A Town Drowns in Debt as Home Values Plunge
Because of plunging home values, almost 90 percent of homeowners here owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth, according to figures released Monday. That is the highest percentage in the country. The average homeowner in Mountain House is “underwater,” as it is known, by $122,000. A visit to the area over the last couple of days shows how the nationwide housing crisis is contributing to a broad slowdown of the American economy, as families who feel burdened by high mortgages are pulling back on their spending.

Change Coming in Key Areas of Law
Bills to eliminate predispute binding arbitration have been gaining momentum, said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, adding, "Binding arbitration in consumer contracts affects such a broad swath of people. Those bills were doing quite well, but we'll see better prospects in an administration that isn't going to veto them, and one of the bills was introduced by Senator Obama." His opponent in that battle agrees that eliminating mandatory arbitration will be a Democratic priority.

Arizona Voters Reject Homeowners Bill of Rights
If it had passed, the proposition would have given "homeowners the ability to get defective homes fixed, and have their homes when built match what they were led to expect and to better understand financing and insurance schemes that are offered to them," proposition text noted.  Related article: Home Lemon Law

UPDATE: Builders 'Ecstatic' Over Arizona 'Lemon Law' Defeat
The initiative looked to force builders to offer 10-year warranties and use licensed contractors for repairs. Buyers would have had 100 days to cancel a contract, and they'd receive 95% of their deposit back. Companies grumbled the deposit would become meaningless and they'd be saddled with even more expensive, unsold inventory. Related article: Home Lemon Law

Mirasol hope may flicker out
Bad timing has left some San Antonio Housing Authority residents scrambling to try to buy a home in one of the toughest mortgage markets in years...The idea was to create homeowners. But the “purchase” part of the lease-to-purchase program expires in January, which means residents must buy homes now or lose the credits they've built up over the years.In some cases, the so-called “capital accumulation account” tops $20,000. George Alejos, a League of United Latin American Citizens official who has worked with many Mirasol residents, said most families are at risk of losing their accumulation. “Now that the mortgage meltdown is happening, these people cannot get a loan,” he said. “Ninety-nine-point-nine percent of these people won't qualify for a loan.”...Patricia Cabrera and her children left their mold-infested home and lived in a hotel for a while, until SAHA stopped paying the bills there. Now the family is scattered, living with various relatives. Cabrera does not expect to be able to tap into her capital accumulation.

Was There a Loan It Didn’t Like?
...senior mortgage underwriter at Washington Mutual during the late, great mortgage boom, Ms. Cooper says she found herself in a vise. Brokers squeezed her from one side, her superiors from the other, she says, and both pressured her to approve loans, no matter what. “At WaMu it wasn’t about the quality of the loans; it was about the numbers,” Ms. Cooper says. “They didn’t care if we were giving loans to people that didn’t qualify. Instead, it was how many loans did you guys close and fund?” ...After WaMu’s mortgage lending unit laid her off, she applied for work in its retail banking division. She was turned down, she suspects, because of the critical letters in her personnel file. Ms. Cooper’s biggest regret, she says, is that she did not reject more loans. “I swear 60 percent of the loans I approved I was made to,” she says. “If I could get everyone’s name, I would write them apology letters.”

Predatory Lending, Foreclosures, Housing Crisis & Bailouts
Much of America continues to steam about the bailout of Wall Street. But before Wall Street made billions from subprime mortgages, people in North Texas made millions.Wall Street is taking the heat, Main Street and maybe even people you know, may deserve part of the blame...The answer may be right there in your own neighborhood if there are foreclosed homes nearby. Featured News Reports

Homebuilder donates to '08 election
October 31st, 2008 Bob Perry of Perry Homes has become a political force to be reckoned with in the 2008 elections, and he's not even running for office. Instead, Perry has been donating money to various candidates... But Perry hasn’t only given funds to Davis.  This year, statewide, the homebuilder has given approximately $175,000 to Democrats, and $2.6 million dollars to Republicans and related committees. ..View video report

Cisneros: Many share blame for economic crisis
Many things share blame for the nation's current economic crisis, including Asian- and oil-fueled liquidity, interest rates kept low too long by the Fed, corporate borrowing binge, speculation in the housing market, and an unusual splitting of housing as shelter to housing as an investment opportunity, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros said Sunday...In the context of such activities, Cisneros said, he and others were being blamed for pressing home ownership too far. "Frankly, I don't accept that," Cisneros said. Though he didn't mention it, Cisneros seemed to refer to an Oct. 19 New York Times series on people who helped cause the economic crisis in which his Lago Vista housing project on the South Side was used as an example of a housing project gone bad. Lago Vista was a partnership with KB Home, which built the troubled Mirasol Homes project on the West Side.