Category Archives: Housing

April 8, 2012

California Declares War on Suburbia

Posted on April 8, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

California planners want to herd millions into densely packed urban corridors. It won’t save the planet but will make traffic even worse.

It’s no secret that California’s regulatory and tax climate is driving business investment to other states. California’s high cost of living also is driving people away. Since 2000 more than 1.6 million people have fled, and my own research as well as that of others points to high housing prices as the principal factor.

The exodus is likely to accelerate. California has declared war on the most popular housing choice, the single family, detached home—all in the name of saving the planet.

Metropolitan area governments are adopting plans that would require most new housing to be built at 20 or more to the acre, which is at least five times the traditional quarter acre per house. State and regional planners also seek to radically restructure urban areas, forcing much of the new hyperdensity development into narrowly confined corridors.

In San Francisco and San Jose, for example, the Association of Bay Area Governments has proposed that only 3% of new housing built by 2035 would be allowed on or beyond the “urban fringe”—where current housing ends and the countryside begins. Over two-thirds of the housing for the projected two million new residents in these metro areas would be multifamily—that is, apartments and condo complexes—and concentrated along major thoroughfares such as Telegraph Avenue in the East Bay and El Camino Real on the Peninsula.

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Posted in Housing, Population

March 3, 2012

£1m mortgage benefits?

Posted on March 3, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

At a time when millions of people are struggling to get on the housing ladder almost 100 families are receiving housing benefit and are living in luxury homes on handouts that could pay £1m mortgages.

On average a mind blowing £1,500 is paid out weekly to around 30 of these families to enable them to lead luxurious lifestyles –this is more than three times the national average wage.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions 60 of the 100 families have their rent paid by the state to the tune of up to £5,000 a month.

The wealthier parts of London such as Kensington, Chelsea and Westminster now has these families living in them alongside a certain football club owner and other well known pop stars and celebrities.

Campaigners have criticised the latest figures and concerns have been raised that the Government’s plan to cap housing benefit is not being enforced after ministers had announced that housing benefit should be capped at £400 per week despite evidence showing there are almost 5,000 families claiming far more than the suggested capping allowance although nationally four out of five claimants receive less than £100 per week.

It will come as no surprise to learn that the public are now seething after learning that many of these families are immigrants and asylum seekers who have been allowed to dwell in costly houses and flats at the expense of taxpayers.

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Posted in British National Party, Bubbles, Entitlements, Europe, Housing

How Santorum Helped Fuel the Housing Bubble

Posted on March 3, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

The Santorum-endorsed Nehemiah Project and its nearest competitor, AmeriDream, according to Horwitz and Jamieson, helped set up 392,000 mortgages worth $54 billion, earning tens of millions in fees for itself—and nearly a billion dollars each for Centex, D.R. Horton, and Dominion Homes.

One of the consistent refrains from the Rick Santorum campaign is that he opposes government bailouts, but as a senator, he supported the something-for-nothing policy most responsible for the housing bubble. Like George W. Bush and other “compassionate conservatives,” he was naively obsessed with affordable housing for low-income potential home buyers, a mismanaged cause that led to billions in loan defaults and which the IRS called a “scam.”

In his book It Takes A Family (2005), Santorum wrote at length and approvingly of the Nehemiah Project, a Sacramento faith-based nonprofit that helped mostly black low-income buyers get access to home ownership through its down-payment assistance program. (The name Nehemiah, who rebuilt Jerusalem, comes from the Bible.)

But as Jeff Horwitz and Dave Jamieson report from the Huffington Post’s Investigative Fund, down-payment aid programs like Nehemiah effectively “pav[ed] the way for even riskier subprime loans by private lenders.” How did this happen? Horwitz and Jamieson explained in 2009.

A home builder would agree to make a “gift” to the nonprofit in an amount equal to the down payment. The nonprofit would give the cash to the buyer, often earning a generous fee for its role as middleman. In less than a decade, nonprofits had arranged more than a million no-money-down house sales around the country. By 2008, they represented more than a third of all loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

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Posted in Bubbles, Elections, Housing

February 17, 2012

Foreclosures on the Rise Again

Posted on February 17, 2012 by ifnm| Leave a comment

Distressed property sales lower the value of homes around them, and that pushes more borrowers into a negative equity position, owing more on their mortgages than their homes are currently valued.

After a year-long reprieve from rising foreclosures, the numbers are going up again.

One in every 624 U.S. households received a foreclosure filing in January, up 3 percent from the previous month, according to a new report from RealtyTrac. Foreclosure activity froze in many states in 2011, due to processing delays after fraud, or so-called “Robo-signing,” were uncovered in the fall of 2010. The thaw is now on.

“We expect the pattern of increasing foreclosures to continue in the coming months, especially given the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement reached in early February between 49 state attorneys general and five of the nation’s largest lenders,” said RealtyTrac’s CEO Brandon Moore in a written release. “Foreclosure activity increased on a year-over-year basis for the first time in more than 12 months in Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania, following a pattern we saw in late 2011 in states such as California, Arizona and Massachusetts.”

While states that do not require a judge to preside over foreclosure proceedings, like California, saw a jump in filings toward the end of last year, judicial states have all but stalled. That will now change, thanks to the $26 billion dollar government-lender/servicer settlement. There will still be some delays on individual state levels, but the wheels are turning again, and that means more bank repossessions and more foreclosed properties heading to the re-sale market.

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Posted in Bubbles, Economy and Debt, Housing