Housing

WASHINGTON - A massive foreclosure rescue bill cleared a key Senate test Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, with Democrats and Republicans both eager to claim election-year credit for helping hard-pressed homeowners.

GULFPORT, Ill. - Juli Parks didn't worry when water began creeping up the levee that shields this town of about 750 from the Mississippi River — not even when volunteers began piling on sandbags.

A large, empty plot of cleaned-up riverfront property near I-75 could soon be in the hands of a self-described "visionary developer."

When Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota wanted a mortgage for his beach house, he turned to a Washington insider, James A. Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae, the government mortgage giant, who then put the senator in touch with Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

The vast majority of people who owe the city of Toledo money for razing nuisance buildings, cutting grass and weeds, or clearing away debris never pay up.

Over the past two years, the city has collected just $35,000 out of $4.1 million billed to current and former property owners.

The increasingly controversial proposed Toledo law to require owners of vacant buildings to register and pay a fee was vehemently denounced yesterday by a number of opponents and applauded by others during a lengthy City Council committee hearing.

If approved, the fee starts at $100 for residential buildings and increases the longer a property is vacant.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner plans to introduce
legislation to City Council calling for the creation of a vacant
residential building registration.

The legislation would require registration and fees for each vacant residential structure in the city.

Toledo homes may not be selling rapidly, but income-generating rental properties are.

Thirteen apartment complexes were auctioned off in Toledo this week as one of the largest commercial auctions in the area by the Pamela Rose Auction Co. LLC.

Up for bid were 17 properties with up to 28 units each, and 40 potential buyers participated at the event in Gladieux Meadows in south Toledo.

"Senator John McCain, who drew criticism last month after he warned against broad government intervention to solve the deepening mortgage crisis, pivoted Thursday and called for the federal government to aid some homeowners in danger of losing their homes, by helping them to refinance and get federally guaranteed 30-year mortgages.

The Federal Reserve System on Tuesday announced the availability of a set
of dynamic maps and data that illustrate subprime and alt-A mortgage loan conditions
across the United States.

http://www.reuters.com/article/gc03/idUSN2830318520080328

By performing this act, the city has just told people to stop paying their mortgages. They also told people to stop paying their property taxes.

(Renters, of course, being second-class citizens, must still pay their rents or they will be evicted.)

I can't find this mentioned anywhere, but if you heard Maggie Thurber, or Fred glance over on WSPD this morning, they talked about the proposed empty house ordinance. Here is what I know/remember:

1. If the house/property is empty for a certain amount of time, owners need to board up the windows.
2. Owners must register and pay a fee to register the empty house.

WASHINGTON -- Fighting to stem a dangerous wave of home foreclosures, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged Friday to do all that is possible to help struggling U.S. homeowners

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/industries/government/article/fed-chi...

Vote NO on ALL Tax Issues !

Vote NO on the Oregon School Property Tax !

VOTE NO NO NO !

Remember Taxes Are Like Drugs, Just Say NO !!

I read this in an old metro press, interesting facts !

I am just a normal middle class person living in Oregon, Ohio. I have lived here for the past 17 years. Our family of four loves this community, but we, like many other families in Oregon and other areas I am sure, just cannot pay any more taxes. We may have to sell our home to move to an area with lower property taxes.

Vacant and abandoned properties in Toledo and
several other Ohio cities are costing taxpayers millions, both in city
services and lost tax dollars, according to a new study.

The study, "$60 Million and Counting: The Cost of Vacant and Abandoned
Properties to Eight Ohio Cities," is being released today at a forum at
the Statehouse in Columbus.

WASHINGTON (AFP) -
US mortgage lenders targeted minorities and people with low incomes in recent years as the "best candidates" for subprime home loans, with devastating economic consequences, a report claimed Tuesday.

"CLEVELAND—The city of
Cleveland, an epicenter of the nation's home foreclosure crisis, has
sued 21 banks and claimed their subprime lending practices created a
public nuisance that hurt property values and city tax collections.

The
lawsuit was filed Thursday in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, and

Subprime mortgages roiling Toledo area, broker, lender say

Marcy Kaptur takes a different tone on the muderer that killed Bhutto.

U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D., Toledo) released a statement condemning the Ms. Bhutto's assassination, calling her killers "dastardly perpetrators."

"Let us hope that her example will serve to light the way for Pakistan to join the community of nations in adopting the rule of law," Miss Kaptur said.

GREENBURGH, N.Y. - Audrey Davison lives alone, gets a $620 Social
Security check each month and worries about the sharply rising taxes on
her four-bedroom house. Davison, 76, raised her family there and after
43 years, she really doesn't want to leave
Greenburgh doesn't want her to leave, either.

Michigan and Ohio have some of the nation's highest rates of foreclosed homes and delinquent mortgages. Fannie Mae's report shows the Midwest in general is suffering the largest loan losses. Of the top seven states, five are in the Midwest, with Minnesota ranked third, Indiana fourth and Illinois seventh. California and Florida are ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

NORTHWEST OHIO -- The freezing of the subprime rate could have a very positive effect on northwest Ohio.

In October, 1,000 homeowners filed for foreclosure in Lucas County. Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak is one of the leaders on the county's Foreclosure Prevention Task Force. She says any help from the Federal Government will make a difference.

DETROIT - Rising foreclosures will lead to billions of dollars in lost economic activity next year in the nation's major metropolitan areas, but homeowners and financial institutions have the ability to work together to contain the effects, according to a report compiled for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

In the Toledo area, prices dropped 7.2 percent to $107,100 for the third quarter, a drop from a year earlier equal to Detroit's and worse than Youngstown's or Cleveland's.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071122/BUSINESS0...