Delusional Thieves Caught Stealing Entire Mansions - The Consumerist

Delusional Thieves Caught Stealing Entire Mansions - The Consumerist: "A ring of confused folk in Georgia are stealing entire million-dollar homes, deeding themselves the property with bogus paperwork and squatting inside."

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I'm not sure "confused" is the right word. Thanks to Mystery Reader for this fascinating story.

As Mountain Of Foreclosure Fraud Evidence Grows, National Media Has Decided It's Really More Of An "Oops!" | Crooks and Liars

As Mountain Of Foreclosure Fraud Evidence Grows, National Media Has Decided It's Really More Of An "Oops!" | Crooks and Liars

This link from Mystery Reader asks why banks can commit what appear to be crimes and nobody goes to jail, and in fact the national media don't seem to see much of a problem.

Banks Hired "Burger King Kids" To Process Mortgages - The Consumerist

Banks Hired "Burger King Kids" To Process Mortgages - The Consumerist

Mystery Reader strikes again. You wonder when the people who did these things will end up behind bars.

Bankers: We Wouldn't Hire Unqualified Robo-Signers If You Just Paid Your Mortgage - The Consumerist

Bankers: We Wouldn't Hire Unqualified Robo-Signers If You Just Paid Your Mortgage - The Consumerist

Thanks to Mystery Reader for this educational link. Why don't we just see the error of our ways and fall prostrate before the financial gods?

20 Unusual Houses That Are Now Tourist Attractions (PHOTOS)

20 Unusual Houses That Are Now Tourist Attractions (PHOTOS)

And no HOAs.

Yet another HOA flag flap -- film at 11

Fan takes flack for flying sports flag

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A flap over a flag is brewing in an Albuquerque neighborhood after the Ventana Ranch Homeowners' Association ordered a resident to take down his Pittsburgh Steelers flag.

Ronnie Martinez said he couldn’t believe it when he got a violation notice, or “friendly reminder,” in the mail two weeks ago.

“They're saying it’s a friendly reminder but,” Martinez said

That friendly reminder is ordering him to fold up a flag bearing the name of his favorite NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, because signs are forbidden under Ventana Ranch HOA’s covenant.

Philly Suburb Considers Fining Those Who Don't Lock Cars | NBC Philadelphia

Philly Suburb Considers Fining Those Who Don't Lock Cars | NBC Philadelphia

Next: fines for people who don't say "excuse me" after they sneeze.

Homeowners association sues its own members, racks up $80,000 legal bill

Homeowners association sues its own members, racks up $80,000 legal bill

SAN ANTONIO - A fight between a Northeast Side homeowners association and their members has turned into an all-out war. It led to a lawsuit that has already cost more than $80,000 in legal fees. These fees will have to be paid by the HOA.

To some in the neighborhood the president of the Ventura HOA, Lisa Pfeiffer, is a bully. Eight of her neighbors say she is suing them because they tried to kick her out of office. It all started when they called a special meeting to kick out board president Pfeiffer after they became unhappy with how she was running things for the HOA.

“It's a classic example of intimidating -- picking a few people to intimidate the rest of the association, so that no one challenges them any further,” said Brenda Johnson.

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It's been said that in a democratic government, voters and not guns determine who governs. Apparently the latter is called upon to decide in Privatopia -- not weapons but hired guns in the form of attorneys.

Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary

Robo-signers: Mortgage experience not necessary

NEW YORK – In an effort to rush through thousands of home foreclosures since 2007, financial institutions and their mortgage servicing departments hired hair stylists, Walmart floor workers and people who had worked on assembly lines and installed them in "foreclosure expert" jobs with no formal training, a Florida lawyer says.

In depositions released Tuesday, many of those workers testified that they barely knew what a mortgage was. Some couldn't define the word "affidavit." Others didn't know what a complaint was, or even what was meant by personal property. Most troubling, several said they knew they were lying when they signed the foreclosure affidavits and that they agreed with the defense lawyers' accusations about document fraud.

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The Great Depression began in October 1929 with the collapse of the stock market bubble, inflated by everyone and their cousin buying stock on easy credit with the expectation that the market could go no where but up.

The current economic downturn -- often compared to the 1930s -- will likely be remembered similarly. Mortgage lenders tossed underwriting standards out the window and extended mortgages to anyone who could fog a mirror holding the same "sky's the limit" expectations of residential real estate. The sad story continues to unfold, with mortgage servicers reportedly setting minimal qualifications for those who process foreclosures.

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?