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Why Did They Let Me Stay Here For 10 Years?

A report from the Las Vegas Sun in Nevada. “The latest monthly update from the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors , showed the Valley had more than 7,000 listings without an offer. If you go back to last fall, low inventory was affecting the market quite a bit,’ said association president Janet Carpenter . ‘Since then, things have changed. The market has slowed and we’ve seen inventory increase.'”

“Carpenter said she recently had a home in the $235,000 price range that stayed on the market for more than a month, something that would have been unheard of even six months ago. While some of the national market experts are at odds, it’s not a bad time to purchase a home, Carpenter said. ‘Interest rates are really low,’ she said. ‘The market is 10 times better for buyers than it was last fall.'”

From KDVR in Colorado. “Experts studying trends in Denver’s housing market said more landlords are opting to sell rental homes instead of continuing to rent them out as the housing market normalizes. As landlords sell single-family homes, Nicole Rueth, a lender with Fairway Mortgage Corporation said it’s great news for buyers because it means inventory on the housing market will go up.”

“‘It opens up opportunities for homebuyers and that’s an area we so desperately need inventory in, in that below $500,000 price point,’ said Rueth.”

From Patch Winnetka in Illinois. “One of former Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs’ two North Shore properties in foreclosure was sold in a court-ordered auction earlier this month, according to court records.”

“In June 2008, Briggs paid $2.3 million for the newly built, 4,800-square-foot, six-bedroom mansion on 1.04 acres near the corner of Winnetka and Sunset Ridge roads in Northfield. Two years earlier he had purchased a townhouse at 985 Enfield Drive in Northbrook for $371,500.”

“In July 2017, Citimortgage launched a foreclosure action against the Northfield property, claiming Briggs still owed the full $1.72 million he borrowed for the property. Then in September 2017, Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure action against the Northbrook property for a nearly $300,000 mortgage.”

“After he was drafted 63rd overall out of the University of Arizona, the retired Pro Bowler spent his entire 12-year career with the Bears, becoming one of the captains of the team’s defense and earning more than $52 million over three contracts, according to the website Spotrac.”

From North Jersey. “Madeline D’Alessandro was standing on the front porch of her home at 8:50 a.m. when the sheriff’s deputy arrived to evict her. She has waited ten years for this moment, long enough to get tired of feeling afraid. A few minutes later two movers arrived.”

“D’Alessandro has lived with her brother, Charlie, in this pink ranch house in Wayne since 2004. Charlie stopped paying the mortgage in 2009, when his business as an electrician faltered during the subprime mortgage crisis.”

“For a decade, the D’Alesandros have lived like squatters in their own house. They rebuilt two bathrooms, and spent $28,000 to replace the roof. Otherwise, they have lived in the place for free. ‘My biggest beef is: why did they let me stay here for 10 years?’ Charlie D’Alessandro asked. ‘I thought I’d be gone in a year.'”

“Charlie takes partial credit for the extra-long foreclosure. He filed for bankruptcy, then tried to unload his house in a short sale. ‘Of course I did!’ he said, explaining his strategy to slow the process and prolong his time in the house without paying mortgage or rent. ‘Who wouldn’t?'”

“Meanwhile the D’Alessandros’ mortgage was traded between half a dozen owners and loan servicers. None of the companies could locate the documents required to prove they owned the loan, and thus the right to foreclose. For years, none took the steps necessary to take the D’Alessandros to court and force them out.”

“The banks’ procrastination was abetted by New Jersey’s antiquated laws that allow foreclosures to drag on for years. In many cases this leaves abandoned homes sitting empty indefinitely. Some have earned the moniker ‘zombie homes.'”

“At the D’Alessandros’ house this week, the foreclosure crisis just kept dragging on. A few minutes after 9 a.m. the sheriff’s deputy and two movers were joined by Emilio Baldino. He is a Realtor hired by MTGLQ Investors, a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs that now owns the D’Alessandros’ loan. When D’Alessandro and his sister move out, Baldino will be responsible for selling the home to someone new.”

“‘Lately I’ve been seeing more foreclosures that last four to six years,’ said Baldino.”

“One of the movers looked up from his phone. There was a problem, he said: the moving truck had broken down on the highway. The deputy walked away, made a phone call, then returned. The eviction was postponed, he said. Charlie and Madeline would get a reprieve.”

“Ten years after losing their house to the great American financial crisis of 2008, they could stay in their home another week. ‘You won’t hear me complaining!’ said Charlie.”

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This Post Has 32 Comments

  1. ‘In many cases this leaves abandoned homes sitting empty indefinitely. Some have earned the moniker ‘zombie homes.’

    Shadow inventory is a conspiracy theory. Zombie homes are a statistic.

    ‘The banks’ procrastination was abetted by New Jersey’s antiquated laws that allow foreclosures to drag on for years’

    What we identified here many years ago was the lenders used these “roadblocks” as an excuse to foam the runway. It’s simple market manipulation, a gigantic fraud, and now Goldman Sachs swoops in and picks up a few Benjamin’s. Pretty simple really.

    1. It’s simple market manipulation, a gigantic fraud, and now Goldman Sachs swoops in and picks up a few Benjamin’s. Pretty simple really.

      Pshaw! The very idea (exaggerated eye roll). Ben Jones, you conspiracy theorist so-and-so, you and your HBB cult know full well that if there was market manipulation and fraud on the scale you’re suggesting, our hard-boiled investigative Real Journalists and their intrepid editors would be all over that story like white on rice. But the fact that I’ve scoured the MSM and found no mention of any such stories in these bastions of truth and light tells me you and your fellow HBB conspiracy mongers are riding the crazy train, and probably need your social credit scores downgraded.

  2. ‘In July 2017, Citimortgage launched a foreclosure action against the Northfield property, claiming Briggs still owed the full $1.72 million he borrowed for the property. Then in September 2017, Deutsche Bank filed a foreclosure action against the Northbrook property for a nearly $300,000 mortgage’

    So why did they jump on Lance’s shacks and not Charlies? Lance’s shacks are worth a lot more. Plus Charlie is a serious hoarder.

    Also note Lance has plenty of dough. Classic strategic default.

    1. It looks like Charlie is packing up his stuff and trying to take it ALL with him. If he had sorted it and taken only the stuff of any value, it would have filled a small U-Haul, if that. But that’s the hoarder mentality. To them, it’s ALL of value.

  3. “While some of the national market experts are at odds, it’s not a bad time to purchase a home, Carpenter said. ”

    I’m shocked! Now is the best time to buy??????

    ‘Interest rates are really low,’ she said. ‘The market is 10 times better for buyers than it was last fall.’”

    What happened to those speculators, I mean buyers (i.e., bid winners) from last fall????

  4. ‘My biggest beef is: why did they let me stay here for 10 years?’ Charlie D’Alessandro asked. ‘I thought I’d be gone in a year.’”

    That’s my biggest beef too, Charlie. Your deadbeat ass should’ve been evicted as soon as you stopped paying the mortgage. And your lender should’ve been forced to eat the loss and put it back on the market as soon as possible.

  5. ‘Experts studying trends in Denver’s housing market said more landlords are opting to sell rental homes instead of continuing to rent them out as the housing market normalizes’

    Don’t rush the exits all at the same time. Wa happened to my shortage Denver?

    ‘Since then, things have changed. The market has slowed and we’ve seen inventory increase’

    ‘Carpenter said she recently had a home in the $235,000 price range that stayed on the market for more than a month, something that would have been unheard of even six months ago’

    If you drive around Las Vegas there’s abandoned shacks all over the place. There should never be what Janey said above in LV.

    ‘The market is 10 times better for buyers than it was last fall’

    And just when it’s better for buyers, they disappear? Why? No quick riches! Overheated markets followed by quick collapse = bubble. Example number 1 million.

  6. “Meanwhile the D’Alessandros’ mortgage was traded between half a dozen owners and loan servicers. None of the companies could locate the documents required to prove they owned the loan, and thus the right to foreclose. For years, none took the steps necessary to take the D’Alessandros to court and force them out.”

    Thank goodness that this was a one-off, isolated instance that in no way reflects a systemic problem in our financial services sector. We can be thankful that our ever-vigilant and scrupulously honest policymakers, regulators, and enforcers, with their profound commitment to safeguarding the integrity of our banking system and the public interest, ensured the D’Alessandros are a rare anomaly that in no way portends a looming crisis or the incipient meltdown of yet another housing bubble.

    Oh, wait….

  8. “For a decade, the D’Alesandros have lived like squatters in their own house.”

    Wrong. If you do not know why this statement is wrong then you are an idiot.

    “They rebuilt two bathrooms, and spent $28,000 to replace the roof.”

    The did this to a house that they did not own.

    “Otherwise, they have lived in the place for free.”

    Otherwise the true owners would have owned a house that went to sh1t.

    “‘My biggest beef is: why did they let me stay here for 10 years?’”

    His biggest beef. What a moron.

    “‘I thought I’d be gone in a year.’”

    You are going now because having you going now serves the interests of the true owners of the house. IOW, you have been used.

    Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

    1. How much you want to bet that they thought they could get the house debt free? We read plenty of stories about that during the bust. In the end they were just house-sitters. The banks calculated that it’s $250K in mortgage payments is a fair price to pay for keeping a house maintained and on the books at its peak bubble price.

      1. Do you think he was paying the taxes on this property? I bet the bank was paying the taxes the entire time. Seen it here first hand in GA where banks are coming out of pocket to keep the property taxes current.

  9. I have a relative in florida . If they go bk/default how long till eviction?
    The laws changed several years ago.
    Anyone know?

  10. I’m pretty sure that this article is being silly on purpose, to provoke thought. Then again, it’s Marketwatch…

    ————-
    “OPINION: The right retirement is based on the value of your home

    …Here’s the idea
    1. Take the market value of your house, and multiply by 0.3. That is the income you need in retirement.
    2. Take that number, and divide by 0.04. That is the value of the assets you need to retire with.”
    ——–

    As an example, someone with a $350K house will need $105K income during retirement, and $750K nest egg to withdraw at 4%/year. The article then goes on to advise that we all live in small houses. Yeah. :rolleyes:

    ————–
    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-right-retirement-formula-is-based-on-the-value-of-your-home-2019-03-20?mod=MW_home_top_stories

    5. How’s the DC market these days? A relative is about to sell there. I’m curious what they should expect…

      1. The market here depends on where you are. For suburban Maryland, prices have been increasing with inflation, 2-3%/year. However, the HGTV reno craze has made a mess of prices. Example:

        Take a house that sold in 2011 for $300K.
        Last fall, it would have sold for $350K.
        This spring, if you HGTV renovate it, it will sell for $375K.
        This spring, if you don’t renovate it, but list it for $350K, it sits on the market.
        This spring, if you don’t renovate it, but list it for $320K, it sells very quickly.

        The message is clear. Millenial gray walls and floors are IN. End-consumer buyers will not tolerate 1980s cabinets, and fix-flippers will not tolerate losing money due to a high initial price. So the burden is on the homeowner to either renovate and settle for 50-60% return on the reno cost, *or* to suffer a small price drop compared to last fall.

        Things are very different in Northern Virginia. They are building like crazy there. They are flush with defense contractor cash. The value of a friend’s house is rising simply because a new Catholic school is being built nearby. And that’s BEFORE Amazon came to town. It’s a zoo.

      1. U.S. first-time unemployment claims fall to 221,000

        U.S. & Canada
        Market Extra
        The most accurate recession indicator is closer to flashing red after the Fed’s ‘dovish double-down’
        By Sunny Oh
        Published: Mar 21, 2019 7:57 a.m. ET
        A sharp bond market-rally grips Wall Street after the Fed’s policy update for March
        Getty Images
        Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the U.S. economy was in a “good place” Wednesday in an effort to ease anxieties, but it may not have been enough.

        Even for a bond market bracing for an accommodative Federal Reserve, policy makers’ moves on Wednesday were a stunner, raising the specter of recession.

        In particular, analysts said bond investors were taken aback by the sharp reduction of interest-rate-hike projections by the Federal Open Market Committee to zero from two back in December, as reflected in the central bank’s “dot plot” — a chart of Fed members’ projections for future rates.
        …

    1. Californians pricing the locals out is nothing new. They vote for policies that make life unlivable in their home state. Then they move somewhere else and vote for the same people. AZ was once deep red. Now it’s purple trending blue. See also Nevada and Colorado. Not far behind Montana.

      As the CA locusts infest, they bring the same social ills with them, including obscenely high housing costs. Where were the two biggest bubbles last time around? Phoenix and Las Vegas. Where is the biggest bubble this time? Denver. Oh and a decent house – nothing special, just something livable – in Bozeman, MT is $500K.

      Your honor, I rest my case.

  13. The balls on the guy. He lived rent free for 10 years and he’s playing the victim.

    WOW!!

    I know a family that stopped making payments in 2011. They were foreclosed on in 2012. It wasn’t until 2017 that they finally were evicted by the bank. Really nice place too. Rent on a comparable house would be $2500/mo easy. So they essentially got 6-7 years rent for free, somewhere in the $200K ballpark.

    So again I ask, who is the real FB? The sucker who pays his rent/mortgage on time every month? Or people like these?

  14. While the TBTF banks and vulture funds have been committing mortgage fraud with impunity since well before Housing Bubble 1.0 imploded, our intrepid “Justice” Department finally went after a single solitary low-level malefactor, because Trump. Bravo, enforcers, you have the thanks of a grateful nation.

    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/paul-manafort-charged-with-committing-residential-mortgage-fraud-but-its-not-that-uncommon-2019-03-19?mod=mw_latestnews

  15. ‘Interest rates are really low,’

    If you buy when rates are really low, you could lose a lot of money when they get back to normal.

  16. “The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve.”

    H.L. Mencken

    We only have 12 years to save the planet

    Twelve years. All of humanity should be tackling the climate change problem as though their lives depend on it — because they do. Do climate-change deniers not have children and grandchildren? For what reason are they willing to forfeit the welfare of future lives?

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/we-only-have-12-years-to-stop-climate-change/2019/01/14/42704374-15d1-11e9-ab79-30cd4f7926f2_story.html

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