Hancock Park Medians to Be Less Reprehensible

According to the Larchmont Chronicle, that pretty stretch of Highland in Hancock Park--between 1st and 3rd streets--was recently a bit worse for the wear. The grassy medians lining Highland turned overgrown and brown; unnamed locals called them "disgraceful," the Chronicle reports. Depressingly, the Bureau of Street Services no longer has money or staff to maintain the medians, but Councilman Tom LaBonge sent a crew from the Department of Recreation and Parks to mow and water late in August. The councilman has vowed to find a way to keep the medians green (they turned brown thanks to a broken sprinkler system) and introduced a motion in the council to use street improvement funds to keep out the brown on Highland. Back in better days, like 2008, Highland was having a little median heyday. Image by Floyd B. Bariscale via Flickr
· Larchmont Chronicle [Official Site, no direct link]
· Highland River of Green [Curbed LA]

Chocolate co. marketer picks Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park

Rian K. Long and Marcie M. Zera bought a four-bedroom, three-bath home at 457 N. Mansfield Ave. in Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park from Richard W. Howell for $1,327,500 on Aug. 3.

The 2,932-square-foot house was built in 1926.

Long has been the direct marketing manager of See's Candies, a chocolate company in U.S. He previously served as senior product manager at Pictage, Inc. and senior planning & logistics analyst at Provide Commerce.

He also held various analyst positions at Provide Commerce such as senior marketing retention analyst, marketing retention analyst at and marketing acquisition analyst. In addition to that, she worked as sales coordinator at L-3 Communications and database management engineer (Intern) at Freightliner.

He attended Carnegie Mellon University-Pittsburgh.

According to BlockShopper.com, there have been 467 home sales in Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park during the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $600,000.

Walt Disney SVP buys Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park 3BD

Phillip Todd Gertschen and Vincent Klaseus bought a three-bedroom, one-bath home at 564 Wilcox Ave. in Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park from Katherine Lee Buckland for $1.945 million on August 5.

The 2,676-square-foot house was built in 1925.

Klaseus is the senior vice president of Global Toys at Disney Consumer Products. He held different positions in the company such as senior vice president of Global Franchise Management and Synergy Marketing, and vice president and general manager of Film Franchise Marketing. He also worked for five years with Mattel Toys.

He holds a B.S. in marketing from the University of Minnesota and an M.B.A. from American Graduate School of International Management.

According to Blockshopper.com, there have been 467 home sales in Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park during the past 12 months, with a median sales price of $600,000.

Radio host, actress list Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park 7BD

Frank and Bobbie Bresee have listed for sale a seven-bedroom, 6.5-bath home at 501 S. Hudson Ave. in Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park for $4.3 million.

Shar Penfold of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is the listing agent for the property. The 8,882-square-foot house was built in 1930.

Mr. Bresee an American radio actor and radio historian, is heard on the Yesterday USA Internet Radio Station. He hosted the radio program "Golden Days of Radio" on the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service for over 25 years. He played Little Beaver on the old time radio show "Red Ryder" and had appeared on many other old time radio shows.

Ms. Bresee is an actress who has appeared in horror films like Mausoleum, Surf Nazis Must Die, Ghoulies and Evil Spawn. She also appeared on TV shows, such as "Charlie's Angels," "B.J. and the Bear," "The Love Boat," "Simon & Simon" and "The Fall Guy." Prior to her acting career, she was a music teacher and one-time Playboy Bunny.

Mr. Bresee owns a three-bedroom, four-bath home at 8282 Hollywood Blvd. in Hollywood.

According to BlockShopper.com, there have been 418 home sales in Greater Mid-Wilshire/Hancock Park during the past 12 months, with a median sale price of $602,500.

Fannie Mae gets tough on 'strategic' mortgage defaults

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Borrowers who walk away from mortgages they can afford to pay — making "strategic defaults" — are running increasing risks that they'll be penalized for doing so.

Starting in October, Fannie Mae says, strategic defaulters will be disqualified for new Fannie Mae-backed loans for seven years after their foreclosures. Fannie also says it will go to court where it can to recoup outstanding mortgage debt from borrowers who strategically default.

Under a bill that's passed the House and awaits Senate action, the Federal Housing Administration would be barred from insuring mortgages for those who previously ditched a mortgage they had the ability to pay.

ECONOMY: Comparisons to the Great Depression keep popping up

Get-tough policies are forming at the same time that about a quarter of mortgage borrowers owe more than their homes are worth.

Fannie Mae buys about 40% of all mortgages and packages them for resale to investors. The FHA insures about 30% of home mortgages.

Freddie Mac, which also buys mortgages, says it is examining Fannie Mae's policy.

To determine if a borrower is in default, Fannie examines whether the homeowner still has access to credit and is paying that debt and others.

Cracking down on strategic defaulters is controversial. Some lenders say it is necessary to stem the tide of homeowners shirking their obligations.

"We need to start treating bad behavior with serious and measureable consequences so that we can get this nation back on its feet," says Daniel Smith, vice president of mortgage banking at First Place Bank in Livonia, Mich. "Washington needs to come up with a uniform law on this issue."

Others say homeowners who may appear guilty of strategically defaulting really can't afford to make mortgage payments.

"It seems like an overreaction," says Howard Banker, a founder of Fair Mortgage Collaborative, a consumer education non-profit in New York. "If you do default, it goes into foreclosure, and that's already very damaging to your credit."

Other policies may be more effective than penalizing strategic defaulters, says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Analytics. Changing bankruptcy laws to allow bankruptcy judges to reduce debtors' mortgages is an example, he says.

"I'm not a big fan of using the stick to get people to stay in their homes. There are instances where it makes no financial sense for them to stay in their homes," Zandi says. "And how do you know, really, if someone is strategically defaulting?"

Two out of five homeowners say they would consider walking away from their mortgages if their homes were worth less than what they owed, according to a survey by Trulia and RealtyTrac.

source: http://www.usatoday.com

U.S. trying to recoup some Fannie, Freddie losses

By Alan Zibel, AP Real Estate Writer
WASHINGTON — A federal regulator is taking steps that could lead to the recovery of some losses sustained by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency said Monday it is looking to get back money that the two government-controlled companies have lost on mortgage securities packaged and sold by Wall Street firms.


During the housing market's boom years, the two government-sponsored companies snapped up those securities, which contained some of the riskier loans made during the housing boom years. But they declined dramatically in value after the market went bust.

The regulatory agency said it has issued 64 subpoenas seeking loan files and other documents to determine whether the sellers of those securities made any false statements or omissions. Fannie and Freddie had tried to do so themselves but have faced resistance in getting the loan documents, said the agency, which was given subpoena power two years ago.

The agency said in a statement that it is "prepared to take appropriate action to ensure compliance, if necessary." Any money recovered by the government would offset losses at Fannie and Freddie, which have cost taxpayers $145 billion so far.

Many analysts agree that Fannie and Freddie fed the boom in shady mortgage lending by snapping up billions in dubious mortgage investments and by lowering standards for the mortgages they guaranteed.

"It's a shame Fannie and Freddie didn't ask these questions themselves when they were buying these securities in the first place," said Howard Glaser, a Washington mortgage industry consultant who formerly had both companies as clients. "The truth is that they never really wanted to dig too deep into true nature of the loans they were buying."

But the government's ability to recover money will depend on whether the mortgage companies that made the loans are still operating, said Scott Buchta, chief mortgage strategist with Braver Stern Securities. Many of the lenders who made the worst-performing loans have gone out of business.

"It's going to be a long process," Buchta said.

Fannie and Freddie currently hold about $255 billion of these mortgage-backed investments, known as "private label" securities. They amount to less than 5% of the $5.5 trillion in mortgage securities the companies own or guarantee and are separate from those issued by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac themselves.

Fannie and Freddie have also been trying to recover money on their own securities by forcing lenders to buy loans that have gone into default.

source:http://www.usatoday.com

Foreclosure could claim more than 1 million homes in 2010

By Alex Veiga, AP Real Estate Writer
LOS ANGELES — More than 1 million U.S. households could lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure tracking service.

Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, RealtyTrac says.

"That would be unprecedented," said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

Historically, lenders have taken over about 100,000 homes a year, Sharga said.

The surge in home repossessions reflects the dynamic of a foreclosure crisis that has shown signs of leveling off in recent months, but remains a crippling drag on the housing market.

The pace of new properties entering foreclosure slowed as banks let delinquent borrowers stay longer in their homes rather than adding to the glut of foreclosed properties on the market. But at the same time, lenders have stepped up repossessions to clear out the backlog of distressed inventory on their books.

The number of households facing foreclosure in the first half of the year climbed 8% vs. the period last year, but dropped 5% from the last six months of 2009, according to RealtyTrac, which tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.

In all, about 1.7 million homeowners received a foreclosure-related warning between January and June. That translates to one in 78 U.S. homes.

Foreclosure notices declined in April, May and June, but Sharga cautions not to read too much into that.

"The banks are really sort of controlling or managing the dial on how fast these things get processed so they can ultimately manage the inventory of distressed assets on the market," he said.

On average, it takes about 15 months for a home loan to go from being 30 days late to the property being foreclosed and sold, according to Lender Processing Services, which tracks mortgages.

Assuming the U.S. economy doesn't worsen, aggravating the foreclosure crisis, Sharga projects it will take lenders through 2013 to resolve the backlog of distressed properties they have on their books now.

And a new wave of foreclosures could be coming in the second half of the year, especially if the unemployment rate remains high, mortgage-assistance programs fail, and the economy doesn't improve fast enough to lift home sales.

The prospect of lenders taking over more than a million homes this year is likely to push housing values down, experts say.

Foreclosed homes are typically sold at steep discounts, lowering the value of surrounding properties.

"The downward pressure from foreclosures will persist and prices will be very weak well into 2012," said Celia Chen, senior director of Moody's Economy.com.

She projects home prices will fall as much as 6% the next 12 months from where they were in the first quarter.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, continue to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, lax lending standards were the culprit. Now, homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.

There are more than 7.3 million home loans in some stage of delinquency, according to Lender Processing Services.

Lenders are offering to help some homeowners modify their loans. But many borrowers can't qualify or they are falling back into default. The Obama administration's $75 billion foreclosure prevention effort has made only a small dent in the problem.

More than a third of the 1.2 million borrowers who have enrolled in the government's mortgage modification program have dropped out. That compares with about 27% who have received permanent loan modifications and are making payments on time.

Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate in the first half of the year. One in 17 households there received a foreclosure notice. However, foreclosures there are down 6% from a year earlier.

Arizona, Florida, California and Utah were next among states with the highest foreclosure rates. Rounding out the top 10 were Georgia, Michigan, Idaho, Illinois and Colorado.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com