Posted on 03/25/2009 4:38:30 PM PDT by rgr
At a time when the U.S. Postal Service says it is experiencing a financial crisis, it purchased a $1.2 million home from an employee so he could relocate, a CNN investigation has found.
The Postal Service bought this 8,400-square-foot South Carolina home so an employee could relocate. Postal Service spokesman Greg Frey said the home will be resold, as others have been. "It's not like we threw away a million dollars," Frey told CNN.
"We are hoping it's going to go for the appraised value." But a real estate agent in the area said the home could be a tough sell in a depressed housing market -- and the USPS said it lost an average of more than $58,000 on the 500-plus homes its relocation program bought and sold in 2008.
The 8,400-square-foot, six-bedroom home on Lake Wateree, about 30 miles north of Columbia, is likely to be the last million-dollar home purchased by the Postal Service.
A $1 million cap on homes eligible for the relocation program took effect in February, Frey said.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Ronald Hopson was transferred from Lexington to Carollton, Texas, last year — just before the Postal Service instituted a hiring and promotion freeze.
As part of the Postal Service’s employee relocation program, a relocation company paid Hopson for the appraised value of his home, which sits on five acres on Lake Wateree near Winnsboro in Fairfield County.
The U.S. Postal Service purchased this $1.2 million home from an employee so he could relocate. The 8,400-square-foot, six-bedroom home is on Lake Wateree.
- Jeff Blake/jblake@thestate.com
That company, Cartus, will then sell the home — typically for less than the appraised value. The Postal Service will pay Cartus the difference, plus administrative and other fees.
It’s unclear what Cartus paid Hopson for the home.
The Postal Service usually ends up paying between 14 percent and 20 percent of a home’s value, according to Greg Frey, a Postal Service spokesman.
That could range from $168,000 to $240,000.
“We don’t buy houses,” Frey said “We enable our employees who qualify to serve the company to move. If that means there is some way we can help ... that’s what we do.”
The Postal Service has been hard hit by the economy, especially with the decline in direct-mail advertising, Frey said. The board of governors is considering cutting back mail delivery in an effort to save money.
All of the Postal Service’s revenue comes from postage, Frey said.
Efforts to reach Alison Sedney, Cartus’ communications director, were unsuccessful Friday.
Efforts to reach Hopson were unsuccessful.
Hopson earns $92,000 a year in his new job as a branch supervisor, Frey said. Frey said he could not say how much Hopson earned while he was working in Lexington, because the law only requires that the Postal Service release an employee’s current salary.
Hopson bought the land, which was vacant, in 2007 for $150,000, according to Fairfield County Assessor Wendell Irby.
The county has appraised the house, which has six bedrooms and an indoor pool and spa, at $1,161,940, Irby said.
While Cartus paid Hopson for the house, technically Hopson still owns it. The deed will not transfer until the house is sold to a new owner.
Frey said not all homes are eligible for the relocation program. In February, in response to lowering home values because of the mortgage crisis, the Postal Service lowered the cap for the program to $1 million.
Under the new policy, Hopson’s Lake Wateree home would no longer be eligible.
The Postal Service is an independent government agency, meaning it is run by a board of governors appointed by the president, but receives no taxpayer money.
The Postal Service has 665,000 employees and nearly 33,000 post offices across the country.
Guess the housing market is better there...
They take 40-50% of people’s income and their families have to do without.
and give it to the world Give you an example, when you buy a loaf of bread at the store, it’s been taxed over 30%,cars,30%,phone bill 30%, cable bill tax 30%,gas and electric.
I could go on and on and on put all of these charges are hidden from the public
I’d like to know how a postal worker can afford a 1.2 million house.
its your money
LOL
Not quite. SOME of the money paid to Postal employees comes from the government, but I believe the bulk of it doesn't.
Additionally, the Postal worker was PAID to do a job, what they do with what they earn is up to them.
BTTT
The Postal Service way overpays these guys, what a perk. Bad market?? They’ll buy it anyway.
el stupido
Kinda like the scam in Oregon where the same recipients of benefits are negotiating on both sides of the table!
Wink Wink!
Somebody read the tea leaves quite well. Offloaded his white elephant for a phantom, high valuation, and took a transfer to a cheaper market with a healthier economy.
Nice trick, that. What's the quasi-governmental equivalent of insider trading?
In North and South Carolina, we didn't experience a bubble market in residential real estate, we just experienced it in the second home market. Oceanfront and lake properties doubled, even tripled between '03 and '07. Can't sell them for that now, though. Several $750K+ houses near me are languishing, for over a year. Very few people can actually pay that here, without creative financing.
Tar, feathers, pitchforks, torches.....
At what point do we finally say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!!
We rag on the USPS due to it’s proven inability to do it’s job in an efficient manner. I too am a combat vet - the mail got to me on military transports for free - not via US Postal carriers - so don’t try that BS with me.
The USPS is a typical government agency - it has workers that don’t perform up to non-governmental performance standards, it has benefits unmatched in civilian jobs, and those same workers that don’t work very hard are impossible to fire. I’d love to have a job that payed that much money where I had to do so little work.
Who the hell do you think got the mail to the military transports? I personally oversaw the training and arming of US Postal employees. We, the Americans, took these actions to ensure US military personnel received uninterrupted, timely US mail delivery from the States.
Since you are the expert, can you tell me exactly what the average pay is for a letter carrier, and what their outrageous benefits are? Anytime you want to follow me around on my route, and by following I mean WALKING, in the winter here in Iowa, come on and do it! And to the previous post regarding our pay and your taxes. For the umpteenth time, we are payed based on revenue generated through stamps, etc. sold, not taxes. The Postal service is an easy target, and in many ways deservedly so, but there are a hell of a lot of hard working people who do their jobs with pride. Would it bother me if it was totally privatized? No, but at least get your facts straight.
Do you know the number of your fellow military vets who have continued their service to our country by working for the USPS?
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