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Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Politico Pads: Mitt Romney's California Getaway to See Massive Expansion
× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, August 22, 2011, by Rob Bear
After the let down in the 2008 presidential primary, Mitt Romney sold some of his impressive residences—a 6,400-square-foot Colonial in Belmont, Mass. and a 9,500-square-foot Deer Valley, Utah spread—and purchased a modestly-sized 3,000-square-foot beach house in La Jolla, California. The property was not so modestly priced, however, and Romney paid $12M for the house and its half-acre lot. Now he's looking to expand accommodations on his slice of the SoCal coast. Plans are in the works to bulldoze the existing structure (above) and built a house that's almost four times the size: 11,062 square feet to be exact. According to the campaign, the Romneys "want to enlarge their two bedroom home because with five married sons and 16 grandchildren it is inadequate for their needs."
· The Personal HQs of the 2012's GOP Presidential Hopefuls [Curbed National]
· Mitt Romney Looks To Expand $12 Million La Jolla, California Home [Huffington Post]
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Recycler's Eviction Delayed: The California Bottle Bill requires large...
× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, June 1, 2011, by Philip Ferrato
? Previous: Airy and Open Abode Is Rather Charming
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The Hole California Has Been Digging For Itself
The Anderson Valley Post reports from California. “Loan Modifications: It was touted as the savior of the American economy. For many north state residents, it offered a way out of a financial mess that would ultimately result in the loss of their home. Or so they thought. ‘I started the process in 2009,’ said Red Bluff resident Krista Carpenter. ‘I’m still waiting for my loan modification.’”
“But the truly horrifying part of this whole mess, claims Carpenter, is that many lenders are failing to notify property owners that they’ve fallen out of the Loan Modification process. And then the final stab in the back. ‘They complete the foreclosure process without telling you, too,’ said Carpenter.”
“Carpenter never received a notice of default. ‘All we received,’ she states, ‘Was a letter on the door with a sale date.’”
The San Francisco Bay Guardian. “‘Foreclosures are the new F-Word.’ So said Regina Davis, executive director of the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation, at an April 29 seminar at SFHDC’s office. ‘Wells-Fargo CEO John Stumpf took home $21 million in 2009 while his bank received $25 billion in TARP funds,’ stated a flier that ACCE (formerly ACORN) and the Home Defenders League are distributing.”
“‘He and his cronies fought tooth and nail to kill consumer protection bills in California and around the country and are currently trying to gut a 50-state Attorneys General settlement with homeowners that have been defrauded,’ the flier concluded. ‘We are also part of The New Bottom Line, a national campaign focused on creating an economy that works for the many, and not the few.’”
The Pacific Coast Business Times. “A Westlake Village attorney is asking a judge to rip up a homeowner’s mortgage and strike down the legal framework the lending industry uses to foreclose on notes that have been sliced, diced and sold so many times that it’s impossible for borrowers to tell who owns them. John Larson filed a lawsuit in Ventura County Superior Court on behalf of Sam Palmer, a senior citizen in Thousand Oaks facing foreclosure on an $862,000 home loan. The defendants are a number of loan servicers and MERS, or Mortgage Electronic Registration Services.”
“Larson’s complaint argues that the only parties with the right to foreclose on the mortgage are the thousands of investors who ended up owning Palmer’s loan and whose names are nowhere to be found in the Ventura County Recorder’s Office or in any other public record. Those investors, Larson alleges, are known only by numbers inside a computer system with accounts controlled by Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and other Wall Street giants. He wants Palmer’s mortgage erased unless the investors come forward.”
“‘Forfeiture is what [lenders] fear the most,’ Larson told the Business Times. ‘It’s the worst thing that can happen to a lender during one of these quiet title cases.’”
The Santa Cruz Sentinel. “Banks that foreclosed on 5,000 homeowners in Santa Cruz County over the past three years are selling those homes at prices that would have been unthinkable during the housing boom. The median sales price in March for a single-family home in Santa Cruz County was $476,900, according to Gary Gangnes of Real Options Realty, who tracks the numbers.”
“‘I think we’re turning a corner where friends of ours can afford to buy a home here again,’ said Jim Zenner of Karon Properties, who represented buyers of a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Santa Cruz for $510,000. The same house sold in 2005 for more than $700,000.”
“The condo market remains chilly, with condo owners walking away from homes they bought at the peak of the market five years ago and buyers reluctant to invest while prices fall. In March, 32 condos sold, half being distressed properties, and the median dropped to $247,000. During the boom, prices exceeded $500,000.”
“Zenner is looking for a young couple, first-time homebuyers interested in a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Santa Cruz for $500,000, but they have little to choose from. ‘There’s not a lot of inventory to work with right now,’ Zenner said.”
The Mercury News. “Listening to battle-scarred Realtors talk about all the short-sale funny business, fake landlords, mold-slimed foreclosure properties, bogus real estate agents and yappin’ junkyard dogs makes you wonder how any homes are getting bought and sold at all. With upside-down homeowners, overwhelmed banks and cash-toting low-ballers sucking up investment properties at bargain-basement prices, veteran real estate professionals around the Bay Area say they’ve never seen a market as whacked-out as the one we’re slogging through right now.”
“Steve Mohseni, a 15-year real estate broker with ReMax in Pleasanton, calls it ‘the wild, wild West. Whether they’re buying or selling or lending, people are just looking after their own neck, and the ones who are trying to act responsibly are the ones getting burned.’”
“Then there’s the so-called ‘buy and bail,’ which one real estate agent explained this way: ‘Mom and pop bought a place for $600,000. Now they’re upside-down on their loan. So mom goes down the street and pays cash for another house just like theirs. She puts it in her name. Then once it closes they walk away from the original house. And they don’t care about their credit being ruined because they’ve now got their new house.’”
The Daily News. “The epidemic of foreclosure that began in 2008 has been devastating California’s families, communities and the state economy. Since then, more than 1.2 million Californians have lost their homes, and the number is expected to exceed 2 million by the end of next year. About one in five U.S. foreclosures is in California. More than a third of California homeowners with a mortgage already owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.”
“As a result, home values in the state are estimated to plummet by $632 billion. That translates into a loss of more than $3.8 billion in property taxes. And just as local governments are starving for revenues, they are asked to deal with the increased costs - estimated at $17.4 billion over four years - caused by the foreclosure mess. A bill sponsored by San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield is currently going through legislative hearings - would require banks to pay their share of foreclosure costs. Backed by a broad coalition of consumer, community and labor groups, the bill would impose a $20,000 fine on banks for each foreclosure.”
“The foreclosure tsunami and the housing market crash are the primary causes of the severe budget crisis facing California’s municipalities and counties, forcing local officials to slash services and lay off tens of thousands of employees.”
The Chico Enterprise Record. “The city will pay 18 percent more for a piece of property than the lot was appraised for, following a 4-2 vote Tuesday night. The Chico City Council sitting as the Chico Redevelopment Agency agreed to buy the parcel for $100,000. It had a March appraised value of $85,000. The city has no developed plan for the lot.”
“Staff recommended the city buy the property including a house for $100,000. A year ago, the parcel was appraised at $140,000. Agency member Andy Holcombe said he supports paying more than the appraised price to reinforce the purpose of redevelopment. ‘I think the value is there,’ he said.”
The Record Searchlight. “That trench Caltrans is digging down the middle of Interstate 5 in Shasta County is all too apt a symbol of the hole the state of California has been digging for itself. A $5 million fiber-optic cable? Eleven electronic message signs, 22 traffic-monitoring stations and 37 cameras? All for the short stretch of freeway between Anderson and Mountain Gate? Did anyone stop to think this might be overkill? And in a time of relentless state budget cuts, did anyone ask if this was really a top priority for the public dollar?”
“This kind of full-spectrum electronic traffic management makes sense — indeed, it’s essential to keep cars moving — on the roads of a traffic-jammed metropolis. But in the north state? Even Caltrans says we don’t have the congestion to justify such a system. So why is the agency building it? Well, you see, in 2006, when the housing bubble was fully inflated, it seemed like a good idea.”
“Back then, Caltrans was urgently working to accommodate expected urban growth from multiple Shasta and Tehama County subdivisions with thousands of new homes. If and when developers actually build Sun City Tehama, The Vineyards at Anderson, Mountain Gate at Shasta and other megadevelopments, that gridlock could still occur. But at the current pace of housing growth — Redding had all of nine housing starts in the first four months of 2011 — we’ll run out of oil to fuel our cars and trucks before that happens.”
The Press Democrat. “North Coast construction activity remained flat for the first three months of the year, and some industry leaders took solace that at least things aren’t getting worse. North Coast builders pulled permits to construct 123 single-family homes during the first quarter, up from 85 a year ago. But five years ago, permits totaled 519 for the same period.”
“‘At this point even flat looks good,’ quipped Keith Woods, CEO for the North Coast Builders Exchange, a Santa Rosa trade group. ‘This is an industry that has been bleeding for so many years.’”
“DeNova Homes of Concord held a grand opening Saturday for its 96-unit Southgate development in west Petaluma. Ten homes are under construction and seven models are finished and furnished, said Lori Sanson, an executive VP. Homes start at $399,000.”
The Desert Sun. “Bank executives who have wrestled to put mortgage delinquencies, loan defaults and other issues behind them as a result of the valley and nation’s economic slump say they’re making headway. For some banks, however, the positive results are only just beginning to show. Pacific Premier Bank earned ’sound’ and ’superior’ ratings, which CEO Steve Gardner attributed to avoiding some risks that other banks opted to take.”
“‘Probably the biggest key is the fact that during the run-up in the real estate markets, we avoided a lot of the single-family, construction and land loans,’ Gardner said. ‘We looked out in 2005 and 2006 and just thought things were getting a little too speculative and a little too loose in terms of credit. We left some money out on the table, but we sleep pretty well at night these days.’”
The Press Enterprise. “While investors and other corporate interests have revived the warehouse market in Inland Southern California, the office market got slightly worse in the first quarter. According to a report by commercial real estate firm Grubb & Ellis, the vacancy rate increased to 24.2 percent, up slightly from the first quarter and virtually unchanged from 12 months ago.”
“The Grubb & Ellis report found the highest vacancy rates in the Riverside-Corona area, at 26.3 percent. Vacancies are 25.4 percent in Temecula and Murrieta and 21.3 percent in San Bernardino. More than 24 percent of offices near Ontario International Airport, the area with some of the area’s most desirable buildings, are empty.”
“The market has been slow to come back because jobs are only trickling back to the Inland area. Also, many of those jobs are related to the housing market, which is not close to coming back. ‘We’re stuck, and I don’t see it changing until the mortgage crisis is over,’ Redlands-based economist John Husing said.”
Friday, May 13, 2011
California Real Estates » Blog Archive » <b>Real Estate</b> Owned <b>...</b>
Price: $82,923, City: Oakland, Square feet: n/aLocation: Olive St, Oakland, CA, 94621
This property is an REO (Real Estate Owned). This is the final step in the foreclosure process. Ownership has reverted to the lender. This 1021 square foot property has 2 bedroom(s) and 1 bath(s). The estimated sale price is $82923. To access more
Property Type: Single familyListing type: ForeclosureListing status: ActiveBedrooms: 2Bathroom: 1Agent: n/aBroker: n/aAuthor: RealtyTracTuesday, April 26, 2011
Thank Florida!: …even with the budget cut, California...
× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Thursday, April 14, 2011, by Philip Ferrato
? Previous: A TIC That We Can Get Behind
Saturday, April 16, 2011
California Real Estates » Blog Archive » <b>Real Estate</b> Owned <b>...</b>
Price: $530,100, City: Irvine, Square feet: n/aLocation: Guama Ave, Irvine, CA, 92606
This property is an REO (Real Estate Owned). This is the final step in the foreclosure process. Ownership has reverted to the lender. This 1897 square foot property has 4 bedroom(s) and 2 bath(s). The estimated sale price is $530100. To access more
Property Type: Single familyListing type: ForeclosureListing status: ActiveBedrooms: 4Bathrooms: 2Agent: n/aBroker: n/aAuthor: RealtyTracThursday, April 14, 2011
Off The Market: Angelyne, She of Billboard Fame, Sells Pink California Condo
× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Tuesday, April 5, 2011, by Sarah Firshein
We learned a long time ago that if your name is Angelyne, your decor is indubitably pink. Our cousins over at Curbed LA report that the condo owned by the '80s billboard pinup queen has just sold for $600K. We're assuming the new owners have set aside extra funds for a decorator.
· Pink Velour Galore in Billboard Pinup's Shabby Spread [Curbed National]
· Angelyne Sells the Pink Malibu Condo That Billboards Built [Curbed LA]
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
California Real Estates » Blog Archive » <b>Real Estate</b> Owned <b>...</b>
Price: $90,985, City: Woodlake, Square feet: n/aLocation: N Pine St, Woodlake, CA, 93286
This property is an REO (Real Estate Owned). This is the final step in the foreclosure process. Ownership has reverted to the lender. This 1498 square foot property has 3 bedroom(s) and 1 bath(s). The estimated sale price is $90985. To access more
Property Type: Single familyListing type: ForeclosureListing status: ActiveBedrooms: 3Bathroom: 1Agent: n/aBroker: n/aAuthor: RealtyTracSunday, March 27, 2011
Sonoma County California USGS Topographic Maps on CD
This USGS Topo CD will change the way you view your county! This easy to use USGS topo CD is a great way to print your own maps of anyplace in your County. These are the highest detailed USGS maps available. A scale of 1:24,000 allows considerable detail to be shown; 2.64 inches = 1 mile. All maps have been joined together into one digital file without the text in the borders. Land Owners, Farmers, & Ranchers - quickly create accurate maps of your property. Hunters, Fishermen, Sportsmen, & Outdoor enthusiasts - no need to carry multiple USGS maps into the backcountry. Print just your area, even if it falls on the corner of the original paper map. Our digital maps do not have corners or edges. Real Estate, Developers, Planners & Property Management - a topo map shows the area around a property and can greatly enhance marketing material, reports, presentations or make a fascinating display in the office. Teachers, Professors, and Education Professionals (K-12 & College) - USGS topographic maps are a interesting addition to any classroom, it will bring your lessons to life fascinating everyone involved. Engineers, Planners, and Environmental Professionals - visualize and evaluate site locations prior to your visit. Get more out of a site visit with the USGS Topo Map you print out. This will save you time and money! Geographic Information System (GIS) professionals - the USGS DRGs are mosaiced into one MrSID image file in UTM NAD83 Meters coordinate system. Everything is there for use in you favorite GIS software - All ESRI products, (ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcMap, etc.), Erdas, MapInfo, any other GIS software that reads MrSID format.Price: $19.99
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Santa Clara County California USGS Topographic Maps on CD
This USGS Topo CD will change the way you view your county! This easy to use USGS topo CD is a great way to print your own maps of anyplace in your County. These are the highest detailed USGS maps available. A scale of 1:24,000 allows considerable detail to be shown; 2.64 inches = 1 mile. All maps have been joined together into one digital file without the text in the borders. Land Owners, Farmers, & Ranchers - quickly create accurate maps of your property. Hunters, Fishermen, Sportsmen, & Outdoor enthusiasts - no need to carry multiple USGS maps into the backcountry. Print just your area, even if it falls on the corner of the original paper map. Our digital maps do not have corners or edges. Real Estate, Developers, Planners & Property Management - a topo map shows the area around a property and can greatly enhance marketing material, reports, presentations or make a fascinating display in the office. Teachers, Professors, and Education Professionals (K-12 & College) - USGS topographic maps are a interesting addition to any classroom, it will bring your lessons to life fascinating everyone involved. Engineers, Planners, and Environmental Professionals - visualize and evaluate site locations prior to your visit. Get more out of a site visit with the USGS Topo Map you print out. This will save you time and money! Geographic Information System (GIS) professionals - the USGS DRGs are mosaiced into one MrSID image file in UTM NAD83 Meters coordinate system. Everything is there for use in you favorite GIS software - All ESRI products, (ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcMap, etc.), Erdas, MapInfo, any other GIS software that reads MrSID format.Price: $19.99
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Ten People Indicted in Wide-Ranging <b>Real Estate</b> Scam | California <b>...</b>
BAKERSFIELD, CA - January 24, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) — David Marshall Crisp, 31; Carlyle Lee Cole, 63; Julie Dianne Farmer, 42; Sneha Ramesh Mohammadi, 49; Jayson Peter Costa, 38; Jeriel Salinas, 29; Robinson Dinh Nguyen, 30; Michael Angelo Munoz, 31; Jennifer Anne Crisp, 29; and Caleb Lee Cole, 35, were charged in a 56-count indictment with conspiracy to commit bank, mail and wire fraud, and with individual counts of mail fraud, U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today. Certain of the defendants were also charged with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to launder money. The indictment was returned Jan. 13 by a federal grand jury in Fresno and unsealed today.
David Crisp was arrested last night in San Diego. Carlyle Cole was arrested last night in Ventura County, Calif. Farmer, Mohammadi, Costa, Salinas, Munoz, and Caleb Cole were arrested yesterday in Bakersfield, Calif. Nguyen was arrested yesterday in Monterey, Calif. Jennifer Crisp surrendered to authorities this morning.
David Crisp and Carlyle Cole were the owners of Crisp, Cole & Associates (CCA), also known as Crisp & Cole Real Estate. They also controlled Tower Lending, CCA’s in-house mortgage broker business. Julie Farmer, Sneha Mohmamadi, Jayson Costa, Jeriel Salinas, Robinson Nguyen, and Michael Munoz were employed at CCA and/or at Tower Lending. Jennifer Crisp is the wife of David Crisp and Caleb Cole is the son of Carlyle Cole. Five other persons, including Megan Balod, Leslie Sluga, Kevin Sluga, a CPA who handled accounting matters for CCA, and Jerald Teixeira and Christopher Stovall, both former loan officers for Tower Lending, have previously pleaded guilty in related cases.
The indictment alleges that, from approximately January 2004 to September 2007, the defendants perpetrated a scheme to defraud mortgage lenders by submitting fraudulent loan applications with material misrepresentations, including misrepresentations concerning the borrower’s income, assets, employment status, and intent to use the home as the borrower’s primary residence. The indictment alleges that the defendants perpetrated the scheme in part by flipping homes, which is the selling of a single home on multiple occasions, through a series of fraudulent transactions to co-defendants, straw buyers, and others in order to artificially inflate the prices of the residences. The defendants typically increased the loan amounts and used close to 100 percent financing, in order to extract the inflated equity amounts from the properties on each financing transaction. CCA generally acted as the real estate brokerage on the sales, and Tower Lending acted as the mortgage brokerage on the financing transactions, generating substantial commissions and fees for the defendants on each transaction. The scheme involved more than $20 million in losses to lenders.
This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the FBI with assistance from the Department of Housing and Urban Development – Office of Inspector General. They were assisted by the Bakersfield Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stanley A. Boone and Kirk E. Sherriff are prosecuting the case.
The maximum statutory penalty for the conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud counts is 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The maximum penalty for money laundering is 10 years in prison and a fine of $500,000. Any sentence will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
The charges are only allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
This law enforcement action is part of the work being done by President Barack Obama’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force. President Obama established the interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to wage an aggressive, coordinated and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes. The task force includes representatives from a broad range of federal agencies, regulatory authorities, inspectors general, and state and local law enforcement who, working together, bring to bear a powerful array of criminal and civil enforcement resources. The task force is working to improve efforts across the federal executive branch, and with state and local partners, to investigate and prosecute significant financial crimes, ensure just and effective punishment for those who perpetrate financial crimes, combat discrimination in the lending and financial markets, and recover proceeds for victims of financial crimes. One component of the FFETF is the national Securities Fraud Working Group, which is tasked with combating investment fraud schemes. For more information on the task force, visit www.StopFraud.gov.
Contact:
United States Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of California
Contact: (916) 554-2700
SACRAMENTO, CA - September 7, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced today that on September 2, 2010, a federal grand jury returned a nine-count indictment charging James Berghuis, 38, formerly of Sacramento, now residing in Laguna Niguel, with mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The indictment was unsealed this afternoon as a result of...Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Holds Mortgage Fraud Summit in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES, CA - October 1, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- Representatives of the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force met in Los Angeles today for the latest in a series of Mortgage Fraud Summits. The task force—established by President Barack Obama in November 2009 to wage an aggressive, coordinated, and proactive effort to investigate and prosecute financial crimes—is comprised of representatives...FRESNO COUNTY REAL ESTATE BROKER INDICTED FOR TAX EVASION
FRESNO, CA - November 5, 2010 - (RealEstateRama) -- United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that a federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment today, charging Brian Keith Cortez, 47, of Fresno, with evading the assessment of income taxes....Manteca Mother-Daughter Real Estate Team Arrested in Estimated $5 Million Mortgage Fraud Scam
SACRAMENTO, CA - September 22, 2009 - (RealEstateRama) -- United States Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced today that a criminal complaint was filed this morning charging IRENE SOTIRIADIS, 23, and HELEN SOTIRIADIS, 49, both of Manteca, with conducting a mortgage fraud scheme from March 2006 through November 2007 that caused losses to lenders estimated at approximately $5 million. Arrest warrants...
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