At least that’s what at least one poster on patrick.net said. Here’s the link to foreclosurepoint.com.

Several people call and write me monthly on a listing, so here is what so many people want to see. However, I don’t know if this is a come-on or the real deal. Write and tell me if it’s really free and worth the registration!

For those interested in taking part of State Attorney General Jerry Brown’s lawsuit against Countrywide’s alleging “deceptive” business practices, take heart! We have the information you need:

Consumers who believe they have been victimized by Countrywide Consumers should file a complaint by contacting the Attorney General’s Public Inquiry Unit in writing at Attorney General’s Office California Department of Justice Attn: Public Inquiry Unit P.O. Box 944255, Sacramento, California ZIP code is 94203 or through an online complaint form you can find here.

The case is People v. Countrywide, Los Angeles Superior Court case number LC081846.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a lawsuit today against Countrywide Financial charging that the company forced risky loans on unassuming customers. That means the state joins Illinois in suing the company. Read on:

[Brown] alleged that Countrywide also pushed pre-payment financial penalties that boosted profits and kept people from refinancing out of the loans.

The lawsuit singles out a variety of “teaser rate” loans that Countrywide and other lenders specialized in as housing prices rose. Those offered interest rates as low as 1 percent.

The state said many borrowers mistakenly assumed those were permanent rates because Countrywide often offered that impression. Borrowers then quickly found themselves making higher monthly payments than they expected or could afford.

He gets even more detailed on his own press release where he takes the company to task for “Hiding total monthly payment obligations by selling homeowners a second mortgage in the form of a home equity line of credit,” and “Making borrowers sign a large stack of documents without providing time to read the paperwork.” 

 Oh, it gets interesting every day in the State of California!

I should have noticed something was up when I saw them pulling down the Countrywide Loans signs in Benicia’s Southampton Plaza. I just saw them put up WaMu posters this weekend. That shouldn’t last long either!

James Hagerty in the WSJ today writes, “No matter what Congress does, some cities will end up owning more crumbling houses as owners fail to pay taxes and do their maintenance. Taxpayers will foot the bill. The bigger question is: How can cities quickly get this property back into productive use? I have to say he’s onto something. Here’s more:

When Carl Greene became executive director of the housing authority in 1998, he toured some of the 8,000 or so single-family homes then owned by the agency. Some homes had become “crack” houses used by drug dealers. Others were what he calls “jack houses” — ones so rickety that their floors had to be held up by jacks.

Over the past decade, Mr. Greene’s agency has knocked down hundreds of jack houses, renovated others and built new homes for sale or rent to low-income people. But it has been a long slog, and the housing authority still owns around 1,000 vacant single-family homes.

The housing bill being considered by the Senate includes $4 billion to be used to purchase foreclosed homes for rehabilitation or redevelopment in an effort to “stabilize” neighborhoods. The House has passed a similar bill that would provide $15 billion of federal grants and loans.

Of course, the hue and cry will be, “That’s our taxpayer dollars!” but as Hagerty said above, your tax dollars are going to be spent — regardless. Why not use what already exists rather than building more homes? However, there has to be a balance of homeownership and renting, as Philadelphia also found out when it took over the single-family homes and created “projects.”

(In the 1970s) the Ludlow neighborhood ended up with far too many subsidized renters and not enough owners,says State Sen. Shirley Kitchen, who represents the area. Owners tend to take better care of property and push harder for civic improvements, such as better schools and policing. Marvin Louis, a community organizer in Ludlow, says the housing authority became “the main slumlords here.”

I think the whole idea should be getting away from the idea of slumlords and towards the idea of affordable housing. And in the Bay Area, that also means moderate income housing, not only low-income.

The local office of the U.S. Department of Justice didn’t want to be left out yesterday, so they released a statement that was pretty much lost in the hoopla about 406 others being arrested and charged. Anyway, they were locals, some of which explain why the foreclosure crisis got started –falsifying documents. Read on:

Four involved in an alleged round-robin of bribes and kickbacks to and from a Long Beach Mortgage Co. loan officer to boost commissions and falsify subprime loan applications may have cost millions and contributed to the current foreclosure crisis.

William T. Bridge, 41, of San Francisco, pleaded guilty Monday to filing a false tax return and three counts of paying kickbacks to Dublin resident John Ngo, 27, a Long Beach Mortgage Co. loan coordinator, between 2003 to 2006 and violating the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 (RESPA). Bridge admitted he made more than $10,000 a year from criminal activity in three years and paid Ngo more than $120,000 between 2003 and 2007.

Joel Blanford, 40, of San Ramon, was indicted June 12 on six counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiring to launder money. From 2003 to 2005, while working as a sales representative for Long Beach Mortgage, Blanford allegedly paid Ngo in cash and checks to falsify documents and ignore verification. The indictment said that Blanford allegedly received more than $1 million in commissions and other compensation.

Ngo, of Dublin, who is charged with lying to a federal grand jury that he received no money, pleaded guilty in December and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 14. Bank records later showed that between 2003 and 2007, Ngo received more than $100,000 in checks and bank transfers.

When asked, spokeswoman Lauren Horwood said, “(The department) views Long Beach Mortgage as a victim in the case and they were cooperative throughout the investigation.”

Long Beach Mortgage Co.  was part of WaMu, it’s subprime lender, and they closed it in 2007. As one ex-loan agent in Antioch told me, there was a saying around his local office, “If you can’t get it done, call Long Beach.”

Perhaps if you’re in foreclosure, you might take heart that two guys from Bear Stearns who wildly traded your mortgage for profit were arrested today in New York. (Photo of Ralph Cioffi courtesy of the NY Times.)

The two funds had names as obtuse as the complex subprime securities in their portfolios — High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund, and its riskier sister offering, the High Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund.

And on Thursday, the two fund managers, Ralph R. Cioffi, 52, and Matthew Tannin, 46, who just 18 months ago reveled in their status as top hedge managers in a firm at the vanguard of the mortgage boom, surrendered to federal agents.

Prosecutors are also expected to claim that Mr. Cioffi’s decision in March to move $2 million of the $6 million that he had invested in one of the funds to a less risky Bear Stearns fund is proof that he was putting his interests ahead of investors to whom he owed a fiduciary duty.

DataQuick came out with their sales/prices for May 2008 and, as expected, it wasn’t very good. Very low sales and dropping prices. The only bright spot? More and more sales in the foreclosure-ravaged areas of the East Bay:

The impact was greatest in inland counties: Solano County’s foreclosures were 57.6 percent of the resale market; in Contra Costa they were 43.3 percent and in Sonoma 26.6 percent. It was much different on the coast, where foreclosures resales were just 5.8 percent of the resale market in San Francisco and 10.1 percent in San Mateo counties.

The impact was greatest in inland counties: Solano County’s foreclosures were 57.6 percent of the resale market; in Contra Costa they were 43.3 percent and in Sonoma 26.6 percent. It was much different on the coast, where foreclosures resales were just 5.8 percent of the resale market in San Francisco and 10.1 percent in Marin County.In individual cities, numbers were more startling. Oakley had 46 sales in May, up 142 percent from last year with 78 percent being foreclosure resales. In Antioch (94509,) sales rose 76.2 percent, in south Antioch (94531) sales rose 41 percent, with about 80 percent of homes being foreclosures. Vallejo (94589) with 28 sales saw a 55 percent rise from last year, the majority also foreclosures.

Christopher Thornberg, an economist and founder of Beacon Economics, said that he projected the downward slide to get worse and spread to the previously blue-chip real estate of the Peninsula and San Francisco.

“You’re starting to see prices starting to slip in San Francisco and that’s going to get worse,” he said. “Everyone says, ‘Oh, not here,’ but of course, it’s obviously happening.”

Read the rest of this entry »

The WSJ again writes about the “suburban blight” journalistic trend that seems to be staying with real estate reporters. The idea is that because of the high price of gas many people want to live closer to the urban centers in smaller places with public transportation. In fact, they say that it’s the boomers and Gen Y’ers that seem to want the same kind of homes. Read on:

In recent years, a generation of young people, called the millennials, born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, has combined with baby boomers to rekindle demand for urban living. Today, the subprime-mortgage crisis and $4-a-gallon gasoline are delivering further gut punches by blighting remote subdivisions nationwide and rendering long commutes untenable for middle-class Americans.

They profile two people, a twentysomething guy and a Boomer English guy who are living in Pasadena, a short drive to downtown Los Angeles. Kind of the equivalent of living in Oakland and commuting to SF. While this may be not too earth-shattering for people in the Bay Area, that it’s finally taking root in SoCal is a big deal.

Sounds great, right? Well, maybe not. According to The Atlantic, it means creating “suburban slums,” like those in Elk Grove’s Franklin Reserve neighborhood.

At the height of the boom, 10,000 new homes were built there in just four years. Now many are empty; renters of dubious character occupy others. Graffiti, broken windows, and other markers of decay have multiplied. Susan McDonald, president of the local residents’ association and an executive at a local bank, told the Associated Press, “There’s been gang activity. Things have really been changing, the last few years.”

This is the time where we all realize the critical importance of urban planning. Good luck!

When I read this, I thought, “Well, of course, she’s a nurse! They do anything to keep them!” which may be wrong. Anyway, the WSJ had this story about a nurse whose employer gave her a $5,000 interest-free loan to help pay her mortgage when she fell behind.

She’d fallen two months behind after a work injury last year forced her to take a lengthy leave of absence at reduced pay. “If it wasn’t for Baptist, I don’t know where I’d be,” says Ms. Rosario, a single mother of three who also cares for her elderly parents.

But then, I saw another part of the story, although small where a company owner is also helping a little (remember, folks, $2,000 is a lot of money outside of California.)

Read the rest of this entry »

According to a breaking news report by the Wall Street Journal, the federal government and various lender have come to an agreement to better loan modifications for those in foreclosure. More accountability? Maybe. Remember, this is all voluntary, not mandatory, by lenders.

Borrowers seeking help should receive an acknowledgment of their request within five business days once received by the lender, the agreement says, and would in most cases receive a final decision on whether they will receive help with their loan within 45 days. Lenders would also promise to stay in touch with borrowers while reviewing a particular loan — calling, emailing or sending a letter about the status of their help request