The ongoing mortgage crisis and the depressed cost of homes are all due to these lousy worthless stinking useless Realtors and Mortgage idiots.
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Century 21 Seacost in San diego CA Sucks.
ReplyDeleteNever use them, NEVER !!
In fact avoid Realtors altogether, none of them no shit about anything.
REaltor WArs
ReplyDeleteBuyer: What do you need a realtor for? Like any other business they are out to make money. Nothin wrong with that. But like you said, they may have a tendecy? to push their own listings....6% is better than 3% I know I'm not saying any thing you don't know BUT I sold my house FSBO. We made enough money I don't even remember who paid the buyers agent. The day I finished painting the kitchen was the day I sold the house. Get your hands on the MLS its gotta be like an LA phone book by now.IMHO I think you are on the right track waiting....but I'm gonna wait for 5 or 6 months after the new president takes office to see if the economy settles down. But I seriously doubt it will.
As far as selling houses right now I think realtors brought this crap on themselves. Correct me if I'm wrong.
ReReRe::: About Relators
ReplyDeleteDam ,you are right. a bunch of mortgage brokers. Hope they all rot.
By the way, Next time I go look at a couple homes, I'm going to find a decent Realtor woman to show me the properties, Ill turn this into a date I think,Let her buy me lunch, maybe a drink or three at a local bar or somewhere, Than before the days over I will have her blowing me in somebody's living room. This should be fun.
re, mortgage brokers
ReplyDeleteunfortuately a lot of people got duped by realtors into using a mortgage broker when they could have done much better on their own.
San Diego CA - Another featured real estate loss - $146,000
ReplyDeleteOriginal Price = $700,00
Current Price = 539,000
on the way down!!!
Yet another real estate loss of at least $146,000 on the horizon. This one is a much more reasonable house rather than a million-dollar range domicile.
Again, given that they are prepared to realize a loss of $146,000 and because it has been on the market for a whopping 137 days they are likely to drop their asking price or accept a lower bid.
Have a nice day.
I am a california native and have seen this cycle several times. I think the bottom floor will be reached in 08/09. I hope everyone remembers this slide and supports controls to stop a repeat performance. Commission on a 500K property should be NO MORE than 2% and even that is questionable. If you deal with a mortgage broker have your accountant read the docs BEFORE you sign, these people will scew you to tears.
ReplyDeleteI own and hold 4 properties in, but a lot of people made a lot of stupid mistakes in the last few years and the deserve what they get.
ReplyDeleteMy plans 4 weekend
ReplyDeleteTo Follow In The Footsteps of Others Smarter Than Me............
I promise to -
Find a female Realtor
jerk her chain
look at houses but never buy 1
yeepie kyee
all Realtors - eat shit and die !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Realtors (mortgage brokers) saw a hot market and saw the average joe who did not graduate high school making $100k plus a year and they wanted in. Everyone wanted in. People left their days jobs to chase that money. Many sadly did anything they could to make a buck, even if it meant selling to those who were not qualified and selling homes that the buyer could not afford.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened? The market flipped. Anyone who is good at their job can stay afloat and make money in any market. All those who are now returning to their other jobs are the bandwagon realtors and mortgage brokers.
re, realtors and mortgage brokers going back to their regular jobs.....
ReplyDeleteyou forgot yo mention those jobs are at....
McDonalds
Wendys
Burger King
Bank Teller
Tight market has Realtors looking through 'help wanted' ads.......
ReplyDeleteI am so damn glad......
hope all realtors starve and die
Why Can't We Sterilize all......
ReplyDeleterealtors
mortgage brokers
bankers
investors
home builders
lawyers
`Subprime' is linguists' word of year
ReplyDeletethe realtor today
ReplyDeleteWell able to hooked up with a Realtor today at a hotel lobby.
I used the hotel where my buddy is staying, not mine.
Wasted a few hours of her time and was laughing inside all the time.
Thursday ends my 3-month assignment here, I will be going to Vegas for a month then on to San Fran where I will screw with more Realtors......
couldn't sleep, up early this am, browsing Blogs on the Internet...came across this one, it's great !
ReplyDeletebeen reading some post here, damn i love this blog
ReplyDeleteScottsdale
ReplyDeleteScottsdale used to be a great suburb to live in. Now, it's just full of rich poseurs ($30k millionaires)who make fast cash during the phony real estate boom but who are at their core, trashy and have no class.
Will foreclosures spark an arson boom?
ReplyDeleteAs homeowners get more desperate, the insurance industry is bracing for an increase in arson.
NEW YORK NYC - Faced with foreclosure on her Russellville, Indiana home, Christina Snyder allegedly concocted the kind of plan that now has insurance executives on edge.
According to the county prosecutor, the 31-year-old Snyder allegedly offered to pay a neighbor $5,000 to help her burn down her house and make it look like a botched rape attempt - all in order to claim $80,000 in insurance money. Snyder wanted the neighbor to bind her hands in duct tape, write "whore" on her shirt, and then help her escape once the blaze was set, the prosecutor says. The neighbor demurred, instead reporting Snyder to police.
With the national foreclosure rate zooming and the real estate market in a two-year funk, the insurance industry fears more homeowners will see arson as a way out of their financial woes. A recent report by the industry-funded Coalition Against Insurance Fraud notes that with "untold thousands of homeowners struggling with ballooning subprime mortgage payments, fraud fighters are watching closely for a spike in arsons by desperate homeowners who can no longer afford their home payments."
History indicates such a spike is coming. "When the economy is down, we see an increase in fraud," says Dennis Schulkins, a claim consultant in State Farm's Special Investigative Unit.
It may already be happening. Allstate (ALL, Fortune 500) spokesman Mike Siemienas says his company has seen an increase nationally in arsons among homes in foreclosure. In California, the state¹s insurance division reports that the number of questionable residential fires in 2007 increased 76 percent over 2006.
National arson statistics for 2007 aren't yet available, but Federal Bureau of Investigation crime data shows there was a significant uptick - 4 percent - in suburban arson in 2006, when the real estate downtown began to take hold. The arson increase in 2006 marked a change from the prior three years when suburban arson fell 3 percent, 5 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Says Dennis Jay, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud's executive director, "It's a growing problem."
Housing slouch continues
ReplyDeleteGoldman Sachs analyst Jan Hatzius says a recession and a more serious downturn in the housing market are on the horizon.
re, arson and insurance company loses
ReplyDeleteSounds like a sound idea, why should someone benefit from my loss and hardship.
Burn the damn thing to the ground.
The mortgage is paid off and the bank gets raw land they can sell for a profit.
re, insurance companies v arson
ReplyDeletescrew these bastards, i just wish the mortgage broker was inside when the fire starts
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp. said Friday it has agreed to buy Countrywide Financial for $4 billion in stock, a deal that both rescues the country's biggest mortgage lender and expands the financial services empire of the nation's largest consumer bank.
ReplyDeleteThe acquisition will make Charlotte-based Bank of America the nation's biggest mortgage lender and loan servicer.
"Countrywide presents a rare opportunity for Bank of America to add what we believe is the best domestic mortgage platform at an attractive price and to affirm our position as the nation's premier lender to consumers," Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis said in a statement.
The buyout come less than five months after Bank of America plugged $2 billion in Countrywide Financial Corp. during the height of the summer's global credit crisis, and just weeks after Ken Lewis vowed that making a deal in the mortgage industry would require him "to eat about seven years of my words."
It also places Lewis, an aggressive dealmaker, in the position of a market savior. By buying Countrywide, he's keeping the industry and regulators from the messy task of figuring out who would take on the responsibility of collecting payments for the millions of U.S. home loans serviced by the Calabasas, Calif.-based lender.
"There's still plenty of risk involved," said Bart Narter, senior analyst at Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm. "He's brave to do it. But I think that it's very likely down the road to be profitable, maybe not immediately, but long-term."
Shareholders of Countrywide will receive 0.1822 of a share of Bank of America stock in exchange for each share of Countrywide. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter and to be neutral to Bank of America earnings per share in 2008 and lift earnings per share in 2009, excluding buyout and restructuring costs.
Bank of America expects $670 million in after-tax cost savings in the transaction, or 11 percent of the expense base of the two companies' mortgage operations.
The agreement has been approved by both companies' boards and is subject to regulatory and Countrywide's shareholders approval.
Shares in Countrywide hit record lows in recent days on persistent rumors that a bankruptcy was imminent, a condition brought on by the widespread spike in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, especially in subprime loans — those made to borrowers with weak credit.
Countrywide shares plunged more than 18 percent, or $1.42, to $6.33 in premarket trading after soaring $2.63, or 51.4 percent, to close at $7.75 Thursday on reports of a possible deal. Bank of America shares fell 2 percent, or 80 cents, to $38.50.
Countrywide shares have plunged 57 percent since Bank of America made its $2 billion deal in August at $18 per share,
As of yesterday's close the deal is worth $4.14 billion and represents a 7.6 percent discount to Countrywide's closing price.
Along with the $2 billion investment from Bank of America, Countrywide was forced to draw on an $11.5 billion line of credit to steady itself in August. It also tightened its credit guidelines and stopped selling some types of adjustable rate loans. But analysts said it wasn't enough, with one noting this week that Countrywide needed an infusion of $4 billion in capital within the next two weeks to save itself.
Lewis' bank holds $1.5 trillion in assets and is the nation's largest bank by market capitalization.
Oh boo hoo, boo hoo - I lost my house, I lost my job ... oh boo hoo, what should I do ??
ReplyDeleteHARTFORD, Conn. - Authorities in New York and Connecticut are investigating whether Wall Street banks hid crucial information about high-risk loans bundled into securities that were sold to investors, Connecticut's Attorney General said Saturday.
ReplyDeleteThe investigations, first reported Saturday by The New York Times, center around "no-doc" or "exception" loans, that did not even meet subprime standards, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.
"The loans were made to people who did not have any documents to verify their income or other verification for key requirements normally applied to mortgage borrowers," he said. "Many of the lenders made large amounts of loans, so that the exception swallowed the rule, or became the rule."
The loans were sold by subprime lenders to Wall Street firms that bundled them with other, less risky, loans into securities.
Investigators want to find out whether the banks properly disclosed the high risk of default on those loans when selling those securities to investors in Connecticut and elsewhere, Blumenthal said.
"The investment banks may have used very broad, boilerplate disclaimer language that effectively failed to disclose fully and fairly all the information," he said.
Blumenthal said Connecticut is cooperating with New York and that the investigation may eventually include the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Times said charges could be filed in the coming weeks.
Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, declined to comment Saturday.
In November, Cuomo said he issued subpoenas to government-sponsored lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in his investigation into what he claims are conflicts of interest in the mortgage industry. He said he wanted to know about billions of dollars of home loans they bought from banks, including the largest U.S. savings and loan, Washington Mutual Inc., and how appraisals were handled.
Spokesmen for both lenders said they require accurate appraisals and both agreed to appoint independent examiners as requested. Washington Mutual said it was conducting its own internal investigation into Cuomo's claims and that "the company will vigorously defend itself from all unfounded allegations and lawsuits."
Blumenthal declined to say which firms were under investigation, but said his office had issued over 30 subpoenas.
"These practices involving trillions of dollars in securities sold to ordinary investors go to the core of our financial system's integrity and efficiency," Blumenthal said. "We regard this investigation as a priority."
my fun in real estate
ReplyDeleteJust got into town on Thursday. All ready bored. Will be here for about a month on a consulting assignment.
So on Sunday I went out with this Realtor. I ran them all over looking for a house that I had no intention on buying.
I love screwing with their pathetic useless heads. Boy I had fun !!
See one of you this weekend for another romp in fairyland.
All Realtors deserve to have their chain yanked and yanked hard.
I agree, realtors are like maggots, everywhere...you just can't get rid of them!
ReplyDeleteLatest Real Estate News is all bad ...
ReplyDeleteCNN Financial is reporting today that Real Estate Sales are expected to fall another 14%.
Real Estate is so bad that the seller's Realtor had sex with me just to get me to buy the property.
ReplyDeleteBeen reading the latest post here for this month. Wife is visiting relatives out of town, so I think I will screw with some Realtors tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteEarnings won't bail out market this time
ReplyDeleteWith investors worried that the credit crisis is worsening and that a recession is all but likely, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell nearly 10 percent in the first 18 days of 2008. This month is shaping up to be the worst January on record for the well-tracked index since 1970, when blue chips shed 7.65 percent.
Add to this the housing crisis is expected to worsen both in foreclosures and in home sales.
I am off on the weekends. Living out of a hotel. You can only do so much when on the road like I am. So, again this weekend I decided to mess with some Realtors...after all they are less than human anyway.
ReplyDeleteMcDonalds left over wannabee workers, disgruntled idiot soccer moms, and frustrated get rich quick lazy bastards.
So, both Saturday and Sunday I had two different Realtors run me all over Vegas looking for houses I will never buy...ha,ha,ha !!
Can't wait to get to my next two assignments -- SF and Phoenix, more stupid Realtors await me. They are everywhere.
For those of you who don’t know, White Flight is essentially where a once White Neighborhood becomes a minority neighborhood. This happens once minorities begin moving into an all White Neighborhood. Some researchers believe once a neighborhood becomes 10% minority is when the process takes off. Whites fear their property values will go down and therefore sell their homes and move further out into the suburbs. Neighborhoods can literally transform in just a couple of years from all White to all minority. Many real estate agents have initiated this process in order to get rich off of all the commissions.
ReplyDeleteFed Cuts Interest Rate Amid Global Stock Sell-Off and Fears of Recession ......
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON DC - The Federal Reserve, confronted with a global stock sell-off fanned by increased fears of a recession, slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point on Tuesday and indicated further rate cuts were likely.
The surprise reduction in the federal funds rate from 4.25 down to 3.5 percent marked the biggest funds rate cut on records going back to 1990.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues took the action after an emergency video conference on Monday night, a day when global markets had been pounded by rising concerns that weakness in the world's largest economy was spreading worldwide.
Despite the Fed's bold move, Wall Street plunged at the opening. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 311.99 points in the first hour of trading.
In a brief statement explaining its move, the Fed said that "appreciable downside risks to growth remain" and officials pledged to "act in a timely manner" to deal with the risks facing the economy. The action was approved on an 8-1 vote.
Analysts said the fact that the Fed did not wait until its meeting next week to cut rates underscored the seriousness of the situation.
"The world's stock markets are in meltdown so the Fed came in with an inter-meeting move to try to stop the panic," Christopher Rupkey, senior economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.
The Bush administration, which had announced on Friday that President Bush supported a $150 billion economic stimulus package, said Tuesday that it was not ruling out doing more than the $150 billion proposal if necessary.
Many analysts said if the carnage continues in stock markets, the Fed will move to cut rates again at its Jan. 29-30 meeting.
"This move is not an instant fix," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. "The economy is still staring recession in the face, but at least the Fed now gets it."
In addition to cutting the funds rate, the Fed said it was reducing its discount rate, the interest it charges to make direct loans to banks, by a similar three-quarters of a percentage point, pushing this rate down to 4 percent.
Commercial banks responded to the Fed's action on the funds rate by announcing similar cuts of three-quarter of a percent on its prime lending rate, the benchmark for millions of business and consumer loans. The action will mean the prime lending rate will drop from 7.25 percent down to 6.50 percent.
The Fed action was the most dramatic signal it can send that it is concerned about a potential recession in the United States.
The Fed action occurred after global financial markets had plunged Monday as investors grew more concerned about the possibility that the United States, the world's largest economy, could be headed into a recession. Many markets suffered their biggest declines since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
In its statement, the Fed said it had decided to cut the federal funds rate "in view of a weakening of the economic outlook and increasing downside risks to growth."
The central bank said that the strains in short-term credit markets have eased a bit, but "broader financial market conditions have continued to deteriorate and credit has tightened further for some businesses and households. Moreover, incoming information indicates a deepening of the housing contraction as well as some softening in labor markets."
The move caught financial markets by surprise. Many had expected the central bank would wait until its meeting next week to make any move in interest rates. The Fed made the move before markets had opened in the United States.
Before Tuesday's move, the Fed had cut interest rates three times, beginning in September, the month after a severe credit crunch had roiled Wall Street and global financial markets. The Fed cut the funds rate by a half-point in September and then by smaller quarter-point moves in October and December.
"The committee will continue to assess the effects of financial and other developments on economic prospects and will act in a timely manner as needed to address those risk," the Fed statement said.
The Fed's action was approved on an 8-1 vote with William Poole, president the Fed's regional bank, dissenting. The statement said that Poole objected because he did not believe current conditions justified a rate move before the Fed's meeting next week.
re, Fed Cuts Interest Rate Amid Global Stock Sell-Off and Fears of Recession:
ReplyDeleteThis is too little to late. Just ask anyone who has lost their job or home.
The Fed is useless ... it should be eliminated.
The United States is the only country n the world with this set-up.
Every other country has what the FED does under the Treasury Department.
re, Fed Cuts Interest Rate Amid Global Stock Sell-Off and Fears of Recession -
ReplyDeletecouldn't agree more, we are all ready in a recession and their is no end in sight this year, so everyone better tighten their belts and conserve spending.
There will be a lot more foreclosures and a lot more layoffs which ultimately must lead to more bankruptcies!
re, re, Fed Cuts Interest Rate Amid Global Stock Sell-Off and Fears of Recession
ReplyDeleteYES and this is no time to be buying Real estate.
The market will not level out until the end of this year.
So wait on purchase of any home or investment properties.
If you have money, but Gold - real gold, not bonds, stocks, or commodity trading futures, but the real thing.
The old saying is, “Whoever controls the money, controls the nation.”
ReplyDeleteAmselm Rothschild put it this way:
"Give me the power to issue a nation's money, then I do not care who makes the law."
Wall Street is still reacting poorly even though the FED cut interest rates.
ReplyDeleteThis is proof the FED is useless.
Congress is always late in reacting.
President Bush still has his head up Dick Ceney's butt.
Predatory Lending Victim My Butt !!!
ReplyDeleteSo up here in Boston a woman named Melonie Griffiths is now claiming she was misled by a 'predatory lender'and subsequently defaulted on her loan. claiming the lord was on her side, she refused to leave when a constable came to escort her from the property - note, not HER property, the bank's property.
Listen honey, there is no such thing as predatory lending - you KNEW the rates would change. you KNEW this, signed the agreement and proceeded knowing full well you'd be shit out of luck if the rates changed. They did. You can't pay - GET OUT.
I am so sick of hearing about this and the bailouts demanded by frauds such as Chuck Turner and hacks like Sam Yoon.
And now a 'protest group' has manifested, City Life? Im from the city. I've lived the city life - none of it ever justified ignorance and claiming victim when I couldn't afford something.
"We are urging mass resistance to these evictions," said Steve Meachem, an organizer for the group. "
- mass resistance to what, exactly? the evictions are a reflection of poor choices made by predominantly poor people. Being poor does not entitle you to sympathy and does not make one a saint, much less a victim of supposedly predatory practices.
You can be sure of one thing though- if people like Melonie Griffiths and that fraudulent, lying criminal, Chuck Turner get their way, it'll be you and I, John Q Taxpayer and Homeowner alike, who bail out the likes of Ms. Griffiths.
Together, we can....rip everyone off!
Ranting On, I am ...
ReplyDeleteI am trying to refinance my condo and wanted to tell everyone do not go with CountryWide, seems they also own "Landsafe" which is the ONLY appraiser's they use....
My rant is Landsafe came out and spent and I am not kidding 5 minutes and left. got my appraisal back with the wrong square footage and he only said my place was worth $135000. I about hit the ceiling, he was an ignorant asshole,
Now for my Rave
Pacific Morg and Harper Appraisals out of Scottsdale, they are the best, My appraisal came back with the correct Square footage and all upgrades that I have, the guy spent 45 minutes here and he was very professional and answered all of my questions, What cw and ls did to my family and I was a nightmare, They put me thru so much stress I can't believe it but the best part is I close Jan 31st with a great 30yr fixed loan and payments I can afford, I guess I am one of the lucky ones most people lost their homes, I want to shout
Thank you Lord !!!!!
Phoenix area for the newcomer:
ReplyDeleteHey before you get too excited about Phoenix Arizona, read this.
The truth about Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun is that it's a great place to visit for people from colder climates but not a good place to live permanently. Phoenix is basically becoming a third world city with rampant crime and blight. You can probably find a house 30+ miles from downtown but then your commute will be hell and you'll end up living in an unfriendly gated community where no one will know you. Also wages here are extremely low. The following sums up the Phoenix metro area:
"Phoenix, Scottsdale and the surrounding metro area is finding its own level.
Basically, a repository of mediocre poorly educated
bottom-feeders seeking cheap banal living and easy money. This souless mix of carpet-bagging transients, budget seniors, tatooed misfits, real estate grifters, toothless white trash tweakers, minimum wage job seekers and pseudo-Scottsdale millionaires has created a major population center that masquarades as a major metropolis but is
really one big cow town.
A bleak barren landscape with terrible weather, traffic congestion, bad air, stuffed with ugly stucco houses and big box retailers peddling Chinese crap, corporate food, and a dumbed down semi-literate citizenry, Phoenix/Scottsdale metro epitomizes the lowest common denominator of American cities.
If somehow, by either plan or accident, you're living
in metro Phoenix/Scottsdale, you rank on the bottom rungs of the intelligence charts. The only reason to be here, (temporarily), is if you're making a decent income (absolute minimum of 250,000 per year). Anything less is not worth it, as your health, mental well being and personal esteem will deeply suffer by living in this genetic cesspool of half-breeds."
re: phoenix area for newcomer
ReplyDeleteI lived in Surprise for a year and could'nt take it anymore. Before that I would occasionaly fly to phoenix to visit family and thought it was great. Even once in the summer. Then i moved there. Jeesh. What a mistake that was. A few months there I realized this was not for me. An enduring local told me it's normal to hate the valley of the damned for about the first six months.O.K.
Facing another summer in that toilet was more than I could bare. One big shopping mall in hellish heat,ridiculous traffic,some of the stupidest people I have ever encountered - AZ. ranked 50th in education - 1st in dumb, and neighborhoods that look like a goddamn war zone! They can thank their Mexican neighbors for that.
Low wages,inflated housing,blah,blah,blah,I could go on forever.
Be smart, dont move to Arizona the whole state is becoming part of Mexico.
Oh, to get a job you need to speak Spanish.
The government has reported that bankruptcies are up 75% in 2007 mostly due to the housing crisis and foreclosures.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone saw 60 Minutes last Sunday, one of the segments was on the Housing Crisis.
ReplyDeleteIt focused on the worst place in the nation, Stockton California where one realtor had 102 for sale listings - all in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure!
Home prices are down 30% or more and still falling.
Most of these are sub prime loans.
re, the govt has reported ....
ReplyDeleteIt isn't bankruptcies are up 75% it is housing foreclosures, which do generally tend to follow one another.
The TOP Home Foreclosure States are ...
ReplyDeleteCalifornia
Michigan
Nevada
Florida
Ohio
Colorado
Standard & Poor's Index Shows Home Prices Dropping at Record Pace in November
ReplyDeleteNEW YORK NYC, Wall Street - U.S. home prices plunged by a record 8.4 percent in November, marking two years of slowing returns, according to a key index released Tuesday.
The decline in the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller 10-city composite home price index was the biggest year-to-year drop since a 6.7 percent decrease in October. The November performance was the 11th straight monthly decline. The index tracks prices of existing single-family homes in 10 metropolitan areas.
"Nothing in these numbers suggest a bottoming out. The numbers universally are disappointing," said David Blitzer, S&P's managing director and chairman of the index committee. "Maybe when we get into the spring/summer home-buying season and with lower interest rates, maybe it will all come together."
The broader 20-city composite index also was down year-over-year, falling 7.7 percent in November.
Robert Shiller, chief economist at MacroMarkets LLC and one of the architects of the index, noted that 14 of the 20 metropolitan areas posted their single largest monthly decline on record in November.
Miami led the pullback with a 15.1 percent decline, followed by San Diego at 13.4 percent, Las Vegas at 13.2 percent and Detroit at 13 percent. Los Angeles, Phoenix and Tampa, Fla., also recorded double-digit declines in November.
Only Charlotte, N.C., Portland, Ore., and Seattle posted positive annual growth rates. However, Blitzer believes these cities will fall into negative territory in the next few months.
The index is considered a strong measure of home prices because it examines price changes of the same property over time, instead of calculating a median price of homes sold during the month.
It comes a day after the government reported that new home sales plummeted last year by the biggest amount on record. The Commerce Department said Monday that sales of new homes dropped by 26.4 percent last year to 774,000, marking the largest plunge since 1980.
The government also said the median price of a new home edged up only 0.2 percent in 2007 to $246,900, the worst performance since prices slipped by 2.4 percent during the 1991 housing downturn.
After five years of booming home sales and prices, housing stalled at the end of 2005. It fell into a serious slump last year as delinquencies and foreclosures surged on mortgages made to risky borrowers.
Foreclosure filing tracker RealtyTrac Inc. said Tuesday the number of U.S. homes that slipped into some stage of foreclosure climbed 79 percent in 2007 from the previous year.
So far, homebuilders and lenders have posted huge losses, while Wall Street investors, including major national banks, have taken billion-dollar write-downs on securities backed by mortgages.
On Tuesday, the nation's largest mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp. said it swung to a loss in the fourth quarter due to rising loss provisions and impairment charges. Earlier in the month, Countrywide said it will sell itself to Bank of America Corp. for about $4 billion in stock.
The fear has seeped into the broader market, creating a squeeze on all types of credit and curbing consumers' willingness to spend. Economists worry the prolonged housing downturn could plunge the economy into a full-blown recession.
The Federal Reserve has stepped in to stem the fallout by slashing a key interest rate by 1.75 percent since September, including an unexpected emergency three-quarter-point cut to 3.5 percent last week. The central bank begins its two-day meeting Tuesday.
Also last week, President Bush and House leaders agreed on a $150 billion economic stimulus package which included a plan to increase the size of mortgages Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration can handle. But critics believe more dramatic action is needed.
The FBI has opened criminal investigations into 14 corporations as part of a crackdown on improper subprime lending, agency officials said on Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteFBI officials told reporters the probes involved potential violations, including accounting fraud and insider trading.
They did not identify the companies. But the probes reached across the industry to include developers, subprime lenders, companies that securitized loans and investment banks that held them, said Neil Power, head of the FBI's economic crimes unit.
"Currently there are ... 14 investigations, inquiries open right now," he said.
Cases involving individual loans have also risen sharply in a crackdown on subprime lending irregularities, officials said.
"We anticipate in the next year that another wave of adjustable rate mortgages will reset and with that we anticipate that the mortgage corporate fraud potential cases to increase," said Sharon Ormsby, head of the FBI's financial crimes section.
The FBI is investigating the corporate cases in parallel with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has opened about three dozen civil investigations into the subprime market collapse. Some of the probes overlap, an official said.
Targets of the SEC probe include Swiss bank UBS AG and U.S investment banks Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, as well as bond insurer MBIA.
The SEC, which has formed an internal subprime mortgage task force, is looking at how financial firms priced mortgage-based securities and whether they should have told investors earlier about the declining value of those securities.
The U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, New York and the FBI earlier launched a criminal investigation into two mortgage-related hedge funds at Bear Stearns that collapsed during the summer.
There are also state investigations.
The corporate investigations are part of an FBI crackdown on improper subprime lending, which also includes a focus on fraud in loan origination.
The agency has about 1,200 active cases, up 40 percent from 2006, with 321 criminal complaints or indictments, officials said.
"Subprime loans are decreasing but ... suspicions of mortgage fraud are increasing," Ormsby said.
Some of the loan origination cases are spurred by individuals lying to qualify for mortgages, but about 80 percent of the cases involved fraud for profit, Power said.
Particular problem areas included California, Texas, Arizona, Florida, and the Midwest, officials said.
Some inside info about sub-prime loans
ReplyDeleteI worked at a company called New Century Mortgage, now out of business. It was one of the biggest sub-prime lenders in the country. I also have a LOT of experience in lending, having started out in 1979 doing loans. I have also owned my own mortgage company. In all my years in lending, I NEVER saw such lax lending standards as I did in 2002-2004 at NCM.
It used to be that you needed equity AND a verifiable job before you could refinance. In the heydays of the sub-prime lending, "NINA" (no income, no assets) loans were easy to obtain. OK, so the lenders SHOULD get stuck on these loans. But what about borrower greed?
All too often, borrowers were tapping into their "equity on paper" and MAXING their cash out; not for important things as necessary home repairs, tuition, etc. Nope, they wanted to pay off credit cards, the same cards they used to buy stuff they couldn't afford. If you asked these borrowers why their balances were so high, they generally couldn't remember what they spent the money on!
When the appraisal came in higher than expected (don't laugh, it was COMMON in 2002-2003), the customer usually could choose a slightly lower rate (lower LTV), or they could get the difference as "cash out", no ??? asked; other than a fake letter of explanation. WITHOUT FAIL, the credit-challenged borrowers wanted the $$$ out, never worrying about the new higher loan amount on their home.
EVERY BORROWER I HAD understood that the loan would adjust up sharply in two years, they had to sign a separate form ACKNOWLEDGING it. Invariably, the borrowers always thought about the NOW, never about tomorrow; much less two years from now. They only wanted the cash to spend on junk and nice dinners out.
My point? Most of the blame lies on the borrowers. In EXTREMELY RARE cases, borrowers needed true financial help. In MOST CASES, there was a long pattern of poor financial decisions financed by the greed of others.
Did a few people get lied to? Yes. Were a few people ignorant of the ramifications? You bet.
Were the large majority of sub-prime borrowers dizzy with greed and hungry to try to be something they couldn't afford? DAMN STRAIGHT!
Whatever happened to living below your means?
In my professional opinion, the borrowers who were stuck not being able to handle the payment jump got what they deserved. Nuff said.
BERLIN GERMANY - Today, Former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan cast doubt on the ability of the central bank to prevent a US recession in an interview to appear on Thursday.
ReplyDeleteGreenspan told the German weekly Die Zeit that the Fed or political policies could "probably not" keep the world's biggest economy from sliding into recession, as financial markets widely expected the US central bank to cut its main lending rate.
"The influences of the global economy today are stronger than almost any monetary or budgetary response," the German-language weekly quoted Greenspan as saying.
Although he left the post of Fed chairman two years ago, Greenspan's opinions on the economy are still sought after.
"Real long-term interest rates have much more influence over the heart of economic activity than national decisions," he was quoted as adding.
"And central banks have less and less power to influence long term rates."
The former Fed chief put the chances of a US recession at 50 percent, but added: "We have few indications that would allow us to say we are already there."
Some analysts have said that low interest rates under Greenspan's watch were responsible in part for the US housing bubble that burst last year, and led to the current financial crisis.
Die Zeit quoted him as saying he found it hard to understand that "the Federal Reserve policy had somehow allowed housing and stock prices to rise."
Fallout from the crisis, which began with a meltdown of the US market for high-risk, or subprime, mortgages, continues to rock international financial markets and now threatens the US economy with a recession.
For Greenspan however, the turmoil was "entirely the result of market forces at a global level."
The Fed's Open Market Committee (FOMC) was to announce its decision on US lending rates later on Wednesday.
It surprised markets last week by slashing the base Fed funds rate by three quarters of a percentage point to 3.50 percent, but it is widely expected to follow through with another cut to 3.0 percent.
Countrywide, the nations largest home mortgage lender specializing in sub-prime notes said today, that 1 in 3 of every mortgages they have are either behind or in default.
ReplyDeleteThis is more bad news for the housing industry and worsen the mortgage crisis giving Wall Street further jitters.
Grocery Carts
ReplyDeleteYou have seen the advertisements towards the front or back of the cart while you have been pushing it. Usually an advertisement about 12 inches by 8 inches.
Realtors and Mortgage Brokes love to use these ...
hint, hint, hint -
Un-snap the plastic outer housing and snag the advertisement. Bring it home and flip it over. The back side is blank. Use your imagination and put the advertisement back into any shopping cart.
Just cheap fun.
Land next to Hollywood sign for sale -
ReplyDeleteLOS ANGELES - A mountaintop property located near the Hollywood sign and once owned by Howard Hughes is up for sale.
A group of Chicago investors is putting the 138 acres of land just west of the "H" in the sign on the market Wednesday.
The asking price: $22 million.
The property offers a stunning 360-degree panorama of the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley, says Fox River Financial Resources, which acquired the land in 2002 for $1,675,000.
"We weren't sure at first what we had," Fox River general partner Keith Dickson said Wednesday. "After looking at it, we kind of feel we got a Van Gogh at a garage sale."
Hughes once planned to build a love nest on the land for his then-paramour Ginger Rogers. Their relationship didn't last, and the property remained undeveloped and in the eccentric billionaire's trust for decades.
The land atop the 1,820-foot Cahuenga Peak consists of five legal lots and "the ridges on the top are nice and smooth," allowing for construction of homes, Dickson said.
The Hollywood sign is just below and east of the property.
Two years ago, city officials and conservationists tried unsuccessfully to raise money to buy the property to make the peak a part of Griffith Park.
Councilman Tom LaBonge, who led the fundraising, said building homes on the peak would ruin one of the city's most famous views.
"That mountain should not be cluttered," LaBonge told the Los Angeles Times. "It's good for the psyche of Los Angeles."
"The city should acquire this land," he added.
Griffith Park suffered two damaging wildfires last year amid extremely dry, hot conditions. A blaze in May burned 800 acres, and one in March tore through the hills near the Hollywood sign and burned 150 acres.
Realtors and Property managers of Arizona, this NEW Law includes you:
ReplyDeleteNo Amnesty In Arizona
Arizona is seeing signs of a flight by Mexican immigrants out of the state and back across the border. Local reformers credit the state's recent crackdown on illegal immigration. Indeed, sanctions against employers are playing a key role.
The new state law which goes into effect March 1 punishes employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants by suspending their business license for 10 days on the first violation and revoking it for a second offense.
At the same time, the county sheriff in Phoenix has been helping enforce federal immigration laws by rounding up people living there illegally.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has given arrest authority to many deputies. So in the course of a traffic stop, illegal aliens without driver's licenses for the first time now stand a real chance of being deported.
In response to the crackdown, illegals are flooding the Mexican consulate in Phoenix to obtain papers to move back across the border and enroll their children in school.
The consulate is reporting an "unusual" 400% increase in parents applying for Mexican birth certificates for their anchor babies and other documents they need to return to Mexico.
They're also requesting a paper known as a "menaje de casa," which allows illegals living in the U.S. to cross into Mexico without paying a tax on their furniture and other household goods.
Damn Lesbian Realtor-
ReplyDeleteMy neighbors were up all night with their flipping, flapping and flopping.
I wouldn't mind so much if she wasn't a stinking REALTOR !!!!
Been in and around the san fran area working on temp assignment.
ReplyDeleteI do this all the time.
Go from city to city.
Whenever I am bored, which was this weekend....
I will call up some dumbass realtor and have them run me all over looking for a house or condo I will never buy -
why you ask -
because realtors are stupid, they are con artist, they are responsible for the housing crisis as much as those idiot mortgage brokers -
how you ask -
well hell I tell you I say -
by charging six percent (6%) commission thats how.
people have to raise the cost of the home price to make up for the 6% real estate commissions plus other associated fees. This is called inflationary spending.
screw these greedy shits, get a real job like regular people, oh no they can't do that, these realtors will never go back to their jobs in fast food... the money is too easy in real estate screwing the public.
re, realtors r stupid-
ReplyDeleteBRAVO!
now i know what I'm going to do NEXT weekend!
Thanks for the tip! :-)
A Message to All Realtors:
ReplyDeleteNO Realtor has ever earned any respect.
If there was any level of integrity at all in the profession, their Brokers wouldn’t allow us to keep on buying the same old, static designs that do little to inspire anyone to do great things in or with their lives.
Curb Appeal was invented by Kings and Queens, for Kings and Queens. Can’t get more un-American than that! Even the French mock us for worshiping “the facade” or fake wall.
Where and how we live dramatically determines our future prosperity…or lack there of in its current state.