Free Republic

Vermont Secretary of State James Condos is threatening videographer James O'Keefe with criminal investigation for his Project Veritas exposé of voter fraud in the state. Ironically, Condos would have made it far easier to commit the very fraud that O'Keefe's investigation has suggested may be possible at the polls. As a state senator, Condos pushed for same-day registration voting. "We are all concerned about maximizing the number of voters with an election that has integrity," Condos told The Burlington Free Press on February 14, 2005. "There is a lot of trust in our system," Condos told The Free Press on...

Condo board tells elderly woman to upgrade condo or get foreclosed onSarah Eisenberg has lived through many storms in her 96 years, but the ominous forecast she faces these days comes from the association that runs her condominium. Eisenberg said that she has been told that if she doesn't pay to upgrade to hurricane windows and doors, the association will foreclose on her Fort Lauderdale unit. The cost is $6,500, a price tag too expensive for a senior citizen on a fixed income, Eisenberg said. She gets $1,500 per month from her Social Security check. "They want $2,000 for a...

GILFORD – The wife of a soldier serving in Afghanistan has hired a lawyer to take on her condo association for not only refusing to allow her to display the American flag, but refusing to reimburse her for one damaged this winter by workers at the 137-unit development. Geri Farnell of the Samoset Condos, 2696 Lakeshore Road, said she is headed to small claims court. "The flag represents what he does. It's his life," she said of Troy Farnell, who is in the First Special Forces Group. "I thought New Hampshire was incredibly patriotic. But maybe not." Troy Farnell, deployed...

MIAMI—Freddie Mac moved to buoy the battered Florida condo market, waiving lending rules that made it harder to buy and sell units in many condo buildings. Freddie Mac said Wednesday it will back mortgages on units in financially troubled condo developments as long as the seller's loan is already owned or securitized by the mortgage finance company.

Fannie Mae is seeking to prop up Florida's ravaged real estate market by reviewing hundreds of condo projects in the state that currently don't qualify for its loans. The mortgage finance company said Thursday that buildings deemed stable after the review will be given a special approval lasting up to 18 months. If they are approved, lenders will be allowed to offer mortgages to homebuyers and sell those loans to Fannie Mae, which pools them into bonds and sells them to investors. The reviews will look at the buildings' occupancy, homeownership association dues, financial stability and physical condition. Under nationwide...

A Boston city councilor is fired up over attempts by high-end condo owners to muzzle Old Ironsides’ twice-daily cannon blasts, calling their complaints of excessive noise “absolutely ridiculous” and vowing to push for a city resolution to support the time-honored tradition. “Old Ironsides is part of Boston history,” said Councilor Sal LaMattina, who represents Charlestown, where several residents in a swanky condominium development near the Naval Yard have launched a letter-writing campaign to silence the 44-gun frigate’s cannon salutes.

"According to your many editorials on the subject, I'm one of the deadbeat borrowers because I've applied for not one, but two, loan modifications. I can't handle my debt so I'm a deadbeat, right? Wrong...

We've seen lots of wild haircuts in the world of real estate, but nothing like this. Condovultures: A South Florida private equity group purchased 51 new, oceanfront condo-hotel units in the luxury One Bal Harbour complex at $63 per square foot, a discount of 94 percent off of the $1,100 per square foot average recorded sales price, according to a new report from Condo Vultures® LLC. Elcom Condominium LLC with Jorge E. Arevalo and Thomas D. Sullivan in South Miami paid $2.6 million for 41,047 square feet of saleable space in the 124-unit Regent Hotel tower located on the west...

As those who read my piece "Running Off The Cliff" know, the changes made to the 421a tax abatement program resulted in a perverse rush by developers to begin construction on new condo projects in New York City in the face of a declining Wall Street economy. It's an amazing testament to the distortion of behavior that subsidy programs can have. The chart from that piece was so striking I am reprinting it here (but slightly gussied up). Note that building permits for single family homes and 2-4 family homes peaked in 2006, lagging the US overall - as New...

...Until now, most of the damage to banks from the housing crisis has come from homeowners defaulting on their mortgages. But amid a dismal spring sales season for new homes, loans to home and condo builders are looking increasingly shaky. Banks have begun to dump them at what will likely be steep discounts, setting the stage for billions of dollars in fresh losses. ..."As long as the housing market is on a downward path, as long as those prices continue to fall, I think there's a risk that the losses could continue to mount on a variety of loans," Federal...

The day of rest is causing some unrest at Century Village East in Deerfield Beach. Most of the 56 owners in Berkshire E are Orthodox Jews barred for religious reasons from pushing the buttons on their elevator during the Sabbath, which runs from Friday evening to Saturday evening.

For the nation's real-estate lenders, the other shoe may be about to drop: condominiums. Already plagued by rising home-loan defaults and foreclosures among overstretched consumers, major markets across the country -- including parts of Florida, California and Washington, D.C. -- are seeing rising foreclosures and bankruptcies of entire condo projects. The problems are emerging as some buyers who signed contracts to buy new condos two to three years ago, when construction was just starting, seek ways to back out as they encounter trouble getting financing in the suddenly dicey mortgage market. Falling prices are forcing appraisals down, so banks aren't...

For the nation's real-estate lenders, the other shoe may be about to drop: condominiums. Already plagued by rising home-loan defaults and foreclosures among overstretched consumers, major markets across the country -- including parts of Florida, California and Washington, D.C. -- are seeing rising foreclosures and bankruptcies of entire condo projects. The problems are emerging as some buyers who signed contracts to buy new condos two to three years ago, when construction was just starting, seek ways to back out as they encounter trouble getting financing in the suddenly dicey mortgage market. Falling prices are forcing appraisals down, so banks aren't...

By VIKAS BAJAJ WASHINGTON — David Franco’s illuminated model of a proposed 10-story condominium tower dominates a sales center that, in spite of the “Now Selling” banner still fluttering outside, is conspicuously closed for business. “We could have waited it out and kept pushing and pushing,” Mr. Franco said about the decision to abandon plans to sell 180 luxury condominiums with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the Washington Monument and Capitol Hill. “But it would have taken significantly longer.” After six weeks of failing to lure more than a couple of dozen buyers, Mr. Franco and his partner, Jeff Blum,...

...Since the middle of 2006, the frenzied condominium market here and in several other big cities like Las Vegas, Miami and Boston has collapsed. Once roaring sales have slowed to a trickle, sparse inventory has mushroomed into a glut and soaring prices have flattened out and started falling. In many cities, banks have significantly scaled back loans to condominium builders. Some have demanded that developers sell half or more of the units in a building before even beginning construction. In hopes of salvaging something from their costly plans, hundreds of developers like Mr. Franco are looking to the strong market...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, July 5, 2006) – Department of Defense ID cardholders are eligible for weekly condominium rentals at 3,500 resorts in 80 countries worldwide. Provided by Morale, Welfare and Recreation and sponsored by Resort Condominium International, the Armed Forces Vacation Club offers space-available condominiums for $299 a week. The program gives Soldiers and other DoD workers affordable accommodations in condominiums that would otherwise go empty, according to Verlin Abbott, RCI director of AFVC. While the program provides low-cost accommodations to vacation resorts across the globe, Abbott stressed that the condos are “space available” only. “Don’t expect to go...

There goes the fast money. Major commercial lenders are withdrawing from financing South Florida condo construction and conversion deals, another sign the overheated market may be too hot to handle. UBS AG is out of the Miami market, confirmed spokesman Peter Casey. So is GE Commercial Finance. Philadelphia-based private real estate investment firm AMC Delancey is still interested in Florida. Just not, for the time being, South Florida. "We are seeing lenders overall pulling the plug," said Dan Kodsi, president of Royal Palm Communities, a developer in Boca Raton.It's not only lenders on the construction end who are newly nervous...

Henry Fishkind, principal of the economic consulting firm Fishkind & Associates, offers his perspective on the outlook for the South Florida economy in 2006. Henry Fishkind is the principal of Orlando based-economic consulting firm Fishkind & Associates. The Miami Herald recently interviewed Fishkind, who used to direct the University of Florida's forecasting program. He offered his perspectives on the South Florida economy in 2006. Q: How do you characterize the housing market in Miami? A: There is a significant condominium bubble in Miami. There are by our account 25,000 condos under construction in Miami-Dade County right now. I believe 18,000...

A joint venture pays $77.5 million for the high-rise Portland Center Apartments and will sell units as early as next spring A team of Portland developers plans to announce today that it has bought the high-rise Portland Center Apartments for $77.5 million in a deal that will convert the three massive towers into condominiums. The purchase of 537 units is believed to be the largest condominium conversion in the Portland area, which has seen a flurry of apartment buildings converted to for-sale units in recent years. It also marks one of the highest Portland-area prices ever paid for an apartment...

GULF COAST REBUILDING RIPPLES WIDELY Reconstruction of the Gulf Coast communities hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina hasn't even started yet, but the effects of the devastation are already rippling through the building industry, in the Bay Area and nationally. The wholesale cost of lumber spiked dramatically this week, as the industry grapples with the loss of several Southern lumber mills. The price hikes -- 20 percent or higher -- have already trickled down to some individual local contractors, who are paying more for plywood sheets, 2x4s and other basic materials. ``There's been a dramatic effect,'' said Dennis Englander, a buyer...

About 8,000 condominium units are under construction or about to start, according to SalesTraq, a Las Vegas real estate information company. It's a building explosion fueled in part by speculators in the torrid real estate market here and the desire of buyers from California and Asia to own a piece of Sin City's action. But like everything Vegas does, this building bonanza comes with an extra helping of glitz: Developers are using Hollywood stars to make their projects stand out from the more than 100 residential skyscrapers proposed for Las Vegas. Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire have purchased units at...

I envy my friends in Washington, D.C. Four years ago, one of them paid $165,000 for a half duplex near Old Town, Alexandria. She encouraged me to buy a place just like hers right down the street, but I hesitated. I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay in the area. I thought the price was a little high. But what do I know about anything. I had no idea that just a few years later, interest rates would rocket downward. I had no idea the federal reserve would pump an unimaginable amount of dough into the economy, or...

Western companies that bucked the U.S. embargo and set up shop in Cuba are shutting down and leaving as Fidel Castro's government rolls back market reforms - just as NewsMax.com predicted it would three years ago. Writing in NewsMax.com in February 2002, pundit Humberto Fontova said: "Liberals insist in Congress, on CNN, in the New York Times that doing business with Fidel is a can't-lose proposition for any American and that moral and material blessings will shower all involved." Then Fontova - author of the new book "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant" - warned: "The momentum for the long-awaited opening with...

We’ve all been had. The bottom has long since fallen out of the key group that master-minded the Kyoto Protocol credit scheme, but nobody seemed to have joined the dots. It all began with the flight of Canadian Maurice Strong’s Earth Council from Costa Rica as noted by the National Post’s Peter Foster in May, 2004. With no fanfare, the Earth Council landed in CH2M Hill’s Consumer Road Toronto office towers. The Costa Rican government has been pursuing the Earth Council for payment of U.S.$1.65 million, for the wrongful sale of a tract of land it imprudently donated to the...

BARSTOW, Calif. - A plan is in the works to build the West's largest cow town, a nearly 2,000-acre gated community in the Mojave Desert where 600 dairy farmers and their families would live alongside about 90,000 cattle. The plan being pursued by two successful California businessmen aims to reduce agricultural pollution in the town by turning manure into clean, renewable energy to run the cow complex, with some left over for sale to the electricity grid serving Southern California. Estimated cost of the project is $1 billion. "We're talking cow condos, a complete gated community, sharing all sorts of...