Court fight to protect Marin low-income home ownership program ...

When will our government learn that trying to "fix" problems in housing, they are making things worse.

Imagine if the government no longer gave deductions for mortgage interest, they no longer bought 9 of 10 mortages written in the USA, they no longer kept interest rates lower through QE and no longer bought past "Toxic" mortgaes from banks lending out money to borrowers who could never afford those loans.

What would happen then? Yep, housing would be MUCH cheaper and we would no longer need the Marin Housing Authority. Just a dream.

Also, in the end, only the lawyers win. The hidden "tax" on America.

OK. Would someone please, kindly, define, for me, the level at which we determine "low income," within the scope of this program? What is the maximum a potential homebuyer can earn, per year, in order to qualify?

Ponder This wrote:

OK. Would someone please, kindly, define, for me, the level at which we determine "low income," within the scope of this program? What is the maximum a potential homebuyer can earn, per year, in order to qualify?

I found this for you,
http://www.marinhousing.org/BMR%20Brochure%20...
Once again, government abusing tax payer $$ to bail out other governmental department's pet policy. This whole program should be abolished....completely. We do not need a BMR program in Marin. What a joke!

liberals destroying america.

Not a great idea, these 'low-income' homebuyer programs. Rental housing support is better, with annual re-qualification and decent random audits to make sure all is on the up and up. Anyway with rental housing, less incentive to lie.

Wall Street bankers have been called today's "welfare queens," feeding at the public trough to the tune of trillions of dollars. The fact that their speculative trades remain untaxed suggests a tidy way that taxpayers could recover some of their bailout money. The idea of taxing speculative trades was first proposed by Nobel Prize winning economist James Tobin in the 1970s. But he acknowledged that the tax was unlikely to be implemented because of the massive accounting problems involved. Today, however, modern technology has caught up to the challenge, and proposals for a "Tobin tax" are gaining traction. The proposals are very modest, ranging from .005% to 1% per trade, far less than you would pay in sales tax on a pair of shoes. For ordinary investors, who buy and sell stock only occasionally, the tax would hardly be felt. But high-speed speculative trades could be slowed up considerably. Wall Street traders compete to design trading programs that can move many shares in microseconds, allowing them to beat ordinary investors to the "buy" button and to manipulate markets for private gain.

So folks, get it through your heads, the problem begins with banking and the way they create money. Derivative trading gone psycho is what caused this meltdown. All else flows from this. The evil ones manage the big banks and run investments on Wall St.
There aren't any Liberal wackos...just evil banks, their servants in governments and stupid stooges on the right who continue to believe that the "little" guys are the ones screwing things up.

it's too bad "contractor" that like the rest of the libs, you try so hard to make it seem like the actual "taxpayers" of our society should be the punishable ones. and just like every other lib, you have no idea what you're talking about.

"the problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people's money" -margaret thatcher

contractor wrote:

So folks, get it through your heads, the problem begins with banking and the way they create money.

You forgot to mention that Carter, Clinton, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd,(and others) along with a number of GSEs,(Government Sponsored Enterprises) such as Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, started and then defended the whole CRA styled "give a home loan to anyone" policy.

The above "policy" created an artificial housing bubble with predictable results (artificially high housing prices, and the inevitable collapse of the market). Now the housing market is flooded with poorly built "housing bubble era" houses that aren't worth half their current list price.

The fact is that the housing industry makes money in much the same way that the the banking industry does.

BTW "contractor", nobody forced anyone to buy a house during this entire housing "pump and dump" scam. The people (or "little guys" in your mind) that took out subprime housing loans were often speculating (i.e. gambling) in the hopes of making a quick buck in the housing market just like the banks, and the housing industry (including the contractors) did.

Can someone tell me where the US Constitution states that you have a right to own a home? I can't afford to buy a beach front property in Malibu---should those tax payers subsidize me??? If you can't afford to live here---MOVE!

Can't wait to give them free health care too.

waaaaaaaaaaa it was the evil wall street bankers! let's tax them all to subsidize our feel good programs! capitalism feels bad, someone always seems to lose, socialism feels great! Nobody in Marin has ever had a 401k, or has invested money in the stock market...they are all just mythically wealthy and hanging at the mill valley starbucks without purpose! What a juvenile argument.
Go build huts in the jungle or something contractor, the marin money that you would receive for your services is all tainted and bloody from the evil wall streeters!
Now goose-step down to your ATM and see if you cry hard enough, or whine loud enough some $$ will come out of it. Or maybe you can barter some animal skins...oh wait, no don't hurt animals, that might make you look bad. Maybe you can bater some of your tears for goods and services, as the currency system does not fit your white guilt.
Maybe we will set up a "overpaid contractors who do shotty work and nobody is hiring them anymore" government program!
All these folks refinancing houses, hiring CONTRACTORS to make their old 70's homes look like the magazines, did that have anything to do with the housing boom? no way, that was good craftsmanship and hard work from real Americans, not the EVIL wall street bankers!
In fact, let's change the currency over to berries or something, banks, money, it's all just so evil. Maybe contractor will just work for free!
Watch out for the little guy! The little guy with his little hammer and nails asking ME for MY wall street blood money! Would rather pay an illegal alien that works his ass off and appreciates this country than some tree hugger who's white guilt causes him to whine about everything.
I will take my wall street money, soaked in blood, and hand it over to someone who appreciates it and will give me something for it. Not to go on their own crusade of do-gooding or government program about what should and shouldn't be. GET YOUR HAND OUT OF MY POCKET!

"Often times we found the title companies didn't do their due diligence in looking at the deed restrictions," said Stacey Laumann, a Marin county planner.

The title company does not have the burden of due diligence here
Its the responsibility of the lender, seller or buyer or the seller or buyers brokers to ask for and review title and few ever do in high volumne cookie cuuter residential deals
If the docs are recorded ahead of the HSBC loan the bank screwed up by not doing their own diligence
But absent a prevailing parties provision in the docs (maybe the form of the docs need fixing) they pay their own attorney fees

Let's see who our tax dollars are going to support: the kind of hardworking productive citizens that so enrich our communities:

"Gracie Stover said that when she moved into her public housing unit 53 years ago she had a husband and three children. Today, Stover said she lives in the unit by herself.
"Don't take our homes away from us," Stover said. "Let me go out feet first."
Conchita Sibbalucca, who has lived in her unit for 50 years, said, "I have nine grandchildren. They come on weekends. I beg you not to make me move into a one-bedroom apartment."
Royce McLemore, a long-time public house resident and community activist, said that because there is a limited number of one-bedroom units in Marin City, some seniors may have to be uprooted from the community where they have their family and support systems...."

http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_13500804

Time to scrape the barnacles off our ship of state...

For those not wanting to load Adobe Acrobat and follow the link to the Marin Housing brochure, here are the 2007 "Moderate Income" limits, with "Household size" on the left and income limit on the right:

HH Income
1 $79,800
2 $91,200
3 $102,600
4 $114,000
5 $123,100
6 $132,250

I'm so happy that we are subsidizing a couple with one child making six figures!

Oh, and the lucky buyers are chosen in a drawing! Anyone wonder just how random that drawing is?

Let's hope the funding for keeping this stupid program in place is exhausted quickly--whether through buying back defaulted mortgages or paying lawyer fees, I don't care. End it.

I am shocked that the housing authority has financial troubles. Why the "Executive Director", showing his firm control of the authority, stated:
(he) could not provide an estimate of how many of these pre-approved loans have been exercised, how many properties have been repurchased or how much money has been repaid to the county and San Rafael."

And he still has a job? The Peter Principle at work.

kitty wrote:

"Often times we found the title companies didn't do their due diligence in looking at the deed restrictions," said Stacey Laumann, a Marin county planner.
The title company does not have the burden of due diligence here
Its the responsibility of the lender, seller or buyer or the seller or buyers brokers to ask for and review title and few ever do in high volumne cookie cuuter residential deals
If the docs are recorded ahead of the HSBC loan the bank screwed up by not doing their own diligence
But absent a prevailing parties provision in the docs (maybe the form of the docs need fixing) they pay their own attorney fees

Very good point! Maybe the Housing Authority should have sought punitive damages against HSBC that might have offset the attorney's fees. Isn't it a bit outrageous for the bank to sue, when they (who should have known better) were at fault for never bothering to look at the papers.

when you're better off being poor (free medical, housing, food ect.), who will work, get an education, stay out of trouble?

senior wrote:

when you're better off being poor (free medical, housing, food ect.), who will work, get an education, stay out of trouble?

You hit the nail on the head!!! Apparently it is a lot easier to stand with your hand held out, than it is to be educated and work hard. That is EXACTLY why our society today is headed down the toilet.