Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Trotwood HOA responds to liens, worn facilities | Dayton News | www.whio.com

Trotwood HOA responds to liens, worn facilities | Dayton News | www.whio.com



And here is the HOA's response to media coverage of owners withholding assessment payments because they don't think they are getting their money's worth, and then getting hit with liens:

"Not long after last week’s report, the HOA sent out an email in response. “The recent WHIO-TV broadcast orchestrated by a delinquent homeowner…will fail in its attempt to stop the collection of delinquent assessments. If you thought you could move here and change our neighborhood to be like the ghetto you came from…think again.”


Homeowners pay thousands to illegal HOA | Fox 59

Homeowners pay thousands to illegal HOA | Fox 59

"CUMBERLAND, Ind. – For more than a decade, homeowners in a Cumberland neighborhood have been paying dues to an illegal HOA. According to state records, the Harvest Glen HOA was dissolved in 2002 because required paperwork to reinstate the organization was never completed.  A few days ago, the neighborhood treasurer sent each homeowner a letter and a stack of approximately 100 pages of detailed expense reports showing how HOA dues were spent. Every year, every Harvest Glen homeowner pays $50 for HOA dues, which is mainly for lawn care upkeep in the common areas. For the past 14 years, state records show the neighborhood hasn’t had an operating HOA."

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OK, so maybe we didn't dot every "i" and cross every "t" for the last fourteen years, but basically we more or less kinda sorta did HOA-type stuff. What's your prob?

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Woman accused of stealing from Kennesaw HOA | WAGA

Woman accused of stealing from Kennesaw HOA | WAGA: "KENNESAW, Ga. - A former Kennesaw property manager faces criminal charges.

Wendy Teresa Robinson is accused of stealing more than $8,000 from a home owners’ association fund. Police said Robinson worked as the property manager for the Legacy Park HOA at the time of the theft."


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The need for outside financial oversight of condos and HOAs becomes more obvious every day.

Dissecting the CAI white paper manifesto on Association  Governance (part 1) – Independent American Communities

Dissecting the CAI white paper manifesto on Association  Governance (part 1) – Independent American Communities:



Deborah Goonan's take on CAI's Community Next: 2020 and Beyond: The Association Governance Model--Panel Report

Monday, May 16, 2016

Despite Their Higher Education, Millennials Still Aren't Buying Homes - CityLab

Despite Their Higher Education, Millennials Still Aren't Buying Homes - CityLab:

  "A bachelor’s degree is not a requirement for homeownership, but it is starting to look like one. As household incomes are increasingly linked to educational attainment, so is homeownership status. At the same time, higher education can be a temporary barrier to homeownership. This paradox might be the driving factor of the U.S. housing market today, which is still slow to grow even despite a strong recovery"

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I've seen several studies on this. The growing income gap between college graduates and people without degrees means that graduates are more likely to be able to buy a home. But, because it takes four years to get the degree, the college graduates get married and/or enter the housing market later. The often-repeated claim that college graduates can't afford homes because of student loans doesn't stand up to empirical analysis. But part of this is on the supply side.   The real estate development industry is not building many starter homes at present, in large part because of the higher lending standards that still prevail.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Squatters See a New Frontier in the Empty Homes of Las Vegas - The New York Times

Squatters See a New Frontier in the Empty Homes of Las Vegas - The New York Times

"In Las Vegas, the crackdown against squatters coincides with a resurgence, albeit modest, in the local housing market. Foreclosures are falling and home prices are creeping upward (though they remain far short of the prerecession peak). But with a transient population of down-and-out gamblers and a glut of homes that have already been foreclosed, opportunists can still take their pick of thousands of empty houses. Inside one, squatters had scrawled a warning to stay away on a wall: “Violent tweekers on guard.”

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During the housing boom there was far too much housing built in Las Vegas. Developers were trying to take advantage of the easy credit that was available to home buyers back then. In other words, these housing units were expressly built for people who couldn't afford them. There was no real market for them then, and there is even less of a market now. So now that the cocktail waitresses and golf caddies have lost their $300,000 homes to foreclosure, there is no real buyer for these units and they sit idle. In come the squatters. This is going on in other nations as well. Spain is a great example, where Barcelona elected a socialist as mayor in part based on a proposal to legalize squatting.

Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link.