Madeline
Rookie
- Banned
- #1
When a financial market segment collapses, there is enormous money to be made in the winding up just as there was in the puffery that caused it....and usually by the exact same evil-doers. In the mid 1990's, the tail end of the junk bond crisis killed off a few insurance companies who had invested in these products. When the insurance companies were liquidated, their holdings had to be sold. Who showed up to handle those sales? You guessed it -- former junk bond salesmen.
In Ohio and most likely, in every state, the sale of homes to buyers who could not reasonably be expected to pay their mortgages -- often crappy mortgages anyone would have been likely to default on -- created enormous profits for banks, but also for real estate lawyers, title insurance companies, home inspectors, property insurance companies and their agents, etc. We've all vented on the ginormous bail out for banks.....and at the very least, we thought our government would pass any further bail out law out in the sunshine, where we could watch.
But apparently, we were wrong. In Cuyahoga County, banks that hold mortgages on foreclosed property have refused to spend any dollars on maintaining them. The housing stock here is predominately old wooden homes that deteriorate rapidly when left vacant. Seems no one else is responsible for the upkeep of these homes either, or at least efforts to find a deep pocket to pay have proven fruitless.
So the federal government has created and funded a program to tear these homes down. Did you read about that in your local paper? In any correspondence from your Congressional representatives? Because I sure did not. Whatever this new federal program is, it was adopted in the dark, away from the prying eyes of citizens.
Nevermind the insanity of destroying housing stock when a short sale etc. might have allowed the banks to recover some of their investment -- following that fiscally conservative path would have meant the banks would have had to redesign internal procedures, hire and train staff, etc. It is cheaper for the banks to walk away because of tax laws and banking laws that have been passed to cede even more taxpayer money over to the banks. Yet another stealth bail out for banks.
Transferring the title to these homes to the county or city so they may be destroyed will require real estate closings and all those attendant costs....costs that will be reaped by the various service providers who shoveled people into these homes on crappy mortgages to begin with. Does that strike you as unsavory? It certainly offends my nose for justice.
The US taxpayer is funding the tear down of homes that could be sold, because banks will not fulfill their legal obligations to the community and keep them maintained. The taxpayers are funding the losses the banks otherwise would incur through US tax and banking laws. Were there some recently made amendments to these laws? Some new regulations? I'd bet my next pension check there were -- probably written by the banks' lobbyists. Paper profits over real estate gains, if one is fast and cheap and the other is slow and expensive to attain -- and to hell with the communities decimated by abandoned foreclosed homes.
In short, there is another wave of stealth bail outs of banks going on in Cuyahoga County -- and I suspect, in damn near every other US county. Pisses me off no end. If it pisses you off as well, let your representatives in Congress know.
Foreclosed homes to be demolished in Parma | cleveland.com
In Ohio and most likely, in every state, the sale of homes to buyers who could not reasonably be expected to pay their mortgages -- often crappy mortgages anyone would have been likely to default on -- created enormous profits for banks, but also for real estate lawyers, title insurance companies, home inspectors, property insurance companies and their agents, etc. We've all vented on the ginormous bail out for banks.....and at the very least, we thought our government would pass any further bail out law out in the sunshine, where we could watch.
But apparently, we were wrong. In Cuyahoga County, banks that hold mortgages on foreclosed property have refused to spend any dollars on maintaining them. The housing stock here is predominately old wooden homes that deteriorate rapidly when left vacant. Seems no one else is responsible for the upkeep of these homes either, or at least efforts to find a deep pocket to pay have proven fruitless.
So the federal government has created and funded a program to tear these homes down. Did you read about that in your local paper? In any correspondence from your Congressional representatives? Because I sure did not. Whatever this new federal program is, it was adopted in the dark, away from the prying eyes of citizens.
Nevermind the insanity of destroying housing stock when a short sale etc. might have allowed the banks to recover some of their investment -- following that fiscally conservative path would have meant the banks would have had to redesign internal procedures, hire and train staff, etc. It is cheaper for the banks to walk away because of tax laws and banking laws that have been passed to cede even more taxpayer money over to the banks. Yet another stealth bail out for banks.
Transferring the title to these homes to the county or city so they may be destroyed will require real estate closings and all those attendant costs....costs that will be reaped by the various service providers who shoveled people into these homes on crappy mortgages to begin with. Does that strike you as unsavory? It certainly offends my nose for justice.
The US taxpayer is funding the tear down of homes that could be sold, because banks will not fulfill their legal obligations to the community and keep them maintained. The taxpayers are funding the losses the banks otherwise would incur through US tax and banking laws. Were there some recently made amendments to these laws? Some new regulations? I'd bet my next pension check there were -- probably written by the banks' lobbyists. Paper profits over real estate gains, if one is fast and cheap and the other is slow and expensive to attain -- and to hell with the communities decimated by abandoned foreclosed homes.
In short, there is another wave of stealth bail outs of banks going on in Cuyahoga County -- and I suspect, in damn near every other US county. Pisses me off no end. If it pisses you off as well, let your representatives in Congress know.
Foreclosed homes to be demolished in Parma | cleveland.com
