The housing “recovery” is a total sham
Forget the happy talk about the housing crisis being over. The stories from this Florida community will shock you
LAKE WORTH, Fla. – Out on the alphabet streets in this once-thriving Florida community, the houses are dotted with black mold. Some have buckled roofs. Others are hollowed out by fire, or the wiring has been stripped. Pests and critters have moved in as the people moved out. On some streets, half of the homes feature boards along the windows, and ubiquitous “No Trespassing: No Traspasar” signs in English and Spanish. “Those are to keep the drug sales out,” says my tour guide, Lynn Szymoniak of the nonprofit Housing Justice Foundation. “I’ve been stopped doing these tours, cops have told me, ‘you’re not supposed to be here.’”
At one time, these homes were exciting products sold by Option One, Ameriquest, New Century Financial, and other mortgage lenders who sprouted up during the housing bubble, and disappeared just as quickly. The explosion of lending pumped up this community, one of the oldest in South Florida (Lake Worth turned 100 this year), and raised property values to improbable heights. Houses that traditionally sold for $75,000 were suddenly going for $250,000 and $300,000. When it all crashed, prices fell 60% and the foreclosures rolled through. In one development called Strawberry Lakes, made up of nice, 2- or 3-bedroom masonry homes on quarter-acre lots, Szymoniak culled through records and found almost 1 in 3 homes in foreclosure. “You can find whole blocks gone here,” she said.
While nationally, home prices have bounced back, as analysts delight in what they call a housing recovery, in places like Lake Worth, prices remain buried. There’s not much chance for appreciation when you have reams of abandoned properties in the neighborhood. Lake Worth is one of those places across the country where the foreclosure crisis never ended.
Despite the handsome main drag in Lake Worth, full of nice restaurants and coffee shops, two blocks away, the streets denoted by letters of the alphabet (A Street, B Street, C Street) are simply devastated. Even some of the shopping centers and commercial buildings off the main drag are in foreclosure. “It’s like a flu spread through and everybody had to leave,” Szymoniak remarked. Practically all of the residential neighborhoods resemble a distressed city after a hurricane, with the landscape seeking to reclaim the properties. In fact, some are covered with FEMA tarps from hurricanes dating back to 2007 and 2008.
Rest here…
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[…] The Housing “Recovery” is a Total Sham […]
quoted from the article :
“Another plan that invites less constitutional challenges comes from a community development financial institution called Boston Community Capital, which simply buys houses directly and resells to the borrower at an affordable rate. But both of these alternatives tend to assume existing occupants in the homes.”
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I’ve been wondering why what Boston Community Capital is doing isn’t more wide-spread across the country. Imagine if every homeowner who lost their home to auction could have the opportunity to have their loan balance changed to the auction purchased price.
In other news, CONgress is on vacation! I am so angry!
I would not be surprised if the revolution is closer than I think it is.
Great article! I’m grateful for all Lynn has done to expose the truth.
Where I live, the home prices are way up again – but not because middle class people are buying the homes…it’s because investors / flippers are and have distorted the market, so the recovery in my area is a *sham* also.
How can an average 3 bedroom / 1-1/2 bath 1,200 sq. foot home cost more than $700,000.00?
It’s really insane. And while I understand why we need values to come up again so people have mobility and are able to refi if it makes sense, it really is a double-edged sword.
I hear Real Estate in D.C. (the District of Criminals) is booming!
Of course it is – it is the center of all the 1% with all the (stolen) money but what’s really quite comical is that they (bankstas/policitians) are only selling to each other! One crimminal ripping off another crimminal!
60 minutes did a special on Lynn – she should seek them out to do a special on this!! And where does that cop get off tellng her she can’t be on a street in the city? I have no respect for police anymore and whatever good ones there are, they are soooo outnumbered by the bad ones! Take Lakeland, for examply, if none of you have seen the news lately there….corruption is abundant and I can tell you it is throughout all of the government entities, both local, state and federal.
INHO-this is where it started and this is where it should END please pass on
your cal,l your country, your life, ultimately you freedom, if they take down the American Nation the rest of the world will be a piece of cake for them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAw_RnoDmM0&list=PLTiC6sh3wTi4ebS6Gt2fCjEJL7QLK0xfz&noredirect=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFFhRq3Gqds&list=PLTiC6sh3wTi4ebS6Gt2fCjEJL7QLK0xfz
Peace-walk carefully do your own research-seven50 agenda21 weather wars…due you due diligence
save your own life… stand strong against totalitarianism , they, the perpetrators are looking to close this subject and your existence
YOUR CALL AND ONLY YOUR CALL Blessings 2 all, fight the good fight
I am so happy to see you even know of Glass-Steagall. The Powers that Be have gone to great lengths to prevent their captured media outlets from reporting on this legislation. This is because they fear it above all. It is the ultimate weapon against these criminal elitists and has growing support in both houses now, but as you and I know, most of the members of both houses are in the pockets of the banksters. Thus, it is up to us to force them (the captured members of the house) to betray those who they have accepted money from (banksters) and to perform their elected duties of representing the best interests of their constituients. The re-implementation of FDR’s Glass-Steagall will end theCriminal Cabal’s ability to create an infinite money supply with which thay use to wage their war against the People, by voiding derivatives and any other “creative” financial instrument which is entirely speculative or otherwise fraudulent.
There are many distractions out there, but the only issue we should be concentrating on is this one. We MUST keep the pressure on those who “represent” us in both the Senate and Congress, wheather they have sold us out in the past or not. We MUST let them know that WE know this is the most important issue, the ONLY issue that demands immediate action by their co-sponsoring a re-instatement of Glass-Steagall, EVEN if they have taken money from the banksters. We MUST let them know that if they fail to support the re-instatement of Glass-Steagall, WE WILL SEE TO THEIR REMOVAL FROM OFFICE, via recall or the next election.
Understand, if the Cabal no longer controls the money, they are powerless. Their puppets will not do their bidding and risk themselves for free and without the protection that an unlimited money supply affords them. You MUST understand that when Glass-Steagall is implemented, ALL OF THE “FUNNY MONEY” (derivitives as well as all other “creative” financial instruments) evaporates, and the criminal Cabal can no longer fund their war against the People.
Many other issues we are fighting for in fragmented groups will be corrected when Glass-Steagall is re-instated because the funding (for bribes) will no longer be available. Most issues we are fighting, TSA, NSA, the attack upon the 2nd Amendment, Immigration, Chemtrails, Austerity, IRS, etc…. all these are to divide us as to prevent a united front attack against the achillies heel of the beast… A RETURN OF THE GLASS-STEAGALL ACT!
We MUST unite in this fight. As soon as your “representatives” return to your districts, call for a “town hall meeting” and demand their (your representative’s) attend. Tell them either they support a return to Glass-Steagall or not only are they out, THEY ARE SUBJECT TO CHARGES OF TREASON! Have your petition already drafted for their recall if they fail to support Glass-Steagall, and start obtaining signatures right then and there (if not beforehand). Last count, we only had three congress people from Florida supporting this legislation. Alan Grayson, Alcee Hastings and Frederica Wilson are the only three representatives from Florida whom have signed in support of Glass-Steagall. The rest must either fall in line with this important effort, OR THEY MUST BE REMOVED AND FACE CHARGES! Nelson and Rubio….WTF? Have you already sold your soul to Wall Street?
Two new short videos on the subject:
Glass-Steagall: Wall Street’s Permanent Bank Holiday
http://larouchepac.com/node/27570
LPAC Policy Committee in D.C. • Week III
http://larouchepac.com/node/27583
Yode – you have done a remarkable job of describing Glass-Steagall. I am a floridian & will keep pushing any representative to support the reinactment. Calling on all floridians to jump on the bandwagon and do also!!!!