Saturday, January 30, 2010

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...

Vegas has 12% of homes with foreclosure filings? And that's only the ones on which they've actually been filed; there's speculation that at least that many more homeowners haven't made a payment in yoinks.

I think some green shoots are being smoked in D.C. ...

8 comments:

Revolver Rob said...

We don't need no water, let the MF'er burn...Great song.

Now onto foreclosure, I expect that the Mississippi gulf coast that experienced a nearly 800% growth will be the next place to get totally hammered by a hurricane first and then the flood of leaving people as the people from California and the various east coast states begin to move back in about a decade.

Eventually, all of those people will move back to California, because the summers aren't as hot or muggy and because eventually, I suspect the economy in that state will recover.

Only time will tell though.

og said...

We rented a house in Vegas for the shot show. The week in a 4 bedroom house with three baths a fully equipped kitchen, pool and hot tub cost less than a week for two people in a cheap motel (NOT hotel) room. And it allowed for us to cook our own breeakfasts and dinners, saving even more money,and multiple people could come and go with no extra money changing hands. Casinos, well aware of this situation, are desperately trying to stop it. We saw whole neighborhoods that were vacant or being rented by the week.

Christina RN LMT said...

And some people wonder why I moved from Vegas to rural Texas. Hah!

sam said...

Vegas is sinking bad, but the Reno/Tahoe (Nevada side) area is doing just fine. And they have actually closed a few casinos around there.

There's a lot of big industrial parks in the Reno-Sparks region.

FWIW.

WV: crawk. The container the current administration is using to hold their, er, policies.

NotClauswitz said...

Og's observation mirrors my old job. Our CEO bought a corporate house in Vegas just to entertain VIP's during Comdex, back when that was the big thing. It5 was no fancy stud-house with gold faucets, just a tract house in a new development. They were growing 'em so fast during the late 80's an 90's it was insane

Anonymous said...

> there's speculation that at least that
> many more homeowners haven't made a payment in yoinks.

How many of these foreclosures are by the mortgage companies, and how many are by other creditors?

Specifically, in many states, homeowner associations have the power of non-judicial foreclosure, and can seize homes without court oversight for trivial amounts or reasons, such as "a $1.00 debt, an oil stain on a driveway, to recover attorneys fees only (no assessment debt), a two or three foot disagreement about placement of a lamppost."

"Homeowner associations are not subject to many of the limitations imposed on other creditors. Associations may begin the foreclosure process as soon as 75 days after the payment was first due, whereas a tax collector must wait five years before beginning foreclosure for a tax lien. Associations are not required to go through a court to foreclose, as a property owner would to evict a tenant."

According to real estate broker Bill Carey, "Foreclosures have been out of hand in some communities. Non payment of association dues or fees has been the number one reason of foreclosures in condo and townhouse communities across the country. Families have lost there properties for $600.00 in over due payments, the real problem is $15,000 in added fees the management companies an attorneys are allowed to tack on which pushes the property in to foreclosure. I have interview many management companies and found that when they reference how their attorneys can speed up the collection process by foreclosure I show them the door." Unfortunately, many HOAs want exactly those types of property managers and lawyers.

One HOA attorney told the media that he had no problem foreclosing on a disabled elderly couple over $380.

Another HOA law firm proudly proclaims that they aggressively and pro-actively use foreclosure as a collections method.

Legal changes in Texas resulted in a doubling of foreclosures by HOAs.

A few weeks ago, a World War II Medal of Honor recipient was sued by his HOA for putting up a flag pole on his property. If it hadn't been for the intervention of his Senator, his Congressman, his Governor, the White House Press Office, and several weeks of publicity in the national press, Col. Barfoot could have lost his home.

Former HOA lawyer Evan McKenzie -- who runs the Privatopia Papers blog -- notes that the "These lawyers are so rapacious that it's just shocking" and that "The bar even offers workshops on the process," which is a perfectly legal form of extortion and racketeering.

Yet libertarians, conservatives, and free-marketeers believe that homeowner associations are some kind of Capitalist Utopia. Even Walter Olson's OverLawyered.com web site can't be bothered to document abuses by HOAs.

HOAs have the power of small governments, but are shielded as corporations. With such perverse incentives and power to foreclose, they represent one of the biggest threats to individual private property rights in America today.

Tam said...

Anon 7:26,

Your next cut'n'paste drive-by Jihad is getting a little old.

The next time you post the same, identical comment, it's getting tossed in the bit bucket.

BillH said...

Wait until the hit on commercial real estate starts taking hold. Guys I know who work commercial say the s hasn't htf there yet, but it's coming.

Green shoots is what you see AFTER you've smoked the 0bs.