Unhappy home buyer, feeling misled on price, sues agent: "CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Marty Ummel believes she paid too much for her house. So do millions of other people who bought at the peak of the housing boom. What makes Ummel different is that she is suing her agent, saying it was all his fault."


Maybe next somebody will sue for not telling them their HOA was dysfunctional. Hey, what happened to caveat emptor?

Goat Wandering Loose Around Condo Complex - New Hampshire News Story - WMUR Manchester
Does he pay his assessments?

Wealthy may be next in line in U.S. home crisis | Reuters: "'The next wave of problems will come from prime borrowers who bought too much house or borrowed too much against it,' said Michael van Zalingen, director of home ownership services at Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago. A 'prime' borrower is one with good credit. Real estate agents warn that some high-income borrowers have already been forced to sell or leave their homes and more will follow. Especially those who used their homes as ATMs, withdrawing cash via home equity loans."

The good news just keeps rolling in from the housing market. I guess this is the risk you take when your ATM is also an ARM.

Court revives lease-to-fee efforts of 36 condo owners - The Honolulu Advertiser: "A federal appellate court yesterday reinstated a lawsuit that may allow 36 current or former owner-occupants in Waikiki's Discovery Bay condominium to buy the fee in their leasehold units or collect damages from the city."

California wants to control home thermostats - International Herald Tribune: "Next year in California, state regulators are likely to have the emergency power to control individual thermostats, sending temperatures up or down through a radio-controlled device that will be required in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages."

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I guess conversations about your home being your castle are pretty much outmoded in the Golden State. The Greater Good is what counts, and government knows best, even when it comes to setting your thermostat.

Obama, Bloomberg, and the press get stinking drunk on bipartisanship. - By Jack Shafer - Slate Magazine: "When we devote ourselves to working together in the name of national unity rather than obsessing on our differences, injustice loves to strike. Writing slavery into the Constitution was perhaps the greatest triumph of nonpartisan compromise in U.S. history. The denial of suffrage to non-property owners and women ranks up there, as do prohibition, the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, and the so-called war on drugs, declared by President Richard Nixon in the early 1970s and waged bipartisanly by every president—Republican and Democrat—since."

Lakota Oyate: Free and Independent Lakota Nation
The Lakota Sioux have seceded, and they don't even have their HOA set up yet. But they do have a nice map.

Advanced Russian civilization found-Health/Science-The Times of India: "MOSCOW: Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2500-year-old advanced civilization at the bottom of Lake Issyk Kul in the Kyrgyz Mountains in Russia."

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I hope they dig deep enough to find some vowels.

NPR : Nevadans Air Housing Worries in Primary Season: "The Las Vegas real estate market has turned from boom to bust in short order; Nevada now has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation."

Problem Solver helps a cancer patient avoid condo-association penalty -- chicagotribune.com
In which we read about a condo association that raised meanness and stupidity to an art form and then backed down in the glare of publicity.

Politics - Big prisoner release plan - sacbee.com: "In what may be the largest early release of inmates in U.S. history, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is proposing to open the prison gates next year for some 22,000 low-risk offenders."

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It seems to me that "follow the money" should be the first instruction given to anybody who wants to understand state and local government these days. This shows the limits of political mandates, even ones that come directly from "the people." In 1978 Prop. 13 passed overwhelmingly, cutting property taxes radically. But during the 1980s and early 1990s the voters and the state legislature created all sorts of new "go to prison" mandates, which happens to be hugely expensive because it costs a good $30K per year per inmate. Then Governor Terminator came along with new and expensive educational policies, and the Democrats took over the state legislature and had some great new expensive pro-social welfare and anti-business ideas. The middle class began fleeing the state for low-tax states like Nevada, as large numbers of poor people entered the state from Central America and elsewhere.

Net result: a $14 billion budget deficit. And now it is time to release 22,000 people from prison. But the service cuts won't stop there.

Rand Corporation predicted massive fiscal consequences from the mandatory minimums a long time ago. It isn't hard to do. But for some reason, you just can't get people to listen until it is too late.

FOXNews.com - Lakota Indians Withdraw Treaties Signed With U.S. 150 Years Ago -
People in gated communities are accused of secessionist views, but here is secession on a more dramatic scale.

The Lakota Indians, who gave the world legendary warriors Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, have withdrawn from treaties with the United States.

"We are no longer citizens of the United States of America and all those who live in the five-state area that encompasses our country are free to join us,'' long-time Indian rights activist Russell Means said.

Judge clears Madison resident | clarionledger.com | The Clarion-Ledger
I've been giving talks about this bizarre ordinance. Madison, MS, has a local ordinance making it a misdemeanor--a crime--to violate your HOA's rules.

Fred Pilot sent me this link to an article about a prosecution under the ordinance.

Maryland law to deal with defunct associations
Fred Pilot sent this. Just watch. This will become a common situation in the years to come. I have been predicting it for a long time, and now the evidence is starting to make it into the press.

Apathetic homeowners' associations soon could find themselves paying court-appointed receivers to manage their affairs. A Maryland law that took effect Oct. 1 states that a group of three or more owners can ask the courts to appoint a receiver if their home-owners' or condominium association fails to recruit enough directors to meet a quorum. The receiver then would make all management decisions for the community until it assembled a large enough board. "We've had some communities in Maryland that have gone bankrupt. Some others are just hanging on by a thread and are in terrible condition" due to neglect by their boards of directors, said District 10 Sen. Delores Kelley, the sponsor of the bill.

Entire Neighborhood Faces Foreclosure Over Association Fees - Video - WFTV Orlando: "Unless They Pay, By The End Of The Month, They Could End Up Fighting A Legal Battle... Just To Keep Their Homes. More Than 70 Homeowners... Already Have Liens Against Their Properties, In The Stonebridge Landings Development, Off Goldenrod Road, Near The Airport."

Thanks to Fred Pilot for this shocker.

Reason Magazine - The Death of Main Street: "Big businesses know that a heavy regulatory burden is the best way to make sure small- and medium-sized businesses never rise up to challenge them."

Good point.

KSTP.com - Record home foreclosures cause snow removal problems

The snow brings a new problem with the high number of foreclosures in the Twin Cities. All those empty homes mean no one is around to clear the sidewalks.

Couple asked to take down American flag - Local & State News - Tampa Bay's 10 - tampabays10.com: "The flag, flies from a 16-foot tall pole. But last month the Grants were told their flagpole violated their Homeowners Association guidelines and now the Grants have been told they have 15 days to bring it down."

Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly: Owners can't block costly condominium assessment: "Unit owners in a condominium complex could not bar the condo's board of trustees from levying an assessment for a major renovation project, even where the project is expected to cost $75 million, a Superior Court judge has ruled."

San Mateo Daily News: Pinched by fee hikes, condominium owners call for help
Fred Pilot sent this, which is yet another example of the looming private infrastructure crisis:

Posner's plight isn't universal, according to experts. But it's becoming increasingly familiar on the Peninsula, where the first wave of condo complexes are showing their age and many homeowners associations lack the money for repairs. The problem, many say, is a failure of planning by homeowners boards, whose members are not financial experts but average residents elected by their neighbors. Soaring construction and insurance costs aren't helping.