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These Have Just Become A Burden For Us

A report from People. “Actor Bronson Pinchot is best known for his memorable roles in films like Beverly Hills Cop and series like Perfect Strangers. But aside from acting, the Yale School of Drama grad has long had a passion for home renovation. More than a decade ago, he decided to make that hobby his sole focus as he snatched up several properties in rural Pennsylvania. ‘I was able to buy six houses for the price of a New York condo,’ says Pinchot, who loved the historic architecture of the homes in Susquehanna County, Pa. He got in over his head when the now-defunct DIY Network filmed him for The Bronson Pinchot Project, home-renovation series that documented his work in 2012 and 2013. The show was canceled after two seasons, and the bills piled up. Several of the homes were foreclosed on and sold at auction. ‘I learned an amazing amount,’ says Pinchot, ‘and I lost my shirt.’ He shrugs off the ordeal now, adding, ‘What are you going to do?'”

News & Observer in North Carolina. “When Apple first announced that it planned a $552 million campus in Research Triangle Park, home prices surged. Local experts called it ‘the Apple effect,’ driving up prices by as much as 53% in nearby suburbs like Morrisville and west Cary. Now, more than three years later, the office market remains bleak, and the project in this fast-growing corridor along N.C. 540 is officially stalled. In April 2021, the month Apple announced its project, the median sale price in the same ZIP code (27560) as its proposed campus stood at $360,000. A year later, prices had jumped to $598,000, up 64%, Redfin found. (It also coincided with a pandemic-fueled surge in prices across the Triangle as out-of-state residents migrated to the region.) Since then, median price in this ZIP code has fallen by more than 15% — to $504,500 in May 2024.”

“Developers, meanwhile, are pushing forward. David Ferrell, a longtime Cary resident and property developer, said he’s moving ahead with plans to build 140 single-family homes on a 103-acre site in west Cary after the Town Council recently approved rezoning and annexation. ‘We’re full steam ahead,’ he said. ‘We’ve got a good job market here, Apple or no Apple. We’ll be fine.'”

The Boston Globe in Massachusetts. “If one image could summarize the state of housing construction in Greater Boston right now, it might be the vast open space at Suffolk Downs. At 10,000 units, the former horse racing track on the Boston-Revere border will be the single largest housing development in the region’s history when it’s done. But no more housing is underway here. There are no hammers clanging or cement trucks rumbling, just a sea of open land, mounds of dirt, materials, and equipment sitting unused. Developers such as HYM’s Tom O’Brien have all the hard-won permits they need. Amid high interest rates and materials costs, raising enough money is the real problem. ‘The whole dynamic of housing finance has shifted,’ said O’Brien. ‘It has become so much harder to make these projects work.'”

“The nearly 600-unit Riverside project has been paused since late 2022, and the formula for moving it forward ‘just doesn’t work’ anymore, said Howard Cohen, board chair of Beacon Communities, one of the developers. Part of the problem, said Cohen, is that the market for lab development, which was supposed to be the focus of the first phase of the Riverside project, has cratered.”

The Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. “Robin Bach knows her property is a work in progress. Room by room, she and her husband have chipped away at restoring their 19th-century Walker house in Concord. What they didn’t plan for, though, was the growing encampment in the woods on their property – where the police are often called to, gunshots have been heard and no one seems to have a response as to whose responsibility it is to manage. The windows of the small shed that Bach envisioned as a backyard hangout are boarded up with plywood. A no-trespassing sign is affixed to the door. Instead, balls, gloves and other toys line the front hallway to her house. Their house sits on an acre of land, but often her kids opt to play out front along the sidewalk. ‘I can’t even use my backyard. My kids can’t go out there,’ she said. ‘I would like my children to be independent and feel comfortable going outside and playing and they won’t.'”

“As homelessness rises across the country – especially in New Hampshire, where the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development identified the state to have the largest percent increase – national conversations about shelter for unhoused people are taking center stage. Living by Horseshoe Pond has been an entirely different experience to her old house downtown. ‘We never locked our doors. We were pretty casual,’ she said. ‘Now we have a full-on security system.’ To Bach the solution is to create a sanctioned camping area in the city. To her this will concentrate resources in one place. ‘You can put your tent here, here’s bathrooms, dumpsters,’ she said. ‘They’ve come here and told them to move a million times, they don’t move.'”

The New York Post. “The influx of illegal migrants to the Big Apple over the past two years has meant a sea-change in the quality of life for workers and residents in zip codes swamped with shelters, they told The Post. ‘It’s overpopulated here [with migrants] and that’s a concern,’ said Maria Katirtzoglou, 38, who works for a Long Island City engineering firm next door to a hotel-turned-migrant shelter on Crescent Street. ‘That’s a concern for people who were born and raised here, people that have property here, because people that do own property and then they see all this coming in, they don’t like it,’ she said. ‘At night, I don’t feel safe in this area…It’s not safe. Things happen – robberies and knives, you know, people take out knives.'”

“Shawarn Shields, 50, of Queensbridge Houses, said parents are afraid to take their kids to local parks and playgrounds because migrants typically race electric scooters and have sex there. ‘This is not a third-world country,’ said Shields. ‘We can’t just let anyone come into our neighborhood and do whatever the f— they want!'”

“In Jamaica, one resident said his block has become a complete nightmare since a migrant shelter opened three doors down on Liberty Avenue, with many of the new arrivals spending their days outside drinking booze and smoking weed. Some were kicked out of the shelter, formerly the Van Wyck Hotel, for bad behavior but later returned in vehicles to park on the street and sleep, recalled videographer Craig Richardson. ‘I don’t know where they’re getting the money to buy cars,’ said Richardson, 53. ‘And when they have to go to the bathroom, where’d they go? In my backyard!'”

The Los Angeles Times in California. “When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling on anti-camping laws last month, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo was one of the local political leaders who welcomed it. Gordo said his city intends to toughen enforcement, but in a compassionate way — by offering shelter and other services while also regulating its parks and sidewalks. ‘Individuals will be offered the assistance they need,’ he said. ‘But we cannot allow people to simply take over public spaces and parks while they refuse the assistance that is being offered.’ City Councilmember Kevin de León said he fears the ruling will spur the smaller cities that abut his Eastside district to force their homeless populations out. ‘If you’re an unhoused person, and you’re feeling harassed constantly, you’re just going to self-evict and relocate to the city limits of L.A.,’ he said.”

“Shayla Myers, a Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles attorney who has sued L.A. repeatedly over its treatment of its homeless population said she hopes city attorneys will view the decision narrowly, taking into account protections in other parts of the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution and the ‘necessity’ defense against prosecution for violation of anti-camping laws. ‘The Supreme Court tells us sometimes what jurisdictions can do, but they don’t tell us what jurisdictions should do,’ she said. ‘For a place like Los Angeles, with 89 jurisdictions, it would be disastrous for cities in this county to engage in a race to the bottom.'”

The Canadian Press. “The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says home sales in June declined 16.4 per cent from last year, with many potential buyers staying on the sidelines despite the highly anticipated Bank of Canada interest rate cut. ‘It’s got to be a lot more than 25 basis points,’ said Vy Ngo, a sales representative with Big City Realty Inc. Brokerage. Ngo said despite the lack of a significant uptick in buyer demand after the rate cut announcement, it did prompt an influx of supply around the GTA. She said sellers were more optimistic than buyers that the decision would spur a rebound in activity after there was essentially ‘no spring market’ this year.”

“‘I guess all the sellers have been holding off for some time now. Everyone probably had the same idea, like ‘let’s wait till the rate cut,’ she said. ‘So literally, as soon as that happened, there was this huge amount of new listings that came to the market.’ There were 23,613 active listings on the market last month, up 67.4 per cent from June 2023. New listings rose 12.3 per cent over the same period, with 17,964 properties put on the market last month.”

Castanet in Canada. “A recent civil court case highlights the drastic dip in Kelowna’s real estate market in the spring and summer of 2022, with a group of potential buyers being ordered to pay more than $400,000 after they were unable to secure financing on a home despite signing a purchasing contract. In a recent decision, BC Supreme Court Justice Dennis Hori ordered Wai Ming Fong, Xiao Li Liu and Navdeep Singh Mahli to pay Jeffrey Mandl nearly $363,000, in addition to the $50,000 deposit they had already paid, for breaching their contract of purchase and sale.”

“The three people had agreed to purchase a home on Kelowna’s Ethel Street from Mandl for $1,115,000, which was $116,000 more than the listing price of the property. Mahli signed the contract on the very same day Mandl listed the home, and Liu and Fong were added to the contract eight days later. But when Mahli began to seek financing for the home, the Royal Bank of Canada sought their own appraisal of the home and determined the value of it was significantly lower than the agreed upon purchase price. As such, the bank refused to finance the purchase and Mahli was unable to find financing through any other institutions.”

“But by this time, the market had slowed considerably. The original re-listed sale price was set at $949,000, but Mandl managed to sell the home a little more than five months later for $740,000. Justice Hori ruled the damages suffered by Mandl as a result of Mahli, Fong and Liu’s breach of contract was the difference between their agreed upon sale price and the price Mandl was eventually able to sell at. ‘I also find it unreasonable to require [Mandl] to retain the Property until the market recovered and real estate prices increased,’ Justice Hori added.”

“Justice Hori also ruled that the buyers should pay the $29,000 to replace the home’s roof and air conditioner, a repair that was required to make the subsequent sale. Justice Hori found that Mandl would not have been stuck with this bill if the first sale had gone through. With the $375,000 loss on the resale of the property, along with the roof and A/C/ bill, legal fees and interest, Justice Hori ruled Mahli, Fong and Liu owe Mandl nearly $413,000. Taking into account the $50,000 deposit, the damages awarded totalled nearly $363,000.”

The New Zealand Herald. “Four prestige homes owned by Northland’s Carrington Estate golf course and lodge could sell for as little as $4 when they head to auction this month. The reserve for each property has been set at $1 – a first for Northland – as the estate’s owners look to cash out. Carrington Estate sits on the Karikari Peninsula, 35 minutes north of Kaitāia, and offers luxury accommodation overlooking the ocean and golf course. The four-bedroom houses for sale at 25, 27, 30, and 49 Banyan Road are in a subdivision between the estate and Whatuwhiwhi, where Carrington also owns the Top Ten holiday park.”

“William Tan, Carrington’s general manager, told OneRoof the four properties were built eight years ago as model houses, part of a larger development planned for the resort which was put on hold because of RMA and consent issues. ‘We’re cashing out,’ Tan said. ‘We had them to accommodate our guests from overseas.’ Tan said Ray White agent Hania Johnson had convinced Carrington to take the properties to auction with the ultra-low reserve. Johnson told OneRoof she was inspired by the success of $1 reserve auctions conducted by colleagues in Auckland.”

“‘We wanted to get some traction in this difficult market, so this bulk approach gives a sense of competition,’ she said, adding that one of the properties, 25 Banyan, had been on the market earlier, first with a set price and then as price-by-negotiation. Tan said Carrington had previously owned 12 properties in the development around Banyan Road, but these last four had been on the market for two to three years without success. ‘These have just become a burden for us. When people come to stay with us, they prefer to stay on-site near the golf course so other than peak Christmas New Year season they don’t get used much,’ he said. The houses were competing with the hundreds of Airbnb listings in the area and the rental income did not cover the almost $50,000 annual bill Carrington faced for costs like rates, insurance, and maintenance. Tan added: ‘We understand the economy and the current housing market. There are few sales in the Far North, lending is hard, and the overseas buyers aren’t there, so this time we try this.'”

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This Post Has 74 Comments

  1. ‘The Supreme Court tells us sometimes what jurisdictions can do, but they don’t tell us what jurisdictions should do,’ she said. ‘For a place like Los Angeles, with 89 jurisdictions, it would be disastrous for cities in this county to engage in a race to the bottom’

    Yer at the bottom when you have people crapping on the streets Shayla. BTW, who is paying for yer lawsuits?

    2. protections in other parts of the U.S. Constitution

      I’m pretty sure that the Supreme Court took those other protections into account and overrode them. And I don’t see her — or any of these advocates — offering to take in homeless or migrants themselves. Nope, they want to help themselves to other people’s money.

      1. they want to help themselves to other people’s money

        Of course. They want to expand bureaucracies and the six figure jobs that go with them.

  2. ‘In Jamaica, one resident said his block has become a complete nightmare since a migrant shelter opened three doors down on Liberty Avenue, with many of the new arrivals spending their days outside drinking booze and smoking weed. Some were kicked out of the shelter, formerly the Van Wyck Hotel, for bad behavior but later returned in vehicles to park on the street and sleep, recalled videographer Craig Richardson. ‘I don’t know where they’re getting the money to buy cars,’ said Richardson, 53. ‘And when they have to go to the bathroom, where’d they go? In my backyard!’

    The current political problems started well before the debate. They get the money from yer guberment Craig.

  4. From this morning’s C-SPAN Washington Journal, callers respond to the question “Is the American dream still possible?”

    https://www.c-span.org/video/?536782-2/open-forum-part-1

    The responses are mostly negative, and there are a few really articulate ones that specifically call out GLOBALISTS for destroying the American dream, and correctly predicting that the future they want for us is neo-feudalism.

  5. New York Times wets the bed on France.

    In the French Countryside, a Deep Discontent Takes Root (7/6/2024):

    “Some 9.3 million people voted for the National Rally in the first round of the election last weekend, more than double the 4.2 million in the first round of parliamentary elections in 2022. Spread across most regions in France, they included workers and pensioners, the young and the old, women and men. Tired of the status quo, they came together to roll the dice for change.

    Now, Ms. Le Pen’s party — one that has softened its image and smoothed its message, but retained a core anti-immigrant and euro-skeptic creed — seems set to become the largest in France after the second round of voting, even if it now appears unlikely to win an absolute majority.

    To say a taboo has fallen against voting for the far right is insufficient; it has disintegrated in a tidal wave of National Rally support.
    Tensions have risen across the country as a result. The Interior Ministry has announced that 30,000 police officers will be deployed on Sunday “to prevent the risk of disorder.”

    https://archive.vn/xRaVc

    France belongs to the French. Deport the invaders and kill all the globalists. Take France back. Take all of Europe back.

      1. The propaganda worked. Per exit polls National Rally is projected to come in third, behind the far left (NFP) and Macron’s parties. It will be business as usual in France. Perhaps the new far left government will hire charter jets to fly even more “refugees” into France.

  6. “Shayla Myers, a Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles attorney who has sued L.A. repeatedly over its treatment of its homeless population said she hopes city attorneys will view the decision narrowly, taking into account protections in other parts of the U.S. Constitution, the California Constitution and the ‘necessity’ defense against prosecution for violation of anti-camping laws.

    Shayla needs to have a van load of illegals and vagrants dropped off in her front yard.

  7. She said sellers were more optimistic than buyers that the decision would spur a rebound in activity after there was essentially ‘no spring market’ this year.”

    Wut? The much-ballyhooed Spring Miracle Revival touted by the REIC turned out to be a chimera? Gosh, I hope no sellers who latched on to that illusory hope to cling to their greedhead wish prices end up chasing the market down.

  8. With the $375,000 loss on the resale of the property, along with the roof and A/C/ bill, legal fees and interest, Justice Hori ruled Mahli, Fong and Liu owe Mandl nearly $413,000. Taking into account the $50,000 deposit, the damages awarded totalled nearly $363,000.”

    LMAO. I love the smell of burning housing speculators in the morning.

  9. The houses were competing with the hundreds of Airbnb listings in the area and the rental income did not cover the almost $50,000 annual bill Carrington faced for costs like rates, insurance, and maintenance.

    Die, speculator scum.

  10. They counted 114 vehicles, including five the California Highway Patrol deemed “of interest,” suggesting they had been stolen or were suspected of involvement in a crime, according to an EPA report that year. They also found two shipping containers being used as living space, a trailer, dismantled car batteries, leaking high-voltage power equipment and a device that looked like a military-grade bomb. An ordnance disposal team summoned from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton determined the object was a practice munition and destroyed its fuse to render it safe, a Marine spokesman said.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/dream-home-until-hoarder-next-100031042.html

  11. In a March 2023 interview, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz promised his country economic growth reminiscent of the post-war economic miracle. “Because of big investments in climate protection, Germany will achieve growth rates for some time which we last saw in the 1950s and 1960s,” said Scholz. Germany achieved annual growth rates of around 8 percent during the 1950s and early 1960s. Chancellor Scholz reiterated his certainty in the accuracy of his March 2023 forecast during a parliamentary session on July 3, 2024. However, the reality is exactly the opposite!

    Germany is once again the sick man of Europe. According to the OECD, global growth is projected to hit 3.1 percent this year, but Germany is expected to lag behind at only around 0.2 percent, the lowest of all OECD countries. On top of this, the number of company bankruptcies in Germany is higher than it has been for 10 years.

    Germany was last considered the “sick man of Europe” at the end of the 1990s. However, under the leadership of Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, significant market economy reforms were implemented, the labor market was liberalized, and the top tax rate was reduced from 53 to 42 percent. These changes were the foundation for Germany’s economic success story in the last 20 years and Angela Merkel benefited from Schröder’s reforms.

    During the 16-year Merkel era, no reforms were implemented. Instead, the German energy industry has been transformed into a planned economy under the slogan of the fight against climate change. Germany decided to shut down all of its nuclear power plants and while fracking is banned, the country imports LNG gas produced via fracking from the United States.

    Furthermore, the Merkel government made Germany dependent on Russian gas, despite warnings from the U.S. and countries like Poland. Electricity prices in Germany rose drastically, and not just since Putin’s war against Ukraine, which only made the situation worse. The “energy transition,” a major cause of many of these problems, is projected to cost Germany a total of 1.2 trillion (!) euros (about 1.3 trillion dollars) by 2035.

    One consequence of the energy transition is that it has become too expensive to produce in Germany, especially for companies that rely heavily on electricity. BASF, the world’s largest chemical company, now prefers to produce in China. BASF’s decision is driven by the lower electricity costs and less bureaucracy in China compared to Germany.

    The economic downturn in Germany may become even worse following the European Union’s decision to ban the registration of cars with combustion engines from 2035. Never in history has a country voluntarily forbid its best and most successful product, for which it is admired all over the world. I think the Chinese are very happy about this crazy decision. They can make electric vehicles much cheaper and continue to produce combustion engines at the same time.

    For many people, living on welfare is more attractive than working in the low-wage sector. Of course, this also applies to migrants. In recent years, Germany has seen a significant influx of immigrants, second only to the United States (which, however, has four times the population of Germany). The majority of these immigrants have low-level qualifications and very few are skilled workers. In fact, 82 percent of the Syrians in Germany, the largest group among asylum seekers, do not even have any professional training! Of those who receive citizens’ benefit, 63 percent are migrants, and in some federal states such as Hesse, where I was born, the figure is as high as 76 percent.

    A big issue is the rising crime rate among immigrants. Forty-one percent of suspected criminals are foreigners, a disproportionate figure compared with the percentage of the population. Migrants are particularly over-represented in crimes such as assault and rape.

    So, Germany has a lot of problems. Added to this is the bureaucracy, which is worse than in most other nations. Building permits can take years, sometimes more than a decade. Olaf Scholz is less popular than any chancellor before and the Greens, who were still very popular a few years ago, are becoming increasingly unpopular. But regardless of the outcome of the elections next year, there is little hope that the reforms Germany so urgently needs will be implemented.

    https://townhall.com/columnists/rainerzitelmann/2024/07/07/germany-the-sick-man-of-europe-n2641278

    1. Germany is once again the sick man of Europe. According to the OECD, global growth is projected to hit 3.1 percent this year, but Germany is expected to lag behind at only around 0.2 percent, the lowest of all OECD countries.

      The Germans need to run these politicians out of town ASAP. And deport any foreigners who are on the dole.

      1. Actually, they don’t need to deport them, just kick them off the Free Sh!t Army and they will self deport.

      2. Europeans don’t seem to mind housing and feeding immigrants, but when they commit violent crimes their tolerance is short lived.

    2. “Migrants are particularly over-represented in crimes”

      Illegal to discuss online in Germany.

      Remember when globalist Zuckerberg was caught on a hot mic telling Merkel “we’ll take care of it” regarding the too much noticing on social media?

      We remember, because globalists gonna globe.

  12. As uncertain as the outcome of Sunday’s French legislative election remains, there’s probably one safe bet: the Macron era is over. The share of the seats French President Emmanuel Macron’s party holds in the National Assembly will likely plunge, and a new government that is either weak or hostile to his agenda will emerge, making him a lame-duck president.

    Further complicating matters is that these developments land square in the middle of a volatile political season in the United States. The first round of the French election occurred within days of the first presidential debate in the U.S. After President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance, the odds of a Donald Trump victory in November’s election shot up. Given that Mr. Trump not only wants to take an even harder line than Mr. Biden on immigration but also plans to sharply raise tariffs and make his tax cuts permanent, both the U.S.’s persistent inflation and increasing fiscal deficit look set to worsen.

    Taken all together, the trends in both debt and inflation are thus rising on both sides of the Atlantic. Anticipating this, global bond traders have been demanding higher yields on the money they loan to governments. This effect is not confined only to the countries with fiscal accounts deep in the red. It’s happening across the board, because bond investors looking for higher returns are getting better offers elsewhere. And so, for example, the interest rates on the 10-year government bonds of G7 countries are up half a percentage point or more since the start of the year. Here in Canada, it’s actually risen further since the Bank of Canada recently cut short-term rates.

    Sunday’s election in France will thus occur just as markets across the developed world are already on tenterhooks. It’s difficult to predict the outcome.

    Even if Mr. Macron’s current Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, is able to retain his office, the government would probably be crippled by inertia, forcing the President to abandon his reform agenda. And given the reforms that Mr. Macron was driving both in France and in Europe, that will probably prolong the economic funk in which Europe now finds itself, with inflation proving stubborn and bond yields continuing to drift upward.

    This scenario will complicate the work of all central banks that are currently trying to engineer soft landings in their economies, bringing down interest rates while keeping inflation from rebounding. The Bank of Canada faces an especially tricky task. Domestic conditions currently justify its easing stance, but the international context makes it harder to pull off. Meanwhile, given the country’s dependence on trade, it remains especially sensitive to movements in currency and bond markets elsewhere.

    Assuming bond yields keep rising among our major trading partners, so will those here. Canadians looking for substantial mortgage relief may have to wait longer than they were expecting.

    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-in-the-west-a-rising-right-wing-tide-risks-raising-inflation-and-debt/

    1. That the left could still hold onto power in France after all that has happened would be very discouraging. It would mean that the African and middle eastern invasions would continue and French society would remain in its doom loop.

        1. French Communist-Socialist Bloc Victorious After Making Deal With Macron to Stop Populist Le Pen Party, Says Exit Poll

          KURT ZINDULKA
          7 Jul 2024

          The socialist-communist New Popular Front alliance has come out on top in the final round of snap legislative elections called by French President Emmanuel Macron, who sided with the far-left to thwart Marine Le Pen’s populist party.
          Former socialist President François Hollande said he would not be a candidate to become the next prime minister of France. , saying per Le Figaro: “I am not a candidate to lead the government. We are not there… There are too many painful topics in our country at the level of public services and security.”

          The former President of the Republic, who served as the head of state prior to Emmanuel Macron from 2012 to 2017, joined the far-left New Popular Front alliance last month and has been sent back to the National Assembly as a socialist deputy (MP).

          After winning the most seats of any party in Sunday’s second round legislative elections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the principal leader of the socialist-communist New Popular Front, has called on President Emmanuel Macron to either resign from office or to “appoint a prime minister from our ranks”. Mélenchon has previously argued for himself to be installed as PM, however, it is not clear if Macron would be willing to do so.

          UPDATE 2030: Prime Minister Gabriel Attal Announces Resignation, Le Pen Vows to Fight On

          Emmanuel Macron’s second in command, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced he would tender his resignation tomorrow morning to the head of state, saying: “This evening, the political group that I represented in this campaign does not have a majority, I will submit my resignation to the President of the Republic tomorrow morning.”

  13. The former co-founder and president of a Bellingham nonprofit that helps unhoused people will pay nearly $50,000 back to the organization after he pleaded guilty to embezzling the funds over a multi-year period.

    James “Jim” Lee Peterson, 67, of Bellingham, pleaded guilty June 3 in Whatcom County Superior Court to one count of first-degree theft, a felony. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail, with the ability to serve that time on work release or work crew, according to court records.

    Prosecutors agreed to drop aggravating factors on the theft charge — which stated the crime was a major economic offense and that Peterson had used his position of trust, confidence or fiduciary responsibility to facilitate the crime — in exchange for his guilty plea, court records show.

    Peterson was approved to serve his 60-day sentence on out-of-custody work crew and has already served several days.

    Peterson is a co-founder and former president of HomesNOW! Not Later, a Bellingham nonprofit that operates tiny home communities for unhoused people and is dedicated to ending homelessness. HomesNOW! currently operates two tiny home villages, Unity Village and Swift Haven, which are located on city-owned land in Bellingham.

    He was accused of embezzling more than $75,000 from HomesNOW! between June 2017 and September 2019, according to court records. Peterson reportedly withdrew funds from the nonprofit’s business banking account for personal use and spent the money at casinos in Whatcom and Skagit counties, and at several local businesses. Peterson withdrew the majority of the funds in cash from ATMs across Whatcom County. He also made additional withdrawals inside banks. Court records state the withdrawals had no legitimate business purposes.

    Peterson is required to pay $47,000 in restitution back to the nonprofit. Payments of no less than $40 a month are expected to begin July 1. Court documents state that funds will be disbursed to the nonprofit as they are received by the court.

    Peterson’s guilty plea and sentencing come four years and seven months after charges were originally filed against him. His court case was continued 27 times, including during the period when jury trials were shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

    https://news.yahoo.com/news/former-president-homesnow-pleads-guilty-001500874.html

    1. He doesn’t have to pay it all back? I would have required full repayment, PLUS interest. And $40 a month? He won’t even pay the reduced amount back before he takes his dirt nap.

      Crime does pay.

    2. “…spent the money at casinos in Whatcom and Skagit counties,…”

      Looks like he spent those funds at the all you can eat buffet.

  14. A 6-year-old apartment building near Northeast D.C.’s H Street corridor has a new owner after developer Habte Sequar was foreclosed on and filed for bankruptcy.

    A partnership led by Ernst Equities paid $6.8M to acquire the 49-unit Havana apartment building at 1219 K St. NE, Ernst Equities Managing Partner Felipe Ernst told Bisnow.

    Ernst partnered with Earning Housing Development Co. and MCN Build on the acquisition, and the team received a $5.7M loan from Industrial Bank along with the deal, according to documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds. The sale pencils out to $139K per unit, but it doesn’t include the land, as the building is owned through a ground lease.

    The five-story property was less than 50% occupied at the time of the sale, and Ernst said it had been poorly managed. He said his team plans to invest $1M to renovate it.

    “We’re really trying to rectify the dire condition the building’s in right now and restore the potential of this 49-unit new construction in an incredibly booming neighborhood,” Ernst said.

    The sale came after lender Wesbanco filed a foreclosure notice and affidavit in September 2022 on an affiliate controlled by Sequar, the property’s developer. The next month, the entity with which Sequar controlled the property filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, court records show. This sale was part of that bankruptcy process.

    This is the second new development that Sequar has lost to foreclosure this year. The Holiday Inn Express he built at 317 K St. NW in Mount Vernon Triangle sold at auction in April to Peachtree Hotel Group, the Washington Business Journal reported. An entity Sequar controls that owned the hotel property filed for bankruptcy in February 2023.

    https://www.bisnow.com/washington-dc/news/multifamily/6-year-old-apartment-building-near-union-market-sells-out-of-foreclosure-124981

    1. Northeast D.C.’s H Street

      Anything in Northeast is a ‘hood. From the maps, it looks like one of those areas where the buildings were gentrified but the attitude was not.

      1. ‘The five-story property was less than 50% occupied at the time of the sale, and Ernst said it had been poorly managed. He said his team plans to invest $1M to renovate it. ‘We’re really trying to rectify the dire condition the building’s in right now and restore the potential of this 49-unit new construction in an incredibly booming neighborhood’

        Felipe:

        via GIPHY

  16. Bridge Investment Group sold a 514K SF office park in Sunrise for $49M, a nearly 35% discount from what the firm paid for the property five years ago.

    IMC Equity Group, a North Miami-based investment firm led by Yoram Izhak, purchased the 56-acre Sawgrass Technology Park at 601-1699 NW 136th Ave. It took a $30M mortgage from Israel Discount Bank of New York to close the deal, according to property records from property intelligence platform Vizzda.

    Bridge purchased the property for $74M in March 2019 with a $59M loan from Capital One. The Utah-based investment firm, which has offices around the U.S., Seoul and Luxembourg, paid $144 per SF for the 11-building office park and sold it for around $95 per SF.

    The two-story buildings in the office park were built in 1984 and 1985, and Bridge pledged to invest $5M into capital improvements when it purchased the property. At the time, the property was 76% leased.

    Online marketing material for the property indicates it is around 30% vacant, with 138K SF available, although some of that space could be occupied. Spaces at the property from 2K SF to 40K SF are listed by Cushman & Wakefield for $22 per SF.

    The 35% loss of value shows that South Florida’s commercial real estate market isn’t immune to trends playing out nationally, with tenants’ flight to quality weighing on the valuations of older office parks and dampening lender appetites to refinance loans.

    Sawgrass Technology Park is the second South Florida office property Bridge took a loss on this year. In January, the firm sold the 141K SF office building at 8600 NW 36th St. in Doral for $28.5M five years after paying $37M to acquire it. The 20-year-old property was 88% leased at the time of sale and traded at a roughly 10% capitalization rate.

    https://www.bisnow.com/south-florida/news/office/broward-offices-49m-sale-is-bridges-second-south-florida-loss-this-year-124955

  17. There are 48 industrial spaces larger than 100K SF available across South Florida, according to data provided by Cushman & Wakefield.

    The vacant spaces total more than 10M SF, and their failure to lease is starting to weigh on the market.

    The pandemic-era surge that defined South Florida’s industrial market has come crashing down, with the region experiencing a bit of a hangover as the large blocks that once drove record leasing volume sit on the market amid tenant demand for smaller footprints.

    Combined vacancy across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties has doubled in the last year to 3.9%, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The pace of leasing is down 23% from 2019, before the pandemic upended market dynamics. And the 2.4M SF of leasing activity from January through March marked the worst first-quarter performance of the last five years.

    “The larger blocks have been sitting for a longer amount of time than what we would think would be typical,” said Erin Byers, an industrial broker in Colliers’ Miami office.

    Rents have nearly doubled since 2019, causing “sticker shock for tenants that are in the market,” she said.

    More than 29M SF of new industrial space has been delivered in the last five years, and another 6M SF is under construction, according to Cushman & Wakefield. Just 10% of the under-construction space is preleased. The South Florida market has two and three years of industrial supply for spaces larger than 150K SF and 300K SF, respectively, CoStar estimates.

    Large distribution center leases helped propel activity in South Florida during the pandemic, as shippers followed the lockdown-driven migration trends. Those tenants aren’t closing many deals today, meaning landlords with large projects will need to broaden their time horizon if they want to fill their space at a premium rate, Byers said.

    “The landlords need to be patient. For tenants that can withstand that type of rent, you need a strong company,” Byers said. “Not to say that they leased to a lot of bad-credit companies [during the pandemic], there just wasn’t as much of a process. People were fighting over spaces and things were happening, in my opinion, maybe a little too quickly.”

    https://www.bisnow.com/south-florida/news/industrial/massive-warehouses-drag-down-south-floridas-industrial-fundamentals-124866

  18. Besides the fact he sells gold bullion, I’ll be needing one of you smart guys to tell me how wrong this guy is and why.

    GLOBAL POWER SHIFT IMMINENT! From WW3 To BRICS, Your Money Isn’t Safe!

    World Alternative Media | Banned.Video
    July 7th 2024, 7:16 am

    Josh Sigurdson talks with Mark Gonzales of First National Bullion about the massive global powershift we’re currently seeing take place on a historic scale as globalists plan for the “Great Reset.”

    The reset will be both cultural and financial and will end with billions of people on a technocratic cashless system. As the West commits suicide by design, the East is quickly taking over financially. With BRICS+ taking over the entire economic system, launching a new world reserve currency to replace the dollar and with Saudi Arabia joining the coalition, it’s pretty obvious where this is headed.

    World War III only adds to the ordeal as Russia builds a new Eurasian version of NATO and demands an end to any anti-Russian sanctions to join the new currency system.

    As Western banks collapse and the dollar collapses simultaneously, your money is not safe in a bank. The move to a cashless CBDC system with 15-Minute Cities, digital IDs with social and carbon credits alongside food and electricity rations is obviously the agenda at hand.

    https://www.infowars.com/posts/global-power-shift-imminent-from-ww3-to-brics-your-money-isnt-safe/

    1. “The move to a cashless CBDC system with 15-Minute Cities, digital IDs with social and carbon credits alongside food and electricity rations is obviously the agenda at hand.”

      Will I be able to check my FICO style social and carbon credit score?

  19. Quality of life tanking in NYC communities with most migrant shelters (7/7/2024):

    “The influx of illegal migrants to the Big Apple over the past two years has meant a sea-change in the quality of life for workers and residents in zip codes swamped with shelters, they told The Post.

    “It’s overpopulated here and that’s a concern,” said Maria Katirtzoglou, 38, who works for a Long Island City engineering firm next door to a hotel-turned-migrant shelter on Crescent Street.

    “That’s a concern for people who were born and raised here, people that have property here, because people that do own property and then they see all this coming in, they don’t like it,” she said. “At night, I don’t feel safe in this area…It’s not safe. Things happen – robberies and knives, you know, people take out knives.”

    Shawarn Shields, 50, of Queensbridge Houses, said parents are afraid to take their kids to local parks and playgrounds because migrants typically race electric scooters and have sex there.

    “This is not a third-world country,” said Shields. “We can’t just let anyone come into our neighborhood and do whatever the f— they want!”

    https://nypost.com/2024/07/07/us-news/quality-of-life-tanking-in-parts-of-nyc-with-most-migrant-shelters/

    Not a third world country? It is now.

    “They’re not sending their best”

    1. “This is not a third-world country,” said Shields. “We can’t just let anyone come into our neighborhood and do whatever the f— they want!”

      Isn’t it cute how the silly tax paying American citizen thinks anyone in power thinks or cares about what they want.

  21. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff tests positive for COVID-19 two days after July 4 with President Biden

    Whaaaat? I thought that if you were jabbed and boosted you couldn’t get sick!

  22. ‘Since then, median price in this ZIP code has fallen by more than 15% — to $504,500 in May 2024…Developers, meanwhile, are pushing forward…‘We’re full steam ahead…We’ve got a good job market here, Apple or no Apple. We’ll be fine’

    That’s the spirit Dave, build baby build!

  23. ‘have all the hard-won permits they need. Amid high interest rates and materials costs, raising enough money is the real problem. ‘The whole dynamic of housing finance has shifted,’ said O’Brien. ‘It has become so much harder to make these projects work’

    You paid too much for the land Tom, and Jerry broke it off in yer a$$ at the same time. There’s probably a relation thing in there.

    ‘The nearly 600-unit Riverside project has been paused since late 2022, and the formula for moving it forward ‘just doesn’t work’ anymore…Part of the problem, said Cohen, is that the market for lab development, which was supposed to be the focus of the first phase of the Riverside project, has cratered’

    We are talking about BOSTON here Howie. Bay aryan tech real estate crumbled long ago, but Boston can’t lose!

  24. ‘Their house sits on an acre of land, but often her kids opt to play out front along the sidewalk. ‘I can’t even use my backyard. My kids can’t go out there,’ she said. ‘I would like my children to be independent and feel comfortable going outside and playing and they won’t…We never locked our doors. We were pretty casual…Now we have a full-on security system’

    I know yer a little down right now Robin, but it’s still way cheaper than renting and in the long run you will be a winnah!

    ‘To Bach the solution is to create a sanctioned camping area in the city. To her this will concentrate resources in one place. ‘You can put your tent here, here’s bathrooms, dumpsters,’ she said. ‘They’ve come here and told them to move a million times, they don’t move’

    Central planning doesn’t work.

  26. ‘It’s overpopulated here [with migrants] and that’s a concern…That’s a concern for people who were born and raised here, people that have property here, because people that do own property and then they see all this coming in, they don’t like it,’ she said. ‘At night, I don’t feel safe in this area…It’s not safe. Things happen – robberies and knives, you know, people take out knives’

    So the walkability is probably down Maria?

    ‘said parents are afraid to take their kids to local parks and playgrounds because migrants typically race electric scooters and have sex there. ‘This is not a third-world country,’ said Shields. ‘We can’t just let anyone come into our neighborhood and do whatever the f— they want!’

    Yer absolutely right Shawarn. For example, in third-world countries corrupt guberments use their power over law enforcement and the court system to persecute their political opponents and put them in jail. This country is 250 years old and no one ever dared to do that.

  27. ‘Individuals will be offered the assistance they need…But we cannot allow people to simply take over public spaces and parks while they refuse the assistance that is being offered’… ‘If you’re an unhoused person, and you’re feeling harassed constantly, you’re just going to self-evict and relocate to the city limits of L.A’

    Victor and Kevin are locked in a life or death struggle over an issue they invented and subsidize heavily. Central planning!

  28. ‘It’s got to be a lot more than 25 basis points’…She said sellers were more optimistic than buyers that the decision would spur a rebound in activity after there was essentially ‘no spring market’ this year’

    Bargaining <- Vy, you are here.

  29. ‘I guess all the sellers have been holding off for some time now. Everyone probably had the same idea, like ‘let’s wait till the rate cut,’ she said. ‘So literally, as soon as that happened, there was this huge amount of new listings that came to the market.’ There were 23,613 active listings on the market last month, up 67.4 per cent from June 2023. New listings rose 12.3 per cent over the same period, with 17,964 properties put on the market last month’

    Rate dating looks more like a losing proposition every day.

  30. ‘A recent civil court case highlights the drastic dip in Kelowna’s real estate market in the spring and summer of 2022, with a group of potential buyers being ordered to pay more than $400,000 after they were unable to secure financing on a home despite signing a purchasing contract…The three people had agreed to purchase a home on Kelowna’s Ethel Street from Mandl for $1,115,000, which was $116,000 more than the listing price of the property’

    Wai, Xiao, Navdeep, you went deep. All in, and yer fooked. You have to think about the big picture. Overall, it’s a red hotcakes sellers market!

  31. Chicago homeowner stunned after getting a notice that his property taxes skyrocketed from $1,800 to over $30K

    Serah Louis
    Sat, Jul 6, 2024, 6:16 AM EDT4 min read

    Darryl Lloyd wasn’t prepared to receive a property tax bill of more than $30,000 this year — a whopping 1,567% hike from last year’s bill of $1,800.

    The new bill was based on an assessment valuing Lloyd’s modest 1950s home in Chicago Heights at more than $1 million.

    However, Lloyd bought the three-bedroom, one-bathroom house for $115,000 in 2006 and believes its current market value is just over $180,000 — nowhere near seven figures.

    “I was literally devastated when I saw that increase,” Lloyd told FOX 32 Chicago. “I see 960 square feet. I don’t have a second floor. I don’t have a basement.”

    The diesel mechanic and safety inspector was relying on disability benefits after an injury — and wasn’t sure how he would shell out the funds.

    “I will have to move in with a relative or something,” he said. “I can’t afford it.”

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chicago-homeowner-stunned-getting-notice-101600890.html

    1. disability benefits after an injury

      In other words, you’re not working and you don’t need to live in Chicago. If the house is really worth $1M, sell it for $1m and live like a king in Oil City.

  32. ‘We’re cashing out’…’We wanted to get some traction in this difficult market, so this bulk approach gives a sense of competition’…‘These have just become a burden for us. When people come to stay with us, they prefer to stay on-site near the golf course so other than peak Christmas New Year season they don’t get used much,’ he said. The houses were competing with the hundreds of Airbnb listings in the area and the rental income did not cover the almost $50,000 annual bill Carrington faced for costs like rates, insurance, and maintenance. Tan added: ‘We understand the economy and the current housing market. There are few sales in the Far North, lending is hard, and the overseas buyers aren’t there, so this time we try this’

    Bill and Hania are just giving it away.

  33. From Reddit LOLZ:

    “The US is functioning as designed. It can’t be saved because there’s nothing to save it from. It is and always has acted as an extension of the rich. On the plus side, capitalism and its sibling fascism are unsustainable. The US is well on its way to collapse.”

    /LateStageCapitalism

  34. How Donald Trump Changed News Media with Matt Taibbi

    Penn State McCourtney Institute for Democracy

    July 5, 2024.

    Journalist and author Matt Taibbi explores the transformative impact Donald Trump had on media coverage during the 2016 presidential campaign. The discussion highlights how Trump’s presence dramatically boosted ratings and clicks for news outlets, leading to a shift in editorial strategies. It delves into the ethical and commercial dilemmas faced by media companies, the increase in personality-focused rather than policy-focused coverage, and the subsequent polarization of the news landscape. The episode also examines the concept of ‘audience optimized framing’ where media content increasingly caters to specific audiences, reinforcing their existing beliefs.

    00:00 The Trump Media Phenomenon Begins
    01:40 Trump’s Impact on Media Coverage
    03:02 Ethical Dilemmas in Journalism
    05:20 The Perfect Media Product
    06:33 Audience-Driven News Strategies
    09:14 The Polarization of News Audiences
    10:41 The Shift to Audience-Optimized Framing

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5CKazpJcd4

    11:36.

  35. If you live in a City where restrooms have to be locked, for customers only, you live in a Low Trust Society / Neighborhood.

    Denver is a failed city.

  38. ‘I learned an amazing amount,’ says Pinchot, ‘and I lost my shirt.’ He shrugs off the ordeal now, adding, ‘What are you going to do?’”

    That’s the spirit Bronson!

    Have you ever heard of Bitcoin?

  39. Does it seem like the bulls’ overconfidence has set them up for a world of pain when the good times end?

    1. Business / Economy
      A key part of America’s economy has shifted into reverse
      Analysis by Bryan Mena, CNN
      Updated 7:46 AM EDT, Sun July 7, 2024
      Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald/Getty Images/File
      CUMBERLAND, ME – MAY 9: A nearly full dining room at Rise Pizza & Pub on Thursday, May 9, 2024.

      Washington CNN —

      A vast swath of the US economy is showing signs of weakness as unemployment rises to its highest point in more than two years.

      Consumer demand seems to have tapered off so far this summer, according to surveys of American businesses that sell any kind of service to make a profit, ranging from restaurants to dental clinics. That weakness is also evident in the latest spending figures — a far cry from last year’s lucrative summertime spending spree when Americans shelled out for films and high-profile concerts.

      The Institute for Supply Management’s latest monthly survey that gauges economic activity in the services sector showed that so-called new orders and overall economic activity unexpectedly slipped into contraction territory last month. The headline index fell to a reading of 48.8 in June from 53.8 in May as the new orders sub-index saw an even steeper decline, down to 47.3 from 54.1. (A reading above 50 indicates expansion while anything below that threshold points to a contraction.)

      This apparent slowdown in demand, if it persists for long enough, could translate into service-providing businesses hiring at a slower pace and possibly slashing jobs. The overwhelming majority of employment in the United States is considered service-providing, specifically 86% of the 158.6 million total US jobs as of June.

      “When you think of services, a lot of it is driven by the consumer, and consumers are key to where the US economy goes,” James Knightley, chief international economist at ING, told CNN. “We’re starting to see stress in more and more households.”

      The US consumer is indeed under pressure, grappling with still-high inflation, the highest interest rates in more than two decades, depleted pandemic savings (according to some measures), and a growing load of debt. Consumer spending, which makes up about 70% of the US economy, has already moderated over the past few months, government statistics show, and retailers themselves have said they’ve noticed shoppers across the income spectrum change their purchasing behavior.

      A food services business surveyed by ISM said “sales and traffic remain soft compared to last year,” blaming “high gas prices in California and constant news about inflation and restaurant menu prices.” Spending at restaurants and bars declined 0.4% in May, according to the latest Commerce Department figures on retail sales. A retail company told ISM: “With inflation continuing, will customers have enough discretionary funds to spend?”
      …
      https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/07/economy/stocks-week-ahead-services-sector-slow-restaurants-stores/index.html

      1. The good news is that 200k jobs created, bad news is that odds are it is a lie, like every report is.
        Last report revised down 100k.
        I actually think the revisions are also lies.
        Only in government can you always be wrong, and get promoted.

        1. Word out there that only PT jobs gained, and the there was a loss of full time jobs. We are in the recession, no matter how hard they try to gaslight us.

    2. The Motley Fool
      U.S. Money Supply Has Done Something So Rare That It Hasn’t Occurred Since the Great Depression — and a Mammoth Move in Stocks May Follow
      By Sean Williams – Jul 7, 2024 at 5:06AM
      Key Points

      – A select few predictive indicators and forecasting tools have historically correlated with big moves in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500, and Nasdaq Composite.

      – M2 money supply has fallen by at least 2% from its all-time high on only five occasions in 154 years. The first four instances all coincided with an economic depression and a double-digit unemployment rate.

      – Patience and perspective are a winning combination for investors on Wall Street.

      – Motley Fool Issues Rare “All In” Buy Alert
      …
      https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/07/07/us-money-supply-great-depression-big-move-stocks/

    3. Finance·economy
      The Fed could slash rates by 200 points over 8 straight meetings as the economy heads for a sharper downtrend, Citi says
      BY Jason Ma
      July 7, 2024 at 10:20 AM PDT
      Jerome Powell holds out hands
      Federal Reserve Bank Chair Jerome Powell at a news conference in May.
      Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images

      Get ready for a bonanza of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve that starts in a few months and extends all the way into next summer, according to analysts at Citi Research.
      …
      https://fortune.com/2024/07/07/fed-rate-cuts-outlook-200-points-economy-sharper-slowdown-citi/

      1. “Get ready for a bonanza of rate cuts from the Federal Reserve…”

        What exactly does that mean? Is the writer truly ignorant of the history of stock market declines following the Fed unwinding its tightening cycles?

  40. Johnny Depp was able to save his two West Hollywood homes as millions of Americans face zombie foreclosure fate — here’s how to stay invested in real estate without an expensive mortgage
    Johnny Depp and an aerial view of one of his Hollywood homes.
    Getty Images
    Chris MacDonald
    Updated Jul 6, 2024

    Johnny Depp has been in the news probably more than he’d have liked in recent years. From his highly-publicized court case with Amber Heard to the more recent news around his financial troubles with his West Hollywood properties, this is a man who’s been through the real estate ringer lately.

    Last year, a $10 million loan enabled Depp to save his two West Hollywood homes from foreclosure, a fate an increasing number of Americans are currently grappling with. Data from Q1 2024 shows more than 67,000 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process, up 4% from a year ago.
    …
    https://moneywise.com/investing/real-estate/johnny-depp-homes-real-estate-alternatives

      1. Planet Money
        Zombie 2nd mortgages are coming to life, threatening thousands of Americans’ homes
        Updated May 18, 20246:00 AM ET
        By Chris Arnold, Robert Smith, Jess Jiang, Sam Yellowhorse Kesler,
        Robert Benincasa, Nick McMillan
        30-Minute Listen
        Karen McDonough sits inside her home in Quincy, Massachusetts.
        Vanessa Leroy for NPR

        One spring morning two years ago, Karen McDonough was having tea at her dining room table. She lives in a cozy little two-bedroom house in Quincy, Massachusetts. She looked out her window and saw something unusual.

        “There were like 20 cars, and they all came at the same time and they parked in front of my house, across the street, up the street,” McDonough said. “I just had this feeling like something really bad had happened … like maybe somebody in the neighborhood died.”

        Something bad was definitely happening — to her.

        McDonough put on her shoes, went out to the driveway and approached a group of men, casually dressed, milling around on the lawn. One had a clipboard and seemed to be in charge.

        “He had a piece of paper, and I said, ‘What’s happening?’ And he goes, ‘We’re selling your house.'”

        It was a foreclosure auction on her home.

        This seemed impossible. McDonough had owned the house for 17 years. She’s a registered nurse who worked at the prestigious Massachusetts General Hospital for decades and makes a good living. She raised two kids in the house and pays her mortgage every month.

        But back after the housing crash in 2008, like millions of other Americans, McDonough had asked for a modification of the mortgage. Back then, she says, her mortgage company told her a second mortgage she had on the house was forgiven as part of the modification. And she said that seemed to be true — she stopped getting any statements for more than 10 years.

        More recently, though, she’d been getting phone calls demanding money. She thought it must be some kind of scam. But now these men on her lawn were telling her, “This is a foreclosure. You are going to lose this house,” McDonough said.

        McDonough had fallen victim to what’s called a zombie second mortgage. Homeowners think these loans are long dead. But then the loans come back to life because they get bought up, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, by debt collectors. These companies often tack on a mountain of retroactive interest and fees, even though that can be legally dubious in some cases, and then move to collect and foreclose on people’s homes.

        And an NPR investigation found that the practice is widespread.

        NPR looked at foreclosure data across several states where records were available. In New York, NPR found at least 10,000 old second mortgages that foreclosure activity had been initiated on in just the past two years. Those loans originated back during the subprime-lending housing-bubble days of 2004 to 2008.

        In Maryland, where more detailed information was obtainable, NPR found at least 500 old second mortgages that had been in default and unpaid for more than a decade but now a company has taken the first step toward foreclosure. In other words, more than 500 zombie mortgages in a single state that are now coming back to life as companies file a form with the state indicating they intend to foreclose on the property.

        “The numbers to me are very scary,” said Andrea Bopp Stark, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center who has been looking into zombie second mortgages. She has seen anecdotal examples. But foreclosures are notoriously difficult to track — recorded in different ways at the local level in thousands of counties. “It’s just so hard to quantify,” she said.

        NPR’s investigation is now shining a light on some of that. “This really is a problem,” Stark said.

        Zombie second loans can be perilous for homeowners because they were real mortgages, signed 15 or 20 years ago, and often there are still liens recorded on the properties. Stark says that this can make it easy for investors that now own the loans to foreclose.

        NPR spoke to other homeowners across the U.S. who are seeing mortgages they thought were dead come back to haunt them.

        “I saw this foreclosure letter and I just panicked and started to cry,” said Sophiea Lipford in Alexandria, Virginia. She and her husband, Andre Lipford, have owned their house for 18 years and raised their kids there. He’s a contractor; she’s a surgical technician. “We’re gonna lose our home,” she told NPR.
        …
        https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1197959049/zombie-second-mortgages-homeowners-foreclosure

        1. “Back then, she says, her mortgage company told her a second mortgage she had on the house was forgiven as part of the modification.”

          Magic eight ball says she has no legal documentation of this loan forgiveness. In particular, her losn agreement was apparently not cancelled, but instead was sold to debt collectors.

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