Calif. Politics Has Short Sellers Facing Big Bills

Calif. Politics Has Short Sellers Facing Big Bills
March 18, 2010, Associated Press

What should have been a legislative afterthought is threatening to become a financial purgatory for thousands of California taxpayers hit by the housing crisis. With less than a month until tax filings are due, struggling Californians who received mortgage modifications or lost their homes in short sales or foreclosures last year face the prospect of huge state tax bills. That's because legislation that would prevent their canceled debt from being treated as taxable income is caught in the latest budget spat between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers.


Obama Overstates Loan Modifications, Republicans Say
March 17, 2010, Bloomberg

The Obama administration is inflating the success of programs that prevent foreclosures by skewing data on loan modifications and revising the goals, according to House Republicans. Reports on the Home Affordable Modification Program are “glossing over disappointing results” by counting temporary changes toward the goal of permanent relief for as many as 4 million borrowers, said a letter sent yesterday to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner by Republican representatives Darrell Issa and Jim Jordan. And here’s an Associated Press story on the foreclosure aid dispute.


The $810,000 Home You Can't Live In
March 16, 2010, Voice of San Diego

I had a weird moment today where two things I've been working on — a story about short sales, and the unfinished construction stuff we were looking at last week — collided. Remember that half-built Leucadia subdivision called Nantucket I wrote about in 2008? Somebody bought a home there last month at a foreclosure auction for $810,000, and apparently didn't know that the city of Encinitas has not granted the property a certificate of occupancy, meaning no one can live there. Homes sold at trustee's sale -- usually auctioned off on the courthouse steps -- are sold as-is without any of the disclosures you would get if you went to buy a house from a normal seller.


Stiglitz Says Fed Stimulus Withdrawal May Hurt U.S.
March 17, 2010, Bloomberg News

The Federal Reserve’s decision to let its mortgage-debt purchase programs end this month risks driving up home-loan rates and worsening the housing crisis, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz said. “The withdrawal of the support risks increasing the interest rate, increasing the number of foreclosures and exacerbating the strain, the stress, that American families are already facing,” Stiglitz said in an interview in Tokyo. He said officials “misjudged things,” and predicted foreclosures and bank failures this year will exceed the 2009 and 2008 totals.


Bottom Feeders, Flippers & Condo Vultures: Florida's Got Them All
March 17, 2010, NPR

"Buyer Makes $200,000 Profit In 20 Minutes By Flipping 19 Miami Condos. "That headline in The Miami Herald gets your attention. That's how crazy things are in the condo market in Florida, where a weak economy and over-built market have combined to drive foreclosures up and prices down to the point where bottom-feeders are now seeing if they can swoop in and make some fast money by quickly flipping properties.