Home builder sent to jail for fraud
The president of Cobalt Homes, Brian Brady, is in the Salt Lake County Jail serving a 90 day sentence for defrauding homeowners and subcontractors...Brady pleaded guilty to four third-degree felony counts of communications fraud.

US home construction sinks to new record low
Construction of new homes plunged last month to the lowest level on records going back nearly 50 years as U.S. builders slashed production while Wall Street nosedived. Embattled homebuilders, who enjoyed a five-year boom, are now building new homes and apartments at a record-low pace, according to government data released Wednesday. New building permits, a barometer of future activity, also plummeted to the lowest pace on record... The results were the lowest on government records dating back to January 1959...And on Wall Street on Wednesday, shares in homebuilders took another beating as investors reacted to the government data. Shares of Lennar, D.R. Horton, Centex, KB Home and Beazer all tumbled 10 percent or more.

Residents irked by developer's requests
Requested changes to a housing development in Vacaville aren't sitting well with residents already living in the neighborhood. As a response to the declining housing market, developer D.R. Horton asked that the Planning Commission allow it to add a less expensive model to the Southtown development next to more expensive houses already built and sold...The commission did not reach a decision before press time, however, numerous homeowners spoke out against the proposal. "There are a lot of differences between the homes," explained Dan Johnson, a homeowner in the Southtown development. "It changes the character and the flavor of the neighborhood." ...D.R. Horton has already built Carrington and Barrington models, larger houses that price at more than half a million dollars. The Chelsea model, smaller and less expensive would sit next to the larger homes.

WNCT Part 2: Inspector Investigation at 11:00 p.m.
In Part 2 of our I-Team Investigation we explain what home inspectors can and can't do when it comes to guaranteeing your home and what everyone needs to know about the process. Shon Wicker was hired to re-inspect the Hinrichs' home a year after they moved in. He says, "There's no doubt that the problems were pre-existing prior to the sale, the short time they owned the property was simply not enough time for that damage to have occurred. It was there and it was covered up."

Inspector Investigation at 6:00 p.m.
Alice Gray's home on B. Stokes Road was built in 2000; she and her husband bought it in 2006. She says, "This was our dream house." Alice says two weeks after they closed that dream turned into a nightmare: "I was cleaning in here and noticed a water stain, in no time, a week or two later, the base board started separating from the wall during this time…the o-s-b board, everything, just disintegrated to the ground, just dust."...The Grays moved out 7 months after moving in. They hired a professional engineer to inspect the house in June 2007. The Grays provided us a copy of a letter the engineer sent them it says "the flashing of the roof and wall was not installed according to state requirements...causing an excess buildup of water and infiltration into the wall."

Kenric Ward: Homewreckers Cisneros & Martinez
Touting his Cuban heritage, Martinez continues to hype homeownership for lower-income minorities. By 2007, Hispanic homeownership hits an all-time high of 50 percent. The Federal Reserve reports that roughly half of these mortgages are higher-cost or subprime loans to buyers with impaired credit. So there you have it: The guy who was in on the ground floor of this country's housing collapse comes calling with a half-billion of your tax dollars to save the day. Thanks a lot, Mel. Unfortunately, this is a bipartisan scheme.

A Town Drowns in Debt as Home Values Plunge
Because of plunging home values, almost 90 percent of homeowners here owe more on their mortgages than their houses are worth, according to figures released Monday. That is the highest percentage in the country. The average homeowner in Mountain House is "underwater," as it is known, by $122,000. A visit to the area over the last couple of days shows how the nationwide housing crisis is contributing to a broad slowdown of the American economy, as families who feel burdened by high mortgages are pulling back on their spending.

Change Coming in Key Areas of Law
Bills to eliminate predispute binding arbitration have been gaining momentum, said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen's Congress Watch, adding, "Binding arbitration in consumer contracts affects such a broad swath of people. Those bills were doing quite well, but we'll see better prospects in an administration that isn't going to veto them, and one of the bills was introduced by Senator Obama." His opponent in that battle agrees that eliminating mandatory arbitration will be a Democratic priority.

Arizona Voters Reject Homeowners Bill of Rights
If it had passed, the proposition would have given "homeowners the ability to get defective homes fixed, and have their homes when built match what they were led to expect and to better understand financing and insurance schemes that are offered to them," proposition text noted.  Related article: Home Lemon Law

UPDATE: Builders 'Ecstatic' Over Arizona 'Lemon Law' Defeat
The initiative looked to force builders to offer 10-year warranties and use licensed contractors for repairs. Buyers would have had 100 days to cancel a contract, and they'd receive 95% of their deposit back. Companies grumbled the deposit would become meaningless and they'd be saddled with even more expensive, unsold inventory. Related article: Home Lemon Law

Was There a Loan It Didn't Like?
...senior mortgage underwriter at Washington Mutual during the late, great mortgage boom, Ms. Cooper says she found herself in a vise. Brokers squeezed her from one side, her superiors from the other, she says, and both pressured her to approve loans, no matter what. "At WaMu it wasn't about the quality of the loans; it was about the numbers," Ms. Cooper says. "They didn't care if we were giving loans to people that didn't qualify. Instead, it was how many loans did you guys close and fund?" ...After WaMu's mortgage lending unit laid her off, she applied for work in its retail banking division. She was turned down, she suspects, because of the critical letters in her personnel file. Ms. Cooper's biggest regret, she says, is that she did not reject more loans. "I swear 60 percent of the loans I approved I was made to," she says. "If I could get everyone's name, I would write them apology letters."

Predatory Lending, Foreclosures, Housing Crisis & Bailouts
Much of America continues to steam about the bailout of Wall Street. But before Wall Street made billions from subprime mortgages, people in North Texas made millions.Wall Street is taking the heat, Main Street and maybe even people you know, may deserve part of the blame...The answer may be right there in your own neighborhood if there are foreclosed homes nearby. Featured News Reports

Homebuilder donates to '08 election
October 31st, 2008 Bob Perry of Perry Homes has become a political force to be reckoned with in the 2008 elections, and he's not even running for office. Instead, Perry has been donating money to various candidates... But Perry hasn't only given funds to Davis.  This year, statewide, the homebuilder has given approximately $175,000 to Democrats, and $2.6 million dollars to Republicans and related committees. ..View video report

Cisneros: Many share blame for economic crisis
Many things share blame for the nation's current economic crisis, including Asian- and oil-fueled liquidity, interest rates kept low too long by the Fed, corporate borrowing binge, speculation in the housing market, and an unusual splitting of housing as shelter to housing as an investment opportunity, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros said Sunday...In the context of such activities, Cisneros said, he and others were being blamed for pressing home ownership too far. "Frankly, I don't accept that," Cisneros said. Though he didn't mention it, Cisneros seemed to refer to an Oct. 19 New York Times series on people who helped cause the economic crisis in which his Lago Vista housing project on the South Side was used as an example of a housing project gone bad. Lago Vista was a partnership with KB Home, which built the troubled Mirasol Homes project on the West Side.