Building the New Normal

[don]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More generations are living under the same roof and the trend will deepen as families grappling with near double-digit unemployment share expenses, a study showed on Monday.

Demand is escalating for multi-generational housing as buyers scale down during the deepest housing crisis since the Great Depression, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Parsippany, New Jersey.

Thirty-seven percent of the company's real estate agents polled in January said that in the past year, buyers were increasingly shopping for homes that fit more than one generation. Almost 70 percent of the agents said they expect economic conditions will drive still greater demand for this type of housing over the next year.

"More buyers are pooling investments, considering bringing mom and dad into it," said Diann Patton, a Coldwell Banker real estate consumer specialist based in Grass Valley, California, in an interview with Reuters.

Buyers were primarily driven by financial concerns when deciding to combine generations in a household, the survey found. Health concerns were the second most common reason and strong family bonds a distant third.
Patton said one of her clients sought to bring her mother out of a health care facility. The mother and daughter pooled resources, buying a house with separate entrances with units for each and room for a caregiver.
This shift in homeownership comes as unemployment hovers just under 10 percent and many consumers are being dealt wage cuts.

College graduates unable to get jobs are often returning to their parents' homes.

Merging generations under one roof could foster more demand in the struggling move-up market, with families buying together to get larger homes than the entry-level houses some might otherwise be able to afford.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61L1WR20100222

[don]

Re: Building the New Normal

while in the apartment zone....the New Normal marches on

Decaying Apartments Symptom of Housing Crisis

Mortgage crisis brings creeping decay to middle-class apartment buildings from Calif to NY

By SAMANTHA GROSS

The Associated Press

NEW YORK


There was no heat or hot water, so for weeks Mary Fountain would fill a bowl and put it in the microwave, then strip off her extra layers to sponge herself clean.

Upstairs, her longtime neighbor, 70-year-old Gearaldine Davis, peers skeptically out at her balcony, hesitant to step onto the cracked concrete. The last time the city inspector came by, he told her he was afraid to walk out there.

This Bronx apartment building, where city housing violations have increased from 82 to nearly 600 in 16 months, is among thousands of rental properties from Los Angeles to Harlem showing a creeping decay as housing values collapse and funds for repairs dry up.

As landlords find themselves owing more than their properties are worth, some have simply walked away, leaving garbage to pile up. Others have disappeared into bankruptcy, with unpaid utility bills. Some have tried to reduce their losses by neglecting basic maintenance.

"There are 100,000 apartments teetering on the edge" in New York City alone, said Harold Shultz, senior fellow at the Citizens Housing and Planning Council. "And depending upon the way various winds blow, they could fall over."

Across the country, multifamily mortgages covering 340,000 apartment units and worth an estimated $28.8 billion were delinquent or in foreclosure at the end of 2009 — more than 18 times the sum from two years earlier — according to Real Capital Analytics.

Earlier this month, a Congressional report warned that the deterioration of these properties could drag down the value of the surrounding neighborhoods. In New York, where these troubled investments centered on gentrifying areas of the Bronx and Harlem, advocates worry the problems could deliver lasting blows to neighborhoods that have long struggled.

Of New York City's 1 million rent-stabilized apartments, more than one-tenth are facing severe financial distress, says Rafael Cestero, commissioner of the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Of those, more than one-quarter have deteriorated visibly since the beginning of the downturn.

In much of the country the phrase "affordable housing" brings to mind government-owned housing projects relegated to the poor. But in pricey New York City, government-regulated rental apartments have long been a path to survival for middle-class workers.

The owners of the largest of the city's affordable-housing complexes, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, recently gave up the 11,000-unit property when they couldn't make their mortgage payments.
At 1520 Sedgwick Ave. in the Bronx, Davis can remember a time when the building was gleaming, when there were palm trees and telephones in the lobby for residents. In the 1970s, DJ Kool Herc spun records in the community room here, which officials later called the birthplace of hip-hop.
Now, the shine is gone. The community room door is locked. And Davis recently got down on her knees to find every crack in her apartment and stuff them with steel wool to keep out the rats.

Back downstairs, Fountain chides her 12-year-old granddaughter for venturing through the hallways alone. The Fire Department is here every day, it seems, to rescue people trapped in the creaky elevators. And the temperamental lock on the front door has made the stairwells a gathering place for shady characters.

But both women feel that leaving isn't an option.

"Where am I going to go? Stay in the river?" Davis said, gesturing toward the waterway outside the building. "I don't have money ... I pay rent before I buy food because I know I've got to have a place to stay."

The building's owners have already racked up housing violations on two other Bronx affordable-housing properties and let them go into foreclosure. For now, 1520 Sedgwick remains on the market, city housing officials say. A lawyer for Mark Karasick, one of the owners, did not return a call for comment.

In Chandler, Ariz., the landscape is different, but the story is similar.
The Phoenix suburb was home to some of the 25 properties that Bethany Holdings Group LLC abandoned in California, Arizona, Texas and Colorado.

Trash began piling up on the properties; the pools were covered with green scum. If the city hadn't stepped in, the water would have stopped running, said Daniel Anderson, the city's senior code inspector. Midland Loan Services Inc., which hired the receiver who took over about a dozen of the Bethany properties, did not return a call seeking comment. The listed number for Bethany Holdings has been disconnected.

In East Palo Alto, Calif., creditors are in the process of foreclosing on more than half of the city's rental units. Maintenance, repairs and security suffered at the 1,800 apartments until the city and court-appointed receiver David Wald stepped in, said Wald. A message left for Page Mill Properties LLC, which controlled the properties, was not returned.

In Washington, D.C., The Urban Institute estimates that 2,500 of the city's renter-occupied housing units were in foreclosure in July — double the number two years earlier. In Los Angeles, housing officials put the number at 5,900 last year, more than triple the 2007 figure. In Chicago, 1-in-8 apartment units in multifamily buildings no longer generate enough revenue to cover operating expenses, according to a DePaul University study.

In the hopes of rescuing some buildings, New York City has put aside $750 million to help renovate and refinance properties that are under water. Cestero says he wants to avoid a repeat of the 1970s and 1980s, when financial distress faced by apartment buildings eventually led to the deterioration and abandonment of neighborhoods.

Earlier this month, a judge ordered the foreclosure sale of the 1,232-unit Riverton Houses in Harlem, which drew many black veterans and their families when it was built in the 1940s. Now, residents are worried about what the future holds for their tree-lined community.

Tatequa Aridi, 22, reminisces about growing up in the same apartment that his grandparents lived in. All his neighbors know him, he says, adding that he wants to make sure nothing will force his family to leave.

A neighbor, Yolanda Sapp, says she finds the uncertainty frightening.
"I like my apartment. I like my neighbors," she says. "I don't know how this is going to affect us."

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9901417

[don]

Re: Building the New Normal

(with thanks to MEGA)

Tracy Residents Now Have To Pay For 911 Calls

Tracy, Ca: Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.

But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.

Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.

Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.

http://cbs13.com/local/tracy.911.calls.2.1502690.html

Will Easy-Payment-Plans soon be made available? Wells Fargo :rolleyes:

[GRG55]

Re: Building the New Normal

while in the apartment zone....the New Normal marches on

Decaying Apartments Symptom of Housing Crisis

...

The solution to this problem is obvious...get the tenants to buy their apartments:

1. Get interest rates down to zero so mortgages are affordable for everyone;
2. Stop asking if people have enough income when they apply for a mortgage;
3. Make sure people can borrow at least 125% of the value of the apartment, so they can pool the money to fix the common areas and the elevators;
4. If the private banks won't go along and lend, then start a government backed agency or two to make sure there's enough mortgage money out there.

We'll call it...um..."the ownership society"...

[don]

Re: Building the New Normal

The never-in-our-lifetime phenomenon of more and more empty houses and more and more empty rentals keeps it neat on what one needs to know about the housing question and the state of civil society at large.

Make mine a double :cool:

[don]

Re: Building the New Normal

New Normal- on the Card de Plastique Front....

Card issuers invent
fees

By David Holthaus • dholthaus@enquirer.com •
February 21, 2010

The new federal law on credit cards kicks in
Monday, and it contains some better protections
for credit card users. But some banks have
already figured out new ways to charge fees not
covered by the Credit CARD Act.

One of the latest is an "inactivity fee" now being
charged by banks including Fifth Third. The
region's largest bank, for instance, will charge
you $19 if you don't use your bank credit card
within 12 months.

"The fee helps us cover the increasing cost of
servicing credit card accounts," Fifth Third
spokeswoman Stephanie Honan said.

Other banks are looking for new sources of fees
as well. Beginning April 1, Citigroup will assess
cardholders a $60 annual fee if they charge less
than $2,400 a year. "This action is necessary
given the increasing costs of doing business,"
Citi spokesman Robert Julavits said.

The nation's second-largest card issuer, Bank of
America, just began testing an annual fee for
some of its credit card accounts.

The fees are part of a menu of little-known
charges that card issuers use. In recent months,
some have upped the fees for transferring
balances. Some have added a minimum charge
for cash advances, meaning a $50 advance on
the credit card could cost the unwitting
consumer $10 or more in fees.

Some are charging a dollar a month to customers
who still want to get an account statement in the
mail.

These fees and more are documented in a recent
report by the Center for Responsible Lending, a Washington-based nonprofit research group.

"The credit card issuers can adjust their tactics
faster than Congress can pass laws," said Joshua
Frank, author of the report.

The CARD Act does include some long-needed
reforms. They include ending late-fee traps like
weekend payment deadlines, outlawing
retroactive rate increases, requiring more
advance notice of rate increases and placing
restrictions on overlimit fees.

But consumers should read the fine print and
speak up if they find something they don't like.

The Center for Responsible Lending and others
are pushing to enact a proposed Consumer
Financial Protection Agency as the best way to
stop credit card companies from inventing new
ways to charge their customers.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/2...rs+invent+fees

[flintlock]

Re: Building the New Normal

The solution to this problem is obvious...get the tenants to buy their apartments:

1. Get interest rates down to zero so mortgages are affordable for everyone;
2. Stop asking if people have enough income when they apply for a mortgage;
3. Make sure people can borrow at least 125% of the value of the apartment, so they can pool the money to fix the common areas and the elevators;
4. If the private banks won't go along and lend, then start a government backed agency or two to make sure there's enough mortgage money out there.

We'll call it...um..."the ownership society"...

Very funny.

[cjppjc]

Re: Building the New Normal

New Normal- on the Card de Plastique Front....

Card issuers invent
fees

By David Holthaus • dholthaus@enquirer.com •
February 21, 2010



One of the latest is an "inactivity fee" now being
charged by banks including Fifth Third. The
region's largest bank, for instance, will charge
you $19 if you don't use your bank credit card
within 12 months.

"The fee helps us cover the increasing cost of
servicing credit card accounts," Fifth Third
spokeswoman Stephanie Honan said.

How on earth does it cost them if my account is inactive?

[Aetius Romulous]

Re: Building the New Normal

Is it only me who is seeing a wide "domino" effect underway, where todays news creates tomorrows. Up till now, we have all been focused on the narrow disaster de jour, the crisis of the moment. Perhaps it's time to step back and look at this monster as one homogeneous shit show that only now is coming into focus.

Is this thing widening and picking up speed?

[ggirod]

Re: Building the New Normal

Is this thing widening and picking up speed?

yup

How on earth does it cost them if my account is inactive?

Let's see ... name, address, city, state, zip total 100 characters or so, add in another 100 for other data like cc# and balance, and 56 to make it a power of 2, and we have 256 characters that have to spin around on a disk... Let's see, every man, woman, and child in the US (actually 325 million accounts, but who's counting) could have their record on ONE 80 GB drive for $50 nowadays if you could buy one that small ...

No use card, no send bill, so no printing or mail cost ... Golly, ya got me. I thought they just wanted ME to buy their 80 GB drive! You mean they want to charge YOU $60 too? Oh, My! Wonder how many others there are?

[sunskyfan]

Re: Building the New Normal

I just got a minimum interest fee of $1.50 on a $15 charge. Never seen that one before.

[don]

Re: Building the New Normal

Is it only me who is seeing a wide "domino" effect underway, where todays news creates tomorrows. Up till now, we have all been focused on the narrow disaster de jour, the crisis of the moment. Perhaps it's time to step back and look at this monster as one homogeneous shit show that only now is coming into focus.

Is this thing widening and picking up speed?

At times it seems a free-for-all has been declared on what wealth remains in the middle class.

[cjppjc]

Re: Building the New Normal

I just got a minimum interest fee of $1.50 on a $15 charge. Never seen that one before.

I always call and get my $1.50 minimum finance charge removed. Pointing out how outlandish the APR is. And what a long term and valuable customer I am. Wonder how much longer that will work.

[flintlock]

Re: Building the New Normal

At times it seems a free-for-all has been declared on what wealth remains in the middle class.

That's how I see it also Don. A mad rush to grab whatever is left.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: Building the New Normal

I always call and get my $1.50 minimum finance charge removed. Pointing out how outlandish the APR is. And what a long term and valuable customer I am. Wonder how much longer that will work.

You'll stop doing that about the time they charge you a service fee to answer that phone call. .