Spanky and The Housing Gang are Back At It

LoganMohtashami.com
By Logan Mohtashami
Benzinga Columnist
January 09, 2012 2:01 PM
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Spanky and the Gang are at it again. Not content with previous shenanigans in manipulating and propping up home prices, they’re back at it again.

Word is out that the Obama Administration, in conjunction with Freddie, Fannie, Treasury, FED, FDIC, HUD and FHFA, is preparing programs to sell foreclosed properties in bulk to investors  interested in managing the inventory as rental property, rather than as for sale property.

My numbers indicate that we will have 10 to 15 million homes that will either face short sale or foreclosure in the next 5 to 10 years. These numbers loom in spite of all the previous programs implemented by the Federal government  intended to support the housing market.

The fact that the Obama administration is developing a plan with such a broad sweep indicates admission and acknowledgment of what we have been saying for a long while: our country does not have enough qualified homebuyers to absorb the housing inventory developed during the housing bubble.

Housing bulls might cheer this news, in hopes that clearing away the deadwood will open up fresh growth in sales and pricing for organic sales and buyers. But another way to look at this news is that the Federal government is about to enact a sweeping program, in conjunction with private investors, in yet one more effort to confront the problem we predicted all along.

This is the opening act and there should be more to come. There is no fair or accurate real market pricing for homes in the country so long as natural market forces are not allowed to run their course. The US housing market is in the hands of a gang of hucksters wanting to unload overpriced inventory before interest rates necessarily rise.

Logan Mohtashami is a senior loan officer at his family owned mortgage company AMC Lending Group, which has been providing mortgage services for California residents since 1988

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Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/general/topics/12/01/2249964/spanky-and-the-housing-gang-are-back-at-it#ixzz1izXffE2F

8 thoughts

  1. Where I reside, which had never really been a “hot” real estate market until 2005 when people from other regions came in to scoop up our low priced properties, it seems that properties from 175k and up are just sitting vacant and on the MLS with almost zero attention.
    For some crazy reason, people still seem to think that if they just hold on for a bit longer they will get the needed 2007-2008 peak market price and all will be good. Go figure?

    On my street alone, 2 houses south of me, sits an abandon duplex in some form of foreclosure for well over 18 months now. It has been winterized by the bank, but the bank (CountryWide-BoA) refuses to finish the process and actually claim ownership of it. It is still in defaulting owner’s name. (How obscene would it be if the actual owner had continued collecting rents on this property throughout this duration?)

    Three houses north of me is an abandoned home in about the same 18 +/- months of foreclosure in which the bank (PNC) seems to find it beneficial to NOT finish the foreclosure process and claim possession of the property.

    In both these properties, the banks themselves winterized them and kept the taxes up to date.
    These properties are OLD, which probably means asbestos, lead paint, pests, deterioration, electrical past it’s service life etc. etc.

    I’m sure this is a common situation throughout the country.

    I don’t believe for a minute that the major banks are solvent. It’s all about extend and pretend.

    Most of the people I talk to don’t trust what is going on in any of the financial markets. Housing still has a ways to go.
    Until the gummint stops intervening and instead revert to letting the natural course of economics happen, there will be more pain for common folks like us.
    We need to rip the bandage off and simply let the healing begin. No more pretending.

    1. Extend and Pretend is correct in many senses to our economy. I do believe this new Government plan is the white flag raising final surrender to the fact that housing is so much worse than they thought.

  2. Currently I’m trying to buy HUD REO house with using VA, but the GSE HomeTelos will not sign the VA addendum to contract. Do they expect me to take their appraisal as market price? Have you heard of any other circumstance like this? I heard B.A. will sell you a house without being appraise by their own back, is this the same case?

    1. In regard to Bank of America, which I assume that is who you’re talking about. You might have heard about the Homepath loan where no appraisal is required unless you want to get some light work done on the home. To your other question, if an appraisal has come in to low the Lender will want to lend you money to the lower amount. The Seller might have an issue with that. On your first part on the VA loan, I would need more information to give you a proper answer. Feel free to contact me at anytime 949-291-8293, I can do what I can to give you the best information possible.

  3. Logan, hope you read this. I caught your comments on the CNBC “chat” and thought you made a lot of sense. Nice site you have. If you’d like to exchange links, check out my Money Daily blog, shown as my website (I actually have about six).

  4. I am encountering the worse situation which involves CitiMortgage. I am sorry I applied for the HAMP program when my wife lost her job. In hindsight, if I had continued to pay my mortgage, I would not be in default. The HAMP program is such a scam in that CitiMortgage blocks your monthly mortgage payments until they have “processed” your application which takes months. In the meantime, your loan goes into default. By the time I realized that it was a sham, and started to forcibly make direct payment to them including a lump sum of $5000 to cover the 4 months that they refused my payments, my house is now submitted for foreclosure, and they have not finished processing my HAMP application. All I get is excuses. I tried to cancel it but they keep playing games. I have owned this house for more than 15 years, paying on time, and look at what they are doing to me. Is there any advise you can offer. if I can get refinanced through your company it would be of great help. Our home is in Chicago, IL. Send me some information. . Thanks again for your help.

    1. Something is very wrong with that transaction you described. We can’t do loans outside of California. However, call me 949-291-8293 and maybe I can give you some advice

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