From the Times Ledger:With one foreclosure for every 34 houses in Jamaica, residents of southeast Queens are more than a little worried about their neighborhoods.
There are concerns about an uptick in crime, the exodus of friends and family members from the area and foreclosures in general “threatening the social fabric of our community,” said Barbara Brown, chairwoman of Eastern Queens Alliance. The federation of civics in southeast Queens co−sponsored with the Community Affairs Unit of the mayor’s office a forum on the housing crisis Monday night.
More than 50 borough residents attended the forum at JHS 231 in Springfield Gardens, and many of the residents who spoke at the event said they were concerned about the empty foreclosed homes being hotbeds of illegal activity and the foreclosures causing their property value to plummet.
18 comments:
Please see the above posting about Coney Island. Why are we contemplating big new deals when we have people cowering in their houses waiting for the sheriff to evict them, or neighbors tooling up with 9mm so that they can fight off the coming barbarian hordes?
How about that?
The city sends its caterers to a home foreclosure forum.
That's all the CAU does.
Why aren't the banks doing more for these people? I thought the president and the banks we're working on stopping foreclosures. I hope with this meeting they were given information to apply through the government. It's a shame too many homes in that area, someone needs to step up and help them. Helen Marshall where are you?
"Zzzzzzz. ('A few more years and I can retire'). Zzzzzzzz."
What role would Helen Marshall have?
The home buyer entered into a written contract with the bank. The deal was simple.
The bank make the purchase possible by lending the money to the home purchaser. The purchaser AGREES to make regular payments until the loan is repaid.
The purchaser claimed to have the income and credit rating to hold up their end. The bank already held up its end - it shelled out the money.
If the purchaser thought it was possible, due to illness, disability or unemployment to fulfill the CONTRACT, the purchaser could have spent a few extra dollars for mortgage insurance to protect the purchase.
To save a few bucks, or out of utter stupidity, the insurance was not purchased.
Or, the buyer never had any intention to pay back the loan, a very likely explanation.
That's because, Carter, Clinton, and now Obama, were & are peddling the notion that the taxpayers OWED the jobless and noncreditworthy a home (and food, health care, clothing and all else), free.
The proof that these people knew that it was all an imbecilic lie is that these foreclosed home residents, continue to look for taxpayers to pay, rather than getting a job and make sacrifices to pay for their own things.
There will be very troublesome consequences as the understanding of the lie hits home, but, a lie cannot be the truth simply because many, many people believe it, or because many powerful people keep repeating it.
Who calls the tune must pay the piper. It's the natural way of things. All else is a perversion.
Dear Taxpayer, I respect your views, but clearly everyone in America did not suddenly sign up to steal from the banks or suck the teat of Uncle Sugar.
Let me explain exactly what is happening. Loans are now being formulated with the express purpose of seeing them fail. Credit card rates are jacked up without advance notice, weird mortgage products are produced where the interest rate is a product of the phase of the moon.
Yes, I know that this is a bizarre concept, but true. The various penalty rates brought in more money than would have been the case with a more transparent product.
We have had on the books laws requiring bank disclosures to be in plain English since the 1970s. Try finding a bank that follows that law. Fees are also required to be fully disclosed. Watch how many banks arrange to make it is difficult as possible to determine what the actual fees are.
Trust me. My loans are paid in full, I owe nobody, and I have worked as a teller and on the bond, and forex trading floors of several major banks.
I have seen the changes in the mentality of the bankers over 20 years and have seen the sales of the derivative products created from the offal created when bad debt is sliced, diced and handed off to innocent third parties.
Something is definitely rotten in the state of Denmark and crazy borrowers is the least of it.
You're missing the hidden agenda.
True these homeowners should have known how much home they could have afforded in the first place before they took on the debt.
However, the "gentry" in Jamaica have been looking to drive out the Blacks for decades.
This foreclosure windfall has now made their racist dreams possible.
A little too much "coincidence" for me here folks.
Now let's see who picks up and benefits by these foreclosures.
What do you expect when the chief of that jerk-off CAU ,Ms. Natzli Parvisi, was formerly a caterer!
Cheese puffs anyone?
Yep....all of that valuable underutilized real estate in south Jamaica is just too good to be in the hands of people of color.
Head 'em up....move 'em out!
Anonymous said:
"Let me explain exactly what is happening. Loans are now being formulated with the express purpose of seeing them fail. Credit card rates are jacked up without advance notice, weird mortgage products are produced where the interest rate is a product of the phase of the moon."
Why would ANY bank want to lend out money it would never see repaid?
Why would any bank want to take over property that is now worth far less than the balance of the loan?
Well, look to Schumer, Clinton, Dodd, Frank, and the others who REQUIRED that banks lend money to people who had no credit or even a job.
The banks refused to do this. The pandering politicians told the banks that the taxpayer would pick up the tab. The bankers, no patriots at all, just wanted their money - the hell with the taxpayers' loss. Let the taxpayers take the risk, the bankers take the profit.
Schumer was the loudest in threatening to bring down the banks who didn't surrender.
Schumer, Clinton and the others wanted the votes of Blacks, an other minorities, and couldn't have cared less that the these poor people were being used to screw the banks and the taxpayers.
Never forget how Schumer brought down IndyMac by publicly declaring that they were in danger (using the protection of the office to prevent IndyMac from suing).
Dodd, Obama, Rangel, Schumer, and the rest took vast contributions from AIG, Citibank, Merrill, and all the large financial firms.
Then there's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, delivering millions in political contributions to Schumer, Dodd, Obama, Frank and all the others, while using tax dollars to proper up mortgages that were NEVER going to be repaid.
As for the law requiring "Plain English" on all loan documentation: Well, only a complete moron, or someone who had no intention of ever repaying the mortgage would purchase a home with a mortgage loan without having a real estate lawyer.
Even if the documentation is all "Plain English", no home buyer would read it and all the related real estate laws pertaining to the purchase.
Hell, the same people who demanded "Plain English" never read the trillion dollar spending bill they voted for. They couldn't have read the bill anyway; it hadn't been written until AFTER the vote. It was 1100 pages of claptrap that REQUIRED THAT AIG EXECUTIVE BONUSES BE PAID.
Thank you for respecting my views. But, instead of examining my views, examine, in detail, all the history that has brought all of us to this moment.
What suddenly made poor, unemployed, people who had no useful credit go out and purchase an expensive home after getting a mortgage?
If you spotted a homeless man sleeping under a bridge, would you give him money as charity, or would you actually lend him money actually believing that you were ever going to see it repaid?
I suspect charity would be your choice. You may actually believe that the homeless man DESERVED a home, but, would you cosign the mortgage to see that he gets one?
The pandering politicians REQUIRED that YOU cosign the mortgage, and now they are demanding that YOU repay those banks. The big bad banks they want you to hate so much.
Notice that the pandering politicians never risked a penny of their own money to house the homeless. They never will. They want you to do that.
There's no making any of this pretty. The entire scam has been ugly and will remain ugly until all the pandering politicians have been removed from power.
Use November 3rd to start the cleanup. Start the real change.
Dear Taxpayer, No bank expected not to be repaid, however, the vehicle by which those loans were repaid were not the obvious ones: Namely, the bad loans were securitized and fobbed off on suckers in the aftermarket.
Furthermore, in the case of credit cards, jacking a rate from an original small rate of 10 or 12% to 36% or more can so quickly accelerate the growth of the principal that a debtor can pay his original debt many times and make no progress.
It is not welfare capitalism or charity to insist that bankers revert back to their original role of providing capital to homes and business at a far return and leave this fee-based, Russian roulette lending behind.
Oops, I meant "fair return." Time for new glasses.
Anonymous said:
"It is not welfare capitalism or charity to insist that bankers revert back to their original role of providing capital to homes and business at a far return and leave this fee-based, Russian roulette lending behind."
You want the banks to revert to the old ways? So do I.
Want to make it happen?
Tell Obama, Schumer, Dodd, Frank, Pelosi and the gang to repeal the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and be silent on their threats to audit and "regulate" banks that provide mortgages only to people who have jobs, good credit records, and are asking for a loan to purchase a home whose assessed value and history of yearly assessments is reasonable and within the means of the purchaser to repay.
Government is supposed to be limited - very, very limited.
Government has no authority or competence to be providing a home for all citizens.
Work, earn, save, then shop for a home. That's how any market works. The politicians have perverted the markets.
The cure is to dump all the perverts.
Dear Taxpayer, The Community Reinvestment Act was around when I was a young teller in 1978 and was meant to prevent irrational redlining of neighborhoods.
The idea was that depositor's money was not to be stripped from the community and used to fund development in other areas.
In the 70's the banks required a 20% down payment and 20 year mortgages were the norm.
Although it is quite possible that additional perverse amendments have been made to the CRA that I am not aware of, I think more pertinent is the abolition of Glass Steagall. This 1933 law effectively separated the savings banks, investment banks, stock brokers, and insurance companies.
The abolition of this law and the creation of mega-institutions such as the present Citibank conglomerate spread systemic risk throughout the system.
I would be in favor of any laws that would restore normal lending ratios such as borrowing no more than 3 times your income, putting down a substantial down payment, and looking at the total debt picture including all credit card and installment debt.
Additionally, I hope that we see the breaking up of Citibank and other "too big to fail institutions Tout de suite and the restoration of Glass Steagall.
For those that don't see the connection between the foreclosure rate in South Jamaica and the government's lack concern about it; let me shed some light on it for you. 10, maybe 15 years ago (maybe even before that) this area was picked by some developer somewhere because of the proximity to all major means of transportation to become the "New" Jamaica; you know, like downtown Brooklyn. Therefore, crime was allowed to run rampant for a time to influence the departure of residents. Services in the area were deplorable, and led to the birth of sub-economies (eg. "$1 cabs, vans, etc.) All in the bigger plan of allow the area to become "labeled" as a blighted area.
The issue of the foreclosure rate in South Jamaica is not by chance. The government and the banks are not going to assist homeowners to save their homes. Remember, this area has been chosen. New LIRR Station; new AirTrain station; new Family Court building; new Civil Court building; moving the Welfare Office off of Sutphin Blvd; the new JFK Plaza that is going up across from the LIRR Station---Hello people, this is not all a coincidence! We need to pay attention before we are placed out of our own neighborhood.
I am currently researching foreclosures in Queens for a series of articles for a new Queens newspaper.
We are working hard to expose the reality of the foreclosure crisis in Queens.
Would anyone be willing to share his/her story?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Please contact Michelle at MB910@columbia.edu
I have to agree homeowners should have known how much home they could have afforded in the first place before they took on the debt.
and I also think certain people will benefit from this area being foreclosed on. I've seen this before/ Areas of town allowed to collapse, foreclosure, crime, neglect forcing people out then to be bought out by big business, people looking to benefit from others misfortune. Here is a graphic that says it all.
http://www.typobounty.com/Funny/Foreclosure.htm
Im bored) lets play three word story =)
Three word story is a game in which a story is built by multiple people, who use three words each turn. It is a common favorite of forum gamers, since it is easy to explain and play in a linear, structured fashion. An example game goes as follows:
* A fat man...
* ... walked into a...
* ... car and it...
* ... was very painful...
* ... but he jumped...
* ... back up and...
* ... dug a really...
* ... small cave that...
* ... had two red...
* ... cats coming out...
* ... from some smoke...
* ... though a blue...
* ... streak speeds by...
* ... forcing twenty wayward ...
* ... evidences of fright...
ok =)?
Ill begin:
I opened the door...
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