Protests planned at local homebuilder
A couple hundred people plan to demonstrate at Pulte Homes  Inc., based in Bloomfield Hills, to protest the homebuilder’s lending and construction practices. Homeowners and workers will travel 3,300 miles, stopping in 10 cities across the United States to tell Pulte Homes to stop foreclosing on the American dream.

Protests planned at local homebuilder

By JERRY WOLFFE
Of The Oakland Press

A couple hundred people plan to demonstrate at Pulte Homes  Inc., based in Bloomfield Hills, to protest the homebuilder’s lending and construction practices.

The demonstrations are planned for Monday, Dec. 14, and Tuesday, Dec. 15, at 100 Bloomfield Hills Parkway, Bloomfield Hills, said Jacob Hay, a spokesman for the 500,000-member Laborers’ International Union of North America.

Other protests alleging poor construction of homes built by Pulte and conflict-of-interest lending practices are scheduled next month in Los Angeles, Riverside, Calif., Las Vegas, Phoenix and other cities, he said.

“LIUNA's claims are baseless and our reputation speaks for itself: We are the most awarded homebuilder in America for customer satisfaction as reported by JD Power and Associates year after year,” said Pulte spokeswoman Caryn Klebba.

“As a convenience, we provide mortgage services to our customers — not unlike financing available to consumers when purchasing a new car — and always leave the decision up to the customer on where to obtain their financing,” she said.

“Our mortgage approval process is rigorous and, in fact, at 740, the average credit score of our mortgage customers is well in excess of the industry average,” Klebba said.

Pulte was founded in 1950 by Bill Pulte and specializes in residential construction.

“Homeowners and workers will travel 3,300 miles, stopping in 10 cities across the United States to tell Pulte Homes to stop foreclosing on the American dream,” Hay said.

Riding their “Build America so America Works” RV, the tour will highlight the role Pulte Homes and its smaller partners played in crashing the U.S. housing market, he added.

The market collapse resulted in the loss of 2 million construction jobs, nearly 3 million foreclosures and billions of dollars in lost retirement savings, Hay said.

On Dec. 14-15 in Oakland County, workers and homeowners will participate in a variety of events from church and union hall forums to rallies, all featuring the personal stories of homeowners and construction workers impacted by the economic crisis, as well as views from community leaders, elected officials and policy experts, he added.

Hay said Pulte has played a part in the housing  crash “because of its lending activities.”

The company has a lending division, Pulte Mortgage LLC, and provides mortgages to “92 percent of its customers before selling them to other investors,” said Hay.

“This creates a natural conflict of interest,” he added. “We look for people in power in the industry to help turnaround the depressed market.

“Pulte could be the leader in getting the housing market back on its feet, but they’ve continued the same practices of pushing risky loans to borrowers with poor credit.”

The rallies are to try to create “awareness” and to prod Pulte to meet with some of the dissatisfied homeowners, Hay said.

Some 23 percent of homeowners were upside down in their mortgages, meaning if they sold their homes they would not have enough money to pay off the mortgage, according to a report Tuesday by First American CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif.-based real estate research firm.

“We want to hold some of these larger corporations such as banks and homebuilders accountable for sales and lending practices,” he said.

Contact Jerry Wolffe at (248) 745-4612 or jerry.wolffe@oakpress.com.
http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2009/11/29/news/doc4b11ba229bbb4305937540.txt