Nice to (finally) see the MSM reporting this stuff. Johnny come lately, but better late than never. Thanks trex for the link.
There's been so much fraud and deception out there, for years we're talking, that it'll take a decade to wash ourselves clean I think. And for goodness sake, when will the Congressional Housing Bubble and Fraud hearings start already?
Attack of the real estate rip-offs - Urge to cash in on the housing bubble has spawned an industry of schemers
Every boom has a dark side. The merger mania of the 1980s produced insider trading scandals. The ’90s stock bubble was busted for biased investment research.
And so it is with real estate, the hottest market of the past eight years. The urge to cash in on rising home values has spawned a growing share of hucksters, schemers and rip-off artists.
So far, it is tough to know exactly how widespread the problem is. Just as conflicts with stock analysts and bankers didn't come to light until after the Internet bubble popped in 2001 and investors started to get hurt, only now, as the market starts to turn, are complaints over shady real estate practices pouring in.
The market was so hot that everyone was looking to jump in and make a fast buck,” says Martin. “You have a lot of property flipping and false appraisals.”
Stripping people of their home equity has become rampant in the subprime lending market. Credit-challenged home owners who often don't know exactly how much home equity they're sitting on are easy targets, says Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy for the Consumer Federation of America.
“It's pushed by mortgage brokers, who are largely unregulated,” he says. “They have no fiduciary duty to the borrower.”
July 21, 2006
The stench of housing bubble fraud
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
When these homeowners find out they have been "had" by the lenders,who dropped all ethical lending standards with no downs etc. you will see a uprising that will make Paris seem mild. The lenders new from the start that the homeowner could not walk away with their refin,teaser adjustables as they new the passing of the new bankruptcy law would take place due to their millions of dollars spent for "new laws of enforcing judgements" against these naive homeowners. Granted, some buyers were also greedy investors too. The day of reckoning is coming soon. When these homeowners know they have been had, they will strike out at the government, lenders who hoodwink them. When they lose their homes and realize their "still hooked for their loans", riots will result. Bank on it.
If the USA is so key to the world economy, how can the government allow order to collapse in that manner? Foreigners would take massive losses. It is more likely there would be a bailout; just enough to keep the world turning and people paying.
The gov't owns the $ printing presses. They are NEVER broke. Understand? If you could print new money when you ran out would you? Exactly. And who is to stop the US. Gov't from printing more $. The US debt is a totally meaningless #.
I love the stench of dead realtors in the morning.
Guys, this is America, there will be no organized long term uprising. When WWI veterans tried it back in the depression era in DC, MacArthur sent in the military, shot at the masses, and sent them home (whenever home meant back then). There's no Paris uprising, Lenin/October revolution or any of that stuff in the US.
What will happen is gang violence on the former middle class, the rich living in secured neighborhoods, and a situation not too different from Johannsburg, SA but with money (cash, precious metals) being the prime differentiator than racial categories like in the post-Apartheid country.
The govt will do everything in its power to perserve the dollar on the forex and thereby, allow housing to fall off the cliff, and into the grand abyss. The USD is the key to the ability for the US govt, the various commodities/oil exchanges, and the other central banks to do their business. Over the decades, however, these international organizations will slowly divested themselves of their dollar denominated holdings and the US will slip into a faded British Empire type of appearance but with probably less financial clout than London has today on its continent. At that time, the Pacific Rim nations, with China as the lead, will be the leaders of the world economy and the US may have to go back to agriculture, minerals, and coal exporting for its sustainence. It's not a pretty picture but it does beat being a Chad or Central African Republic.
BTW, I think the cold war helped Britain in finding a bottom to its falling empire (1945 to 1975). I don't imagine it becoming a European financial and service center capital without the US cold war efforts to keep eastern Bloc countries out of the world's economies.
You want to see real estate sleaze - come to Maine!
http://victimordeal.blogspot.com/
Hi there Blogger, a real useful blog.Keep with the good work.
If you have a moment, please visit my secured canadian credit cards site.
I send you warm regards and wishes of continued success.
Your blog I found to be very interesting!
I just came across your blog and wanted to
drop you a note telling you how impressed I was with
the information you have posted here.
I have a second mortgage after bankruptcy
site.
Come and check it out if you get time :-)
Best regards!
Post a Comment