Editor Cheri Matthews wrote that my idea was bold, but not realistic.
If regulators would have allowed homeowners, instead of letting them go into short sales, to modify their loans by forcing banks to renegotiate, we wouldn’t have so many foreclosures.
Two years later, we are seeing that the mortgage business has defrauded many Americans out of their life savings. As described in an article by J.N. Sbranti of the McClatchy news service, Northern California has the dubious distinction of being one of the worst in the United States for mortgage scams. The article goes on to say lenders are being warned that there’s a higher risk of mortgage fraud in Stanislaus County than anywhere else in the United States, and it is almost as bad in San Joaquin and Merced counties.
This analysis states that the risk of borrowers ripping off lenders is twice as high in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, compared with the national average, according to mortgage data analyzed by Interthinx.
“When you talk about mortgage fraud, you’re talking about bank robbery without a gun,” said Ann Fuller, Interthinx vice president of industrial relations in the article. “It robs a community of its value and security.”
Now that’s the pot calling the kettle black.
Fuller’s observation is totally wrong. She says that Interthinx analyzes mortgage applications for more than 1,100 lenders, running data through its computers to spot potential fraud. My question to her would be: Why didn’t banks throw up a red flag if they thought there was a problem?
The banks wanted to sell homes any way they could, even to people who had as many as five people signing on the loan documents, with no down payment and no immediate interest. No one asked the big question: Can you afford this payment?
Fuller went on to say that fraud is rampant in Stanislaus County, where foreclosures are high and the median home price has fallen about 66 percent since 2005.
“Fraud flourishes in unstable markets,” Fuller warned in Sbranti’s story. She said there was lots of mortgage fraud when the region’s home prices soared several years ago, and now new scams are being used to push down prices. The pushed-down prices are a result of the foreclosures.
“Fraudsters are really adept entrepreneurs,” she said.
She goes on to say that computer analysis is getting more sophisticated, too, enabling Interthinx to spot suspicious trends. But excuse me — what were they doing when all this was going on in the first place?
Fuller went on to say: “We are seeing a resurgence of schemes involving real estate agents, we’re seeing people manipulate the price down.” Interthinx has started publishing the Mortgage Fraud Risk Report for lenders, and the latest issue puts Stanislaus County atop the list. Its gives lenders an idea where they really need to pay attention, Fuller said in Sbranti’s article, “which allows them to take defensive action.” Most of all, valley real estate members are aware of this type of fraud.”
That is the understatement of the year.
The information comes on the heels of the worst recession to hit the United States in 80 years. These people knew what they were doing, and the developers continued to build homes with no buyers.
This issue here hits me personally, because of the volatile market. I put a huge amount down to buy my home on a high market. Now, it will be necessary for me to just walk away, because there is no value in my property. The risk comes when you trust government to do the right thing, and they fail all of us.
We need to demand that the foreclosures stop and that people who buy these homes need to qualify for them. The government giving first-time buyers between $10,000 and $18,000 to buy these foreclosed homes is ludicrous.
Now I will lose my down payment and six years of payments on this home. What really gets me is that people tell me I’m hurting the community by walking away from my home. I think I’m doing a service to the community by exposing these criminals by walking away.
We have four homes in my court that sold for 60 percent less than they were valued at just two years ago. I can’t help if people borrowed to the hilt then walked away. Now I wish I would have listened to my neighbors and done the same thing.
Is this problem due to the real estate business, the mortgage companies or the developers who got their money and ran? Let’s try to solve the problem for the poor people who work hard every day and pay their taxes.
• Thomas A. Benigno is a former Tracy business owner and 11th Congressional District candidate.
Allow me to coin the phrase.
"The peripheral canal would only create peripheral jobs".
The people in this country are being outsourced by our congress.
The only people who stand to make money off the peripheral canal are the farmer who steal their neighbor's water to pump their wells dry.
On someone else's dime.
Let's get real.
Then your only other alternative is to panhandle, until no one has any money. Or join the military until they run out of money. TAKE YOUR PICK.
THAT IS THE REALITY OF IT ALL.
We already have enough canals. Now you're saying California has to dig more holes? If you keep digging holes to fix the economy they will soon criss cross each other. That's going to get us even deeper in the hole?
There you go again. The Peripheral Canal is just a project to give people jobs to help them save their homes.
To date your thoughts about the bullet train might have done the same thing. As for Churchill he was blind sided by Hitler.
But the people want real Jobs. Not another peripheral canal.
Thanks but lets get serious about this mess, and not make it a story about me.
Tracy has been called a dumping ground for years,but I don't want it to be a dumping ground for my lifes savings.
I think that was your best idea for the signs yet.
However, if I subscribed to your theory of thriftyness, why would I pay a real estate agent more.
I suspect you overpaid and breached your own conservative values when you bought your home.
I think there is enough signs already printed. The realtors just want to sell SHORT SALE HOMES with their signs. I still have about 400 campaign signs I can convert to "for sale" signs.
Did you forget, I'm a conservative, and we know how to save money. The answer is, DON'T SPEND IT IF YOU DON'T HAVE TOO. That's why I ran for congress, to get rid of the "drunken sailor" mentality, like spending.
You would lose your shirt if you posted the actual value. Remember the law of supply and demand? Please. I hope you're not asking for an investor in the sign making business?
I think we still have the old fashioned way to communicate. Use a pigeon or a two cans with a string or a telephone. Or e-mail tracypress.com.
Be happy to. But lackin th physical ability ta get inta TPs archives, unless ya have an Internet link ta th article it's gonna be impossible.
I had no choice, read the archives TP dated August 9th 1983. There was no fight. The rest is history.
Thanks fer th compliment. While I am hopefully not as stupid as I intentionally write I don't really consider myself ta be all that smart.
Arkansas? Wonderful place, nice people an all that but no, try Texas instead.
Other than those who disagree with my comments in principal I rarely have anyone come back ta tell me they can't understand what I am tryin ta get across ta people. And I have a very good reason fer writin this way.
Hope ya don't thank I've been attackin ya here. While I might not agree with ya I don't bear ya any ill feelins an hope ya didn't get th wrong impression I was attackin ya. If ya did I apologize an assure it wasn't my intent.
Yer last question, "If I chose to gambel on buying a home,and putting a substantial down why are you not loosing your home," somewhat puzzles me though.
I suppose th reason I'm not loosin my home is because I didn't make th same choices ya did. But don't thank th downturn in our nation's economy has not negatively affected me because it has.
The difference is I took a very long look at possible outcomes an decided not to risk gettin into some things. Yep it was a mixed blessin of a sort though. While I am not in danger of loosin my home I have lost some of my mobility an can't do some of the thangs I'd like ta be doin right now.
Ya see I larned a long time ago to take care of th important stuff first an worry about th nice things in life later when they became affordable.
I might not be a wealthy man but I am not hurtin like others an not dependent on anyone.
Guess I am an ole Rube though cus I have never taken a handout or assistance from anyone, paid fer my own education an th only debts I really have is a very low mortgage payment.
Guess that's why I don't know much of anythang but have a roof over my head an food fer my belly an am not a wheelin dealin millionaire. No worries their in any of them departments.
I do not understand those who can still afford the monthly payments yet walk away just because the house is not worth what it once was. I suppose those people bought homes as an investment only. As for my family, we bought our home as a place to live. We are lucky in that we never did go underwater. If we had, and could still afford our payments, why walk away? In California I suppose one can do that without consequence. There would be consequences for me. I was raised to believe that when I give my word, or my signature on a loan document, it means I will pay that debt back. I won't simply walk away from it and make it everyone else's problem and my neighbor's eyesore.
Dito for me:
I have been reading your stuff for a long time. I thinks you write to sound stupid but your pretty smart. With that in mind you should really try to understand you have most people at a disadvantage because you don't put your real name out there.
I have never lied to anyone while writing ,I call it as I see it. If you disagree do so without your attacks. Stay with the issues they are more important, than the attacks. We have choices in life, I did not choose to lose my lifes work.
You should read up on it some time. Also my wife says please write so that people can understand what you are writing. We know you are not from the hills of Arkansa. If you are that explains why you get things mixed up.
California is a different place these days. If I chose to gambel on buying a home,and putting a substantial down why are you not loosing your home?
On yer advice I re-read th article an came away with th same opinion.
Years ago thair was a TV show called Kung-fu. Ya probably remember it. One of th thangs I remember bout it was th blind ole Kunfu-master was tryin ta get th young pupil ta thank fer himself instead of havin others ta do his thankin. When th pupil was successful th ole man would say, "Very good grasshopper, you chose wisely." But when th kid blew it he's say, "You didn't choose wisely."
Conserning yer decisions conserning th investement ya made on yer home, all I can respond with is, "Grasshopper, ya didn't choose wisely."
A smart businessman like yourself shouldn't have made that error in judgement. Ya did that all by yourself.
Tom I have been readin yer comments fer years where ya repeatedly insinuate ya know what's going on where no one else does so I am quite amused that ya didn't see this one comin at ya like a freight train goin over a cliff with all th whistles blowin.
Now if ya hadn't been tryin ta convinse everyone fer years that yer th man in th know an have all th facts, whair no one else that disagrees with ya doesn't, then I might have a smatterin of sympathy fer ya in yer financial difficulties.
Unfortunately I can't do that because ya have had years of comments that have told people ya really got a handle on these thangs when it's now obvious ya don't.
About all I can say is have fun sortin it out but ya made yer bed so go lay in it.
Hope ya come out with a positive solution that gets ya out of th mess yer in. Don't like ta see people loose their hard earned cash even if it's because they did it to themselves.
"On who ever you directed your comments too".
You both need to read the article again. The writer J N Sbranti from the McClatchy news service, wrote his opinion and I rebuted it. If you read it again you can read what I'm trying to say.
From this point in the article ("That is the understatement of the year"). is my rebutal.
The Tracy Press also forgot to print that parts of this article are exerts from J.N. Sbranti article from the McClatchy news service.
Maybe the regulators read the policy wrong, as you guys did. Anyway you cut it, we are in deep do do. I didn't buy a home here for a rental,I bought it to retire. Now I can't even do that.
As for Malia, whatever she does is her own personal business.
Yes, you are correct. In the period that the bubble popped, I was reading USA Today every morning, and that paper called the bubble correctly and I knew about 3 months in advance that we were at the top. USA Today spent the prior year talking about the bubble and when was it going to pop.
As far back as 2003, I openly heard developers at city council meetings talking about the bubble, and that it was going to be bad when the bubble popped. That is why I didn't vote for the Tracy Hills measure or that other measure because I wanted all of the developer money up front without any strings attached to it. Everyone knew the bubble was going to pop including the folks behind those measures. In that context, go back and reread those proposed agreements and you'll understand the personalities behind them.
No Tom, sadly to say it is you that's wrong. Ya see, you are th one that made th poor investment not I. It's you that's complainin about how much money ya lost. No one did that to ya, ya did it to yerself. If th home buyer bought fer an investment that's a good thang, I believe they all should be buyin fer that reason, otherwise why buy?
But regardless if ya bought it fer an investment or bought because it was cheaper than th Bay Area, ya don't buy somethin ya can't afford a all of these people knew they couldn't afford it but rolled th dice on th hopes they could do like things in th past an let th market prices take care of th problem.
Th unrealistic false expectation th housing market bubble was goin to keep growin when virtually all th economic advisors were all tellin us otherwise is what got these homeowners in trouble.
Yep, it shore is nice ta have that fancy new car or house ta look at while ya go hungry because ya can't affort food ta eat.
Bottom line, if ya push the edge an hope thangs are gonna work out when they've been sayin fer years, "It's gonna burst, it's gonna burst," an they were sayin that back five an six years ago, an then ya go ahead anyway, hunt down that loan ya know ya can't afford an move inta that wonderful house ya really can't afford, when the bubble bursts, like it did, ya really ain't got no one else ta blame but yerself.
It's th nannystate mentality whair ya come up with th notion th governments gotta take care of ya that spawns this type of action and the results of that are what we're viewin taday.
Republicans, Democrats, it don't make no difference. No matter who was in power, as long as th people had the fool notion th government was goin ta make it "all better" somethang like this was goin ta happen an it's been a train wreck in progress long before th first foreclosure hit Tracy.
This ain't Disneyland whair ya can wish upon a star, or Burgerking whair ya can have it yer way. It's real life reality and wishin don't make it come true anymore than ya can always have it yer way. If ya replace yer common sense with a dependance on th government ta protect yer investments or home purchases, what ever ya desire, yer headin fer a nasty fall.
Hopefully these people larned from thair mistakes but as long as they point th finger of blame fer thair situation at someone else, they really didn't larn anything and that's what's really sad.
Why? Because, given th CHANCE, they'ed probably go right back out an do th same thang again. An why shouldn't they? They all believe th nannystate government will bail em out.
As fer yer choises Malia, good luck with her property manager scheme. Truthfully that ain't all it's cracked up ta be anyway. Besides, ya already wasted yer first choise. That was th one that told ya not ta buy because ya really couldn't afford it.
An I must be missin somethang here. Ya live in a "so-so" apartment at a higher rent payment than yer house so ya can rent out yer house? That don't make much sense unless yer house ain't in Tracy or yer job an appartment is somewhares else.
An if ya weren't planin on walkin away from yer home, why did ya leave it in th first place ta move inta an apartment an work somewhars else? It don't make sense.
But that's really OK, it dont' have ta make sense ta me, it only has ta make sense ta you.
Good luck on yer rental endeavors. Yer about ta larn a whole new lesson about people.