Boise Idaho Real Estate Tips
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Market Update
According to a recent article from AP we are seeing an increase in foreclosures within the US. The foreclosure rate among residential real estate is just over 7% while unemployment is climbing close to 10%. Of course the consensus it that it is going to get worse before it gets better. With some predictions stating that the unemployment rate is going to jump to 10% others think that it will be much higher, maybe 14% or more. Could it be that the foreclosure rate will piggyback what unemployment is doing? Especially with the debt our nation carries and the lack of funds in the bank to get through hard times. Government funds promised to help homeowners refinance high interest mortgages won’t do any one any good if they aren’t employed.
WAMU Predatory Lending
Washington Mutual Bank (WAMU) has now been added to the list of possible predatory lending practices. If you were to look back at what unhappy customers had to say about Washington Mutual you might be alarmed. For years now this lending institutions appears to be getting away with breaking several laws and no one has done anything about it. JP Morgan is the current owner of WAMU and who knows why they would bail out a bank that takes advantage of people in all walks of life, even the elderly.
Here are some disturbing things about WAMU:
It appears Washington Mutual commits Fraud by:
1) Non-Disclosure and False Disclosure,
2) violating RESPA by never answering letters of dispute (qualified written requests),
3) violating CA Civil Code 2943 by not supplying a Payoff Demand Statement requested by mail,
3) illegal accounting that doesn’t follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
4) Predatory Practices, such as forced escrows, & logging payments weeks after receipt,
5) Giving primarily “Liar’s Loans” (no document loans), where they know most people can’t qualify otherwise,
6) Refusing to do Loan Workouts, & failing to contact HUD for client help & signoffs,
7) often combining all of the above to foreclose on whole neighborhoods nationwide.Washington Mutual appears to have explicitly broken 4 Federal Laws:
1) 15 USC § 1601 et seq.: Truth in Lending requires that banks disclose all details of the transaction
2) 12 USC § 1831n(2)(A): Requires banks to follow “Uniform accounting principles consistent with GAAP”
3) 12 USC § 2605 RESPA: requires that banks acknowledge & respond to a “qualified written request”.
4) 15 USC § 1611 Whoever willfully and knowingly (1) gives false or inaccurate information or fails to provide information which he is required to disclose under the provisions of this subchapter or any regulation.Source: http://wamufraud.com/ - find many complaints and more at this site.
How many of us researched our bank before doing business with them, except comparing interest rates? Maybe there is a lesson to be learned. We don’t need banks and businesses like these and the more people that know the more we can do something about it since the government won’t shut them down.
Boise Real Estate 2008
Well we are drawing to a close on 2008 with a lot to talk about and much to look forward too. We have seen record foreclosre rates throughout the nation and Boise has seen its share. Idaho ranked in the top 20 states for foreclosure. The financial crisis continues to be a problem with more foreclosures expected and some big business’ having to close their doors and cut back while having uncertain futures. This too will have an effect on home values and the over all market.
2007 Boise had sales of about 3980 homes while in 2008 only 2800 (give or take) were sold. We can only hope that 2009 brings some change and things improve for Boise and the nation.
Get more Boise Home Sales Statistics
Boise Foreclosures
It looks like the foreclosures are decreasing in the Boise area but this is likely due to the fact that the government has asked lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to hold off until next year. On the flip side if you are an investor os someone with cash you can most likely get a pretty good deal right now by finding a short sale. This is a good way to help out someone who owes more on their home than what the current market value is.
If you read the newspaper these days don’t expect anything good anytime soon. Sure gas prices may be low but more than a million jobs have been lost this year so far and it is going to continue. This means less people with money to support the economy while the banks and big business get to hold on to what they got the american people start suffer even more.
The Great Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy
Because of Wall Street’s raging appetite for mortgage-based investments, an excessive number of mortgages needed to be made to feed the insatiable hunger. The fact that people didn’t need the mortgages or qualify for them didn’t matter any more. The mortgage industry was making money by creating them and dumping them off on Wall Street.
Mortgage brokers pushed refinances and home equity loans like real estate ATM machines. Some resorted to illegal tactics, and a lack of government oversight made it easier to get away with lender fraud. Scores of borrowers who qualified for low-cost, low-risk prime loans were sold expensive subprimes instead, because those carried higher rates of interest and bigger returns for Wall Street.
Then adjustable rate loans and “teasers” began to reset. That fueled a national foreclosure crisis, because when borrowers asked to refinance their lenders refused – citing a lack of availability of affordable mortgages. The reason mortgages were scarce was because scared and skeptical investors had already fled. Defaults caused housing prices to fall and lack of equity created an avalanche of new defaults in a downward spiral. The Wall Street pyramid scheme imploded like a house of cards, but millions of Americans were living inside that house and the ensuing foreclosure crisis left them destitute.
Read the full article at BoiseRealEstateInfo.net on The Great Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy of 2008
