NUMBER OF OWNERS WARNED FOR FALLING BEHIND ON PAYMENTS SOARS
The number of Bay Area homeowners who failed to pay their mortgages on time more than doubled in the first quarter compared with the same time last year, as home values flattened and fewer homeowners could sell or refinance to escape mortgages they can't afford. But mortgage defaults are not yet poised to deflate home prices, as is the case in some other parts of the state, a real estate information firm reported Monday. Statewide, the number of default notices sent to homeowners hit its highest level in almost 10 years.

U.S. Plan for Subprime Loan Susceptible to Fraud (Update1)
A Bush administration plan to offer low- and middle-income home buyers an alternative to subprime loans may be susceptible to fraud, the inspector general for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said. The proposal, incorporated in legislation introduced last month, would make it easier for borrowers to get mortgage insurance from the Federal Housing Administration but do little to assure adequate oversight of lenders, appraisers and lawyers, Kenneth Donohue said in a telephone interview.

Lawsuit: Home builder did not correct defects
Homeowners in a south Orange County town-home community are taking their long-running dispute with the home builder Toll Bros. to court, contending that numerous construction defects have not been corrected.The homeowners association for Island Walk at Meadow Woods filed suit last week in state Circuit Court in Orlando, seeking unspecified damages. The suit contends the association and homeowners have been damaged financially as a result of "construction defects relating to the building exteriors, streets and drainage, landscaping and the pool at Island Walk."

Sides in $300 million land deal head to arbitration
Palm Beach Aggregates' $300 million deal to sell 1,210 acres west of the village to Lennar Homes could be in trouble. And one of the key individuals who made the deal possible - convicted former County Commissioner Tony Masilotti - might have to testify in the dispute. Neither mega-home builder Lennar Homes nor rock mining operator Palm Beach Aggregates would comment about the matter. But both have a pending case set to go before an arbitration board, a process that is more expedient and secretive than a civil court proceeding.

Woodwind Lakes subdivision built on oil and gas field turns on neighbor who pointed out the contamination
Paul and Cheryl Anderson were sinking into their king-size bed late one night in the fall of 2004 when they heard a loud, ominous thump. Already jittery from the constant crank calls and anonymous hate mail, they immediately sprang to their feet. Accompanied by a barking black Labrador, Paul Anderson barreled downstairs, flung open the screen door and shined a flashlight on a blood-soaked possum lying motionless on the porch with a .22-caliber bullet lodged in its skull. "From then on," the 41-year-old paralegal and published author of books on business and technology says, "I always answered the front door with a shotgun."

Fires, foreclosures, high taxes plague NT neighborhood
But unexplained house fires, foreclosure postings and empty houses send another message: This is a beautiful place teetering on the edge of decline, an apparent victim of lax lending practices and subprime loans...The house was unoccupied"€”without gas or electricity"€”yet somehow fires started in several places on lower floors. Now the charred ribs of what used to be a peaked roof stick into the sky. It was the most expensive house on the block, listed on tax rolls at $640,000.

Editorial: Soliciting donations unseemly for judges
Texas Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht's latest controversy illustrates the problem with a system that turns judges into politicians. In February, Hecht received $16,000 from a political action committee largely funded by homebuilder Bob Perry, whose company had a pending case with a March hearing before the state's high court, the Dallas Morning News revealed recently.

Lennar Homes - Hutto Parke Defects
This is our documentary regarding a Lennar / NuHome we bought in HuttoParke in May of 2006. The reason for this website is to tell our story of the issues we had starting with the walk through and closing, progressing to the post purchase, and also Lennars approach to remedy the situation. See Hutto Parke Defects Website

U.S. Homebuilders Face Bankruptcy Risk in '08, Lawyers Say
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market may push some big U.S. homebuilders toward Chapter 11 beginning next year, according to bankruptcy advisers and lawyers who specialize in the real estate industry. The weakest publicly held builders are staying out of bankruptcy by relying on the profits they made when sales boomed and on the public debt they sold in those years, said Ronald Greenspan, a lawyer and financial adviser to the creditors of four bankrupt subprime mortgage lenders. Homebuilders issued $3.6 billion in public debt in 2005 and 2006, though only $600 million of that comes due this year, Greenspan said.

Doors staying open for homebuyers bill
A bill that seeks to provide homebuyers with legal protection against builders who have sold poorly constructed homes passed the state Senate on a second vote Monday. House Bill 1338, known as the Homeowner Protection Act of 2007, could head for a final vote as early as today and, if passed, would land on Gov. Bill Ritter's desk for consideration later this month.

Senate backs protecting homeowners' right to sue
Developers wouldn't be able to ask home buyers to waive their right to sue for construction defects under a bill given initial approval by the Senate on Monday... Backers of the new proposal say some homebuilders are forcing home buyers to sign contracts that make it difficult or impossible to sue..."The worst ones pretty much take everything away," Veiga said of the contract waivers.

No permit? No construction
The City of Hamilton should immediately halt its practice of allowing home construction to begin without a building permit. Not after debate and discussion, but now. The word should go out to the construction industry today that this practice has come to an end. No building permit means no construction work.Too much is at stake: safety, taxpayer exposure to legal action, homebuyer and public confidence in Hamilton city hall.

Builder Bullies
The sixth largest public homebuilder in the nation sent out an interesting letter to its contractors a few months ago offering them two choices:Reduce your unpaid invoices as of 1-26-07...be excluded from bidding future work for a minimum of 6 months. We spoke to several contractors, and many call it extortion. A trade group took the letter to the local DA but since Lennar is paying all its bills, there's really no crime. Lennar says it's simply the cost of doing business in a down market.

New Info About HB4050
If you live in Cook County: House Bill 4050 will affect YOU, requiring mandatory mortgage counseling at a cost of $300, if you refinance or purchase a home that falls into any of the following categories: All first time homebuyers, etc,...

Bad Loans Put Wall St. in a Swoon
Stocks fell broadly and sharply yesterday afternoon after a report on mortgage defaults indicated that the troubled housing market will weaken further before showing signs of improvement. Yesterday's report by the mortgage bankers found that about 0.54 percent of all home loans entered foreclosure in the fourth quarter, the highest ever in the 37-year history of the survey. The problems were most heavily concentrated among subprime mortgages, but the default rates also increased on loans made to prime borrowers and on loans that are part of government programs.