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we are finding more and more houses here “left for dead” in which the copper has been ripped out by the vacating party.

I would like to see some real statistics as the the citizenship status of these previous homeowners, because I’m being told more and more, that it is mainly coming from hispanics, but this is just pure anectodal, so some hard facts would be nice.

If true, this would be a further kick in the shins of those in congress who thought it would be a fancy notion, to tell banks that asking for a SS# or asking that their borrowers be citizens is discriminatory. For 3-4 years we saw ad after ad in the newspapers here about “no SS# no problemo!” The banks catered to that clientele, and now they’ve abandoned their abodes, and ripped out the copper, leaving the house nothing more than a shell, that cannot be sold, even if the market does rebound.

So, I guess, buy house with fake ID, forfeit house when things get bad, rip out copper to buy ticket back home, change name when you get back, PROFIT! Why can’t I do that?

Its funny, in a way, that the big giant “oh so smart” banks are getting hit the hardest, where I’ve talked with one of my bankers we know (family owned bank, small size, who does our business stuff) and they are doing just fine, but they kept all their mortgages, did not sell them off, and were discriminate in handing out credit. Of course, they didn’t do as well as the big boys when the tide was high, but he’s salient right now, doing fine, while other banks are struggling.

The sad part, is when this is all over, communities are going to be on the hook for these abandoned homes that have been gutted. They will be a blight on communities, and towns will have to buy them from the banks in order to demolish them, or they will be an albatross around the entire neighborhood.

Even when this mess is over (if it gets over) it aint gonna be over for a decade. We still have the clean up to do, long after the banks rebound.

As a side note, and this one really ticked me off, this same banker who I am friendly with, told me that when the housing bubble started to break, he noticed many homes and mortgages being sold at very inflated prices in the latino community. So high in fact, that it caught most of your standard bankers attention. He said it went something like this “Illegal A buys house for 100 grand. He then sells house to Illegal B for 150 grand, on a no income verification loan. Illegal A pockets 50 grand cash. Illegal B sells house to Illegal C for 200 grand. Illegal C pockets 50 grand cash. Illegal C disappears. Freddie Mac and Fannie May stuck with bad note. Now, he tells that valves were put into place to prevent this, such as not loaning for more than appraised value, but, he said, the bigger banks were so eager for loans, and appraisers so eager for work, the bank would basically tell the appraiser what they “needed” to get on the house, and abracadabra! high home appraisal.

I haven’t seen much posted on that, but I would like to know more if this was occurring. Not a banker myself, but I do find it interesting.