Poorly Built by Pulte Homes
Nearly two out of every three homeowners (66 percent) indicated that they have sought repairs under Pulte's limited warranty. read the report.  Tracking Pulte- We will post the latest news as well as links to services across the country where unhappy homeowners can seek relief. Learn more about Pulte...

Beazer leaving area amid investigations
Beazer Homes USA, a home builder under federal investigation, said Friday it will stop building in the Charlotte market and close its national mortgage unit -- a business in which it says employees violated federal housing regulations. The Atlanta company gave no timetable for the withdrawal. Beazer's statement also said it will stop building in Columbia, in Lexington, Ky., and in Cincinnati, Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. The company said it will complete homes under construction and continue providing warranty services.

Developer to reshuffle board seats
Sun City Hilton Head's developer will soon re-gain a majority vote on the seven-member Community Association Board of Directors. Pulte Homes general manager Jon Cherry will announce at today's board of directors quarterly meeting that he will replace two resident board members with Pulte representatives, according to a letter he wrote and distributed to board members Tuesday. Cherry will be one of the new Pulte representatives, the letter said.

Project Lifeline provides 30 day breather for loan mods
Loan servicers and lenders who handle about nine out of 10 subprime loans have agreed to participate in an initiative to help delinquent borrowers by putting foreclosure proceedings on hold for up to 30 days to evaluate alternatives. The Project Lifeline initiative, targeted at borrowers who are 90 days or more behind on their payments, was announced by six major lenders on Feb. 12 (see Inman News story).

Homeowners can sue builders over defects
Iowans who find defects in their homes can sue contractors for work-related damages years after the fact, even if they bought the house from previous owners, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled today. The court's 6-0 decision reverses two lower-court rulings against a Clive couple, Mike and Bev Speight, who had tried to sue Walters Development Co. for water damage to their home. In 2005, the couple discovered that they could stick their fingers into the siding of their house, and found water spilling into their basement caused by faulty shingles and rain gutters. "We believe that Iowa law should follow the modern trend allowing a subsequent purchaser to recover against a builder for a breach of the implied warranty of workmanlike construction," Justice Jerry Larson wrote in the 14-page ruling. Read Decision...

Beazer leaving area amid investigations
Beazer Homes USA, a home builder under federal investigation, said Friday it will stop building in the Charlotte market and close its national mortgage unit -- a business in which it says employees violated federal housing regulations.Beazer said it will pair with Countrywide Financial as a preferred mortgage lender.  Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, has become the poster child of the U.S. mortgage crisis prompted by lending to people with sketchy credit and enabling some to buy houses they couldn't afford. Charlotte's Bank of America is buying the troubled lender.

Court: Buyers of pre-owned homes can sue builders
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that homeowners who find work-related defects years after the fact can file claims against contractors, even if they are not the original buyers. The 6-0 decision reversed two lower-court rulings against the Speights, the third owners of the house in question, and overturned a similar case in Linn County. Brian Rickert, the attorney for the contractor, said the ruling could "flood the courts with lawsuits" from homeowners and dumps a significant burden on legitimate builders. He fears frivolous claims and costly court battles over damage that might have been caused by previous owners.

Credit forcing home builders into bankruptcy
Home builders in metro Atlanta are in trouble, not just because they're not selling enough houses, but because they are having a hard time getting credit from their banks. "We are seeing large numbers of builders that are not able to get extensions of credit to either keep building or hold their inventories," said James L. Paul, business litigation and Chapter 11 reorganization attorney with Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin in Atlanta. "The banks are not able to give extensions to enable the builders to sell off their nventories." Prior real estate busts in Atlanta certainly involved overbuilding and credit restrictions, factors in today's downturn, he said. But the prior downturns with tightening credit really only affected unqualified borrowers. This time, it's different. Read more...

Texas Supreme Court questions stir call for new selection process
In the coming weeks, justices on the Texas Supreme Court will decide whether a prominent Houston homebuilder should pay a couple nearly a million dollars after an arbiter ruled their new home was defective. See Video Report

FBI investigating 14 companies for mortgage fraud
Complaints about potential mortgage fraud are up during the subprime mortgage crisis, and the FBI has opened criminal investigations of 14 companies related to subprime mortgage loans, the agency said Tuesday. Neil Power, chief of the FBI economic crimes unit, attributed the increase "to good old-fashioned greed." "On insider trading, we're looking in some cases at whether executives were aware that the value of their holdings would be going down and the executives traded on that information," said Power.

Tousa, Florida Homebuilder, Files for Bankruptcy (Update7)
Tousa Inc., the homebuilder that lost 98 percent of its market value in the past year, sought bankruptcy protection as the Florida housing market's decline deepened. The company, based in Hollywood, Florida, listed assets of $2.3 billion and debt of $1.8 billion in a Chapter 11 petition filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There were 37 affiliates that also filed today.

New York Times: Built Like Todays Houses
See Cartoon by Tom Toles

Senate Consumer Protection & Housing Commitee
Listen to the homebuilding industry whine and moan over bill to protect homebuyers. Chairman Senator Brian Weinstein has heated exchange. This will be a hot issue to watch. See Public Hearing...

Steve Kroft Reports How The Mortgage Meltdown Is Shaking Markets Worldwide
It was another nervous week for the world's financial markets and for Wall Street. In the last six months, Americans have seen their investments shrink, their property values plummet, and the country edge closer towards a recession. At the heart of the problem is something called the subprime mortgage crisis, which began last summer and continues to ricochet through the economy...Developers started turning asparagus fields into subdivisions, and lenders handed out free money to anyone who wanted to buy. "What do you mean by free money?" Kroft asks Jim Grant, the editor of "Grant's Interest Rate Observer" and one the country's foremost experts on credit markets. "I mean free money. I mean you had to apply not to get a loan, almost. Sometimes you have to apply to get a loan, you almost had to apply not to get one," Grant says.

Katrina Housing Funds Go To Port Instead
The federal government on Friday approved Mississippi's plan to divert $600 million in hurricane housing funds to a port improvement project, angering critics who say tens of thousands of people made homeless by Hurricane Katrina still need help. In his letter to Gov. Haley Barbour, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said that although he's concerned about using the housing money for the port project, congressional language associated with the use of block grant funds "allows me little discretion."  "I'm sure that you share my concern that there may still be significant unmet needs for affordable housing, and I strongly encourage you to prioritize Gulf Coast housing as you move forward," Jackson wrote.