FLASH: FBI arrests over 300 realtors and mortgage brokers in mortgage fraud sweep. FINALLY!!! And only another million or so to go...

And after they're done arresting the realtors and mortgage brokers, they can move on to the millions of mortgage fraudsters. I think Casey Serin might still be in the country.

And then... of course... they can put the kingpin himself into the paddy wagon..

Angelo Mozilo - they're coming to get you!

(UPDATE: New classic frog-march image from today's headline story on HuffPo. FBI release here. Frog-march video here)

Hundreds swept up in mortgage fraud arrests

WASHINGTON - The FBI says it has arrested about 300 real estate brokers since March — including dozens over the last two days — in its crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud that have contributed to the country's housing crisis.

One law enforcement official put the losses to homeowners and other borrowers who were victims in the schemes at over $1 billion.

The Justice Department and FBI plan to announce the recent arrests — including apprehensions in Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and suburban Maryland — at a news conference set for Thursday afternoon in Washington.

Two former Bear Stearns managers in New York were also included in the sweep, becoming the first executives to face criminal charges related to the collapse of the subprime mortgage market.

HousingPANIC calls for the firing of the NAR's "chief economist" Lawrence Yun

But hey, I'm not holding my breath.

Everyone by now knows that Lawrence Yun, and before him David Lereah, are completely and totally discredited by now. The MSM should never print one quote from this paid liar without first stating "Lawrence Yun, who is paid to lie by the NAR, ..."

Well, even Lawrence Yun is having to deal with the reality that housing is in the early days of a historic and epic crash. And even though just a few days ago he put out a report that 2008 would be rosy, today the NAR did an about-face and admitted that 2008 is gonna suck.

Although their definition of "suck" is still nowhere near reality. You have economists predicting a 25% decline in prices and the NAR is saying 1.2%.

Yeah, good luck with that.

realtors and the NAR are now beyond hope. The realtor profession is dead, it is discredited, it is disrespected and it is destroyed. And the NAR represents the very worst of the profession - corrupt, lying and anti-American.

F*ck the NAR. F*ck Lawrence Yun. And f*ck the realtors. The jig is up.

Home prices set to slide in '08 - National Association of Realtors pulls back on outlook and forecasts second consecutive annual decline in prices and sales

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In a fresh sign that the nation's housing crisis will worsen, home prices are likely to decline in 2008 for the second straight year, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

"We're seeing a pattern that is consistent with skimming along the bottom of the cycle, and sales could ease modestly," said Lawrence Yun, the group's chief economist, in a statement.

Get ready for the lawyers: Subprime Lawsuits Piling Up

The Big Housing Scam will keep lawyers busy for a decade. At least John Edwards will have something to do after the race.

The only problem? Getting money out of bankrupt companies like Countrywide and IndyMac, or realtors whose only asset is a box of ramen.

Subprime Lawsuits Piling Up

A wave of lawsuits is beginning to wash over the troubled U.S. mortgage market and the rest of the financial world. American homeowners are suing mortgage lenders. Mortgage lenders are suing Wall Street banks. Wall Street banks are suing loan specialists. And investors are suing everyone.

The legal battles stretch from Main Street to Wall Street and beyond. Homeowners and subprime mortgage lenders are squaring off in dozens of cases that claim some lenders engaged in predatory lending practices and other wrongdoing. Cleveland and Baltimore are pursuing cases against Wall Street banks, saying local residents are suffering because the banks fostered the proliferation of high-risk home loans.

'What strikes me here is that this a tainted system from A to Z,'' said Tamar Frankel, a law professor at Boston University. ''Everybody blames everybody else. If you look at what is being said, there isn't one who doesn't blame another and there is half-truth in everything.''

Do you have any idea how much trouble the realtors, mortgage brokers, lenders, appraisers and mortgage fraudsters have gotten us into?

And to think, it all ties back to stupid f*cking houses. Who would have ever thought.

I sure hope we learned our lesson. This can't happen again. But in some shape or form, it probably will.

Bubbles and manias seem to be ingrained into human nature. Oh, the folly of man. 500 years from now, they'll be reading about this bubble and crash. And they'll all say - "stupid fools - what were they thinking?"

If something good comes of it, it'll be the death of the realtor profession as they know it. And also the end of no-down, no-doc, negative-am, interest-only liar's loan, mortgage-broker-on-commission bullsh*t.

First we had the whore-house mortgage brokers. Now we got the realtor caught with 21 marijuana grow-houses. Gotta love the REIC!!!

Read more about it here

realtors - making the NAR proud every day

he he he he he

thanks ms for the tip...

realtors - the least trusted profession on earth

Remember just a year or two back when we were in all kinds of silly debates with simple-minded little realtors about whether a housing bubble existed or not? When you were called a brown shirt, chicken little or bitter renter if you spoke out against the bubble and the REIC?

Skip forward to today, and now the realtors are f*cked, their lies having been exposed, their livelihoods destroyed, and now they're calling for a federal taxpayer bailout of the housing gamblers.

From "there is no bubble" to "save us - we're crashing and need government help!"

realtors. No longer needed. And no longer trusted.

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Can you imagine the amount of tax fraud and unreported income these past few housing bubble years?

* Realtors taking under-the-table bribes

* Flippers taking cash-back-at-close

* Appraisers getting paid cash to make the numbers work

* Investors claiming they lived in a home for 2 years for the tax-free gain when they never spent a day

* Unreported short sales (that should be reported as income)

And so many more housing tax fraud scams.

Meanwhile, thank you Bush Administration, IRS and Justice Department - nobody was minding the store these past few years, and America got screwed.

Time to make fun of another housing bubble / housing crash city. Today's debacle - Sacramento California

Home of failed flippers (including Casey Serin), swarms of illegals, mortgage fraudsters galore, and now the mother of all housing crashes.

Sacramento, HP salutes you. Well done!! Bravo!!

Housing woes stack up - Q2 new-home sales down 42%; median price falls 13%

The outlook for homebuilders and homeowners looking to sell keeps getting worse.

New-home sales were dismal in the second quarter. The number of new and existing homes on the Sacramento market has eclipsed last summer's inventory and stands at close to 22,000. Foreclosures in Sacramento County are 10 times what they were last year. And mortgage rates have risen over the past few months.

It's George Bush's "National Homeownership Month". It's also HP's "National I Sure Hope You've Sold and Are Renting Month"

What else would you expect from the worst president in US history? But hey, it's nice to see the National Association of Homebuilders and National Association of Realtors and the National Association of Mortgage Brokers get what they paid for, eh?

Bush's thinking: Hey, let's tell the suckers to go out and buy a home, regardless of price, regardless of the fundamentals and regardless whether they can afford it. That'd be cool! Maybe we should call it "National Pay Big Commissions to REALTORS and Mortgage Brokers Month". Or "National They Ain't Makin' More Land Month", or maybe even "National If You Don't Buy Now You'll Be Priced Out Forever Month".

The Great Housing Crash will make this guy not just the worst president in US history. He'll be ushered out of office as the least popular president in US history too. Good riddance.

National Homeownership Month, 2007 (Also called "National Massive NAR PAC funding thank you month")

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

Owning a home is part of the American dream, and National Homeownership Month is an opportunity to encourage our citizens to explore the benefits of owning a home.

Owning a home provides a source of security and stability for many of our citizens.

My Administration is committed to fostering an ownership society and helping more Americans realize the great promise of our country. Today, nearly 70 percent of Americans own their homes, and the rate of minority homeownership has climbed to above 50 percent since I took office in 2001.

In addition, the American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003 is helping thousands of low to moderate income and minority families with the downpayment and closing costs on their homes.

During National Homeownership Month and throughout the year, I urge citizens to consider homeownership opportunities in their communities, and I applaud American homeowners for helping fuel the economy.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2007 as National Homeownership Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join me in recognizing the importance of homeownership and building a more prosperous future.

Mortgage brokers: Paid to screw their customers ("suckers") as bad as they can

The worst deal with the worst interest rate they can get the client ("sucker") agree to, the more they make. Anyone see a problem with this?

Anyone?

PEOPLE OF AMERICA WISE UP. MORTGAGE BROKERS ARE PAID TO SCREW YOU AND ACT AGAINST YOUR BEST INTERESTS. THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS, THEY DO NOT HAVE A FIDUCIARY DUTY, THEY HAVE MASSIVE CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AND THEY'RE MOTIVATED TO DECEIVE YOU.

Why doesn't congress regulate the out-of-control-and-corrupt mortgage brokers? You got it - $$$$$. From Common Cause:

Since 1999, ten of the nation's largest subprime mortgage lenders, their trade groups and their corporate parents have given more than $22 million in political contributions to federal candidates: $14 million to Republicans and more than $8 million to Democrats, according to Federal Election Commission reports.

These special interests also have spent more than $187 million lobbying Washington over the same period, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics and the Senate Office of Public Records.

And now this from Michael Hoskinson of Foundation Realty via BusinessWeek's Hot Property:

"The YSP or "Yield Spread Premium" is nothing more than the Bank's kickback to the broker for doing the loan.

The worse the loan, in terms of interest rate, that the broker gets the borrower to agree to, the higher the YSP dollars go to the broker.

What exactly, other than honesty, is the broker's motivation for helping a borrower get the best available deal?

Combine greed, low barrier to entry and minimal mandated disclosures and you have a recipe for a lending disaster at the borrower level.

Until there are mandated disclosures that spell out, in 14-point type and plain language, what exactly a borrower is encumbering themselves to in total and how the broker or bank is compensated this system will continue to fail the public."

Oh, man, this won't be fun at NAR HQ. 60 Minutes report tonight "6 Percent". Goodbye realtor profession. Goodbye 6%.

Someone please record this in the US and post to youtube or dailymotion and I'll post here.

You can watch Leslie Stahl's reporter's notebook now - I guess the report is going to be on the 6 percenters vs. the discount and online brokers (like Redfin)

"The commission is a fraction of what the traditional agent charges"

Lots of blah blah blah coming from the six percenters, and probably the NAR spinmeisters.

Now I wish 60 minutes would do a show on the housing crash, mortgage brokers, the corrupted Congress, mortgage fraud, bogus appraisals, CDO's and the rest of the mess. But hey, it's a start - the six percenters and the laughably incompetent NAR are the low hanging fruit.

Six Percent

Realtors’ sacrosanct commission rate of 6 percent may be in jeopardy due to emerging online competition from Internet real estate sellers and buyers. Lesley Stahl reports

HousingPANIC Stupid Question ofthe Day

Won't it be weird in a few more months (or weeks) when it seems EVERYONE is talking about the housing crash, especially those brilliant market forecasting realtors? When the masses and MSM are saying how it was all such an obvious mania or Ponzi scheme, and how they knew it was all going to crash all along?

In other words, won't it be strange when HousingPANIC is mainstream, versus this cultish little quixotic fight-club? Or will that never happen, as the masses are too dumb to understand what's happening to them even during the downfall, too stubborn to admit they were wrong, or too lazy to find HousingPANIC?

If that comes to pass, I'll miss the days when it was little HP versus the world, a voice in the wilderness.

When the world panics over housing, which is right around the corner now, it might not be as fun to write HousingPANIC.

Driving the money changers out (again) - The REIC in the church

A cold, politically incorrect and cynical question for church-going HP'ers (that has to be asked, since nobody else has):

Do you ever get hit up by real estate clerks or mortgage brokers at your church / synagogue / mosque? See a problem with that?

Ever wonder if those types joined your church for salvation, or was it those yummy cold hard commissions? Do (should) business and religion go together?

Hmmm... reminds me of a little story I once heard... And then there's this network of saved realtors (is that an oxymoron?)

Wouldn't finding a new ethical job be a first step after being saved?). Ya gotta wonder if everyone who joins this is on the up and up. Call me silly, but I've got a hunch... maybe because I've NEVER heard of a real estate clerk not interested in their whopping commission first.

Looking for a Real Estate Agent that answers to a Higher Authority??

You've come to the right place! We can connect you with a Christian Real Estate Agent or Loan Officer anywhere in North America.

Wouldn't you rather have a Christian agent that is more interested in YOU than in a commission???

The pressure on appraisers right now must be unbearable

Choice A: Do the right thing, appraise the property at the correct price, and never work again

Choice B: Do the wrong thing, appraise the property at the wildly overinflated price the corrupt realtor, mortgage broker and seller want/need, get the job and future jobs from the corrupt cabal, but know that you're contributing to mortgage fraud and could go to jail if the government ever wakes up.

Hmmm....

The system got gamed folks. It was allowed to spin out of control. The conflicts of interest and quid-pro-quos make the NASDAQ bubble seem like child's play. And it ain't over yet.

The dubious value-add of appraisers - As housing market slumps, price-target pressure mounts

ORINDA, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- The solicitation that Texas real-estate appraiser Jim Amorin fielded came with a quid pro quo. If he'd appraise a mixed-use Austin subdivision for $25 million, the mortgage broker promised to steer 15 more major deals his way.

"After I asked a few questions, it became clear the real value was closer to $15 million," says Amorin, vice president of Atrium Real Estate Services. "I told him I'd accept the assignment but not with a predetermined value, so he kept looking for someone who would."

The pressure on appraisers to "make loans work" -- the industry parlance for hitting the number that a lender wants on a closing contract -- has been ratcheted up as U.S. home sales and mortgage refinancing have tumbled. By law, appraisers are required to render impartial judgments.

Federal and state authorities are now pushing for tighter regulation, licensing standards and criminal penalties to keep all players in the real-estate transaction process on the level.

"Mortgage and real estate brokers are paid on commission, so they have a vested interest in seeing that loans get funded," says Ted Faravelli, manager of the California Association of Real Estate Appraisers and an appraiser for 23 years who testifies as an expert witness in mortgage-fraud cases.

"If an appraiser speaks to the facts and indicates a market is declining and in oversupply, there's a good chance deals won't be consummated and referrals will dry up."

"Five months later, I lose $100,000 - I don't think I can take $100,000 into the stock market and lose it faster"

Man, it's really sad to watch the end of a Ponzi Scheme. So many dream-chasers are now so screwed.

They listened to their neighbors (who thought they were rich), they listened to their REALTORs (who got paid), they listened to their mortgage brokers (who got paid), they listened to their developers (who got paid), and they listened to their "ownership society" buffoon of a president (who was too dumb to understand), and they listened to themselves (really bad move).

And now they'll be listening to bankruptcy court judges and debt counselors.

Tulips anyone? Pets.com stock anyone? South Sea shares anyone? Phoenix condos anyone? Anyone? Anyone?

The late great American housing bubble has ended. Prices are crashing (no matter what the government or NAR tell you). Inventory is skyrocketing. Lives are ruined. Millions are asking "what the hell was I thinking". And an epic Ponzi Scheme ends.

'Upside Down' Home Sellers Owe More Than They Get

Jeffrey Taylor and his wife bought their dream home in Purcellville for $538,000 last August. Now they have to sell it because they are getting divorced and neither one can afford the mortgage alone.

The most they could get for it was $430,000. After paying all the real estate commissions and taxes, they will still owe the bank $118,000.

"Five months later, I lose $100,000," Taylor, a high school teacher, said. "I don't think I can take $100,000 into the stock market and lose it faster."

The people most vulnerable are those who bought their homes within the past two or three years and now want to sell, either because of a life change or a financial problem.

Prices in some places are notably lower than they were at the peak of the market, and the costs of selling can eat up even more money.