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Housing Crisis Popular With Popular Teens
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2008 Comment (3)While the housing bust is threatening to drag the entire economy into a debilitating recession, it's great news for the teenage party scene.
With a wanton lack of sympathy for the mortgage meltdown and ensuing credit crisis, teenagers in one California community are using abandoned foreclosed homes as venues for unchaperoned—and presumably "raging"—drinking parties.
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The 12 Best ‘Old House’ Neighborhoods
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2008 CommentThis Old House magazine—which calls itself the "guilty enablers of your old-house addictions"—recently released its list of the dozen "Best Places to Buy an Old House."
From This Old House:
Our top criteria for choosing a winner included architectural diversity, the craftsmanship of the homes, and the preservation momentum in the area. But we were also interested in neighborhood amenities: walkability, services, and community. What we found is that people who live in historic places aren't just lovers of golden-age architecture, but of old-fashioned neighborhood values as well.
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Jamie Foxx's Home for Sale
Tweet Share on Facebook June 27, 2008 Comment (1)Although Jamie Foxx earned critical acclaim for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 film Ray, Home Front staffers insist that his best work came in his role as Wanda, the hapless romantic of TV's In Living Color.
True fans of either genre will be scrambling to arrange financing for this once-in-a-lifetime souvenir: Foxx's 5,428-square-foot California estate, which is now on the market.
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Foreclosure Tackles Adam ‘Pacman’ Jones
Tweet Share on Facebook June 27, 2008 Comment (1)Add former Tennessee Titans defensive back Adam "Pacman" Jones to the Home Front's list of America's least-sympathetic housing crisis victims.
From the Associated Press:
A foreclosure sale has been published involving the home of former Tennessee Titan Adam "Pacman" Jones.
Jones has defaulted on the terms and conditions of a mortgage with U.S. Bank, according to a notice of foreclosure sale published Thursday in The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville.
The home and 30 acres, located in a Nashville suburb, will be sold June 27 on the steps of the old Williamson County Courthouse.
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May Home Sales Up: Rally to Follow?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 26, 2008 CommentDespite some optimistic-looking data released today, economists still don't see the housing market turning around anytime soon.
Existing-home sales rose 2 percent from April to May, beating consensus estimates, while median home prices fell roughly 6 percent from a year earlier, the National Association of Realtors reported.
But the relatively upbeat figures—this is just the second increase in sales in the past 10 months—was less than overwhelming to economists.
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Foreclosures a Boon to Marijuana Farmers
Tweet Share on Facebook June 26, 2008 Comment (9)While the national foreclosure crisis has destroyed families, shattered neighborhoods, and contributed to the untimely death of at least one Chihuahua (at the hands of bloodthirsty bees), it may well have been a boon for your local marijuana producer.
Last month, we learned of a California man who was arrested on suspicion of using his foreclosed home as a pot farm. Now, the loco weed was reportedly found growing at a foreclosed home in Florida, too.
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Man Guts Home, Gets Jail Sentence
Tweet Share on Facebook June 26, 2008 Comment (6)Gutting one's home just before it's lost to foreclosure has become an increasingly common part of the mortgage crisis. But before you rip out that copper wiring, take a look at this cautionary tale from Pennsylvania.
From the Associated Press:
A former Mercer County mortgage broker who gutted his $1.2 million home before a sheriff's sale has been sentenced to three to 15 months in jail and must pay more than $174,000 to an insurance company.
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The 5 Most Popular States for Moves
Tweet Share on Facebook June 19, 2008 Comment (2)Relocation.com recently released the results of a national consumer study that—among other things—revealed the five most popular states to move to last year.
Here they are, via realtor.org:
- California (6 percent of all moves)
- Florida (5 percent)
- Texas (4 percent)
- New York (3 percent)
- Georgia (2 percent)
The percentages represent the share of the total survey sample moving to that state from a different one.
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Bailout Beats Back Conservative Objections
Tweet Share on Facebook June 19, 2008 Comment (1)A day after conservative Republicans threatened to block the housing rescue legislation that is making its way through Congress, the Senate has begun considering the measure, the Associated Press reports.
From the Associated Press:
House and Senate Republicans voiced reservations about the bill in light of allegations that Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., one of its architects, and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., got cut-rate home loans through a VIP program at Countrywide Financial Corp., a leading subprime lender at the center of the mortgage meltdown.
But Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., dropped a threat to block the measure. Democrats and Republicans consider the legislation a political imperative amid rising foreclosures and growing public anxiety about the sagging economy.
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Homebuilding Downturn Is Good News?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 19, 2008 CommentThe government's sluggish that came out earlier this week certainly didn't seem like good news. But according to Dean Baker, codirector of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C., that's just what it was.
From a report Baker issued Wednesday, via L.A. Land:
As noted before, the sharp downturn in starts is actually good news. There is a huge excess supply of housing at the moment, which just keeps expanding due to the flood of foreclosures. This inventory will most quickly be eroded if builders stop building new units. The sharper the downturn in construction, the quicker the inventory of homes on the market moves back to normal levels.
