Sleazy Real Estate Developers' Latest Scam Could Skim 5 Percent Off Your Home's Value | | AlterNet

Sleazy Real Estate Developers' Latest Scam Could Skim 5 Percent Off Your Home's Value | | AlterNet

And of course they are talking about private transfer fees, as we have been doing here for some time.

BofA halts foreclosure sales in 50 states

BofA halts foreclosure sales in 50 states

Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America Corp., the nation's largest bank, said Friday it would stop sales of foreclosed homes in all 50 states as it reviews documents used to process foreclosures. A week earlier, the company had said it would only stop such sales in the 23 states where foreclosures must be approved by a judge.

"We will stop foreclosure sales until our assessment has been satisfactorily completed," company spokesman Dan Frahm said in a statement. "Our ongoing assessment shows the basis for our past foreclosure decisions is accurate."

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This appears to be the beginnings of a foreclosure holiday with lenders finally realizing that mass foreclosures aren't benefiting anyone and may well exacerbate and extend weak economic conditions, leading to even more non performing mortgages in a classic unvirtuous cycle. The legal brouhaha over the validity of foreclosure documents provides a convenient and face saving rationale for a hiatus on foreclosures. Lenders may also be realizing that their notes could be more easily recoverable and worth more in the future when the legal and economic climate is less uncertain.

The other foreclosure crisis gets more press

Fox Business: Can my homeowners association really foreclose on my home?

In California, for example, associations may begin the foreclosure process only 75 days after a missed payment was first due, while a tax collector must wait five years before beginning the foreclosure process for a tax lien. Associations are not required to go through a court to foreclose, as a property owner would to evict a tenant. Also, homeowners do not receive the benefit of the homestead exemption when their house is foreclosed upon by an association, as they would in the case of any other money judgment.
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Yes, it can. The mortgage foreclosure crisis has gotten a lot of press. Now so are foreclosures by HOAs, which by comparison to lender foreclosures come far faster and less mercifully -- and well before the tax man comes calling for delinquent property taxes.

Nonprofits Unable To Keep Up With Growing Suburban Poverty, New Reports Say

Nonprofits Unable To Keep Up With Growing Suburban Poverty, New Reports Say: "two analyses released this week by the Brookings Institution show suburban poverty has skyrocketed in recent years and the way in which social services are lagging behind this shift."

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Nobody likes the suburbs except suburbanites...who are the majority of the US population.

Obama won't sign bill that would affect foreclosure proceedings

Obama won't sign bill that would affect foreclosure proceedings: "At least 10 states - with Iowa and Delaware being the latest - are seeking to expand a voluntary freeze on foreclosures by some of the nation's largest mortgage lenders to include more companies and more regions. And calls have increased for a nationwide moratorium - a move that could deal a blow to the earnings of big banks and grind to a halt the sale of millions of properties in foreclosure."

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I hear from real estate attorneys that banks have been holding off on foreclosing because they have too much REO property already and they can't sell it, so they don't want to acquire more and put it on the market, which would only drive prices down further. But even with that voluntary restraint, the foreclosure process is hopelessly glutted and gridlocked.

Suburbs take hit as US poverty climbs in downturn

Suburbs take hit as US poverty climbs in downturn

More than half, or 57, of the 100 largest U.S. metro areas had substantial increases in poverty. They were most evident in Sun Belt suburban areas including Modesto and Riverside, both in California, as well as Lakeland, Fla.; Orlando; Miami and Tampa, which had seen large population gains during the housing boom.
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That's Privatopia and this negative trend may at least partly explain why lots of HOAs are coming up short on assessments.

Madison: Gated City?

Madison: Gated City?

Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler’s recent strategy to keep outsiders from attending a city festival is consistent with the city’s history of enforcing strict neighborhood covenants and zoning regulations that restrict rental properties in the city. Madison has long promoted itself as more of a club than a city, but last week, after Hawkins Butler cited Franklin, Tenn., as a model city for a residents-only festival, Franklin officials said they had never heard of such a practice.

Hawkins Butler told the Madison County Herald Sept. 18 that the city was cancelling this year’s annual family fall festival, FreedomFest, because of unexpected budget expenditures and the high number of non-Madison residents who attended the event in the past.

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Another example of what the perfessor would say illustrates how municipalities are adopting restrictive, HOA-like behaviors.

Privatization as a plutocratic plot: They Want To Privatize Everything | California Progress Report

They Want To Privatize Everything | California Progress Report

One of the most important trends afoot right now is the move to privatize as many government services as possible. Billionaires like Bill Gates, along with hedge funds, are pushing an agenda of privatizing public schools, and funding a PR push in support of that cause with films like "Waiting for Superman" and the NBC "Education Nation" that included a panel with the title "Does Education Need a Katrina?".

This trend is fueled by the desire of the richest Americans to seek new income streams. Instead of spending their cash hoard on innovating new products or businesses that can create jobs and lasting economic activity, they're engaged in a process of rent seeking, which has no productive value. By taking tax dollars that currently provide public services and channeling them to the private sector, which contracts to provide the service at lower cost - and therefore at lower quality - these wealthy individuals can add new income streams while also blunting any effort to raise their taxes to provide these services.

Police: Conn. man stole flag, put up hippo toy

Police: Conn. man stole flag, put up hippo toy

WATERBURY, Conn. – Call it the case of the flying hippo. Connecticut police said a man stole an American flag from Waterbury's Town Plot Park and hoisted a stuffed hippopotamus toy in its place. Twenty-three-year-old Jeffrey Kovic, of Waterbury, was arrested and was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail on misdemeanor larceny, criminal mischief and conspiracy charges.

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Good thing he didn't fly the hippo from a pole in Privatopia or he would have faced both public and private prosecution.

Ozone layer 'is no longer disappearing and will return to full strength by 2048' | Mail Online

Ozone layer 'is no longer disappearing and will return to full strength by 2048' | Mail Online

"The ozone layer is no longer disappearing and could be back to full strength by the middle of this century, UN scientists have confirmed.

The phasing out of nearly 100 substances once used in products like refrigerators and aerosols has stopped the ozone layer being depleted further, although it is not yet increasing, according to a new United Nations report released last week.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1313599/Ozone-layer-longer-disappearing-return-strength-2048.html#ixzz108BleiJP

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About time we had some good news, isn't it?

Banks win delay in demolition of abandoned Fort Lauderdale condo complex

Debris is strewn across the 58-unit complex along the north fork of the New River. The doors and windows have been stripped away. Vandals have destroyed walls and ripped out copper wiring and plumbing. The city has been paying for metal shutters to keep away squatters.
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Ever wonder what happens when an association goes defunct? It is not pretty.
And what happens to all those property values that were being protected?

When a municipal election resembles Privatopia

Here's a story of a city council election out of Isleton, California, population 820, that might just as easily been about an HOA election. The incumbents are running unchallenged because the few candidates who considered running were apparently not sufficiently motivated to serve to even make sure their candidacy papers were in good order.

Yellow mailboxes latest symbol of anti-HOA protest

Mailbox battle in Chesterfield's Brandermill brings protest

Day by day, more of the yellow boxes are popping up. In fact, one more for our camera early this morning. They are standing out in a community making a big visual statement about a decision that hits their wallet. But it's a decision that the community association board says has been publicized for months, like in the community newspaper.

They are hard to miss -- one yellow box after another. When-Dee Morrison spearheaded this protest. "They definitely stand out. It doesn't go with our park-like setting," Morrison said. This, just days after the Brandermill Community Association decided each home in this community must get this new mailbox. Those boxes would cost $155.
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As political scientists are wont to do, Evan McKenzie, the owner of this plot of cyberspace real estate, has labeled the yet unorganized political movement that rejects the authority of private HOA governance (but oddly doesn't lobby states to repeal HOA enabling statutes) as the Pink Flamingos.

That token of expressing discontent and defiance arose out of HOAs going after inmates who dared to plant the tacky pink plastic avian decorations on their front lawns, potentially driving down property values faster than a trailer park full of deteriorating double wide FEMA trailers.

Now another symbol of protest against dictatorial, unresponsive Privatopian government has emerged: the yellow mailbox. Perhaps not coincidentally the same color of the Gadsen "Don't Tread on Me" flag that has become the symbol of a somewhat more organized political movement called the Tea Party.

Rule breakers, beware: New law gives homeowners' associations more muscle - Home & Garden - MiamiHerald.com

Rule breakers, beware: New law gives homeowners' associations more muscle - Home & Garden - MiamiHerald.com

Fred Pilot sent this link-seems that Florida is giving HOAs fining and even foreclosure power for rule violations.

Homeowner's Association Uses Chopper To Find Violations - Local 2 Investigates News Story - KPRC Houston

Homeowner's Association Uses Chopper To Find Violations - Local 2 Investigates News Story - KPRC Houston

I'm posting this because an anonymous poster copied and pasted a huge part of the story into a comment. I'm deleting the comment and posting the link to the story.

Folks, we need to be a lot more careful about using big blocks of text from copyrighted on line news stories. There is a "fair use" doctrine that allows posting a little bit of these stories and then commenting, but just putting in all or most of a news story is copyright infringement. There are lawsuits going on against bloggers right now, for doing exactly that--even if the source was cited.

So please avoid this, OK? Keep the story snippets short and always include the source and hyperlink.

Big Brother is searching you - Computerworld

Big Brother is searching you - Computerworld

"The town of Riverhead on Long Island usedGoogle Earth to search all back yards in the town for illegal swimming pools.

They found about 250 pools built without permits and collected about $75,000 in fines."

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This came from Mystery Reader. I remember prosecuting drug cases where the search warrant was based on aerial surveillance, and the Supreme Court ruled on issues such as how high the plane had to be, etc. But now government can use Google Earth and zoom right in.

FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - US state steps in to meet city’s debt cost

FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - US state steps in to meet city’s debt cost

The state of Pennsylvania has stepped in to help its capital city Harrisburg avoid a default by advancing next year’s state aid so that the money can be used to make a $3.3m bond interest payment due this week.

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It seems to me that the policy makers of this country and the educated population ought to be figuring out how to restructure the financing of state and local governments, before we have a housing-industry-style, sector-wide, meltdown. Doesn't seem to be a major concern, though.

SIDE STREETS: HOA acting squirrelly at Lexington Park and everyone appears to be nuts

SIDE STREETS: HOA acting squirrelly at Lexington Park and everyone appears to be nuts

It sounded too wild to be true: A woman claimed her efforts to rescue a squirrel had incited the wrath of her homeowners association board and led to harassment, hundreds of dollars in fines, and even allegations of felony theft lodged against her with police.

So I contacted the president of the Lexington Park Townhomes HOA figuring I’d clear it up and move on.

But Chad Farris, the HOA president, declined to talk to me. Ordered me not to use his name. Wanted me to meet him “in a public place with my attorney present.”

Hmm. Maybe the squirrel lady isn’t nuts, after all.

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Indeed. And kudos to the writer of the headline for this tale of HOA insanity.

FOXNews.com - Cities Increasingly Turn to 'Trash Police' to Enforce Recycling Laws

FOXNews.com - Cities Increasingly Turn to 'Trash Police' to Enforce Recycling Laws

In a growing number of cities across the U.S., local governments are placing computer chips in recycling bins to collect data on refuse disposal, and then fining residents who don't participate in recycling efforts and forcing others into educational programs meant to instill respect for the environment.

From Charlotte, N.C., to Cleveland, Ohio, from Boise, Idaho, to Flint, Mich., the green police are spreading out. And that alarms some privacy advocates who are asking: Should local governments have the right to monitor how you divide your paper cups from your plastic forks? Is that really the role of government?

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I'd say, "no."

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/sep/08/pa-homeowners-stand-may-be-shortsighted/

Cars on blocks. Knee-deep grass. Going to seed. Around a neglected above-ground pool. In the front yard. Chartreuse-and-fuchsia repainting jobs. Beds of silk plants. Bordered by pinwheels acquired at a dollar store end-of-the-season closeout sale.

The horror. The horror.

Apocalyptic prospects

The remote chance that one or some combination of these apocalyptic prospects could come to pass on your block is why deed restrictions and their enforcement arm - the homeowners association - evolved. It turns out, apparently, after Woodstock and Vietnam, we no longer trust one another to tend to our corner of the American dream as fastidiously and tastefully as June and Ward Cleaver (the 1980s Clair and Cliff Huxtable notwithstanding).

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To that, the HOA abolitionists cry "HOA apocalypse now!"