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Blog: The American Way  



Welcome to America, where you and your family will be able to fulfill your dreams
You are required to work hard in order to succeed. I give you the opportunities through
hard work to own your own land. I welcome you to rise up and fight for what you believe in the American dream I welcome you now onto American soil.
Good Luck and God Bless
Watch the Mortgage corporate today or they will take your American dream away that's the
American way of life today
                                                                    
Come Come Come
Keep the vision alive of what America really is freedom and the American Dream 
 The crooks have taken that away
America represents the last stand for freedom in the world.
Welcome! Here in America you will be guarded from harm and protected from enemies. You will prosper your children will grow to be finely tuned to contribute to this land, their land. We together will make this land great. Your times of hardships are not over with the corporate crooks today.
This land is your land. This land is my land.
Welcome to the land of the free, land of opportunity, land of Constitutional equality
Welcome to the gates of the America dream.  Any and everyone are welcome whether rich or poor. This is the land for Freedom, liberty where hope is alive and where dreams come alive
Now congress you must keep this American Dream alive.
Welcome to America, Come in and enjoy the freedoms that America has to offer. Here you will find endless opportunity and prosperity at your fingertip builds your American Dream and let no crook take it from under
 
Welcome! My name is Lady Liberty. As we all know, many of you are searching for freedom.
Well I can say you came to the right place. In America, you will find all you wanted, and more.
I wrote a song:
Let freedom ring from the bottom of your heart
Everyone deserves the best freedom is the best part. In America you can find your American dream to come true, even more then it seems but watch out for the American  crooks or your American dream will be unforeseen I no these cooperated crooks come so quickly and without warning to take your American Dream  so we have to stand together and fight for what is rightly ours.

Seeking freedom and fulfillment of our dream. It is one of the universal symbols of political freedom and democracy in the world
Did You Know?
Freedom is not standing still. A symbolic feature that people cannot see is the broken chain wrapped around the Statue's feet. Protruding from the bottom of her robe, the broken chains symbolize her free forward movement, enlightening the world with her torch free from oppression and servitude
Enjoy your stay here, you will find a better life if you do not let the crooks stand in your way. Here in America, their once was no strife now you have to strife. Your life will be better, you made an extraordinary choice, because in our country, everyone can find their own, special voice in freedom of speech so stand together and struggle and fight until we have won our fight.
United we stand divided we fall.
Where have Democratic gone into the hands of the crooks
The Democratic Party swept to power

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Posted: Monday January 29, 2007, 2:41 pm
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Lillian D. (37) 		Friday March 16, 2007, 4:34 pm
FREE PREVIEW
Congress Primed to Act On Risky Home Loans
By Greg Hitt, Sarah Lueck and James R. Hagerty
Word Count: 682
WASHINGTON -- Congress appears increasingly likely to pursue new protections for consumers seeking risky home loans, as defaults surge among borrowers and concerns rise over alleged abuses in the sector.

Top lawmakers in the House and Senate signaled their intention to tackle the issue, underscoring the more-activist sentiment prevailing on Capitol Hill since the Democrats swept to power in November.

Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who is running for president, has suggested Congress should curb what he views as predatory lending while finding ways to help "millions of families" facing foreclosure.

Yesterday, Mr. Dodd said federal banking ...

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Lillian D. (37) 		Friday March 16, 2007, 6:56 pm
Clinton: Industry 'clearly broken'


The senator tells a community group that 'we've got to take action' to protect the economy.

By Jonathan Peterson
Times Staff Writer
Posted March 16 2007

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Mar 13, 2007


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Mar 10, 2007


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Feb 28, 2007


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Feb 24, 2007


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WASHINGTON — Exotic-sounding mortgages that hardly anyone even heard of a few years ago might seem an unlikely topic for the national political debate.

But that was before rising defaults threatened the housing market and, perhaps, the broader economy.

"We've got to take action," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) told an audience of community activists Thursday.

Rising defaults in so-called sub-prime loans for people with shaky credit — many of them 2/28 loans (fixed for two years, adjustable for the final 28 years) with low introductory teaser rates — have triggered debate over how far the damage will extend to the broader economy.

But it is already obvious that the threat of foreclosures has rich ingredients for political theater. Many borrowers claim that they were not told the real costs they were taking on. Further, such disputes crystallize a difference between laissez faire Republicans and Democrats who are more sympathetic to government regulation.

Clinton, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, told an audience of community activists that the Bush White House had averted its eyes to the growing problem and declared: "The economy is not supporting homeownership the way we need it to."

Nor was Clinton the only presidential candidate to weigh in on the mortgage problems. In a statement late Thursday, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, declared that the crisis "strikes at the very heart of the American dream itself" and said he would soon haul officials from the government and industry before his panel.

"The sub-prime crisis is of grave concern to millions of Americans," Dodd said. "It has immediate and long-term implications for families, the housing industry and America's overall economy."

The remarks came on a day that pressure grew on government officials to step into the troubled marketplace and help out the growing number of borrowers who no longer can afford loans that have rocketed in cost as their introductory periods have ended.

Social activists Thursday urged the government to refinance troubled, high-cost mortgages and warned that as many as 3 million Americans could be forced out of their homes in a "torrent of defaults and foreclosures" in the coming months.

"As this crisis worsens, mortgage tsunamis will ravage working-class neighborhoods across the country," warned John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition. "Sheriffs will be knocking on people's doors only to find keys and furniture left behind."

Taylor called for legislation to create a national rescue fund to support beleaguered borrowers and stricter standards to eliminate predatory lending.

Allowing borrowers to refinance under easier terms "is the most sensible way for Congress and the administration to deal with this problem," said Taylor, whose nonprofit alliance of 640 organizations advocates investment in low-income neighborhoods.

Law enforcement authorities, meanwhile, said Thursday that they were targeting improper lending practices.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has an "open investigation" into the sub-prime mortgage industry and its practices, spokesman Nathan Barankin said. The probe was opened years ago under former Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and led to actions against companies, he said, including Ameriquest Mortgage Co. and the parent company of Household Finance, now part of HSBC North America.

That investigation remains open and "there are specific players in the market we are interested in," said Barankin, who declined to detail those specifics.

New York Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo also told reporters Thursday that he was looking into the sub-prime lending market, though he did not elaborate.

Inside the Washington Beltway, the problem of failing mortgages increasingly is playing out in the political spotlight — and the Bush administration is being forced to play defense.

"We're doing everything in our power, in our moral persuasion, to try to keep mortgage foreclosures from occurring," Alphonso Jackson, secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, said at a House hearing this week. "We don't have the power to dictate to them what they should do."

But Democrats are increasingly taking the view that the administration needs to do more — and soon.

Said Dodd: "I intend to use all the powers and tools at my disposal as chairman to find solutions that will keep families in their homes, ensure that America's dream of homeownership remains alive and protect America's economy."

Clinton on Thursday said she wanted to establish new incentives for lenders to help troubled borrowers through their problems, such as establishing a "timeout" to find a way to prevent foreclosure. "This market is clearly broken, and if we don't fix it, it could threaten our entire housing market, which in turn would threaten our entire economy," Clinton said.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
jonathan.peterson@latimes.com

Times staff writer Marc Lifsher in Sacramento contributed to this report.


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Lillian D. (37) 		Wednesday March 21, 2007, 6:21 pm
American dream. 6:15 PM


The harsh side of the housing boom
By Pete Carey
Mercury News
Article Launched: 03/11/2007 01:38:35 AM PST


Click photo to enlarge Luis Mapula and his wife, Cristina Plata, talk to Pete Carey... (Joanne Ho-Young Lee - Mercury News)
«
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Countrywide Financial reports rise in late payments on subprime loans
Nearly three years ago, Luis Mapula was living in a converted garage with his wife and two daughters and earning $54,000 a year as a fence company construction worker. Then, almost like magic, he became the owner of a $543,000 home with no down payment.

Situated on a quiet cul-de-sac off Quimby Road in East San Jose, the two-bedroom home was to have been his family's piece of the American dream. Instead, it became a financial trap that consumed most of Mapula's income. He got out only after his real estate broker took back the home and paid off the loan as part of a legal settlement.

Renters once again, the family has no plans to buy another home.

"Better a garage than live without enough to eat," Mapula's wife, Cristina Plata, said through a translator.

The couple are among a growing number of Latinos in Santa Clara County who say they've been victimized by a dark side of the housing boom in which people who speak limited or no English bought homes they couldn't afford based on exaggerated statements of income they say they knew nothing about. The deals generate commissions and fees for a chain of intermediaries, but can leave home buyers in foreclosure with ruined credit.

In most of the cases examined by the Mercury News, buyers complain that their loan disclosures weren't translated into Spanish, as required by law, and that they didn't understand the terms of their loans. Their stories reflect a national problem that is particularly


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acute in California, where thousands of lower-income families became first-time homeowners during the housing boom by getting non-traditional "subprime" loans. Those loans, which carry higher interest rates, typically have been given to borrowers who are higher credit risks or have income that is difficult to verify. But as lenders face a wave of defaults, they're getting stricter about who receives money just as borrowers are trying to refinance their way out of mortgages they can't afford.
Loan applications: Borrowers signed mortgage papers

It's not always clear whom to blame when false statements appear on loan documents or when payments are obviously more than the buyer can afford, because the buyers sign the papers.

Attorneys say their clients, largely lower-income, Spanish-speaking buyers who did not understand what they were signing, were misled by real estate professionals whom they trusted.

"People are being told they're getting a great deal, and they buy a house they otherwise couldn't afford and often are lied to about the terms,'' said Kerstin Arusha, directing attorney for the non-profit Fair Housing Law Project in San Jose, which represented Mapula and his wife.

Robert Aldana, a real estate agent who hosts a weekly Spanish-language real estate program on a local cable channel, agrees and blames the lending industry. "Right now it's a free-for-all; people are running in with big hands and pulling out dollars," he said. "Not enough is being done in this industry to police ourselves. Something drastic has to change."

Yet brokers, lenders and real estate professionals say borrowers bear responsibility for knowing what kind of loan they're getting and whether they are getting more than they should based on their income and credit history.

"No one should sign something they don't understand," said June Barlow, counsel with the California Association of Realtors.


Mapula and his wife weren't looking to buy a home when Plata was approached at the San Jose Flea Market in April 2004 by a representative of Century 21 Su Casa, according to their lawsuit. The company is a franchise of Century 21 that is independently owned and operated by Vision Quest 21, which has 315 salespeople and several offices in San Jose.

Plata deliberately gave the representative an incorrect phone number, she said in an interview. But when her daughter corrected her, she gave the right number.

"Then they started calling Luis," she said.

Three months later, Mapula, whose take-home pay was $3,400 a month, and Plata, a homemaker and mother of two, bought a half-million dollar home on Burdick Way, paying only a $5,000 escrow deposit. Originally from Sonora, Mexico, Mapula moved to San Jose six years ago.


Mapula qualified for the loans through a stated-income process, which offers less-rigorous verification of income than conventional loans, his attorney said. Though Mapula signed the loan application that was submitted to Long Beach Mortgage, his lawsuit says he learned later that it falsely claimed he was making almost $100,000 a year from two jobs and receiving an additional $16,800 a year in rental income. The application also said he had $19,700 in the bank, owned a $22,000 Acura and had $28,000 in furniture and personal property. Mapula said none of that was correct.


It's not clear who filled out his application. The terms and payments were clearly stated in the loans, brokered by Mariposa Mortgage, which shares the same parent company as Century 21 Su Casa. But the documents were in English, which the couple said they cannot read. California's civil code requires loans negotiated in Spanish to be completed with Spanish-language disclosure statements, according to the state Department of Real Estate.


The payments on the loans were more than $3,500 a month, slightly more than Mapula's after-tax pay. After two years, their primary loan for about $434,000 would become adjustable at six-month intervals. Today, they would be paying a total of $4,306 a month, according to a mortgage expert who reviewed the loans. The primary loan also carried a heavy prepayment penalty.


After a year of struggling with the payments, renting out rooms and borrowing from relatives, the couple in July 2005 sued [ send green star]

Lillian D. (37) 		Thursday March 22, 2007, 2:11 pm

The American Dream
Improving Our Lot
Steve Forbes 03.22.07, 6:00 AM ET

Steve Forbes




David Halberstam:
Living the Dream
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Forbes:
Improving Our Lot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the Dream?




The essence of the American Dream was put into words best by Abraham Lincoln, who said that every American should have the opportunity "to improve his lot in life." Everyone, indeed, should have the chance to discover and lawfully develop to the fullest his or her God-given talents.

The American Dream, of course, doesn't mean that everyone succeeds or that we won't be buffeted by setbacks or hurt by the winds of change. It means that there should be no economic barriers to opportunity.

But barriers do exist today.

Taxes. We are overtaxed. Consider an average day. You get up in the morning and turn on the light: You're socked with an array of electricity taxes. Turn on the water: utility taxes. Put the coffee on: You probably paid sales tax on the coffee--and ditto on much of the food you eat.

If you drive to work, you pay gasoline taxes and maybe a toll or two. You already paid fees on your license and registration, not to mention the sales tax when you bought the car, along with transfer fees and various add-ons devised by your local pols.

Then there's work. Politicians take gargantuan bites out of your pay: federal income taxes, state income taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes and, perhaps, local income taxes.

Anything you buy during the day has also been subjected to taxes. This doesn't mean that you pay all of them directly. When you buy, say, a new sweater, you're paying countless disguised taxes. These include the taxes that companies pay on their profits, along with workers' Social Security taxes, property taxes, utility taxes, corporate excise taxes, among others--all passed along to you in the form of higher prices.

But wait, your day isn't over. You return home--after more of those gas levies and tolls--and you go through the mail. Uh-oh. Your county or township has sent your property taxes. Have a pet? Probably time to renew the license on Fido.

The inconvenient truth that politicians and others ignore is that taxes not only are a way for the government to raise revenue but are also a price and a burden. The tax you pay on income is the price you pay for working; the tax you pay on profit is the price you pay for being successful; the tax you pay on capital gains is the price you pay for taking risks that pan out. The principle is simple: If you lower the price and burden on good things, such as success, productive work and risk taking, you'll get more of them; raise the price, you'll get less.

The biggest abomination is the federal income tax code. As I pointed out in my book Flat Tax Revolution: Using a Postcard to Abolish the IRS: "Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which defined the character of the nation, is all of 268 words. The Declaration of Independence runs about 1,300 words. The Constitution, which has served us for more than two centuries, comes to some 5,000 words. The Holy Bible has 773,000 words. The federal income tax code and all of its attendant rules and regulations: 9 million words and rising. An appalling fact about the tax code is that no one really knows what's in it."

Replacing the federal income tax code with a simple flat tax--applicable only after generous deductions for adults and children (a family of four would owe no federal income tax on its first $46,000 of income)--would remove a major barrier to pursuing the American Dream.

The U.S. education system. Too many of our primary and secondary schools are failing. Millions of American children aren't being given the rudimentary tools that will enable them to move ahead when they enter the workforce. Parents should be free to choose schools that really work for their children--schools that are safe, clean, disciplined, drug-free and academically challenging, as well as ones that reinforce rather than undermine moral and spiritual values taught at home.

Every teacher should be free to create such schools, without politicians and bureaucrats draining away badly needed classroom funding and micromanaging the curriculum, not to mention the teachers' every move.

Rapidly rising health care costs. Millions of people have no health insurance. Americans should be free to own their own low-cost catastrophic health insurance policies and health savings accounts. These would give people real peace of mind, along with the freedom to choose their doctors and specialists and to obtain second opinions. We should stop forcing people into top-down, government-run health care programs or heavy-handed HMOs.

The current Social Security system. While Social Security provides a lifeline to millions of retirees, it is financed in a way that's hurting the economy and will cause considerably more damage in the future. A damaged economy obviously will provide fewer opportunities than a vigorous, vibrant one. Younger workers should be free to choose to invest the bulk of their Social Security taxes in personal retirement accounts, which they would own. This would take the money out of the hands of Washington politicians. It would enormously strengthen the economy long-term--and provide workers with much higher benefits than they will receive from the current system.

Lillian D. (37) 		Thursday March 22, 2007, 2:50 pm
AMERICAN DREAM...OR GRAND ILLUSION?

I bought a Grand Home for over $ 250K and from the onset, through the build and over two years after close, I am still trapped in a web of deceptive trade practices, title fraud, mortgage fraud, mob-style threats, trespass on my property and inside my home with the proven aid of a builder spec key (my doorknobs were removed and re-keyed while I slept), coercion and extortion in writing, bad construction and unresolved/major warranty problems, problems with illegal workers, fiduciary violations with a builder controlled HOA, title encumbrance created by and intentionally left in place by the builder/multiple code, Ordinance, deed restriction violations with city 'complicity', breach of contract and more... I am in the process of losing my home and everything I earned for 52 years...but I still have my pride, presence of mind (if not my physical health now) a tremendous amount of proof and documentation and a commitment to fight to help put bona-fide criminals in prison and otherwise stop the slow bleed of innocent victims.

All I have suffered was orchestrated by the builder/their undisclosed affiliates and agents and their answers and complaints to me as I tried to resolve are as follows: "... 'someone' called immigration and now we can't get anybody to work on our homes" "Go ahead, sue us" or "We'll sue you and WE WILL WIN...we have the money and the lawyers and the officials and the TRCC on our side...we will get you for $ 70K in attorney fees and $ 40K in court costs at a minimum." (This from their in-house counsel and others AFTER they fleeced me and destroyed my health and financial stability...part of quote is paraphrased/condensed). They did sue me to gain access to an easement they violated and created an encumbrance on and then attempted written extortion to gain my cooperation on a build next door to my home which due to code violations would further destroy my property value. They used false affidavits and accusations of criminal damage and tortuous interference with the build and sale of that home to sue me when they had nothing else to base a suit on.

I merely wanted a home, my own sanctuary in a quiet community and got a trip into a nightmare that I can't awaken from instead of the benefit of my bargain. I relied on professionals and trusted their ethical duties to me without realizing their duty was to the corrupt builder and their own pocketbook. My life is dominated by the court system, State and Federal and local licensure and law enforcement agencies with all the hearings and claims and testimony and I am in fear of being thrown into the street with nothing any day. I cannot afford a proper attorney and there are so many players that it is hard to find adequate representation without finding a 'conflict' with one of the entities. I am floundering in a legal mine-field without legal representation and forced to hire a 'contingency' lawyer who may not have my best interests at heart. As my situation unfolded and became more complicated, by design of the perpetrators; each well-researched and solid attorney ready to take my case backed out due to fear or because the easy ride and high dollars might not be so easy...after all, they see the horrific experience most people face with the TRCC and can't seem to grasp that many cases extend beyond basic warranty problems beyond the TRCC control, but the builders want to hold everything to an arbitration standard even though the original contracts are inherently illegal and violate our constitutional rights. Most citizens don't understand that a mere contract CANNOT SUPERSEDE YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.

The worst thing I have learned is that although these crooks have been in a lot of trouble with Federal and State authorities and have been fined and hand-slapped...the public has not been informed and the information is nearly impossible to acquire. Meanwhile, more unsuspecting and honest people are being duped and destroyed as I have been. Once caught in the web and trapped, the average person does not have the time, money or other resources to fight for their rights and protect their homestead. The law states they can use deadly force to protect their home and even their gold hubcaps, but the courts routinely 'gag' victims in these cases and they are prevented from using their free speech as I was in my case and was placed in a position to 'aid and abet' in the fleecing of the buyers of a home built on my zero property line with an existing title encumbrance, code violations and serious construction problems while the builder does the 'title search' and ensures their policy as well! After all, we can't prevent the poor builder from selling his ill-built home and setting up another victim...he has a right to his profits after all...HUH? And...he has that new development going in a few miles down the road that he needs to concentrate on; no matter that we have a glut of new and foreclosed homes sitting empty.

The real backbone of this country is being destroyed and the very foundation is crumbling. Many solid and hardworking people have lost their only opportunity to own a home and many have lost everything else because of the underlying GREED associated with the home building industry. These citizens will never have the pride of ownership, the incentive to get involved in their community and will not be paying into the local tax coffers. Why should they? What do they receive in return for their hard earned tax dollars?

We are not asking for a free ride and we are not asking for a 'parent' in the form of our government. WE DEMAND that our tax dollars work for us and our elected and paid officials work for the public and not their rich and powerful cronies. We DEMAND that our constitutional and basic rights be upheld and protected.

These builders and their buddies in the title and mortgage industry act with an air of impunity because they have not been required to perform to basic standards and laws...they have not been adequately held accountable. I sit here in a drafty home in Texas as my expensive heat runs constantly while I fight eviction from a shoddy home due to the exotic mortgage sold by a BUILDER REFERRED mortgage broker with Colonial Mortgage designed for my failure so a crooked mortgage company, EMC, could steal my home and my right to fight the crooked builder...while my lawsuit was pending with the builder and while I was trapped here with a builder created title encumbrance which prevented me from even attempting to sell my home and protect my financial health. The insult added to injury was when I discovered that Chicago Title Company, where I was illegally required by contract to close was a 'front' for the builder owned title company that insured and was paid for my title insurance and held 3 pages of exclusions that were designed to protect the builder!

Our state and federal government and the licensing agencies all know what is happening and could have stepped in long before now. The question is WHY HAVE THEY NOT? What are the legislators’ personal and business affiliations? What conflicts of interest do they have in this?

Innocent, honest, trusting, hard working, law abiding citizens/victims are literally begging for HELP. Most of us don't want a free ride. We want the pride and rewards that come from our work. We were brought up to believe in what it means to be a citizen of the United States and carry a special pride in being Texans. Please preserve and uphold that pride and live up to it. Walk the talk that got you elected.


These are my opinions based on my experience and facts and, thankfully, I am not alone in my battle although it has been the loneliest and most isolating experience of my half-century on this planet. The most difficult thing for me is holding onto the fact that I have been victimized and am not a VICTIM.


Please help stop the victimization of more Texas citizens and hold greedy and dishonest builders and their affiliates truly accountable. They only do what they do BECAUSE THEY KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH IT!


rick miller 2/23/07 at 08:10 AM

Lillian D. (37) 		Friday March 23, 2007, 4:37 pm



David Halberstam:
Living the Dream
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Forbes:
Improving Our Lot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the Dream?
Albright • Aldrin • Angelou
D. Banks • T. Banks
Batali • Binnie • Braun
Brokaw • Brooks • Campbell
Chao • Cisneros • Cohen
Covey • Cuban • Dole
Frazier • Gehry • Glass
Gonzales • Hefner • Hornish
Huffington • Jackson • Jin
Keller • Kemp • Koch
Leguizamo • Lessig
Martinez • McCourt • Mears
Mineta • Mittal • Moulitsas
Nafisi • Norris • Ornstein
O'Rourke • Pelosi • Pinsky
Podesta • Powell
Redstone • Reich • Romney
Russell • Seale • Shalala
Sharpton • Shearer
Spellings • Stewart • Stone
Sweeney • Trump
Turner • Williams



Carol Moseley Braun was the first African-American woman elected to the Senate, serving from 1992 to 1998. Following her term, former President Clinton named her Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa, and she ran briefly for the Democratic nomination for president in 2004.

What is the American Dream?

I think the American Dream is one of personal freedom and liberty and liberation of the human spirit.

The ability for all Americans to gain an equal footing in civil society is a central theme of the American Dream. All of our progress as a nation has moved in the direction of that vision.

If anything, I'm a living example of the progress that we've made in this country, both with regard to gender and to race.

When I was born, many women did not work outside the home. So we've made tremendous progress just in my lifetime. I think this is something that, as Americans, we can examine because it can give us clues to our next steps.

--Interviewed by Brian Wingfield


Lillian D. (37) 		Saturday March 31, 2007, 6:50 pm

By Don Robertson, The American Philosopher

3/30/07

I was in a local gas station store a few weeks back. There was a fellow in there, probably in his early eighties. He was describing how he handled his finances to much more youthful listeners, a group common to any small town store anywhere in the country. His words were meant to sting and shame.

"I never spend money I don't have. I live within my means. And if I start to run short of money, I do without."

Everyone is hearing and reading about the subprime lending problems. Many are tortuously predicting the collapse of the American economy based upon what has occurred in this banking swindle. I'm less convinced about the impact of the subprime debacle, less convinced than I am about its occurrence being just another sordid affirmation of human nature and the American way.

I've always lived like the old guy in the store. I know, if you cannot afford something without the bank getting involved, you're a fool to think those guys at the bank work for nothing.

But, I'm also not sure anyone is aware what in fact has occurred. And if they are mildly informed, they're certainly not aware of the fact that the swindle is continuing and accelerating even as the subprimes are going bust. Human nature is human nature.

I have little sympathy for those whose lives are being turned upside down because they bought into mortgage swindles to purchase real estate that was so over-valued as to make anyone gag upon the credulity of the easily suckered. The price of residential real estate over the past ten years, longer in some areas, has been driven into the stratosphere of ridiculousness. What fed this price increase is the liquidity in the mortgage industry, and not any real value in the American dream these fools were being sold. The rise in price was simply unsustainable, and housing had to come down. But everyone got in on the act, an act that can best be described as how to make real estate unaffordable for an ever larger segment of American society.

Municipalities loved it. These financial swindles drove up property tax receipts. And the municipalities spent the windfall as if there was no tomorrow. They wrote new building and zoning codes to effectively lock out any more reasonably cost effective housing.

Snob zoning took on a new respectability as property values escalated only slightly slower than property taxes that were increased by local governments in part because the long time residents who controlled local government resented the moneyed interests moving into their towns and their neighborhoods.

A building converted into condominiums yielded not one tax bill receipt, but instead a tax bill receipt for however many condos were built into an existing building that formerly only paid a single tax bill. And, time share owners in resort areas each got their own property tax bill for their week in July, or, August. Property tax bills have likely even gone out for parking spaces, which have begun to fetch a premium price in some inner city areas. So, now you can buy an eight by fifteen-foot piece of ground to park your car on, and, you can pay property taxes on it too. That's the American dream.

The banks, the mortgage brokers, and real estate brokers all made fast money as prices continued to rise beyond anything reasonable. The phenomenon can be likened to the stock market Ponzi scheme, because no one ever really planned on owning any of this property. Property for the most part went so high it seemed it could only be bought on credit with interest accruing, and swindles assured. Prices continued to rise. And every sucker was assured their signature would be a good investment even if they were never are able to pay off a penny of the principal of the loan, contracted, and, signed.

Gentrification of whole neighborhoods was made complete by rising property taxes that forced out long time residents. Rents went up too. Previously cost effective and dependable service industries like grocery stores, gas stations, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, mechanics, and trash collection services all increased their prices and fees. They did this to accommodate what they perceived as a bunch of worthless rich bastards moving into their town and wrecking everything everyone who once lived there worked for all their lives for, which turned out to be essentially, for someone else's American dream. Neighbors sold out. They took the money, and ran. No one knew any of their neighbors anymore, except by what color SUV they were driving hundreds of miles in their daily commute, and to Wal-Mart, and, to soccer games on the weekends. And most of the SUVs were a plebeian silver assuring the anonymity of the debt ridden fools who teetered precariously between bankruptcy, divorce, suicide and murder. Is that the American dream?

Those were the go-go prosperous days of increasing property values. And, now we have decreasing property values all across the country. We have rising interest rates on all those variable-rate mortgages that got signed too. And, of course, we still have even faster rising property taxes because municipalities spend money whether or not it's a good idea. Hey! If the plow truck breaks down, you've got to buy a new one don't ya? And, if the town's water gets fouled by septic system problems in that new subdivision, what're ya gonna do? And, they've got to maintain that new $250,000.00 emergency response vehicle the town bought with that Homeland Security money, right? And, there's always a need for a better trained town manager, fire department and police department, all of which, once better trained, are due a good-sized raise to pay for their new found skills. And every municipal employee needs medical insurance and a new computer!

A good case can be made for our perception of how the banking, real estate brokerage and mortgage brokerage industries pillaged American real estate stocks by selling the idea that rising property values benefited everyone. In fact we now know it generally only benefited those employed in those industries. And now that property values are decreasing, some will gleefully lament that it is going to be a good thing when the banks get stuck owning a lot of over-priced real estate no one really wants for that kind of money, and, the taxes on that place! But not so fast.

We've all heard and read how 2.5 million homeowners are going to lose their homes during the downturn. But where are those homes? Why aren't they coming onto the market? Yes, they have accounted for rising home sales of existing housing stocks in previous months, home sales that have risen because banks are "auctioning" foreclosed properties. But for the most part banks are only selling properties with a reserve price equal to what they have into these foreclosed homes as well as their fees, charges and auction commissions that are built into their reserve price.

In other words, they are moving from their books homes that were repossessed from unfortunate homeowners who had paid down part of the principal, and for which the banks can still realize a break-even-on-their-swindled profit. At the same time the banks are lobbying the federal government to step in and guarantee the profits from their swindle for the homes that cannot be auctioned for all the well-padded costs mentioned above.

I have yet to read or hear of a single one of the bankers, realtors or mortgage brokers headed to jail for fraud and swindling their victims and a myriad of lending agencies that are insured by the federal government. You can count yourself among the victims of these frauds.

Many home loans are already guaranteed by the federal government. These are from federal programs like HUD loans, VA loans and FHA loans. So, those properties are being handled within the burdensome constraints of these programs designed to first-come certain segments of our society, veterans, teachers, and municipal employees like firemen, policemen, and EMTs. They are in effect being used to placate, and almost as graft. But the banks want the rest of their swindled profit to be backed up with a federal guarantee too.

Now, it's true. Anyone can search the web and find foreclosure property listings and the even more common come-on website offering foreclosure lists for a fee. Let me give you all two such first hand lists with no fee necessary. The first is IndyMac and the second is REO. There are indeed some pretty spectacular deals listed. I also provide to links to two current inner-city Detroit properties that'll make your eyes pop out.

IndyMac Real Estate For Sale

REO Real Estate For Sale

A Detroit IndyMac Property For Sale

A Detroit REO Property For Sale

But don't get too excited. These listings you see are generally impossible to buy. I know. I tried to contact the listing agents. But, I got no response. I tried contacting each them several times, and still I got absolutely no response.

So, if 2.5 million homes will be foreclosed upon, and foreclosures are at record high rates, what is going on here?

It's all part of the intricate and evolving swindle.

The banks, their mortgage brokers, and real estate brokers all made fast money as home prices continued to rise. And, they're going to make the fast money as prices continue to fall too.

What's going on here is, as deals start to come on the market they are wholly controlled by the same thieves who put these properties in distress to begin with. The banks, their mortgage brokers, and real estate brokers have sole control of this foreclosed housing stock, and, it didn't cost them a penny to put their greedy hands on the many-billions-of-dollars-worth of it either. An, they know a good thing when they see it.

Furthermore, there's still hope they are going to get the federal government to step in and hand them even more money by insuring the defaulted loans of the bank-realtor-and-mortgage-broker-swindled-and-suckered homebuyer.

But everyone is to blame here. Those of you who own a home who are reading the real estate classifieds and considering selling... The mortgage broker is going to clear a couple of thousand dollars or more to arrange the financing. The realtor is going to skim 6% of the selling price. And the bank that writes the 30 year mortgage is actually selling your home for more than twice what you are. And, if and when the buyer of your home goes into foreclosure, they'll make all that and then some more too.

Every American of course pays for every bit of it in the end. The homelessness, the enfeebled communities, the destruction of American family values are all part and parcel of this swindle. And any prospective homebuyer or investor who thinks they're going to find a deal in foreclosure real estate, they're only going to get a thorough run-around, while these properties are held up and snatched up by holding companies run by realtors, bankers and mortgage brokers working the other end of the Grand Theft Realty game.
Take the money and run.

Posted by Jason Miller at 12:43 PM

Lillian D. (37) 		Friday April 13, 2007, 7:30 am
Lending fraud laws already exist
CAROLINE BAUM
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

Congress is making noises about doing something to help homeowners who can't meet their mortgage payments hold on to their slice of the American Dream.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, senator from New York, wants even lower mortgage rates for homeowners facing foreclosure. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, are holding hearings to determine Congress' legislative options.

As a sideshow, elected representatives probably will spank regulators for not doing more to curb deceptive lending practices and hang executives of subprime lenders out to dry for the boom-bust cycle.

While lawmakers' intentions may be noble, it's a pretty safe bet that, left to their own devices, they will muck things up even more.

Just to summarize the storyline to date: During the housing boom of the past five years, people with bad credit histories, many of whom lied about their income and nature of employment, got mortgage loans they weren't qualified for to buy homes they couldn't afford. Now that home prices have stopped rising, and the house can't be refinanced or sold at a profit, Congress wants the taxpayer to subsidize the mortgages so those folks can remain in unaffordable homes.

What's wrong with this picture? Surely there were plenty of cases of fraud, as there always are during extended periods of rising asset prices. (The bodies of victims and perpetrators generally float to the surface when the bubble bursts.) The legal system is capable of prosecuting loan fraud, a federal crime, be it on the part of the borrower (lying about his income) or the lender (misrepresenting the terms of the loan).

Any false statement to a lender, even if the lender encourages it, constitutes fraud. Why do we need new laws?

"There are adequate laws in place to address false statements on loan applications," says Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor and Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement attorney now in private practice. Similarly, existing "mail and wire fraud statutes are sufficiently broad to cover predatory conduct by unscrupulous lenders."

That won't stop Congress, which is forever passing laws to ensure the last problem doesn't recur.

The percentage of loans entering foreclosure rose to a record 0.54 percent in the fourth quarter, according to a quarterly report from the Mortgage Bankers Association. Delinquency rates rose for all major loan categories, with subprime loans at a four-year high of 13.33 percent.

That's creating a "political firestorm, making it a priority for Congress," says Andy Laperriere, managing director at the ISI Group in Washington. "Congress may be forced into action in the same way they were forced to do something about accounting issues after (the scandals at) WorldCom and Enron."

Among the ideas being floated, he says, are a "suitability requirement" that would put more of a burden on brokers and lenders to make loans appropriate to the borrower.

Plenty of unqualified borrowers wanted to cash in on the latest scheme. Who's to say that a loan with a low, two-year teaser rate wasn't "suitable" for the purpose of flipping the home in 18 months for a 30 percent profit? Borrowers and lenders should be able to negotiate freely, which doesn't mean don't ask (the lender), don't tell (the borrower).

One thing is certain: Lawyers and courts will be busy, with borrowers, lenders and investors who bought the securitized loans that weren't all they were cracked up to be assigning blame and seeking compensation. That Congress wants to legislate preventative measures at a time when lenders already are tightening credit (nothing gives a lender religion like losses) isn't a comforting thought.

"New laws designed to address past problems are poorly drafted and create more problems than the law was intended to address," Frenkel says.

Housing is a tax-advantaged asset. (The folks who write the tax laws have decided that it should be.) Mortgage interest and real estate taxes are deductible. The first $250,000 of capital gains ($500,000 for a married couple) from the sale of a home is exempt from taxation as long as you have lived in it for two years.

When those incentives are compounded by easy money and loose lending standards, it's not hard to understand how solid economic fundamentals translated into perhaps the biggest residential boom in history.

"When transactions go well, no one complains," Frenkel says. "When they go sour, fingers point in every possible direction."

Early indications from Congress are that fingers will be pointed at everyone except constituents.

Caroline Baum, author of "Just What I Said," is a columnist for Bloomberg News.
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Lillian D. (37) 		Monday October 8, 2007, 5:58 am
The American Dream turns into a debtor's nightmare
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A sad, but common, tale starts with alleged predatory lending, intensifies with impossibly high payments and usually ends in foreclosure.
By Jennifer Delson and and Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 8, 2007
Soledad Aviles dreamed for years of owning a home, with a plot of land where he could grow corn and chiles as he did in his native Mexico. So he felt blessed last year when he learned he could buy a three-bedroom, single-story stucco house on West La Verne Avenue in Santa Ana.

Referred to a local loan broker by a trusted friend, he borrowed the entire purchase price of $615,000 from Washington Mutual at a high interest rate typical of sub-prime loans. The monthly payment, as he says he understood it, would be $3,600 -- steep for a glass cutter who made $9 an hour -- but Aviles counted on his wife and three of his six daughters, who also worked low-paying jobs, to contribute.

"We took out our pencils, figured out our take-home pay and figured out that if we all pitched in, it would work," said Aviles, 54, a stoop-shouldered, soft-spoken man with a sixth-grade education from Mexico.

Relying on the broker's word, he signed loan documents written in English, a language he neither speaks nor reads, Aviles said. He was shocked to learn afterward that the monthly payment would not be $3,600, but $4,800 -- a price that forced him to rent out bedrooms, the garage and an enclosed porch while he and his wife slept on the couch. He fed his family with food from friends and corn he grew.

Aviles says he was not aware that the February 2006 loan application he signed dramatically exaggerated his family's income. The application lists him as the owner of a landscaping business with a $7,400 monthly income. His 27-year-old daughter Marlene, who earns $9 an hour in a noodle factory, appears as the owner of a housecleaning company who makes $5,700 a month. The application lists their yearly income as $157,000, when, according to Aviles, it was really closer to $60,000.

Now, five months behind on his payments, Aviles is scrambling to sell the house before the bank forecloses. Desperately ill from kidney disease and unable to work for the last year, he sits dejectedly at the dining room table, wondering when the bank will kick him out.

Aviles' situation is hardly unique. Add his name to the ever-expanding list of casualties in the nationwide sub-prime mortgage debacle, his experience echoing that of thousands who bought homes in recent years only to find themselves in a sagging market saddled with payments they cannot make.

But amid the storm of foreclosures, his story illustrates the special vulnerabilities of first-generation immigrants in places like predominantly Latino Santa Ana, where city leaders have identified about 800 sub-prime borrowers facing the potential loss of their homes.

"We think this is just the tip of the iceberg, in terms of the breadth and depth," said Steve Harding, Santa Ana's deputy city manager. Apart from the language barrier, he said, many first-generation immigrants might have been especially vulnerable to sub-prime lending because they avoided checking accounts and credit cards, which prevented them from qualifying for regular loans.

The city has teamed with the Fair Housing Council of Orange County to offer free foreclosure prevention workshops, hoping to teach people to avoid predatory lenders and find help as they face the loss of their homes.

The Fair Housing Council said the number of people seeking help over mortgage woes, many of them Latinos living in Anaheim and Santa Ana, has soared. The group typically receives 15 to 20 complaints annually, but in September of this year the group received more than 20. The state Department of Real Estate, nonprofits and the Mexican consulate also have reported a rise in mortgage complaints, many of them from homeowners saying they signed documents they didn't understand.

Across the state, many cases are landing in court. Kerstin Arusha, a directing attorney at the nonprofit Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, said that Spanish speakers, along with the elderly, "seem to be hardest hit by both sub-prime lending and predatory lending. There are many borrowers out there that were misled about the terms of the loan."

The Law Foundation is suing a broker, real estate agent and lender in federal court on behalf of nine Santa Clara County families, many of whom speak only Spanish, contending they were lured into mortgages they didn't understand. The lawsuit alleges that the broker inflated incomes on loan applications, misrepresented the terms of the loans and stuck clients with higher payments than they had been promised.

The victims "thought they saw the promise of the American Dream, and instead they ended up with a nightmare," Arusha said. "I think they were seen as easy targets for predatory lenders who could sell them a bill of goods without giving them disclosures in a language they understand."

The Law Foundation is handling 10 other cases involving predatory lending, half of them for Latino clients, Arusha said.

But in Orange County, the district attorney's office has not reported an increase in prosecutions for fraudulent lending. Elizabeth Henderson, a prosecutor in the county's fraud unit, said many such crimes go unreported in immigrant communities because of a distrust of law enforcement and confusion over what had occurred.

"They're not really sure what they were promised, so they don't know if they were cheated," she said.

Sitting in his Santa Ana home, waiting for the bank to kick him out or for his kidney to kill him, Aviles did not hesitate to characterize what had happened to him: "They used me, nothing more."

He was led astray, he said, by a man he had considered a dear friend, Carlos Lares. They used to work in a factory together. He said Lares showed him about a dozen homes, including the one he bought, and offered to arrange a mortgage.

State records show Lares lacks the real estate license required to show homes. In an interview with The Times, Lares denied showing homes and said he merely took Aviles to the office where he works, Century 21 South Coast. He declined to comment further. His business card lists him as a "team service associate."




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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-me-housing8oct08,1,232295.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

Lillian D. (37) 		Monday October 8, 2007, 12:15 pm
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'Foreclosure rescue' can be fatal
More scams target struggling homeowners with trick offers
By Vicki Lee Parker - McClatchy Newspapers
1/83/8

The great American dream is quickly becoming the great American scam. With so many homeowners forced into foreclosure last year, and just as many expected this year, the number of people willing to swindle consumers out of their homes is also on the rise.

Those "We Buy Homes - Instant Cash" signs you see around many urban areas aren't true. They simply prey on people in financial trouble.

"Instead of throwing them a life jacket, they are throwing them an anchor," said Mal Maynard, executive director of the Financial Protection Law Center in Wilmington, N.C., a nonprofit group that advocates against predatory lending and provides legal services to borrowers who encounter abusive lending practices.

Here are the most common scams:

The bailout. A scammer offers to buy your home for much less than its value, with the understanding that you can rent it and eventually repurchase it if certain terms are met.

However, the sales price or monthly payments are typically inflated, making it impossible for you to buy the home back. Eventually, the property is forfeited and the new owner sells the home at market value and pockets the equity.

The fake home sale. In this scheme, a scammer says he will buy your home to get control of the deed or title to the home.

In some cases, homeowners believe their lender has been paid - but don't get proof before handing over the deed.

But the homeowners are still liable for the mortgage, because you have merely signed over the deed, not sold the home. The scammer rents the home to a tenant with an option to buy - pocketing any down payment and rent - but never making a mortgage payment. Eventually the lender notifies you that it is foreclosing on the property. The deed holder walks away with no liability.

Bogus help. This scheme is simple and common. The scammer promises to save your credit or get you low monthly payments. Instead, you pay thousands of dollars in fees, and they do nothing. In the end, you still might be forced into foreclosure or bankruptcy.

Most foreclosure scammers identify their victims by watching for property that has been listed for sale in court. They approach the homeowner with offers to help. Other scammers are contacted by potential victims who have seen a flier advertising "foreclosure rescue."

So if you're a homeowner in financial trouble, thoroughly check out any organization before doing business with it. Here are some other tips:

Don't pay upfront fees to "foreclosure rescue" companies that promise to help you keep your property.

Don't sign your deed over without consulting a lawyer you trust. Remember, simply signing your deed over doesn't formally release you from your mortgage liability.

Don't sign any contract to sell your home until you review the document with a lawyer.

Don't work with anyone who discourages you from contacting your mortgage company, refuses to put promises in writing, pressures you to sign paperwork you haven't had a chance to read thoroughly or fills out paperwork for you.

Contact your lender at the first sign of financial trouble. See if the loan can be restructured or refinanced, or work out a repayment plan. Keep in mind that most lenders don't want to foreclose because it costs them money. Also, the longer you wait, the fewer options you have for help. Once a lender begins foreclosure proceedings, the process is swift. Your home could be auctioned in as few as three weeks after your court hearing.

Consider selling your home if you have equity in it. If all other options fail, you might also consider deeding your property back to your mortgage company, also known as deed-in-lieu of foreclosure. If the lender agrees to this transaction, you can be released from most or all financial obligation and the lender benefits by not having to pay repossession fees and other costs associated with foreclosure.

Contact a reputable non-profit credit and housing counselor if you are not able to work with your lender. For a list of approved housing counselors in your state, call the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development at 800-569-4287 or go to www.hud.gov and click on the foreclosure link.

Consult with an lawyer if you don't understand the foreclosure process.

Many people miss out on real help because they are too embarrassed to admit they got roped into a mortgage. Just remember: There is no shame in needing - or getting - help.


Lillian D. (37) 		Sunday October 28, 2007, 11:05 am


Dear NewsMax Reader:

Please find below a special message from our sponsor, Association for Homeowners Across America. They have some important information to share with you.

Thank you.

NewsMax.com







Why are the Feds Killing the American Dream?

For the last 10 years, down payment assistance (DPA) organizations have been making the American dream a reality for those who never thought it would be possible. These privately funded, non-profit programs have helped more than one million people become homeowners - yet the federal government is now considering a rule that would eliminate DPA and shut millions of potential buyers out of the housing market. Click here to tell them to keep their hands OFF.

In this fragile housing market, such a rule would have a devastating impact on families and communities, as well as all the real estate and lending professionals whose livelihoods depend on the sale and purchase of homes.

The federal government wants to force privately-funded affordable housing programs
to cease operations. You have fewer than 35 days to stop it!

By helping low- and middle-income Americans enter the housing market, DPA has not only given people the opportunity to gain equity and stability for their families - it has also spurred $11 billion of direct spending with $24 billion of net economic impact, without ever using government money or taxpayer dollars.

Now the federal government wants to replace this proven, effective program with a bureaucratic and expensive government version that could take years to get off the ground - while the people who need it suffer. Why "fix" something that isn't broken?

There are fewer than 35 days left in the comment period, but it can be stopped if you act now – a similar rule was proposed in 1999, and was defeated through the efforts of other outraged Americans.

Click Here to Send a Message





Lillian D. (37) 		Sunday October 28, 2007, 11:10 am
Special Report: Foreclosing on the American Dream
Colorado leads a national wave of foreclosures that is leaving neighborhoods blighted and forcing many homeowners into financial ruin. In an ongoing series, The Denver Post examines why the state's foreclosure rate leads the nation and how it is affecting Coloradans, their communities and the economy. Aggressive building and lending practices, lax regulation and a high rate of mortgage fraud, among other factors, are pushing thousands of homeowners into foreclosure.

» Read about the series' impact



SERIES GRAPHICS: Map of Denver Foreclosures | Foreclosures mar a Greeley neighborhood | Foreclosures taint upscale development | 23 foreclosures hit two adjacent blocks | Adams County foreclosures lead state Zero-down mortgages drive foreclosures | FHA loans feed foreclosure wave | Foreclosures of FHA loans double

Heartbreak along Mockingbird Lane
Working-class families take on crippling debt loads to seize their piece of the American dream. They overpay for starter homes. They take on extreme mortgage rates to avoid making a down payment with money they don't have. » MORE

FHA program key in surge of foreclosures

Post / Helen H. Richardson
Aug. 24, 2006 A key factor in Colorado's record-setting wave of foreclosures, critics say, is an FHA program that allows people to borrow more than their houses are worth with little or no money down. Timothy Lewis bought his now-foreclosed ranch house in Henderson with help from the FHA. "They gave me more money than I ever should have had," he said.

No money down: a high-risk gamble

Post / Cyrus McCrimmon
Sept. 17, 2006 Once rare in the mortgage industry, nothing-down loans have become wildly popular in Colorado, where home prices rose rapidly during the late 1990s. And according to a computer-assisted Denver Post analysis, they are a leading cause of the state's foreclosure epidemic. Monique Armijo is among those who used no down payment to buy a home only to see it foreclosed on a year or two later.

Mortgage amnesia hits home
Sept. 27, 2006 Aggressive, sometimes unscrupulous, lending has earned Colorado a dubious distinction as the country's home-foreclosure capital. Marketers scream about low introductory interest rates while whispering about mandatory increases that can triple a monthly payment.

Option ARMs: a ticking bomb?

Special to The Post / Jack Dempsey
Oct. 1, 2006 The minimum-payment option, designed for when income gets tight, can become dangerous if used constantly. Retirees Patrick and Marilou Foley tried it only once, thinking a mortgage carrying a low 2 percent interest rate would be an answer to their prayers. They were wrong.

Steal of a deal

Post / Cyrus McCrimmon
Oct. 29, 2006 Houses bought at inflated sales prices encourage neighbors to overestimate the values of their own homes and borrow too much against their equity. Assessors can be fooled and levy higher property-tax bills. And in many cases, the buyer never moves in, blighting a block with a vacant house.

Complaints mount against Altus

Post / Brian Brainerd
Nov. 19, 2006 The Denver/Boulder Better Business Bureau has received 20 complaints about Altus Real Estate during the past three years, more than any other mortgage company in Colorado. Five involve allegations that Altus brokers lied or misled them about loan terms. The company's owner, Ferren Rajput, recently pleaded guilty to failure to pay $1.1 million in employment taxes from Altus Financial Inc., a predecessor to Altus Real Estate that went bankrupt in 2004. A judge told him jail time is likely.

Shabby home more proof of loan fiasco
Nov. 24, 2006 Most folks would find this story incredibly suspicious. The mortgage industry doesn't seem to care.

Shuttered homes, blighted blocks

Post / Karl Gehring
Nov. 26, 2006 When foreclosures overwhelm a neighborhood, homeowners anxiously watch their own property values decline as lenders unload houses at discounted prices. Many foreclosed homes sit vacant for months. Police get vandalism and vagrancy calls. Church leaders see membership fall while food-bank demands rise. School principals find two or even three families sharing single-family houses. And community leaders fear something intangible but vital will be lost: neighborhood pride.

Builders often key players in high-risk game

Post / Cyrus McCrimmon
Dec. 24, 2006: A computer-assisted geographic analysis of Weld and metro-area foreclosures by The Denver Post found many concentrated in new neighborhoods developed by local builders. Others clustered in new neighborhoods where national builders doubled as lenders. In one, more than 90 percent of foreclosures on the original buyers involved loans from the builder. Carmen Pedrego said she managed to make only two mortgage payments before filing for bankruptcy.

Homeowners' losses are others' gains

Post / Hyoung Chang
Dec. 26, 2006: For most of 2006, Colorado has had the highest foreclosure rate in the country -- a grim tally of mortgage defaults behind which lie thousands of stories of personal heartache. But money can be made even from misery, and this year, profits from foreclosures have soared. Just ask lawyers, listing agents, property managers, investors and auctioneers.

Policing, new laws needed to halt crisis
Dec. 31, 2006: Mortgage and real estate experts weigh in on what it would take to solve Colorado's epidemic of foreclosures, which led the nation in much of 2006.








The Series' Impact
The Post's "Foreclosing on the American Dream" series has prompted action on numerous fronts. Lawmakers, prosecutors, regulators and consumer advocates are pursuing a variety of actions and remedies to address problems exposed by the Post's reporting. These new measures are detailed below.


Foreclosure Prevention Hotline aids troubled borrowers

Post / Hyoung Chang
When Emilio Gutierrez missed a third mortgage payment on his Thornton-area home late last year, he knew he was headed for serious financial trouble. » MORE

Closing foreclosure door: Bills signed today
Gov. Bill Ritter is expected to sign five bills intended to stem the loss of homes in Colorado, which led the U.S. in foreclosure filings last year.

Guilty plea in fraud probe

Post / Andy Cross
Jan. 11, 2007: Torrence James, a former federal prisoner who became a Colorado mortgage broker, told U.S. District Court Judge Edward Nottingham that he used false information to obtain home loans for unqualified buyers. He also admitted withdrawing $300,000 from proceeds generated by fraudulent home sales and told the judge "it's a possibility" he would cooperate with the government to seek leniency. All eight of the defendants indicted to date in a multimillion- dollar fraud case have admitted guilt. Still, said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Denver, "the investigation is continuing."

Mortgage company under fire for practices has closed
Jan. 10, 2007: A Douglas County mortgage company that former customers have accused of deceptive advertising and misleading sales tactics has closed its doors.

Appraisal fraud targeted
Jan. 9, 2007: A bill unveiled by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers would make it a crime to pressure an appraiser to inflate a home's value.

Four people plead guilty in mortgage fraud conspiracy
Jan. 7, 2007: Four people accused of participating in a mortgage fraud conspiracy that stole millions of dollars and left a gated community in Arapahoe County ravaged by foreclosures pleaded guilty in federal court.

State to tackle lending fraud

Post / John Prieto
Jan. 5, 2007: Legislators want more law enforcement, penalties and regulation to fight the high rate of home foreclosures. Kathi Williams, the state Division of Housing director, said 100 percent loans, stagnant house prices, a building spree that outstripped population growth and cut-rate sales from foreclosures have combined to create a dangerous situation.

Meeting today targets foreclosures
Jan. 4, 2007: Leading Democrats and Republicans are working on separate bills to try to remedy the factors that led to Colorado's foreclosure epidemic.

Pueblo grand jury indicts 5 people in home-flipping scam
Dec. 21, 2006: A Pueblo grand jury has indicted five people who allegedly purchased homes at inflated values and let them fall into foreclosure, walking away with $2.5 million in profit.

New program to aid those facing foreclosure
Dec. 5, 2006: Front Range homeowners who meet certain qualifications will be able borrow up to $5,000.

Foreclosure hotline hums; 3,000 calls in first 2 weeks
Oct. 24, 2007: Colorado's new foreclosure hotline received 3,000 calls during its first two weeks, more than similar efforts in other states.

Senators: Borrowers don't understand mortgage risks
Sept. 21, 2006: Borrowers need better disclosure of the risks associated with "exotic" mortgages that often lead to foreclosure.

Help for struggling homeowners
Sept. 20, 2006: A Colorado hotline launching next month will connect homeowners facing foreclosure with housing counselors.



http://www.denverpost.com/foreclosures

Lillian D. (37) 		Wednesday December 5, 2007, 4:39 pm
December 5, 2007 12:00 AM

Bad Medicine
HillaryCare for the housing market.

By Michelle Malkin

If you thought Hillary Clinton’s government takeover plan for health care was bad, wait ‘til you see what she has in store for the housing sector. As always with the Clintons, the market is the problem and Big Nanny is the solution. Unfortunately for taxpayers, Hillary has bipartisan company in the Bush administration on this issue. Their election season prescription? Rewarding bad behavior. Punishing responsible behavior. Doing more harm than good.

In case you’ve been living in a cave, there’s a painful credit crunch underway. The culprit is the subprime mortgage — a species of risky home loans to buyers with dubious credit and income. Cash-rich lenders doled out the subprimes hoping rising home prices would compensate for any failed bets. But when housing prices started plummeting and interest rates began rising, many borrowers started defaulting. Insolvency looms for countless lenders.

Instead of letting lenders and subprime mortgage-holders suffer the consequences of their actions, politicians and grievance-mongers are riding to the supposed rescue. In a supreme irony, the very same champions of the needy in the Democrat party who complain constantly about the lack of “affordable housing” are now fighting tooth and nail to keep housing prices high.

To “cure” the housing crisis, Hillary wants a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures for homeowners who default on subprimes. In addition, she wants a five-year freeze on the monthly rate for subprime adjustable mortgages. While she demonizes lenders as predatory out of one side of her mouth, the other side of her mouth is floating legislation to protect lenders from lawsuits and let them convert certain mortgages into “stable, affordable loans.” On top of all that federal meddling, she proposes a $5 billion — yes, that’s “billion” with a “b” — fund to “help communities suffering from high rates of foreclosures.”

Jesse Jackson is also stirring the pot. With subprime victim sob stories flooding the news and anecdotes of minority homeowners in trouble, there’s no way the shakedown king could stay away. But the subprime mess isn’t a result of ruthless racial discrimination. If anything, it’s the result of too little discrimination by lenders too willing and eager to sign on people who had no business taking on mortgages. (And you know Jesse Jackson would be screaming either way. The lenders are damned if they lend and damned if they don’t.)

Let’s boil this down to fundamentals: Why should the rest of us have to shoulder the burden because some buyers made poor choices, overextended themselves, and bought more house than they could afford? Why should other business owners bear the costs of lenders’ failed bets? And why are falling home prices such a catastrophe to be “fixed” in the first place? Sacramento Bee columnist Daniel Weintraub put it well: “It is great news when the price of energy, food, transportation, health care and consumer electronics drops. But for some reason it is bad news when the price of shelter drops. . . . Shouldn’t we be seeing stories filled with anecdotes about formerly priced-out middle-income families finally getting their chance at the American Dream?”

There’s another side of the housing crunch equation that’s not making it onto the newspaper front pages and presidential campaign websites. “For every house sold because the buyer couldn’t make the payments,” Weintraub notes, “there is a buyer on the other end of that transaction who got a good deal. And for every foreclosure, there are probably 10 buyers of nearby homes who benefited from the general easing of house-price pressure.” Bingo.

Fiscal conservatives ought to be balking at HillaryCare for housing. But President Bush’s treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, is singing a similar tune. He proposed a new safety net to stem the tide of home foreclosures through a bailout plan for homeowners with bad credit scores. They’d be eligible for relief from paying hundreds of dollars in additional monthly payments when their mortgage rates reset. Those who have been responsible enough to maintain good credit, however, will be out of luck. In addition, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has proposed that government-sponsored mortgage enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be allowed to raise their loan limits and have their debt explicitly guaranteed by the public dole.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are colluding to protect the reckless and keep home prices high on the backs of prudent taxpayers. Who’ll bail us out from this perversion of the American Dream?

© 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWFiYzYzYmI4ZGYzMzc1ZWFhODE0ODMyNjE0MjNmYjk=>


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AUTHOR: LILLIAN D.

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