From the Daily News:
Forget Las Vegas. Forget Miami. The No. 1 neighborhood in the U.S. for mortgage fraud is in the heart of Queens.
A new study says a section of South Jamaica has the highest concentration of bogus loans in the nation, with zip code 11436 the absolute worst.
First American CoreLogic, a mortgage and real estate data company, analyzed 80 million loans from Maine to Malibu from 2004 through last year.
The firm says the fraudulent loan rate in the 9 square miles of blue-collar Jamaica is four times the national level and tops other hotbeds of lousy loans like Orlando, Atlanta and Detroit.
The zip code the bank singled out includes the four-block area highlighted by the Daily News in 2008 as "Ground Zero" for foreclosures in New York.
The fraud included lying about nonexistent income, inflating the value of homes by selling and reselling to co-conspirators, bribing appraisers and stealing deeds and identities.
39 comments:
Let's do the math here. How many courthouses are located in Jamaica? How many lawyers have their offices or work in Jamaica? How many DISBARRED attorneys became mortgage brokers over the last 10 years? Jamaica (as well as Jackson Heights) are two immigrant hotspots -
think they were taken advantage of here? . . . .
These mortgages were all back-stopped by FHA, Fannie, and Freddie so there was no incentive on that part of anyone to examine the income and assets of the borrowers or the actual value of the house relative to the amount of the loan. This was failure by design.
the post says "stealing deeds and identities" - lawyers and real estate title companies made a fortune ripping people off. Some got caught - some didn't.
the housing bubble was based on people being so stupid they couldn't even use a calculator to figure out they are in over their heads.
It was not about race it was about being severely stupid.
Bill Clinton with his "chicken in every pot belief" seeded all this.
Clinton forced banks to give out mortgages without checking credit and verifying peoples salary's.
---Clinton called it discrimination.
Any smuck working at McDonalds could write $50,000 annual in earnings.
WRONG Joe . . . . WRONG.
and MANY people were DUPED into taking out these mortgages.
HOW can you deny that? EVERYONE on them was STUPID Joe? Why does that even make sense to you?
Bottom line is Clinton is the one that let the banks run-amuck.
He encouraged them screaming LOAN THAT MONEY OUT, LOAN THAT MONEY OUT !
Duped because they were DUMB....
Even DUMB people must accept full responsibility for being DUMB.
Thinking they could buy a $400K home in queens on a dishwashers salary....geez Man up
-----------------
and MANY people were DUPED into taking out these mortgages.
EVERYONE on them was STUPID Joe?
So, you think EVERYONE in Jamaica, Queens was "taken advantage of" here?
A lot of very STUPID people "invested" with Bernie Madoff. Folks who didn't do their homework, didn't perform ANY due diligence on Madoff.
Do you think EVERYONE who "invested" with Madoff gotten "taken advantage of"? Or, are the Madoff "investors" STUPID?
Or, perhaps you believe "poor people" get "taken advantage" of, and "rich people" who "invested" with Madoff should have known better?
Which is it?
Poverty is no excuse for doing your "due diligence" on a mortgage broker/mortgage banker.
Unless, perhaps subconsciously, you really do believe poor people aren't so smart, and should be protected.
Don't worry, we won't ask you to reveal what you REALLY believe!
I has a front seat with these so called Maddoff victoms in Manhasset and Great Neck.
Not all but most of Bernie Madoffs investors were greedy pricks who knew the return $$ was too good to be true and 2- Knew Maddoff had to be doing something shady.
They just saw the $$ signs and turned a blind eye to it.
As the saying goes: "Hear no Evil See no Evil Speak no Evil"
It was FRAUD! plain and simple.
yes - certainly there were those that lived beyond their means - but the majority were DUPED.
I personally would ONLY go to a BANK and not a mortgage company for a mortgage if I wanted one - you are asking for trouble by going to a broker - half of them have done time.
Babs, the no. of courthouses (3) in Jamaica have nothing to do with this. It has to do with the fact that the houses in Jamaica just never were, and never will be worth what they are in Forest Hills, Bayside and Douglaston. And yes, poor people were taken advantage of. But for the most part they were as complicit in their own victim-hood as were Madoff's victims. The same dopes play Lotto every week. Stupid and emotional people want to get rich quick. There is no difference between Kevin Bacon (one of Madoff's victims) and the average working class dope from Jamaica, Queens. Both are able to delude themselves into thinking something that can't possibly be true. Those that were criminally taken advantage of: deed fraud, stolen identities, real predatory lending, should be considered victims. But the ones who ran to a regular bank and borrowed 110% of their equity? Sorry, no sympathy here!
Interesting on comparing this to Madoff, but you should realize this area had a different dynamic: its ground zero for affirmative action.
This population has nice paying (and nice benefits) civil service jobs, where often times advancement was based on programs designed to favor those of a certain race and ethnic background (hell this is a big reason that the average black pay is larger than white pay in Queens)
Perhaps black attitudes towards wealth accumlation are different that the larger population (dependence of fate and luck, for example) but I lack knowledge to really comment except suspect that these factors may have played a role in this mess.
But rather than being street smart or savvy when it comes to contracts or money, (although basically good hardworking people) this is a community that is in over its head.
They got where they in life to a large extent on being benficiaries for decades of tweeder programs.
Funny about life. Sooner or later it catches up to you.
But the bitch is, the machine which is the true culprit for designing these programs, makes a mess in community after community ultimately sticking the rest of us with the bill.
"But the ones who ran to a regular bank and borrowed 110% of their equity? Sorry, no sympathy here!"
AND those people get no sympathy from me either.
A lot of illegal activity goes on in those 3 courthouses . . .
People in Jamaica fell for this becaue they thought the government was finally giving them their 40 acres and a mule.
Meanwhile, local Sen. Malcolm Smith is busy enriching his architect and racetrack buddies.
Babs said...
".....Jamaica (as well as Jackson Heights) are two immigrant hotspots -
think they were taken advantage of here? . . ."
Exactly right. If you were listening to ethnic radio stations such as WPAT-am over the last decade, they had numerous sponsor-hucksters touting "no income check" loans and admonishing their gullible listeners that "if you don't own a home..you are homeless".
These shows were aimed at the Afro-Caribbean communities.
To this day these same shows have similar hucksters offering "counseling" to help people keep these overpriced dumps they bought.
Sadly, this sort of thing always has and always will go on in those communities...there will forever be predators taking advantage of people who are ignorant or just to slick for their own good.
"Joe said...
Bill Clinton with his "chicken in every pot belief" seeded all this.
Clinton forced banks to give out mortgages without checking credit and verifying peoples salary's."
Joe, this sort of opinion results from a lack of information and too much propagandizing via such "sources" as FUX news.
The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and subsequent passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 caused this mess.
Quoting: "Commodity Futures Modernization Act
The act specifically banned regulation of credit default swaps. These unregulated instruments, insurance policies against default on risky investments like Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), necessitated the government bailout of insurer A.I.G."
Clinton should -never- have gone along and signed this bill.
The REPUBLICAN Congress specifically banned government oversight of a very risky type of investment. The REPUBLICANS knew what was likely to happen: a few would get wealthy and if(when) the shit hit the fan the taxpayer would get stuck bailing out our economy.
They are the scum of the earth.
Republicans tricked all these people into buying homes they couldn't afford?
Wow.
Personal responsibility. Two words Democrats hate.
(And I'm not even a Republican so let's not go there.)
Linolbermann strikes again...you're welcome america
Bottom line Clinton signed that "Commodity Futures Modernization Act" just as fast as he signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That bill created monsters like VIACOM, Clear Channel, Bloomberg new networks, VERIZON,
Nobody put a gun to his head.
I think Clinton was to busy with interns and female MTV reporters to read anything he signed. I worked in music at the time and heard plenty that was squashed by media company's as thanks for that very Telecommunications Act of 1996. We are paying for that damage now !
Republican or Democrats they are all lying pieces of crap.
Makes no difference now, The country is finished and going straight down the the toilet.
The "bailout" last year was a finger in a leaky dam. Another larger wave of financial mess is coming.
Just wait till the people start attacking the government and rioting http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100416/D9F4EPUO0.html
I think all past the point of no return and just a matter of time before all hell breaks loose
" Queens Crapper said...
Republicans tricked all these people into buying homes they couldn't afford?
Wow."
Oh come on Q-C, you can't possibly be that dense.
Those were two separate responses to two different posts. The truth is that the republicans DID set the stage for a massive greed play as banks were able to make a profit not by holding mortgages as they had in the past, but by selling them off as a commodity>
Once a commodity, mortgages became more quickly profitable as a quantity product ans they didn't have to care if they would be serviceable long-term.
On the street level, yes, there were hucksters selling mortgages to people who were unqualified..they did so with the complicity of loaning institutions 'cause volume not quality was all that mattered now.
http://www.small-business-goldmine.com/credit-ratings.html
On top of everything it was republicans those guardians of fiscal responsibility who forbade government oversight lest their friends (and lobbyists) not be able to fully f-us.
Really, I live amongst these people right in my building in 10021 -the area code that gave the most contributions to McCain and the Moron in '08..I know the mentality.
They don't care about people in Queens..or any other working folks. Only money.
this is edward r. lino...signing off
good night...and good luck
ANYONE, black, white, brown, yellow, or green, that took out any of these unscrupulous loans and are now losing their home deserves everthing they get. If you were fool enough to think that you could buy a $500K home on your housecleaner salary, then by all means, enjoy financial ruin. The mortgage companies that handed out these loans did nothng but pay into the stupidity of these fools. The only blame here is on the foreclosed-on homeowners. They can only blame their own greed.
I don't agree. Yes, people were stupid but the mortgage companies capitalized on the stupidity. You see, the people didn't know what they were doing, but those companies did. That's what makes them more wrong.
Can you say predatory lending?
I don't agree. Yes, people were stupid but the mortgage companies capitalized on the stupidity. You see, the people didn't know what they were doing, but those companies did. That's what makes them more wrong.
Can you say predatory lending?
Who made the lightbulb go on in the borrower's head in the first place? Did the lenders lure them in with 40's of Colt 45 and Budweiser? In order for the borrowers to go to the lenders in the first place, they had to somehow get the idea that they could or should buy a home. They didn't just wake up one morning in a mortgage broker's office, signing on the dotted line.
At the height of the real estate boom my wife and I were making $120K/year. We knew we had no business buying a home that we could barely afford then, knowing in 5 years the payments were going to balloon to who knows what. That's what these morons did, and they did it having a lot smaller income.
Not buying something we couldn't really afford - that's called common sense. No lender could have told us any kind of story that would have changed our minds otherwise.
"At the height of the real estate boom my wife and I were making $120K/year. We knew we had no business buying a home that we could barely afford then, knowing in 5 years the payments were going to balloon to who knows what. That's what these morons did, and they did it having a lot smaller income."
There's much more to the story - lenders or brokers were misled about the terms of the mortgage -specially the interest rate. In these cases documents were also altered after they were signed or the broker did a bait and switch - google it.
Florida had the highest rate of predatory lending practices - you SHOULD know these things you know - don't think it could never happen to you.
Also - you should also know that there were MANY class action lawsuits against lenders for inappropriate behavior such as not accepting payments from the mortgagors to deliberately place them in foreclosure; demanding exorbitant legal fees; telling mortgagers that everything was fine - when in fact foreclosure proceedings had already begun.
you know, it's dangerous to NOT know what's going on in today's world guys - come on . . .
Here's one for you. This was in 2003.
"Fairbanks Capital will refund more than $40 million to consumers as part of a settlement of federal charges that it failed to post consumers' mortgage payments promptly and illegally imposed late fees and other charges on its customers.
Read more: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news03/fairbanks_settles.html#ixzz0lU0YUfn9
Really, I live amongst these people right in my building in 10021 -the area code that gave the most contributions to McCain and the Moron in '08..I know the mentality.
You don't know jack, you libtard piece of crap!
Poor suffering libtard Lino! It must be hard to be a liberal in your lily white zip code - 86% white!
Lino is the kind of lying ass libtard who loves to tell us: "Some of my best friends are black!"
Not many blacks living in libtard Lino's zip code - 1.4% black!
But of course - it's easy to be a libtard when you live in an almost all white zip code! Don't have to contend with the wonders of diversity!!!
They don't care about people in Queens..or any other working folks. Only money.
And Lying Ass Lino wants us to believe that he cares about "working folks"? Gee, Lying Ass Lino, 70% of the "working folks" who live in your zip code are employed in management/professional jobs?
You're a fraud!!! Lying Ass Lino!!!
http://zipskinny.com/index.php?zip=10021
If buying a house means you're going to pay a certain amount of money each month for your mortgage and you add in utilities and normal living expenses and your salary doesn't cover it, but you buy it anyway, you ARE stupid!
you're not breaking new ground here or anywhere for that matter.
You need to understand what the definition of predatory lending is first of all and then relate it to what REALLY happened to millions of Americans.
You cannot get make things up.
Ask Andrew Cuomo about it.
"You don't know jack, you libtard piece of crap!"
Elegant response from an ignorant moron. Well "Deke" -still fantasizing that you are Sylvester Stallone? Really childish.
Some more quote, just for the fun of it: "Not many blacks living in libtard Lino's zip code - 1.4% black!'
Note here we have the effluent of an empty, propagandized mind. Evinced by such colloquialisms as: "libtard" or "islamofacist" as such literary visions as "Lying Ass Lino" -woo-hoo witty one there "deke".
Well 'deke" my facts seem to have left you thrashing about with no facts on your side..just a frustrated wastrel with a thesaurus and vengeful frustrated mind.
You want it..it's on. Better come with facts loaded next time. Be seeing you.
" Queens Crapper said...
Ask Andrew Cuomo about it."
Better to ask Thomas Ewing (R-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) -They sponsored the Futures Modernization Act that open the candy store.
BTW: A year from now you'll be adding "Governor" -to Cuomo's name.
Predatory, schmedatory. If it seems to good to be true, it is.
These lenders saw a target and went after it. Plain and simple. The targets were stupid enough to fall for it. Call it bait and switch, say they falsified documents, whatever you want. I have no doubt the shady lenders did so, but it the borrowers had common sense in the first place they wouldn't have fallen for it.
Why do you think this is happening in places like Jamaica and low-income/high minority areas in Florida and other areas of the country? Dumb minorities. You don't see this happening to such a great extent in white communities.
I know very well that the POS Andrew Cuomo will most likely be our next governor, but I also know that bad things tend to happen to candidates who are cocksure that they are going to be making a victory speech on Election Night. Having said that, you can also ask Barney Frank why he and his Dem cohorts blocked Bush's legislation to better regulate Fannie and Freddie Mac.
There is plenty of blame to go around on both the Democrat and Republican sides, as well as in other arenas, and anyone who thinks it was just one party or the other that caused this is a complete moron.
"There is plenty of blame to go around on both the Democrat and Republican sides, as well as in other arenas, and anyone who thinks it was just one party or the other that caused this is a complete moron."
True..to an extent. The flaw in this argument is that both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac existed for decades as did the oft-cited Community Reinvestment Act with no problems.
It was republican-led legislation in both 1999 and 2000 that opened the door for human nature to take control in an unregulated environment and led to this mess.
The Bush adm had seven years to speak up before cracks appeared in early 2008. A few economists in the media did-so but nothing from the White House.
Blaming Cuomo and Frank, is merely a diversionary tactic that the right uses now that things blew up in their face.
Many of the homes built in Jamaica are two family homes. There are also garden apartment complexes facing foreclosure due to fraud. Many buildings have multiple morgages and straw buyers.How many mortgages are,purely investments on rental property gone into foreclosure. How many owners pocketed the rent and defaulted on the mortgage. In Jamaica you have many renters who live in these properties. Even multi dwellings are facing the same problems with foreclosures. My prior owner has 28 buildings,each w/2 units. all facing foreclosure.
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