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Is the Housing Market being Manipulated by our Government?
SELF | 08 June 2010 | David Osborne

Posted on 06/08/2010 8:12:20 AM PDT by davidosborne

I recently sold my home and I am currently looking to buy a new home here in Tallahassee, Florida. So my only source on this is MYSELF.. for now.. and I am looking for FReeper input on my question.

Like every other town in America our housing market is in crisis.. that is NOT breaking news.. what I am finding out here in Tallahassee, and likely in other cities across america is that there seems to be an INTENTIONAL manipulation of the market going on that I can't put my finger on.

When I find a home in short sale/foreclosure, which there are MANY there always seems to be a mysterious/Annonymous/Unnamed "investor" involved in the process of negotiating a fair price for the house.. the houses end up sitting indefinately UNSOLD because this annonymous "investor" gets to decide if an offer is "fair" and the owner, presumably the bank, and the buyer do not have any say in the matter.

I hate to use the term "conspiricy" here, but it sure hints of it...

MY QUESTION: Is our goverment local/state/federal the "investor" that is trying to prevent houses from selling for less than what the market demands because they are trying to prevent SALES..to keep the home "values" UP artificially? Fair question?

I look forward to reading FReeper responses


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: chat; homesales; housingmarket; spartansixdelta; vanity
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To: davidosborne

At the moment, I can’t think of ANY major segment of the current economy that ISN’T being manipulated by the government. Something to ponder. - OB1


21 posted on 06/08/2010 8:33:48 AM PDT by OB1kNOb (When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. - Thomas Jefferson)
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To: davidosborne

if the investor is Fannie or Freddie, then yes we do eat it as taxpayers. However, would you prefer to eat a 50% loss on a home or a 100% loss?


22 posted on 06/08/2010 8:34:31 AM PDT by stefanbatory (Weed out the RINOs! Sign the pledge. conservativepledge.org)
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To: davidosborne

See this. This is just an amazing story that fellow realtor Frank Bellardo posted a few weeks ago.

Basically, IndyMac Bank (now OneWest Bank), is holding clients hostage, demanding a promissory notes, or they will proceed to foreclosure. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why they were doing this. What advantage could there possibly be for them to proceed to foreclosure?

Yesterday, I figured it out. You see, IndyMac was taken over by the FDIC and sold to OneWest Bank in March/2009. Guess who the investors are behind OneWest? George Soros, Michael Dell, Steve Mnuchin (former Goldman Sachs executive), and John Paulson (hedge-fund billionaire).

Now, listen to the deal they got from the FDIC….

Basically, they purchased all current residential mortgages at 70% of par value (70% of the
outstanding loan amounts). They purchased all current HELOCS at 58% of Par Value!!!

Next, in order to “sweeten the pot”, the FDIC stepped in and guaranteed the following: For any residential mortgages where OneWest experiences a loss, the FDIC will step in and cover anywhere from 80%-95% of the loss. The loss is calculated using the ORIGINAL LOAN BALANCE, not the amount that OneWest paid for the loan. Let’s use my clients situation as an example:

if the Loan Amount is $478,000, plus 6 months of missed payments, for a grand total of $485,200. OneWest pays $334,600 for the loan. We have an all cash offer of $241,000, net to OneWest. So, let’s do the math, shall we?

The net loss, according to the FDIC formula is the ORIGINAL LOAN AMOUNT minus the amount of the offer. In this case, $485,200-$241,000, or $244,200. Next, the FDIC, according to their Loss Share Agreement, writes a check to OneWest for 80% of the so-called “net loss”. So, in this case, OneWest gets a check from Uncle Sam for $195,360 (.80 X $244,200).

Add the $195,360 to the sales price of $241,000, and you get a grand total of $436,360. Remember, OneWest paid $334,600 for the loan. So, OneWest puts $101,760 in their pocket, thanks to the FDIC. Folks, that is over $100k of our hard-earned tax dollars!

So, you ask…Why does this program hurt short sales?
Because, our brilliant government offers this SAME PROGRAM FOR FORECLOSURES! The only difference is, the government picks up 80% of the tab on all of the extra costs associated with a foreclosure (BPO’s, upkeep, utilities/maintenance, legal fees, etc.)

So, If I’m OneWest, why would I want to waste my time negotiating through a Short Sale, when I can make the same amount of money (if not more) by just letting it go to foreclosure? And we wonder why nobody can get a Loan Modification? Why would OneWest approve a loan modification for this guy, when they can foreclose and make over $100k? And, to add injury to insult, they have held this loan for 6 months! Not a bad ROI, huh?

What infuriates me the most is that in my particular case mentioned above, they have the guts to hold my client hostage for a $75k promissory note, after they are already making more than $100k on the sale!!! This is his primary residence, 1st Position loan, and OneWest has NO RECOURSE! Imagine if they could make $100k, then get a deficiency judgement! Talk about making some big bucks! Can you say “GREED”?

The scary thing is that over 50 banks have Shared Loss Agreements in place with the FDIC. Some of them include: Bank of America (go figure), CitiMortgage, Wells Fargo, etc.

This entire agreement between the FDIC and OneWest can be found here, on the FDIC website. It’s all there, for the world to see! They have it all layed out. All of the formulas, worksheets, etc.

Wait, it gets better…The FDIC just announced that it needs to start borrowing money from the U.S. Treasury in order to replenish it’s deposit insurance fund (the same fund being used to pay all of these banks in the Loss Share Agreements).

http://arroyosecohomes.org/2009/12/07/it-pays-to-be-a-political-donor/


23 posted on 06/08/2010 8:35:00 AM PDT by anglian
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To: stefanbatory

I prefer that the MARKET dictates the price.. be that as it may...


24 posted on 06/08/2010 8:35:38 AM PDT by davidosborne (DavidOsborneDotZurvitaDotBiz)
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To: davidosborne

Recently I have been looking online at homes in the Greenville, SC area and there are some really cheap homes (bank-owned), yet they have been on the market a long time. I didn’t understand why.


25 posted on 06/08/2010 8:36:13 AM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: davidosborne

I am in a similar situation as you and I have the cash to buy outright. No need for a loan. The short sales and bank owned property are in horrible condition. I looked at one the other day where the previous owner emptied the pool and took a jack hammer to the bottom of it. 25k to repair or 15k to finish removal and backfill the excavation.


26 posted on 06/08/2010 8:36:50 AM PDT by skimask ("To repeat what others have said, requires education; to challenge it, requires brains.")
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To: anglian

wow just wow.... this REALLY is big...


27 posted on 06/08/2010 8:37:32 AM PDT by davidosborne (DavidOsborneDotZurvitaDotBiz)
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To: davidosborne

BTTT


28 posted on 06/08/2010 8:38:04 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: davidosborne

as do I...but we don’t live in that world.


29 posted on 06/08/2010 8:50:23 AM PDT by stefanbatory (Weed out the RINOs! Sign the pledge. conservativepledge.org)
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To: davidosborne

It’s China...

Snopes has it listed as false...so...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/domain.asp...

You do the math...


30 posted on 06/08/2010 8:55:40 AM PDT by Crim (The Obama Doctrine : A doctrine based on complete ignorance,applied with extreme incompitence..)
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To: davidosborne

Let’s see now:

1. Government controls interest rates. Check.
2. Government controls qualifications; income, credit rating, etc. for 90% of all loans. Check.
3. Government controls tax breaks on mortgages. Check.
4. Government controls property taxes; land rents. Check.
5. Government controls and regulates banks that give mortgage loans. Check.
6. Government competes with private banks using FHA, VA, and other mortgage programs. Check.
7. Government regulates property appraisal programs. Check.
8. Government regulates building permits. Check.
9. Government controls taxes on proceeds from the sale of property. Check.
10. Government demands private banks make loans to “minorities” that would otherwise never qualify for a loan.

That’s just off the top of my head. Seems we have complete and total manipulation of housing by government.


31 posted on 06/08/2010 8:57:41 AM PDT by CodeToad
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To: davidosborne

Probably. They’ve got their greasy little mitts on everything these days.

Your theory seems very plausible to me.


32 posted on 06/08/2010 9:00:47 AM PDT by Califreak (A man is defined by the nature of his enemies-Preach it Rush!)
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To: davidosborne

well it was certainly caused by government and I am sure by now someone building an empire on the dead market.redistribution


33 posted on 06/08/2010 9:14:30 AM PDT by dalebert
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To: davidosborne

Yes, as well as everything else that it can manipulate. But this is nothing new, it has been doing such for years and years. Why do you think our nation is in such a mess? Government manipulation, greed and control and incompetence.


34 posted on 06/08/2010 9:34:46 AM PDT by mulligan
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To: davidosborne

Socialist/Communist central planners and redistributors cannot redistribute wealth until they get their mitts on it. Nationalization is the standard mechanism when seizure at the point of a gun is not necessary.

Fannie and Freddie are now nationalized with other areas of our economy, and are now the means of sucking up private US realestate via the largest Hoover-vacuum system in our history.

We have a redistributionist administration and it is in the process, moving almost at political light-speed to enhance and embed redistribution irrevocably. Healthcare is the same kind of endeavor, and high and lower finance too. The Consumer protection bill just passed by the Senate puts complete micro-management control of everyone’s daily life in the hands of the Fed Reserve System entirely.

Centralization offers no successful future. The US has run from the bottom up, not from the top down. Bottoms UP!


35 posted on 06/08/2010 9:40:34 AM PDT by givemELL (Does Taiwan eet the Criteria to Qualify as an "Overseas Territory of the United States"? by Richar)
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To: PGR88

When the Feds announced all the refinance programs they had a link to a site to look up who “owned” the loan. Looked up my house and turns out Freddie owns it even though I make payments to the Bank. I guess Freddie has the original loan papers? What ever happened to the deals where people demanded to see the original loan documents to fight foreclosures?


36 posted on 06/08/2010 9:46:36 AM PDT by Gadsden1st
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To: davidosborne

I did not find out the name, but I know it was an individual who was looking to buy several properties in the area.


37 posted on 06/08/2010 9:58:14 AM PDT by brothers4thID (http://scarlettsays.blogspot.com/)
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To: AggieSteph

This is an amazingly suspicious (if true), and plausible explanation for what is goin on with the housing market.


38 posted on 06/08/2010 10:27:41 AM PDT by JDW11235 (I think I got it now!)
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To: PGR88

And why are they controlling the market? What better way to control people’s movements?


39 posted on 06/08/2010 10:36:09 AM PDT by NTHockey (Rules of engagement #1: Take no prisoners)
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To: davidosborne

http://29thday.org/book/chapter.php?chapter=3

found this site from another thread. this portion of it describes the situation very very well...


40 posted on 06/08/2010 10:40:47 AM PDT by stefanbatory (Weed out the RINOs! Sign the pledge. conservativepledge.org)
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