Homebuilders lobby Congress for billions
The nation’s home builders, tired of being left off the economic bailout train, launched a lobbying campaign on Monday to push for $200 billion in housing assistance in a stimulus bill that is likely to be a top priority when the new Congress convenes in January.  Why, homebuilders argue, should the industry that triggered the recession not get some government assistance to help right the faltering economy? ...The association has teamed with other housing-related industries to form the Fix Housing First Coalition.

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.

Fannie Mae forgives loan for woman who shot herself
Addie Polk, 90, of Akron, Ohio, became a symbol of the nation's home mortgage crisis when she was hospitalized after shooting herself at least twice in the upper body Wednesday afternoon. On Friday, Fannie Mae spokesman Brian Faith said the mortgage association had decided to halt action against Polk and sign the property "outright" to her.  U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, mentioned Polk on the House floor Friday during debate over the latest economic rescue proposal. "This bill does nothing for the Addie Polks of the world," Kucinich said after telling her story. "This bill fails to address the fact that millions of homeowners are facing foreclosure, are facing the loss of their home. This bill will take care of Wall Street, and the market may go up for a few days, but democracy is going downhill."

DESPERATE MOM KILLS SELF OVER FORECLOSURE WOES
A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself shortly after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house, she would be dead. Carlene Balderrama used her husband's high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, shortly after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m., police said.

New subdivisions have become ghost towns
Did the homebuilding industry really think a market of people who were not qualified to buy new homes was a sound market strategy that would last or that it was good for America in the long term? Unfortunately, Builders greed hurt qualified families who actually invested their life savings for the American Dream in a market that was falsely inflated and doomed from the start. Builders need to stop the whining. Builders created this mess and now demand federal bailouts instead of jail time.  Janet Ahmad, Home Owners for Better Building.  Read article & Comments...

Senate Housing Bill Still Not Put to a Vote
The Senate failed to pass a huge housing package on Thursday, continuing a legislative process that has been repeatedly bogged down by procedural hurdles, even as the housing market worsens. The multifaceted bill, likely Congress's biggest response to the housing mess, would revamp oversight of the struggling mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a measure that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has said is vital to restore confidence in the U.S. housing market. The bill would also allow the government to insure up to $300 billion in refinanced mortgages, which Democrats say could help up to 500,000 people avoid foreclosure.

How fighting back enabled a family to keep its home
"Because mortgages were sold again and again and then to Wall Street where they were securitized and sold all over the world, I wonder how many homeowners have been foreclosed by a company that couldn't even show proof that they owned the mortgage." - Nancy Seats, president of Homeowners Against Defective Dwellings, speaking about the case of a homeowner who managed to stop a foreclosure on her home four times because the documentation on it was so flimsy and convoluted that lenders couldn’t even prove they owned her home to have the right to foreclose on it.

Home builders group spent $3.2M lobbying
So far this year, the builders group has been especially active in pushing for legislation designed to jump-start the lethargic housing market. It favors an emergency tax break that would let companies use losses from this year and next year to offset profits earned over the previous four years, instead of the usual two-year timeframe and a tax credit of $7,500 for first-time home buyers, estimated to cost $3.8 billion over 10 years...Earlier this year, the builders were so distressed by what they saw as lawmakers' lack of attention to the housing market in an economic stimulus bill signed by President Bush in February that the trade group's political action committee halted contributions to congressional candidates' campaigns.

Foreclosure Act Does Squat for Homeowners
Representatives from numerous organizations assembled this week at a press conference in Washington, D.C., to call upon the House of Representatives to fix the legislation, which includes billions in taxpayer-funded breaks to homebuilders and financial-services companies...Critics of the legislation say the measure doesn't do enough to help individuals and families who are now suffering the consequences of a stalled economy. Instead, it aids the homebuilding and financial-services industries, who are in dire straits because of their own actions.

Homeowners Battle to Stop Home Foreclosures and fines
See who is behind HOA abuses of power. Associa Management Company is the largest HOA management company in the US and is owned byTexas Senator John Carona. Need help see American Homeowners Resource Center and Texas Homeowners for HOA Reform.
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