later hired to sell the property, says he can find only one comparable house that sold nearby in 2007, for $63,000.
When the TARP bailout was being debated, I called my Congressman after looking at the bill and registered a comment against the bailout. My comment was there was nothing in the bill to indicate that the history of the "troubled assets" would be investigated and crimes like this would be prosecuted.
Well that does it then. We all need to live in government prescribed housing so as to not pay too much or too little. And to have them properly sized, too. No more 5/5 McMansions for one couple. That will take care of any future housing booms/busts!
/sarc
Is there good hunting or fishing nearby? I might be a buyer.
We aren’t told the lot size, but it might be large enough to hold 10 or 12 snowbird RV’s and have good rental value.
Some places in the area the RV’s are parked close enough that you can walk for blocks on the roofs.
How much is the land worth? Is this a case where someone would pay $110,000 if the original owner agreed to dispose of the house before sale?
The role of the ratings agys' "new paradigms" in this whole stinkfest has been somehow massively and conveniently downplayed. Before the explosion in sub-prime lending 2003-2006, it is generally forgotten that in the entire universe there were probably less than 3 dozen "AAA" rated debt securities outside of Treasuries, and I might well be overstating it. And let it be said, they weren't 103% LTV nothing-down mortgage pools on new subdivisions in Fresno, CA. It's pretty easy to see the mechanism of the appraiser who needs to make a living and it's pretty easy to see the loan broker who's in the position of making a quick $6K-$10K on a dirtbag loan, but what went on with the ratings agys was absolutely necessary for this thing to have developed the way and to the extent it did.
She paid $200,000 for hers in 1989 in Ridgemark ,it went up to over $900,000 and now back down to about $500,000 to $600,000.
Indeed, a greedy game of hot potato. Everyone new that the debt was improperly collateralized (to put it gently). They just didn’t intend to get caught holding it.
In cases like this the home buyers were just complete idiots. In other cases, they too hoped to get out from under the hot potato before the buzzer sounded.
I’ve been in the flipping business for four years and never bought a house based on appreciation, although I did only factor in a 10% correction. I’m about dead even on the two I’m holding and have rented out.
My niche is distressed property that has serious but fixable problems. I can usually get them for about 50% of final value, drop another 10% into them and sell for a good profit. I’m pretty much dead in the water now though, as I’ve been forced to rent them out, thus losing the liquidity of my capital.
I saw a lot of what I could only characterize as gambling out in the market though.
(There IS an ocean nearby, right?)Funny you should say that because in a place like Sant Cruz, Ca. that place would sell today for over $300,000 just for the land.
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