The All-American Nightmare

[don]

1910 Osborne Place

Before it became a house of horrors and a torture chamber, 1910 Osborne Place was a fountain of dreams born of easy credit.

It was a seemingly ever-growing pot of gold amid a struggling Bronx neighborhood where every honest dollar had always been hard-earned.

Back in 1990, Benjamin Santiago bought the three-family brick building with a $25,000 mortgage. He took out a subsequent mortgage in 1997 for $149,600.
In January 2004, Santiago sold the place to Greg McKinnon for $300,000. McKinnon made the purchase with a $297,648 mortgage.

The bubble was swelling. McKinnon was able to take out a second mortgage 10 months later for $414,000.

In July 2006, McKinnon sold the building to Harvey Cameron for $495,000.
That's right, just under half a million dollars for a place in a tough part of Morris Heights.

Cameron made the purchase with a $445,500 mortgage from Fremont Investments, a California firm that has been described as "one of the top originators of subprime residential loans."

That was just as the housing market began to collapse because of exactly that kind of loan by exactly that kind of lender.

Of course, this did not stop Citibank from joining the insanity.

On March 11, 2008, Citibank granted Cameron a $100,000 mortgage on top of the $445,500 mortgage from Fremont.

In January of this year, Cameron declared bankruptcy. He did not respond to phone messages yesterday, but a person familiar with the case suggests that he simply got in over his head.

Cameron had to relinquish ownership of 1910 Osborne. Fremont would have become the new primary owner had it not gone bankrupt itself in June 2008.

A company named Signature had taken over Fremont, and apparently became the new owner in conjunction with Citibank.

Meanwhile, the building stood empty, and a gang calling itself the Latin King Goonies moved in.

There should be a mechanism where banks notify the NYPD and authorize cops to clear out squatters. As it was, the gang was allowed to turn it into a clubhouse, even though it was just across the street from Public School 226.

When the gang tortured a 17-year-old and then a 30-year-old for being gay last week, they made a house of horrors out of a onetime pot of gold for which the banks lent $545,000.


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_c...#ixzz129jJTXy0

[housingcrashsurvivor]

Re: The All-American Nightmare

Either I'm reading this wrong or I suspect the writer got carried away, making it seem like there was more gold than there really was. (As if there was at all.)

"In January 2004, Santiago sold the place to Greg McKinnon for $300,000. McKinnon made the purchase with a $297,648 mortgage.

The bubble was swelling. McKinnon was able to take out a second mortgage 10 months later for $414,000.

In July 2006, McKinnon sold the building to Harvey Cameron for $495,000."

Greg had a 1st of 298 and a 2nd of 414 then sold for 495? So he lost money during the great illusion? Possibly story should have read not a "second mortgage" but that he refied or mortgaged a second time? Because if he was holding two mortgages for 715 & sold for 5, all was not gold.