U.S. Weighs Takeover of Two Mortgage Giants: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

U.S. Weighs Takeover of Two Mortgage Giants: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance"WASHINGTON — Alarmed by the growing financial stress at the nation’s two largest mortgage finance companies, senior Bush administration officials are considering a plan to have the government take over one or both of the companies and place them in a conservatorship if their problems worsen, people briefed about the plan said on Thursday. The companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have been hit hard by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. Their shares are plummeting and their borrowing costs are rising as investors worry that the companies will suffer losses far larger than the $11 billion they have already lost in recent months. Now, as housing prices decline further and foreclosures grow, the markets are worried that Fannie and Freddie themselves may default on their debt. Under a conservatorship, the shares of Fannie and Freddie would be worth little or nothing, and any losses on mortgages they own or guarantee — which could be staggering — would be paid by taxpayers."
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That $11 billion figure is nothing. These two companies are responsible for $5 trillion in debt. The public costs, if they have to be taken over, could end up making the S&L industry collapse look like a minor inconvenience.

U.S. officials rush to reassure markets about loan agencies - International Herald Tribune: "Senior U.S. officials on Thursday sought to reassure the markets about the financial health of the nation's two largest mortgage finance companies as their stock prices plunged to their lowest level in 17 years on fears that they could face the possibility of a government bailout...The two companies play a central role in the marketplace by buying hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgages from lenders, repackaging them as securities and then either holding them in their portfolios or selling them to investors. While their stocks trade on the New York Stock Exchange, they were created by Congress to promote housing and the marketplace has long come to believe that they would be bailed out should they become insolvent. They hold a far lower level of capital than banks."
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Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in major trouble. If you don't think this is a big deal, read a little more about it.

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Staffordshire | Pirate birthday sunk by council

AAARRGGG! Shiver me timbers! No Jolly Roger?
A family who wanted to fly a Jolly Roger pirate flag at their house for their son's birthday party have been told they need planning permission. Richard Smith and Sharon Cooper from Stone in Staffordshire have postponed Morgan's sixth birthday while they await the outcome of their application. Permission is required to fly anything other than national flags, a Stafford Borough Council spokesman said.
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This is a municipality in the People's Republic of Great Britain, where I think you need permission from the government to draw a deep breath. We associate laws like this with private governments, but in Britain this is the way municipalities operate. Sometimes we don't know how good we have it here...

Council bans goldfish bowls. 24/07/2004. ABC News Online

Council bans goldfish bowls. 24/07/2004. ABC News Online: "A fish kept in a bowl has a distorted view of reality...and suffers because of this,' Mr Mosca said."
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I need to get a contest started for most ridiculous local ordinance, either from a municipality or an HOA. Any contributions?

www.kansascity.com | 07/09/2008 | Summer camps find a new trend: Kidsick parents, not homesick kids

www.kansascity.com | 07/09/2008 | Summer camps find a new trend: Kidsick parents, not homesick kids: "These days, camp leaders and family counselors say it is an increasingly common dynamic. It used to be the homesick kid begging to come home from camp. While that still happens, they have noticed that it is often parents who have more trouble letting go. They call it “kidsickness,” a condition attributed in large part to today’s more involved style of parenting. Observers also say it is only being exacerbated by our ability to be in constant contact by cell phone and computer, as well as many parents’ perception that the world is a more dangerous place."
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Maybe this is the kind of person who sincerely wants to live in a gated community, surrounded by people exactly like themselves and protected from that nasty old world out there.

Our Towns - Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come - NYTimes.com

Our Towns - Build a Wiffle Ball Field and Lawyers Will Come - NYTimes.com: "After three weeks of clearing brush and poison ivy, scrounging up plywood and green paint, digging holes and pouring concrete, Vincent, Justin and about a dozen friends did manage to build it — a tree-shaded Wiffle ball version of Fenway Park complete with a 12-foot-tall green monster in center field, American flag by the left-field foul pole and colorful signs for Taco Bell Frutista Freezes.

But, alas, they had no idea just who would come — youthful Wiffle ball players, yes, but also angry neighbors and their lawyer, the police, the town nuisance officer and tree warden and other officials in all shapes and sizes."
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Did you ever think that maybe HOAs and condo associations are reflections of some larger cultural and institutional opposition to the individuals being creative with property?

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Flint, Michigan Battles Crack Epidemic
Now here's a local ordinance that should be adopted across the country.

California town creates parking havens for homeless

California town creates parking havens for homeless: "In Santa Barbara, the traditional middle-class has all but disappeared as property prices have soared, according to Gary Linker, executive director of New Beginnings. New Beginnings has sought to help people who are living out of their vehicles, like Harvey, by organizing a network of safe overnight parking havens, mostly in church and public carparks."
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Living in your does kill two birds with one stone: it makes housing and gas prices affordable.

G8 summit: Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks - Telegraph

G8 summit: Gordon Brown has eight-course dinner before food crisis talks - Telegraph: "The Prime Minister was served 24 different dishes during his first day at the summit – just hours after urging the world to reduce the 'unnecessary demand' for food and calling on British families to cut back on their wasteful use of food."
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Nice to see that our European betters are still showing us the way.

Property Owner Retaliates With Pink, Purple House - Local News Story - WCAU | Philadelphia

Property Owner Retaliates With Pink, Purple House - Local News Story - WCAU | Philadelphia: "BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. -- A couple of businessmen made a colorful statement after they were blocked from developing their property their way. Perkasie Borough, Bucks County is quiet and sedate for the most part until you get to a newly painted home at 208 Ridge Ave. that stands out.cThe house is painted purple and pink."
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And they chose especially ugly shades, too.

My Way News - Fed plans new rules to protect future homebuyers

My Way News - Fed plans new rules to protect future homebuyers: "WASHINGTON (AP) - In an effort to prevent a repeat of the current mortgage mess, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke says the Fed next week will issue new rules aimed at protecting future homebuyers from dubious lending practices. Bernanke also says the Fed may give squeezed Wall Street firms more time to tap the central bank's emergency loan program. The mortgage rules will crack down on a range of shady lending practices that has burned many of the nation's riskiest 'subprime' borrowers - those with spotty credit or low incomes - who were hardest hit by the housing and credit debacles. The plan would apply to new loans made by thousands of lenders of all types, including banks and brokers. It would restrict lenders from penalizing risky borrowers who pay loans off early, require lenders to make sure these borrowers set aside money to pay for taxes and insurance and bar lenders from making loans without proof of a borrower's income. It also would prohibit lenders from engaging in a pattern or practice of lending without considering a borrower's ability to repay a home loan from sources other than the home's value."
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How could lenders have been doing such dumb things in the first place?

Gov. Crist vetoes bill dealing with HOA operations | news-press.com | The News-Press

Gov. Crist vetoes bill dealing with HOA operations : "By way of late breaking news, one of the major pieces of legislation adopted during the 2008 session of the Florida Legislature was recently vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist. House Bill 679 primarily dealt with homeowners' association operations, including areas such as HOA election procedures and reserves. According to the governor's veto message, he killed the bill because he did not support a provision which would have de-regulated swimming pool water quality monitoring requirements for smaller HOAs."
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Say what?

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stock falling: "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have declined more than 60 percent this year, with declines accelerating in the past two weeks, on concern the companies' capital raisings since December may not be enough to overcome writedowns. Washington-based Fannie Mae so far has raised $6 billion in capital to offset writedowns on mortgages it owns or guarantees. Freddie Mac, based in McLean, Virginia, raised $13.5 billion since December and said last week plans to add $5.5 billion probably won't be fulfilled until late next month. Freddie Mac fell $2.59 to $11.91 after earlier dropping as low as $10.28. Fannie Mae declined $3.04 to $15.74 and earlier fell to $14.65. The new FAS 140 rule that seeks to stop companies keeping assets in off-balance sheet entities may force Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to bring mortgages back onto their books, requiring them to put up capital, Lehman analysts led by Bruce Harting wrote in a note to clients today. Fannie Mae would need to add $46 billion of capital and Freddie Mac would need about $29 billion, the Lehman analysts wrote. The companies will probably get an exemption from the rule because it would be ``very difficult'' for them to raise that amount of capital, the analysts said."
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So their stock is falling because they are undercapitalized, and their stock is falling because new rules require them to show their delinquencies...and the solution is probably going to be what? Giving them an exception from the disclosure rule. Wonderful. That will certainly fix the problem that they are undercapitalized. Not.

Gulf Times – Gated communities in Egypt: "PALM HILLS, Egypt: The four-wheel-drives outside the terracotta villas include a Lexus and a Porsche, and under the shade of the palms and the bright red poinciana trees men in liveried overalls are buffing them to a shine.
Across the road, concealed behind a wall and down a path littered with rubble, Sabri Ali and his fellow gardeners are living five to a small room, earning 18 Egyptian pounds ($3.35) a day for seven hours work tending lawns and pruning trees."
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Some folks sure do know how to live the high life.

New Haven Register - Historic block in Clinton may soon have 1st new house ince 1850​

New Haven Register - Historic block in Clinton may soon have 1st new house since 1850​: "CLINTON - The Historic District Commission has approved a major revision of design plans that would meet the special criteria for construction of a new house in the tiny Liberty Green Historic District...No construction can take place within the block-long confines of the Liberty Green Historic District, where just six houses built between 1725 and 1850 exist, without first being approved by the HDC."
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Now that is one tough association.

My Way News - 'Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights

My Way News - 'Public' online spaces don't carry speech, rights: "Companies in charge of seemingly public spaces online wipe out content that's controversial but otherwise legal. Service providers write their own rules for users worldwide and set foreign policy when they cooperate with regimes like China. They serve as prosecutor, judge and jury in handling disputes behind closed doors.

The governmental role that companies play online is taking on greater importance as their services - from online hangouts to virtual repositories of photos and video - become more central to public discourse around the world. It's a fallout of the Internet's market-driven growth, but possible remedies, including government regulation, can be worse than the symptoms."
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This is similar to the argument I and others have been making about CIDs for a long time now. What happens to civil liberties when a public function gets privatized?

Schoolboys punished with detention for refusing to kneel down and pray to Allah | Mail Online

Schoolboys punished with detention for refusing to kneel down and pray to Allah | Mail Online: "Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during a religious education lesson. Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped. They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent - which included wearing Muslim headgear - was a breach of their human rights."
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This happened in what was once Great Britain.

Pagan symbols can stay if permit bought | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register

Pagan symbols can stay if permit bought The Des Moines Register: "A decision that allows hand-painted religious symbols on a Des Moines couple's privacy fence has opened a debate at City Hall over the definition of graffiti. Inspectors in May ordered Ryle and Rachel MacPebbles to remove pagan and Celtic symbols from the fence after a neighbor complained. The couple appealed on religious freedom grounds, and city officials this week decided the handiwork can stay if the couple buys a $35 sign permit."
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The issue is whether this is graffiti, which is prohibited, or a religious sign, which is protected by the First Amendment and allowed as long as you get a sign permit. The city is going at this case-by-case. Seems like a good approach. I like it when people use common sense instead of acting like petty dictators.

Down and out in Las Vegas - Americas, World - The Independent

Down and out in Las Vegas - Americas, World - The Independent: "America's most outrageous city is facing a growing multitude of problems, and they all boil down to a single, unavoidable point: right now, far too little happens in Vegas, because not enough people are actually staying there. The onset of global slowdown, high petrol prices, and a nation-wide housing slump is spelling disaster for a town that owes every aspect of its wealth – from that gaudy replica of the Eiffel Tower to those scale models of Venetian canals and the Pyramids of Egypt – to its ability to inspire free-spending hedonism."
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Disaster might be too strong a word. There will always be a market for a place that offers the ultimate in distraction. I get why people visit there and work there. I just don't see why so many people retire and move there. I would have thought retirees would want a more congenial climate. I mean, if Chicago is too cold, why move to a place that is too hot?

‘Nightmare’ condo fees after foreclosure | Business | projo.com | The Providence Journal

‘Nightmare’ condo fees after foreclosure -- The Providence Journal: "When McGarry took over as condo association treasurer in April, she quickly learned that the association had been in financial trouble even before the two owners defaulted. Although monthly fees had been raised from $195 to $225 in November, there was no money in reserve, and water, heat and electric service were about to be shut off. McGarry raised the condo fee to $275 and obtained a personal credit-card loan of $4,800 to pay past-due bills and retain a lawyer to help her collect back fees. “I was the only one who could get a loan,” she said. McGarry’s situation is extreme, but it’s not uncommon. Other condominium associations are facing problems because of owners who can’t or won’t pay common expenses, according to state Rep. Patricia Serpa, D-West Warwick. Many owners who get into financial trouble stop paying condo fees months before they default on their mortgages, according to Edmund Allcock, a lawyer representing the New England chapter of the Community Association Institute."
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This is an 8-unit condo and two people stopped paying. These small condo buildings are especially risky.

Mother of all foreclosures

Mother of all foreclosures: "It is without the doubt the largest housing-related foreclosure yet in the Manteca-Lathrop market. Hundreds of lots in Beck Properties' highly-touted Oakwood Lake Shores and two sister developments in Mossdale Landing are now in the foreclosure process."
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This is in San Joaquin County, California.

Pictured: The floating cities that could one day house climate change refugees | Mail Online

Pictured: The floating cities that could one day house climate change refugees | Mail Online: "An architect has come up with an innovative answer to rising sea levels - a city that floats around the world. The self-contained 'Lilypad' city will be home to around 50,000 'climate refugees' from the worst hit areas - including London."
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Not me. I intend to live in a dirigible.

Analyst sees 'ghost town' in Inland Empire | L.A. Land | Los Angeles Times

Analyst sees 'ghost town' in Inland Empire | L.A. Land | Los Angeles Times: "A financial analyst fresh from a tour of construction sites in the Inland Empire is warning Wall Street of a 'ghost town' where finished homes sit vacant and additional homes are still under construction.

'At several properties, there were a significant number of fully built homes sitting vacant along with a large number of additional homes still under construction,' Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Aaron Deer wrote today after touring developments in Corona and Ontario. 'At one master plan community, the entire development appeared to be vacant -- with the exception of crews working on new construction, it was a ghost town.'"
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And of course the majority of this "ghost town" construction is in what are supposed to be HOAs.

Couple Who Let Lawn Die to Save Water Face Fine - Oddities - redOrbit

Couple Who Let Lawn Die to Save Water Face Fine: "[W]hen Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought June 4, Hartridge decided it was only right to let her front lawn die to save water. 'The whole water conservation ethic is very important to me,' said Hartridge, a state employee who bikes or rides the bus to work. But that ethic didn't agree with her neighbors, or with the city. Before Hartridge could plan new landscaping, a neighbor complained to the city about her brown lawn, and the Code Enforcement Department slapped the family with a citation. Their small brick home was declared a 'public nuisance' in violation of city code section 17.68.010, which states that front yards 'shall be irrigated, landscaped and maintained.' A $746 fine will be next unless they correct the violation."
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The City of Sacramento is doing this. In a drought. Yet another example of a municipality acting like a stereotypical HOA.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Foreclosures increase in LA and Miami: "New foreclosures almost quadrupled in Los Angeles and doubled in Miami in the second quarter, with as much as $5 billion worth of loans going bad in L.A. alone, the online real estate data company PropertyShark.com reported. The number of homes scheduled for auction in Los Angeles rose 14,505 compared with 3,797 in the same period a year earlier, PropertyShark said in a report distributed by e-mail. In Miami-Dade County, the number climbed to 2,677 from 1,282."
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We haven't seen the bottom of the housing crash yet.

'Eco-towns' will fall victim to economics - Telegraph: "Protesters gathered outside Parliament yesterday to voice their opposition to the Government’s plans for a string of new “eco-towns” across England."
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More government-sponsored utopianism. This hearkens back to the Garden Cities that were based on Ebenezer Howard's ideas.

Starbucks closing 600 stores in the US: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

Starbucks closing 600 stores in the US

I guess that would constitute a sign of a slowing economy. But why on earth people pay $4.00 for a cup of burned coffee escapes me anyway. I realize many people like the social experience of Starbucks, and that's worth something. But the coffee is so overpriced that it resembles the housing bubble....hey! Maybe I'm onto something here.

Chicago, city of broad strictures -- chicagotribune.com

Chicago, city of broad strictures -- chicagotribune.com: "The fact is, a lot of 'little soft cities' have become brassier and freer and, well, funner than Chicago.

At Reason Magazine, we recently took a look at how the 35 most-populous cities in the United States balance individual freedom with government paternalism. We ranked the cities on how much freedom they afford their residents to indulge in alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sex, gambling and food. And, for good measure, we also looked at the cities' gun laws, use of traffic and surveillance cameras, and tossed in an 'other' category to catch weird laws such as New York's ban on unlicensed dancing, or Chicago's tax on bottled water.

The sad news, Chicagoans, is that your town came in dead last. And it wasn't even close."
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Chicago under Dictator-for-Life Richie Daley is now the most repressive and paternalistic city in the nation. Take that, homeowner and condo associations!

Witnesses: Man brought unloaded gun to party : Local : Redding Record Searchlight

Witnesses: Man brought unloaded gun to party in gated community--beatdown ensues: "LAKE CALIFORNIA -- Following a ruckus at a house party, a 40-year-old Cottonwood man and a group of partygoers fended off a man armed with an unloaded shotgun early Saturday inside this gated community, according to authorities.

Tehama County sheriff's deputies responded to a disturbance at Covington Mill Road at 12:58 a.m. When they arrived, they found eight to 10 people fighting, deputies reported Monday."
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I could see this happening in a trailer park or the Jerry Springer show, but aren't gated community residents supposed to show a little more decorum?

Obama's Katrina - By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine

Obama's Katrina - By Mickey Kaus - Slate Magazine: "Obama's career has been unusually limited for a presidential contender. Housing and 'community development' has been a big part of it. If the result has been a disaster in which Obama's friends made lots of money while his poor constituents lived in dangerous squalor, that seems like a big warning sign, no?"
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See below. With the media functioning as PR flacks for the Obama campaign, I wonder how much of the man's actual record and bizarre reversals of position will be covered.

Grim proving ground for Obama's housing policy - The Boston Globe: "CHICAGO - The squat brick buildings of Grove Parc Plaza, in a dense neighborhood that Barack Obama represented for eight years as a state senator, hold 504 apartments subsidized by the federal government for people who can't afford to live anywhere else.

But it's not safe to live here."
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Think Obama is a policy genius? Read this.

cbs2chicago.com - Cook County Tax Hike In Effect, Businesses Furious

cbs2chicago.com - Cook County Tax Hike In Effect, Businesses Furious: "As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, a 1 percent sales tax increase is in effect Tuesday, hiking the sales tax in the city of Chicago to 10.25 percent. By comparison, the sales tax in Lake and Will counties is 7 percent, and in DuPage County, it's 7.25 percent. A sales tax of 10.25 percent is also significantly higher than the sales tax in other major cities. The next highest rate in the country is in Memphis at 9.25 percent. New York, Los Angeles and Dallas all have a sales tax of under 8.3 percent, Phoenix has a tax of 6.3 percent, and Denver's sales tax is only 3.6 percent. The Cook County Board voted to raise the sales tax at the end of February, after a five-month stalemate on the 2008 budget. Board President Todd Stroger and his supporters ultimately prevailed, saying the tax hike was necessary to provide health care and other services."
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Chicago now has the highest sales tax in the US, at 10.25%, in order to fund the city's welfare state and pay exorbitant salaries to Todd Stroger's friends and relatives for the non-jobs the don't do.

Businesses are outraged, but with a Democratic city government, county government, and state government, they have no legitimate voice in politics. Everything is framed in terms of the Democrats and their constituencies. Their only route to influence in this state is through corruption: payoffs and campaign contributions to the Democrats and the few Republicans who are part of what columnist John Kass calls "The Combine." That, of course, is dangerous with the Feds lurking around. And we are now on the verge of electing as President of the US a man who came straight out of the Chicago machine.

Homeowners or Condominium Association Fees: Nondischargeable, But Maybe It’s Not a Problem : Bankruptcy Law Network

Homeowners or Condominium Association Fees: Nondischargeable, But Maybe It’s Not a Problem : Bankruptcy Law Network: "Section 523(a)(16) of the bankruptcy law, as amended by the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act, makes homeowners or condominium association fees nondischargeable, but only if the association fees arose after the date the bankruptcy was filed, and only for so long as the debtor has an ownership interest, or some other equitable interest, in the property. A post-bankruptcy sale or foreclosure of the debtor’s interest in the property, once fully completed, ends any further accumulation of association fees.

For debtors who are keeping their townhouse or condominium notwithstanding their bankruptcy filing, the nondischargeable nature of post-bankruptcy association fees is not a problem. However, debtors who plan to surrender their townhouse or condominium in the bankruptcy are vexed by the question of what to do about post-bankruptcy association fees."
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The solution: the bank will have to pay the fees in order to sell the property.

FOXNews.com - Law Banning Annoying People During Pope's Visit to Australia Criticized - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

FOXNews.com - Law Banning Annoying People During Pope's Visit to Australia Criticized
SYDNEY, Australia — New regulations making it a crime to annoy or inconvenience people gathering in Sydney during Pope Benedict XVI's visit later this month were criticized Tuesday as a heavy-handed blow to free speech.

The laws will apply in dozens of areas of downtown Sydney — including the city's landmark opera house, train stations and city parks — that are designated venues for World Youth Day, a Catholic evangelical festival at which the pontiff will conduct mass and lead prayer meetings.

The regulations give police and emergency services workers power to order anyone to stop behavior that "causes annoyance or inconvenience to participants in a World Youth Day event," according to a New South Wales state government gazette. Anyone who does not comply faces a 5,500 Australian dollar (US$5,300) fine.
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So can any gated community inmates top this? When James Madison, et al., said government power has to be limited because neither the majority nor any minority can be trusted with unlimited power, they had a point.

Our little emperors: does worrying do more harm than good? - Times Online

Our little emperors: does worrying do more harm than good? - Times Online: "A US academic has coined the term kindergarchy – a new (affluent) world order in which children rule. “Children have gone from background to foreground in domestic life with more attention centred on them, their upbringing [and] their small accomplishments,” wrote Joseph Epstein, a recently retired lecturer at Northwestern University, in The Weekly Standard, a US magazine."
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I think Epstein's next words were, "Get off my lawn!"

Maybe he doesn't get the principle behind praising these "small accomplishments." Kids develop confidence by experiencing success, and if you reward them for doing well in school and so forth they will probably direct their energies in socially useful directions. That way they become successful members of a productive society.

Otherwise, they might turn into crabby university professors.

My Way News - Ex-Army scientist to get $5.8M in anthrax lawsuit

My Way News - Ex-Army scientist to get $5.8M in anthrax lawsuit: "WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Army scientist who was named as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks will receive $5.8 million to settle his lawsuit against the Justice Department. Steven Hatfill claimed the Justice Department violated his privacy rights by speaking with reporters about the case."
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Remember the 9/11 anthrax scare? This gentleman had nothing to do with it. But that didn't stop the Justice Department from publicly declaring him a "person of interest." Now we, the taxpayers, are paying for that folly.

The BIG One - WTAM 1100

I'm from FEMA and I'm here to help you...: "(Cedar Rapids) According to police a contracted FEMA housing inspector nearly hit a Penford Products employee with his car and then got out of the car slamming the man with a golf club.

FEMA housing inspector Vincent Koley, 74, was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon after the 11:30 a.m. incident, the Cedar Rapids Police Department reported.

Koley stopped the car and jumped out, police said. Tom Kramer told him to slow down and that he was in the cross walk. Koley replied that 'he didn't have to slow down, he was with FEMA,' police said. The two argued for a minute, and when Kramer turned to walk away, Koley took a golf club out of his car and struck Kramer across the arm, breaking the golf club."
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Yeah, and don't eat tomatoes, either. Well, maybe it's not the tomatoes, but don't eat them anyway. And get out of the way, because FEMA is coming through.

We are the federal government, here to help you.

FortBendnow.com - Constantly Updated Neighborhood News for Fort Bend County, TX

Murder in gated community in Fort Bend County, TX: "The family of a Weston Lakes woman stabbed to death in her home is asking the public for help in finding the man who is accused of the murder.

The family of Martha Fields appeared at a Crime Stoppers press conference Friday to ask anyone with information on the whereabouts of Marwan Saeed to come forward and help police take accused killer into custody. Crime Stoppers is offering a $5000 reward to anyone providing the information leading to the arrest of Saeed.

Fields, 54, was stabbed during a robbery attempt last Dec. 11 in her home in the gated Weston Lakes community. She died in a hospital two days later...Police say the trio bluffed their way into the gated community by pretending to be making a delivery. The Fields home was targeted because of a mistaken belief that there was a large amount of cash in a safe in the residence."
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I doubt that gates and rent-a-cops keep people safe from criminals who are targeting specific residences.

Hitting Home: New faces join ranks of the homeless - USATODAY.com

Hitting Home: New faces join ranks of the homeless - USATODAY.com: "With more families on the cusp of having nowhere to live, thousands of both former homeowners and renters are winding up in shelters or turning to charities for food or other aid to get by. Nearly 61% of local and state homeless coalitions say they've seen a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a study released in April by the National Coalition for the Homeless. According to the study, which let respondents offer multiple replies when asked where they're headed once their property is foreclosed on, 76% of displaced homeowners and renters are moving in with relatives and friends. About 54% are moving to emergency shelters. About 40% are already on the streets. Those facing homelessness include the working poor, who were among those hardest hit by the collapse in subprime mortgages. But others are middle-class families who scarcely expected to find themselves unable to afford their homes."
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This study is by an advocacy group and that makes it suspect. But the point about middle class people facing major problems due to foreclosure seems pretty clear.

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | New HOA law allows clothes lines in neighborhoods

9NEWS.com | Colorado's Online News Leader | New HOA law allows clothes lines in neighborhoods: "KUSA - Beginning in August, homeowners living in covenant controlled communities will able to install energy saving devises such as evaporative coolers, wind-electric generators and clothes lines, as long as those devises meet home owner association aesthetic guidelines.
Advertisement

House Bill 1270 was signed by Governor Ritter last April and will go into effect August 6, 2008.

The bill provides guidelines to homeowner associations (HOAs) and homeowners on the types of energy efficiency/conservation devises that can be installed and used in covenant controlled (HOA) communities."
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Sounds like a good law to me. What do other people think?

Longer subdivision construction time frames force shift in expenses - to homeowners!: "Residential construction slowdowns that extend subdivision build-outs are forcing developers to absorb expenses typically turned over to homeowner associations. In some cases, experts said, developer bankruptcy or foreclosure is shifting the burden to the new homeowners or residential builders for maintenance costs - such as landscaping and care for common areas - typically borne by developers. 'We're starting to see these problems now, and we're looking at the tip of the iceberg,' said Michelle Harrell, attorney with Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth & Heller PC. 'We're on the edge of the cliff.'
In the best cases, solvent and surviving developers foster relationships with the fledgling associations or new homeowners until they get to the tipping point where the association can manage the communities, even when the building timeline has stretched beyond what they anticipated...But not every development goes so smoothly. In the worst cases, financially strapped builders and developers neglect the maintenance and development of common areas and stormwater detention ponds, leaving the homeowners to pay for those services out of pocket with little to no chance of being reimbursed."
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So rush right out and buy those CID properties today, so you too can play the "Special Assessment Lottery" in which you have a chance to pay a one-time-only sum of $10,000, or $20,000, or even $30,000, that your developer or your fellow owners should have paid. Act now, and our gift to you is a free beach towel that you can cry in.

Needles…..Nevada?? « On The Scene « FOXNews.com: "We’ve come here because some people in Needles [California] want to become Needles Nevada, or even Needles Arizona. They feel because the county seat is more than 200 miles away and the Grand Canyon and Silver State’s are so close, it might be better to move. Regulation across the river is easier, taxes are lower and other communities are booming…while Needles just nestles."
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As Rod Serling used to say, submitted for your consideration: Needles, California. A town slightly cooler than the surface of the sun. A place so hot, the farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard-boiled eggs; the cows are giving evaporated milk; the trees are whistling for the dogs. And other stolen "it's so hot" jokes...

Cases of three cats gutted or shot in La Quinta now linked | L.A. Unleashed | Los Angeles Times

Cases of three cats gutted or shot in La Quinta now linked Los Angeles Times: "A gutted cat was found May 30 on Desert Stream Drive near La Quinta Park, the day after a feline was found shot in the gated community of Starlight Dunes. Gregory said the owners discarded the cats before the Sheriff’s Department could examine the carcasses. 'We didn’t have any physical evidence on the cats,' Gregory said. 'And a few weeks went by and it looked like isolated incidents until last week’s killing.' Gregory said it was clear that the gutted cats had not been attacked by an animal."
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The game is afoot, Watson. I suggest we begin by cross-referencing escaped lunatics and people with cat allergies.

Seriously, anybody who would do this to a cat is pretty far down the clemency ladder for me. And it is strange that it happens in a gated community.

Bad Economy Blows Out Central Fla. City's 4th Of July Fireworks Display - Money News Story - WKMG Orlando

Bad Economy Blows Out Central Fla. City's 4th Of July Fireworks Display - Money News Story - WKMG Orlando: "COCOA BEACH, Fla. -- Citing a downturn in the economy, Cocoa Beach officials on Wednesday announced that the city will not host a Fourth of July fireworks display this year.

Cocoa Beach city manager Charles Billias said the display, which costs up to $70,000, was too expensive."
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Maybe Spain would like to buy back Cocoa Beach (see below re Mexicans buying Texas property).

Bloomberg.com: News

Bloomberg.com: News: "Forge the Alamo! Remember the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo!": "A rising peso and an economy growing faster than the U.S. have given some Mexicans the buying power to take advantage of the housing slump in Texas, which the U.S. annexed in 1845 after Texans gained independence from Mexico nine years earlier."
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Irony alert--this one will make your head spin. Mexicans are positioned to buy back lots of property in Texas, and the sales pitch is cowgirls standing next to a sign reading, "TEXAS FOR SALE."

SCOTUSblog » A new vote for property rights?

SCOTUSblog » A new vote for property rights?: "The Supreme Court refused on Monday, amid a flurry of orders, to reopen the heated controversy over the power of government to seize private property for a new economic development project, but owners of property appeared to have picked up a potential new ally on the Court. Justice Samual A. Alito, Jr., was the only member of the Court to note that he would have granted review of a significant Second Circuit Court ruling on property rights in the face of a massive new project in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, N.Y.

The Court as a whole turned down an appeal by a group of homeowners and business operators who are likely to lose their property to the 22-acre development near the rail yards for the Long Island Railroad. That development, planned by a group headed by developer Bruce Ratner, is the Atlantic Yards Arena and Development Project; it will provide a new home for the New Jersey Nets professional basketball team (which Ratner owns), plus 16 high-rise office and aprtment towers, and a 180-room hotel. The failed appeal by property owners involves about 20 percent of the development site. (Their appeal to the Supreme Court came in Goldstein, et al., v. Pataki, et al., 07-1247)."
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Mystery Reader sent this SCOTUSblog piece by Lyle Denniston speculating about Samuel Alito being a balance-tipping fifth vote in favor of property rights. Intriguing possibility--and a whole lot depends on the presidential election, too, because that may determine who makes three or four USSC appointments.

Escaping an HOA in Texas isn't easy | Latest News | WFAA.com: "What if you don't want the rules that come with a homeowners' association? Where can you go? As it turns out, your options are getting more limited every year."
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From Fred Pilot. The evidence piles up that people are having their choices made for them by cities and developers, and yet we keep hearing about how people "chose" to live in an HOA. We are reaching the point where you won't be able NOT to.

Deputies Can't Stop Animal Sacrifices Inside Waterford Lakes Home - News Story - WFTV Orlando

Deputies Can't Stop Animal Sacrifices Inside Waterford Lakes Home - News Story - WFTV Orlando: "Inside the rented house, deputies told Jade Forest homeowners they interrupted a goat sacrifice on Friday as part of a Santeria ceremony. 'I don't like any kind of odd thing happening. I mean, I don't know? Maybe that's where they start and then go further with dogs and cats,' the unidentified neighbor said. It's not likely in the Santeria religion, where only goats and chickens are sacrificed, but neighbors have done research recently. The Internet offers plenty on sacrifice rituals with chickens and goats. In 1993, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that humane religious animal sacrifice is protected by the U.S. Constitution. On the porch of the home Monday there were rotting meatballs and watermelon, along with a religious vase. Eyewitness News reporter Steve Barrett tried to ask about the Santeria practices, but was politely turned away."
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Shu Bartholomew sent this. The Supreme Court case is Church of the Lukumi Babalu v. City of Hialeah. The article misstates the ruling. The Hialeah ordinances were invalidated because they were obviously targeted only at the Santeria "religion." If there had been generally applicable ordinances that did not target Santeria, that might have been a different story, especially since Employment Division v. Smith. But in any event, there are some obvious public safety issues here with rotting meat and animal carcasses in a residential neighborhood.

City says all decks at condo complex appear to be unsafe | Warwick | projo.com | The Providence Journal

City says all decks at condo complex appear to be unsafe -- The Providence Journal: "WARWICK –– A deck collapse at the Greenbrier Condominiums that badly injured several women on Saturday led to the city’s discovery that all of the decks at the 20-year-old complex appeared to be unsafe...Several friends were enjoying a dinner on a neighbor’s first-floor deck when it suddenly gave way. As the deck pulled away from the building, the second-story deck also crashed down on top of the women –– with only a large air-conditioning unit and porch furniture keeping them from being crushed under the falling wood, Pagliaro said. Five women, including the president and vice president of the condominium association, were crushed under the rubble and had to be freed by firefighters. All of them suffered bruises and broken bones."
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A 20 year old complex with unsafe structural conditions that had already been repaired-- inadequately, it seems. Nobody responsible for repairing the place except the owners. Builder protected by statute of limitations. Insurance probably doesn't cover it. This is the picture that a lot of associations will be facing over the next decade.

Condos upping fees to cope with downturn -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

Condos upping fees to cope with downturn -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com: "The souring economy has condo and homeowner associations facing the same problem as many owners: less money.Throughout South Florida, boards are grappling with how to keep up property values as fewer owners pay their assessments. Although foreclosing on a unit is one way to collect the money, the cost is high and the homes are unlikely to sell. So boards must look for alternatives. The most common practice is also the most unfair. Boards 'overassess' the remaining owners by 10 percent to 20 percent, said Gary Poliakoff, whose Fort Lauderdale-based firm represents 4,300 associations in Florida. Others are eliminating services."
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Associations don't have many options because the whole financial burden falls on the owners who can pay. The over-reliance on owners to finance and run these associations is the weak link in this whole utopian idea.

My Way News - Housing aid bill clears key Senate hurdle: "WASHINGTON (AP) - A massive foreclosure rescue bill overwhelmingly cleared a key Senate test Tuesday, drawing broad support from Democrats and Republicans alike. The Senate voted 83-9 to speed up work on the $300 billion mortgage aid plan, putting it on track for a final vote as early as the end of the day. The resounding vote reflected a keen interest in both parties in claiming election-year credit for helping homeowners amid tough economic times. Still, the measure faces a veto threat from President Bush and disputes among Democrats about key details. Those challenges will probably delay any final deal until mid-July."
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I have some serious reservations about the federal government in effect insuring people against the risk that they bought too much house. I also have doubts about bailing out the mortgage industry and using the FHA to be the mortgage company of last resort. This bill stinks as far as I can see, and I hope Bush vetoes it.

Las Vegas Now | Homeowner Destroys House Before Foreclosure

Las Vegas Now | Homeowner Destroys House Before Foreclosure: "The owner of a local mortgage company is about to lose three of his homes to foreclosure. The notice came as a surprise to some of his renters, but what is really shocking is what's happening at one of the homes. Neighbors say the owner is destroying it from the inside out. It went from tossing pieces of junk to dumping it by the box full. The back yard turned into a garbage pile -- from cabinets ripped off the walls to old tires and even computer discs. The front of the home looks no better. With caulking filling the door jams and locks and orange spray paint across the windows."
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Beijing embraces Brave New World of buildings - CNN.com

Beijing embraces Brave New World of buildings - CNN.com: "Standing on the edge of the former site of the city's historic walls are a series of eight asymmetrical towers that bestride the smog-laden landscape like a colossus."
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There has never been a construction boom like what is happening in China right now. The photo of this "Linked Hybrid" complex is really weird. And all this stuff is common interest housing with private management companies and voluntary homeowner associations.

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Housing prices still falling fast: "Home prices in 20 U.S. metropolitan areas fell in April by the most on record, signaling the housing recession is far from over, a private survey showed today.

The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index dropped 15.3 percent from a year earlier, less than forecast, after a 14.3 percent decline in March. The gauge has fallen every month since January 2007."
_____________________
Far from over, indeed.

Many Dutch prepare for 2012 apocalypse - UPI.com: "AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, June 23 (UPI) -- Thousands of people in the Netherlands say they expect the world to end in 2012, and many say they are taking precautions to prepare for the apocalypse.
The Dutch-language de Volkskrant newspaper said it spoke to thousands of believers in the impending end of civilization, and while theories on the supposed catastrophe varied, most tied the 2012 date to the end of the Mayan calendar, Radio Netherlands reported Monday."
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So I guess a 30 year mortgage is a pretty good deal after all. If you get one today, it is really only a four year loan at less than 6% interest. This could turn the housing market around.

An end to stepping in dog poo?: "STEPPING in dog poo might be a thing of the past thanks to a new policy being introduced in one UK park.

Mansfield District Council has decided to spray the excrement with bright pink die in an attempt to cure the problem of messy pavements."
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Pink doggy poo poo. How cute. And I thought government was about national defense, law and order, and stuff like that.

Vandals Hit South Charlotte Community - Charlotte News Story - WSOC Charlotte

Vandals Hit South Charlotte Community - Charlotte News Story - WSOC Charlotte: "Several people in a south Charlotte gated community woke up to vandalism Sunday morning. It happened sometime before daylight on Sharon Road near Fairview Road.

Police said vandals spray-painted buildings, cars, and even smashed the window of one vehicle. All the graffiti was an anarchy symbol, painted on a door, light poles and cars."
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I guess that's anarchy, all right.

Gated community considers incorporation | MyDesert.com | The Desert Sun

Gated community considers incorporation | MyDesert.com | The Desert Sun: "A group of Sun City Palm Desert residents, looking to block nearby Indio from expanding westward, hope to make their 55-and-older gated community the Coachella Valley's 10th city."

For him, it was 'always ... community first' | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser

For him, it was 'always ... community first' | HonoluluAdvertiser.com | The Honolulu Advertiser: "As mayor, his push for community inclusiveness was evident in his proposed legislation banning gated entrances in future developments."

New Pr. William Arrivals Bitter - washingtonpost.com

New Prince William County, MD, Arrivals Bitter - washingtonpost.com: "The Board of County Supervisors is scrambling to cope with the costs of Prince William being one of Virginia's fastest-growing counties in a time of slumping home values. The problems are magnified by the foreclosures, which are partly to blame for the average value of homes decreasing by $61,328.

To make up the lost revenue, supervisors raised the county's real estate tax rate by 19 cents to 97 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. That will push the average homeowner's tax bill up by 5 percent in the coming budget year."
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And people who just arrived are feeling somewhat honked off. Thanks to Shu Bartholomew for the pointer.

L.A. seeing more people living out of their cars

L.A. seeing more people living out of their cars: "Amid the foreclosure crisis and the shaky economy, some California cities are seeing an increase in the number of people living out of their cars, vans or RVs. Acting on complaints from homeowners, the Los Angeles City Council got tough earlier this year by forbidding nearly all overnight parking in residential neighborhoods such as South Brentwood. But some people are just crowding into other parts of the city, including the seaside community of Venice, where dozens of rusty, dilapidated campers can be seen lined up outside neat single-family homes. The stench of urine emanates from a few of the vehicles, and some residents say they have seen human waste left behind."
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Looking on the bright side, living in your car solves two problems at once. You don't need to pay for a house, and you don't need to buy gas.

Report: US housing slump a prelude to recession

Report: US housing slump a prelude to recession: "NEW YORK (AP) - A bottom to the housing slump is nowhere in sight and, if history is any guide, a recession is mostly likely lurking around the corner, an academic study showed Monday.

Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies painted a bleak picture of the current housing downturn, pegging it as possibly being 'the worst in a generation' in its 'The State of the Nation's Housing 2008' report."
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That good news just keeps on coming. How about that part about the bottom of the housing slump being "nowhere in sight"?

HOA fees go unpaid

HOA fees go unpaid: "Despite its crisp appearance, including lavish water fountains and well-kept greens, the Villages at Rancho El Dorado Homeowners Association in Maricopa struggles to pay its bills.

Like several HOAs across the state, more than 30 percent of its residents skipped out on paying their mandatory membership fees, a result of the subprime mortgage crisis and looming foreclosures."
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The stories on unpaid HOA and condo fees are piling up. The collections and foreclosure lawyers are busy. How long before we start reading about bankrupt HOAs? Thanks to Fred Pilot for the link

News: Leisure World residents win legal battle for openness : "Last week, the four-year ordeal was brought to an end when California Fourth District Appellate Court ruled in favor of the seven residents in a countersuit Golden Rain filed against them. The decision reaffirmed a lower court ruling that the GRF is indeed a common interest development so it must follow state rules on governing associations, such as homeowner's associations. State law requires that financial records of these associations must be made available to residents."

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I get so tired of hearing all the free marketers and industry flacks talking about how HOAs are local democracies. What kind of democracy requires you to spend four years suing them in order to see how your own money is being spent? And what kind of democracy is it when you, the owner, have to vote without knowing what is going on? Congratulations to these 16 folks who fought for transparency. People are getting stonewalled all over the country by HOAs who come up with all sort of absurd excuses and obstructionist arguments for not living up to legally mandated disclosure obligations.

Condo Company Unwraps Plan For Clothing-Optional Pool

Condo Company Unwraps Plan For Clothing-Optional Pool: "COUNTRYWAY -- Swimmers will have the option of wearing nothing at all at the Arbors at Branch Creek, a complex of 390 homes that landed on the idea to help move units in a down market. One pool is being set aside for nude swimmers, sunbathers and hot tubbers, said Christine Pirkle, director of sales with the Web site for the project's developers."
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The naked truth is that when you strip this idea to its bare essentials, it is nothing nude. I mean new.

The Gated Community « Cindy Thornton Fine Art

The Gated Community « Cindy Thornton Fine Art
Check out this painting.

Pat Dollard | Young Americans | Blog Archive » Woman in Conflict With Homeowner’s Association Puts Up Confederate Flag
This sort of thing backfires. To some people the stars and bars symbolizes a rebellious spirit and a link to the southern past, but to a lot of other people it stands for the defense of slavery and Jim Crow laws. Maybe she should fly a different flag, like the one that says, "Don't Tread On Me."

update:
As a commenter notes, she is claiming that the monthly fees she has been paying have not been going to an HOA, because (she says) there is no HOA and no CC&R enforcement. If I understand this lady correctly, the flag (to her) is meant to protest the "redneck" lifestyle that she believes is allowed due to the lack of covenant enforcement. She didn't mean it in a historic sense, but to convey that her neighborhood was too rednecky for her taste--as in, "This neighborhood is turning into the kind of place where people would fly the confederate flag." She also has a toilet on the front lawn and some anti-redneck signs. Whether there is an association, or a defunct association, or a golf club or whatever, I do not know, but flying that flag sure takes it from a neighborhood dispute to a more political level. In political science we call that enlarging the scope of the conflict. That doesn't always pay off.

The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper

The Frederick News-Post Online - Frederick County Maryland Daily Newspaper: "“JILL,” A GAITHERSBURG HOMEOWNER, DOESN’T WANT HER REAL NAME USED IN THIS STORY. You see, for several years “Jill” has been willfully violating her Montgomery Village Association homeowners rules: She hangs laundry to dry on her backyard clothesline."
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Add clotheslines to the list of things that make sense that HOAs fine you for doing. Along with lawns that don't need water, solar panels, home businesses, gardens, satellite dishes (now covered by federal law), pickup trucks, and questioning authority.

islandpacket.com | How will the area clean up in the event of a hurricane?

Hilton Head to do hurricane cleanup for gated communities: "Hilton Head Island town officials decided last year they would be solely responsible for debris management in the cleanup effort after a hurricane. The decision ended a confusing system that involved duplicated efforts by the town, county government and each of the gated communities. The policy makes the town responsible for clearing all private roads, including ones in gated communities, and the dirt roads still found in many native islander areas. About 70 percent of residents live in gated communities. Previously, the state, county and town all were responsible for clearing their own roads, while gated communities and residents along private roads were left to fend for themselves."
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With 70% of the population living in gated communities, the line between private and public priorities tends to get a little blurred.

First lakeside gated community for Saudi Arabia

First lakeside gated community for Saudi Arabia
Lake? Saudi Arabia? What's wrong with this picture.
Oh, and it will have 11 mosques.

MySA.com: Gardening

MySA.com: Gardening: "We're just days away from water restrictions, and that means watering your lawn a lot less.

So what do you do if your Homeowner's Association requires you to keep a green lawn?"
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Well, I guess you choose between between being fined by the City of San Antonio for violating the water restrictions, or being fined by your HOA for not keeping your lawn green. (Fred Pilot sent this link.)

Court: mentally ill defendant can't be own lawyer - Yahoo! News

Court: mentally ill defendant can't be own lawyer - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mentally ill criminal defendants who have been found competent to stand trial can be denied the right to represent themselves, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Thursday."
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Once I prosecuted a crazy man who insisted on representing himself. The offense was trespassing. He was living on somebody else's land and had built himself a shack complete with the treasures he accumulated by rummaging through trash. His defense was, "God owns the land." The jury was out 8 minutes. A few months later another prosecutor got the same defendant and same defense. Result: 5 minutes to guilty verdict. My record stood for a while, anyway.

This Supreme Court ruling is sensible because crazy people can't represent themselves effectively and the courtroom becomes even more of a loony bin than usual. Of course, it raises the question of what constitutes being competent to stand trial, but to crazy to be your own lawyer. If you are too crazy to represent yourself, how can you be competent to assist your attorney in your own defense? And is there any risk of a judge disallowing a certain type of defense by saying you must be crazy and forcing you to have an attorney, even though you as the defendant want to present it that way?

My Way News - White House threatens veto of foreclosure rescue

My Way News - White House threatens veto of foreclosure rescue: "WASHINGTON (AP) - A broad bipartisan coalition supporting a massive foreclosure rescue beat back GOP efforts to gut it Thursday, defying a White House veto threat and quashing a bid to make it victim to revelations about two senators' VIP mortgages. Administration officials said they oppose the inclusion of $4 billion in the measure to help states buy and rehabilitate foreclosed properties, and a plan to have government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) pay for the rescue. They announced those and other objections as two GOP senators said they would try to block the package until a committee can investigate how much Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC) and other lenders stand to gain from it."
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I don't know why, but for some reason whenever I see the words "broad bipartisan coalition" my skin crawls and I reach back to see if my wallet is still there.

MyFox Tampa Bay | Homeowner's fees leading to foreclosures: "AMPA - Attorney Bob Tankel's day revolves around foreclosures. His inbox is full of cases needing his attention, but he doesn't work for a bank. Tankel's carved out a thriving business working for homeowner's associations - handling delinquencies involving unpaid fees that can lead to foreclosure. 'I feel people don't understand the implications or ramifications of not paying their fees,' Tankel said. For homeowners barely able to pay their mortgages, the HOA fees - usually more than two hundred dollars a month - are often the first bill left unpaid. That's when the homeowner's association brings in Tankel to begin the foreclosure process."
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The HOA foreclosure lawyers are doing great now, because as the article notes, when people are in financial trouble, "HOA fee...are often the first bill left unpaid." And, as the article further explains, these lawyers move as fast as possible toward foreclosure so they can get there before the mortgage company does. How about this comment: "I'm sending out a thousand certified letters a month," Tankel estimated. "And that includes demands, 45-day letters, and lien letters." And this is just one lawyer from the Tampa area. Think about what is going on all over the country.

Yet another reason why people need to think very, very carefully before buying a unit in an HOA or condo development...

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze

boortz.com: Neal Boortz opines on HOA leadership: "As I've said many times before .. Condo and Homeowner's associations are the scourge of our land. You will usually find two types of people serving on these boards: (1) People who wielded power during their work years, and miss it; or, (2) People who have never had power before in their lives and get absolutely drunk on it. Oh ... I know there are exceptions. I'm very lucky to experience a really good condo association at my Florida home. In spite of that ... I think that we need to get their attention, and one way to do this would be to select one association at random every year or so, and --- on pay-per-view TV --- execute them."
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Not to put too fine a point on it, or anything.

Thanks to Rick Black, of Marietta, GA, who sent this link.

Facebook 'dipping' craze irks pool owners - Telegraph: "Teenagers are using internet satellite images to spot outdoor swimming pools before meeting for late-night dips. The new craze, known as “dipping”, involves people using pictures from Google Earth to identify homes that have large outdoor pools. Once a venue is found, the youngsters use social networking sites including Facebook and Bebo to meet for impromptu swims and pool parties. Police said some residents have woken up to find youngsters using their pools. Others have come home from work to find their pools full of beer cans."
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Young whippersnappers.

Property Owners Association Act webcast and summary | VARbuzz

Property Owners Association Act webcast and summary | VARbuzz
This goes to a summary of the act and a blog post announcing a Friday webcast to explain the new Virginia law.

Watch Me Sleep My Way To The Top Of The Glendale Homeowner's Association | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Watch Me Sleep My Way To The Top Of The Glendale Homeowner's Association | The Onion - America's Finest News Source
This is hilarious.

EconPolice

EconPolice: Critical analysis of "American Murder Mystery": "In short, while we have not demonstrated in our initial analysis that Section 8 rentals are definitively not causing increased criminal activity, we certainly have shown the evidence as presented in the Atlantic article falls far short of doing so. Furthermore, the hypothesis presented in the article is a dangerous premise to dangle in front of the public with such non-existent evidence, as it lends a supposed veneer of scientific support to the notion that the federal Section 8 program I exporting crime, and thus potentially creating public resistance to the program for simply no valid reason."
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Thanks to John Kroger for sending this link. I linked to the Atlantic piece below. The author of this rebuttal finds fault with their analysis, but he doesn't claim to have disproved the article's central claim, nor does he offer an alternative explanation for the increase in crime.

ABC News: 'Neighborhood' Gun Tied to Girl's Death

ABC News: 'Neighborhood' Gun Tied to Girl's Death: "A teenager is expected to plead not guilty today to charges that he shot and killed a 10-year-old girl with a 'community gun' that he allegedly claims was shared by 'everyone in the neighborhood.'"
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Apparently the virtues and savings of common ownership have at last trickled down as far as possible without dripping through the floor.

Thousands in Orlando want Shaq to help with mortgages -- OrlandoSentinel.com

Thousands in Orlando want Shaq to help with mortgages -- OrlandoSentinel.com: "A week after Shaquille O'Neal told the Orlando Sentinel that he's working on a plan to rescue Central Floridians facing foreclosure, he has learned just how widespread the problem is. 'He has two or three thousand e-mails,' said Curtis Cooper, an Orlando Realtor and mortgage broker working with O'Neal on the project. 'There have been a lot of calls from talk shows and radio shows.'"
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Maybe he wants to reconsider that offer now.

Life is solitary in unfinished subdivisions | ajc.com

Life is solitary in unfinished subdivisions | ajc.com: "One of just two residents in what was to be a 105-home development, the 54-year-old information technology manager strolls down lonely streets past silt fences, weedy lots, nearly 20 vacant homes and a sign cheerily announcing that a pool and cabana are 'Coming Soon!'

But his community lifestyle isn't without upsides. Three he mentions: Attractive housing. Lots of peace and quiet. And a female friend who has sunbathed topless on his back deck."
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Sounds like fun. Hope the two residents enjoy paying the six-figure special assessment that may be lying in wait like a puff adder.

Gardening in the city | csmonitor.com

Gardening in the city | csmonitor.com: "However, these front yard gardens are not without controversy, as neighbors and homeowner’s associations may oppose them saying the vegetable gardens detract from the general appearance of the neighborhood."
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No doubt. After all, the entire development has to look the same or all human life as we know it will come to an end.

NBC2 News Online - Foreclosures: 'It's a nightmare across the board'

NBC2 News Online - Foreclosures: 'It's a nightmare across the board': "LEE COUNTY: The number of foreclosures in Lee County is up 350-percent for the first five months of the year. Now, the crisis is proving painful for more than just delinquent homeowners. NBC2 found out why people who can afford to keep their home are also paying the price. Less than a year ago, Lisa Norman bought a condo in the Terraces at Riverwalk. Now her neighbors are becoming scarce and she's feeling the hit. She just received a $500 bill out of the blue from her homeowner's association. 'I can't afford it. It's not in my budget,' said Norman. She has until August 15 to come up with the money. A section in the association's contract allows for 'special assessments' for unexpected events. The homeowner's association says the high number of foreclosures falls into that category. Homeowners were not paying their fees and the association was left with the bills for things like water, lawn maintenance, and keeping the pool in good shape."
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I think this situation is going to snowball, as the threat of insolvency goes from owners to HOAs to local governments.

Chicago TIFS: Find out what 150 mayoral slush funds look like | Chicago News, Politics, Culture and Commentary - WindyCitizen.com

Chicago TIFS: Find out what 150 mayoral slush funds look like | Chicago News, Politics, Culture and Commentary - WindyCitizen.com
Tax Increment Financing Districts, or TIFs, are special taxing districts used to spur redevelopment of "blighted" areas. Redevelopment leads to increased property tax revenues. If the area is a TIF, that increase does not go into the general tax coffers. It goes to the city, but is used to pay back the developer for building the new infrastructure that went along with the redevelopment and otherwise serve as a "mayoral slush fund," as the article says. The result is that the school districts and other taxing bodies get nothing for 23 years, even though the TIF may greatly increase the burdens on taxpayers to those bodies.

As with every aspect of government in Chicago, it is nearly impossible to get accurate information on how this particular device is being used. But this article says that 30% of the land area of Chicago is now in TIFs. Makes life interesting for the other 70% when tax time comes.

FOXNews.com - More Iowa Towns Brace for Flooding Along Mississippi River - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

FOXNews.com - More Iowa Towns Brace for Flooding Along Mississippi River: "OAKVILLE, Iowa — As some of Iowa's flooded towns began cleaning up, others braced for new flooding risks, particularly in southeastern Iowa along the Mississippi River."
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You mean the citizens of Iowa (and Wisconsin and Illinois and Indiana) are actually doing something to mitigate the damage from impending flooding? How strange. They must be those bitter small-town folks Obama was talking about. Don't they realize that they are supposed to act like helpless victims?

More Than 60,000 Bees Removed From North Carolina Man’s Home : "North Carolina man says his house was so overrun with bees that the walls ooze honey."
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This would make a good Abbott and Costello routine:

"Honey?"
"That's right. It's coming out of the walls."
"I said, Honey?"
"I said, that's right. Coming out of the walls."
"Hey, Honey! I'm talking to you."
"It isn't hay. It's honey."

Is America's suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare? - CNN.com

Is America's suburban dream collapsing into a nightmare? - CNN.com: "Recent market research indicates that up to 40 percent of households surveyed in selected metropolitan areas want to live in walkable urban areas, said Leinberger. The desire is also substantiated by real estate prices for urban residential space, which are 40 to 200 percent higher than in traditional suburban neighborhoods -- this price variation can be found both in cities and small communities equipped with walkable infrastructure, he said.

The result is an oversupply of depreciating suburban housing and a pent-up demand for walkable urban space, which is unlikely to be met for a number of years. That's mainly, according to Leinberger, because the built environment changes very slowly; and also because governmental policies and zoning laws are largely prohibitive to the construction of complicated high-density developments.

But as the market catches up to the demand for more mixed use communities, the United States could see a notable structural transformation in the way its population lives -- Arthur C. Nelson, director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, estimates, for example, that half of the real-estate development built by 2025 will not have existed in 2000.

Yet Nelson also estimates that in 2025 there will be a surplus of 22 million large-lot homes that will not be left vacant in a suburban wasteland"
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Fred Pilot sent this cheerful piece about how the American suburban dream died. Again.

Illinois pension debt worst in nation - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star

Illinois pension debt worst in nation - Rockford, IL - Rockford Register Star: "The state’s pension debt will exceed $44 billion this summer, increasing at a rate of about $120 per second, according to Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. The debt already tops $42 billion — enough to give every one of Illinois’ 12.8 million residents a check of $3,300 or buy 937,000 Cadillacs at $45,000 a pop.

The combination of debt in terms of both money and percentage gives Illinois the infamous distinction of having the nation’s worst pension problem, according to an Associated Press review of records and interviews with experts. And there’s no solution in sight."
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The problems that HOAs and condo associations are starting to have with finances are coming at a bad time, because a number of state and local governments are in trouble. Illinois is a fiscal basket case. When the bozos in Springfield do the annual budget Kibuki play, they speak in terms of a $2 billion or $3 billion dollar deficit that they have to cover. They ignore the fact that they have systematically refused to make their full payments to the five state employee pension funds for about 20 years running. Now the pension debt is $44 BILLION.. And climbing.

Not to mention the fact that private pension plans are hurting. And the baby boomers start to hit retirement age in 2011, which is only 3 years away.

Oh--and the generation that is supposed to keep Social Security alive for us is convinced that the human face looks great with five pounds of metal stuck through it.

American Murder Mystery

American Murder Mystery: "While crime rates in large cities stayed flat, homicide rates in many midsize cities (with populations of between 500,000 and 1 million) began increasing, sometimes by as much as 20percent a year. In 2006, the Police Executive Research Forum, a national police group surveying cities from coast to coast, concluded in a report called “A Gathering Storm” that this might represent “the front end … of an epidemic of violence not seen for years.” The leaders of the group, which is made up of police chiefs and sheriffs, theorized about what might be spurring the latest crime wave: the spread of gangs, the masses of offenders coming out of prison, methamphetamines. But mostly they puzzled over the bleak new landscape. According to FBI data, America’s most dangerous spots are now places where Martin Scorsese would never think of staging a shoot-out—Florence, South Carolina; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Reading, Pennsylvania; Orlando, Florida; Memphis, Tennessee."
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Fred Pilot sent this along. The author suggests that the problem is caused by dispersal of former public housing tenants who are now using Section 8 vouchers to move from big city projects to smaller cities and suburbs.

Towns push sex offender limits - The Boston Globe

Towns push sex offender limits - The Boston Globe: "...this spring, Weymouth joined a growing number of communities across the Commonwealth by banning Level 3 sex offenders - those deemed most likely to re-offend - from living within 1,500 feet of any school, park, daycare center, or recreational facility. And in doing so, Weymouth officials not only made it almost impossible for Level 3 sex offenders to live in town, they managed to stoke fears in other communities that predators, unwelcome in Weymouth, may be headed their way."
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Another town that wants to become a gated community. I guess one town at a time all the places sex offenders can live will disappear until there is only one town left, and all of them will be there. Kind of like musical chairs. What unlucky community will be home to all the nation's sex offenders? I figure it will have to be someplace with an appropriate name, like Toad Suck, Arkansas.

Police checkpoint at Rolling Meadows apartment complex gets mixed reviews -- chicagotribune.com

Police checkpoint at Rolling Meadows apartment complex gets mixed reviews -- chicagotribune.com: "An aging Rolling Meadows apartment complex became a closed community of sorts this week when police blocked off every entrance but one, placing two officers there for eight hours a day and stopping all vehicle traffic coming in."
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Mystery Reader sent this along. I saw this in the Tribune but thought I was reading The Onion.

Business - Home Front: Remodeling projects still thrive, but with smaller size and cost - sacbee.com

Sacramento Bee: HOA sues hero Chuck Yeager: "[Famed test pilot and American legend Chuck] Yeager is being sued by his homeowners association, Pocket-area Park River Oak Estates, which claims he owes $12,000 in back association dues and fees. The suit, filed last month in Sacramento Superior Court, alleges that Yeager and his wife, Victoria Scott Yeager, have owned two condo units since 1998 and have not paid monthly dues for four years. Dues in the gated community are $240 per lot and cover costs of maintenance, repairs, security, landscaping and lighting.

A statement from the Yeagers says the lawsuit 'has no merit and is frivolous.'"
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Thanks to Fred Pilot for this link. This HOA had better be careful. They may end up getting accidentally strafed by an F-18.

Police look to ban daggers following deadly stabbing spree in Akihabara - Mainichi Daily News: "The National Police Agency (NPA) is set to draft a bill to amend the Firearms and Swords Control Law to recognize daggers as illegal swords.

The current law restricts the possession of swords with a blade 15 centimeters or longer. However, the dagger that Tomohiro Kato, 25, used in the stabbing rampage had a 13-centimeter blade and is not subject to restrictions under the law.

NPA officials said daggers are highly lethal weapons and are hardly necessary in people's daily lives."
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Governments seem to look constantly for excuses to render citizens helpless and dependent on government itself for sustenance, safety, community, and anything else they can find. One nutball goes crazy with a dagger and stabs people. Government response: ban possession of daggers. Here in the US we get the same reflex over firearms. Two simple facts: 1) people will always find ways to kill each other, so that problem is insoluble, and 2) governments will always try to seize as much power over people as they can, so they will never stop using the fantasy of a murder-free world as an excuse to disarm us. The result is that we can't protect ourselves from bad guys, so we are expected to rely on the government for that. They will never, ever, be able to do it, but they will become very powerful by virtue of the false promise of eventual success.

FOXNews.com - Flooding Hits Historic 500-Year Levels in Iowa : "The National Weather Service called flooding in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a 'historic hydrologic event' Thursday as the swollen river poured over its banks at 500-year flood levels, forcing the evacuation of nearly 4,000 homes."
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In Wisconsin, Lake Delton rose so high it broke through its barriers and drained entirely into the Wisconsin River (the photo above is where the lake used to be). The former lake is now a mud flat, leaving the Wisconsin Dells tourist season in shreds just as it was about to start. Plenty of business are going to be ruined. Here in Lake County, IL, we are awaiting an imminent storm, coming on top of the ones that already inundated the area. But that is nothing compared to Iowa, where they are about to float away. After the waters recede people will start to assess the damage and call the insurance company. I wonder how many condo buildings and HOA properties are in trouble.

Mega-mansions are L.A.'s really big show - Los Angeles Times: "Unaffected by the economic woes besetting the masses, the super-rich are going on creating palace-like complexes. One builder says he knows of 20 houses of at least 20,000 square feet in the works."
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As Marie Antionette said, "Let them eat cake."

Well, I for one am greatly relieved to hear that our betters are still able to construct their mansions. I would be heartbroken to learn that they were forced to live in squalor with less than 20,000 square feet at their disposal. I have that much room, if I include the street in front of my house and the park behind it.

When NIMBY's attack...

MyFox Washington DC | Plan to Give Bethesda House to Homeless Family Nixed: "ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- The Montgomery County Council has voted to demolish a house located on future parkland, rather than allow a needy family to live in it.

Residents of Bethesda's Hillmead neighborhood had bitterly fought the plan to house a homeless family on the property."
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Sounds like a NIMBY situation.

Who dropped the ball? - Las Vegas Sun: "Banks and other mortgage lenders are turning out to be lousy neighbors. Foreclosed homes featuring brown lawns and fetid swimming pools litter the Las Vegas Valley because the lenders that hold title have failed to keep the properties up.

The epidemic is especially acute in neighborhoods regulated by homeowners associations, whose rules require property owners to maintain their properties. Enforcement of those rules is another matter, however."
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Thanks to Monica Caruso and Fred Pilot who both sent me this. I say hold onto your hat, because this is going to be a long and difficult ride for HOA and condo owners.

Update: Fred Pilot sent a comment to this post that I am taking the liberty of cutting and pasting here in the hope that more people will see it and respond:

"Who dropped the ball? I agree with the macroeconomic analysis that nobody in particular but everyone did. The housing market was fueled by irrational exuberance and its cousin, easy terms and conditions and minimal if any underwriting by the mortgage and financial markets that purchased the underlying mortgage obligations.

"Privately governed HOAs since they tend to have much smaller property tax bases than municipalities and counties will have a far more difficult time than the latter riding out this severe market correction to wring out the excesses of cheap and easy mortgages.

"The supporters and defenders of local government privatization don't seem to understand that in addition to lacking constitutional checks and balances on their exercise of power since they are not political subdivisions of the state, privately governed HOAs also lack sufficient fiscal (and political) economies of scale to easily sustain these kinds of inevitable market cycles. At some point, the fiscal pressures can become so great that the HOA also becomes unviable as a governing entity since no one desires to govern an entity that is effectively bankrupt."

Fishers, Fierce Predators, Make a Home in the Suburbs - NYTimes.com: "Sinewy, with bushy tails and beady eyes, fishers weigh 5 to 15 pounds and live on land and in trees. They are mainly carnivorous, typically eating squirrels, mice, voles and other small animals, as well as nuts and seeds. Fishers are also one of the porcupine’s few enemies, killing it by attacking its snout and flipping it on its back.

“Fishers are pretty vicious,” said Michelle Johnson, the animal control officer in West Greenwich.

The fisher belongs to the mustelid family, which includes weasels, otters and wolverines. It has the aggressive, carnivorous temperament of a wolverine and can climb trees like a marten. Like weasels, a fisher will kill multiple animals at a time in a confined space. Fishers are nocturnal and not easily spotted."
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These things are nasty. They can drive a bear away from his dinner. On top of the mortgage meltdown, this is obviously one of the last signs of the Apocalypse.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but...

Ms Property Manager: You Suck « Random Inkings