Results tagged “foreclosure”

Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries says that there are 65 condominium developments in Brooklyn which are "either financially troubled or on the verge of distress". He said, "There was an irrational exuberance of construction in the area these past few years," and Crain's reports that he's "in the early stages of approaching developers and banks behind some of these properties with a proposal to convert the unsold units into affordable housing." (Apparently it's unrelated to the city's own from-foreclosed- to-affordable-housing push.) The Local has a list of the developments; Curbed notices, "There's some shockers on there, including the blockbuster One Hanson Place conversion." Possibly related: Prices were cut on the remaining units at One Hanson Place ("One of the biggest was a 23 percent price reduction on a 1,500-sf, 2-bed, which went from $1,222,431 to $945,000").

The Post says that "two distressed luxury condo buildings -- one in Harlem and another in Downtown Brooklyn -- are in talks with the city to unload their unsold units at fire-sale prices as affordable housing." Hey, if luxury condos can become homeless shelters, why not? While it's unclear which condos are being eyed, apparently the city is negotiating with the banks that foreclosed on the properties. And the city's housing commissioner Rafael Cesetro said the condo developers/banks "would have to take significant losses"—a $500,000 condo could be purchased by the city for $300,000 (plus the developer/bank would get a $50,000 subsidy). Cesetro added that developers were only thinking about the bubble, "Some of the sales assumptions seemed like a stretch in any kind of market. In Downtown Brooklyn, and not on the water, they had buildings underwritten to sell for $800 to $900 a square foot." Will more luxury condos be turned over to the city?

     

Earlier this week, the NY Times had a feature on the Queens Museum of Art's Red Lines Housing Learning exhibit. Artist Damon Rich put markers on the Panorama of New York City (the 9,335 square foot architectural model of the city which has over 895,000 structures) to show where there have been foreclosures.

Victoria Gotti, daughter of the late Teflon Don John Gotti, is "bitter" about the foreclosure of her Old Westbury mansion. A panel of judges allowed Chase to start foreclosure proceedings; Gotti says that her ex, Carmine Agnello, took out a $700,000 mortgage behind her back (Chase says she never paid all the $25,000 monthly payments that were owed). Her mother told the Post that her daughter was "not in the mood to talk to anybody" and offered her own thoughts on her former son-in-law, calling him a creep. But Victoria Gotti did tell Newsday, "The house, all the marital assets, are part of a divorce package (settlement) I have never seen yet." The white brick, five-bedroom, and five-and-a-half bath home was seen on the A&E reality series Growing Up Gotti—in the past few years, Gotti has listed the home on the market for $4.8 million, $3.995 million, $3.899 million and most recently, between $3.2 million and $3.5 million.

According to a study from RealtyTrac, NYC's foreclosures increased by 44% last month, while NY State had 23% more foreclosures over January. Realty Trac says many NYS foreclosures probably hit last month after the recently-instituted law that delays foreclosure proceedings by 90 days. Manhattan's foreclosures rose by 549%, but the Post explains the number "was distorted because of actions taken against one 230-unit Midtown condo complex... Building officials said the complaint involved a payment dispute with a contractor, not the mortgage." (It's unclear how that would change the overall NYC and NY State total.) Some more stats: Foreclosures increased 33% in the Bronx and 26% in Brooklyn, while they were 11% down in Queens. And on Staten Island, there was a foreclosure for every 1022 homes, the second worst rate in NY—after Suffolk County which has one foreclosure for every 822 homes (yikes!). See the map here.

   

Yesterday, over a thousand people flocked to the Javits Center in hopes of landing a deal at the city's first home foreclosure auction. The NY Times, which said 1,400 were in attendance, described the atmosphere:

On the floor, four men called the bids, screaming, blowing whistles, thrusting their arms into the air and using their fingers to signal how much more was being offered over the last bid...

Continue reading "Foreclosed Home Auction Draws Bidders, Protesters"

There's been talk of big apartment complexes, bought by private equity firms, being at risk for mortgage defaults, after the buildings' new owners had unrealistic expectations for rent increases. Now, the NY Times reports that Senator Charles Schumer wants to make sure certain buildings stay affordable given that 60,000 lower income residents may be affected. He also wants the SEC to investigate the loans, "The entire predatory equity enterprise is a house of cards built on a foundation of fantasy and greed. The whole thing collapses when there is any depreciation, or even a leveling, in the property’s value, which is the reality we now face. You would think these deals would’ve stopped a year ago, but they are still going forward."

The DAily News reports that as foreclosures and evictions rise all over the city, many of the victims are renters--NYU's Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy counts 38,000 were affected. And in many cases, "renters have been given just weeks to find new digs, while unscrupulous landlords collect rents for homes they no longer own." In one case, some tenants told a judge they had no idea their landlord didn't own the building anymore--and after paying their September rent, the landlord "told them she would keep their security deposits as payment for October rent." Even the bank's lawyer believes they are innocent victims!

JP Morgan Chase announced yesterday that it will take a break from leaving Americans in the cold and hold off on foreclosures for the next ninety days. A JP Morgan executive told the press, "We felt it is our responsibility to provide additional help to homeowners during these challenging times. We will work with families who want to save their homes but are struggling to make their payments." In the interim, the company will attempt to find ways to make payments easier on the $110 billion of problem mortgages. Meanwhile in Washington yesterday, Barney Frank complained that banks thus far are using their portion of the $700 million government bailout for "bonuses, dividends and acquisitions."

Manhattan, once one of the few spots that seemed immune to the foreclosure bug that has swept the nation. But the NY Times reports that more apartment owners in Manhattan are missing payments, putting their apartments up for sale to avoid losing them with foreclosures for this July up 78 percent from the year before. Manhattan homeowners may have believed that they were invincible because of the relatively stable real estate market with those folding on their mortgages in Manhattan being not your typical middle-class. The Times describes the new foreclosure class: "Their Facebook pages feature them at parties with friends, and their LinkedIn bios list prestigious careers and educational credentials." A program coordinator of foreclosure prevention for Neighborhood Housing Services tells the paper that he finds his Manhattan clients seem to have “a level of not fully accepting what is going on.”

It seems hip-hop mogul Damon Dash may be an entrepreneur, but he's certainly not in the business of paying the bills. The NY Post is now reporting that the Eastern Savings Bank has filed suit against him, "charging the Roc-a-Fella Records co-founder hasn't made a payment on his $78,504.20-a-month mortgage since January." The $7.3M mortgage is split between two properties, at both 25 N. Moore Street and 79 Laight Street, and Dash and his wife (Rachel Roy) have been warned in writing that they are in danger of losing both. The Daily News adds that the suit "cites numerous judgments against Dash in which he was ordered to pay more than $2 million in New York state taxes, more than $100,000 in federal taxes and $95,000 in unpaid rent to the landlord of the W.39th St. building that houses Damon Dash Enterprises." Last year he "sued his accountant for allegedly costing him millions of dollars by filing faulty tax returns."

You've heard about Ed McMahon's home being foreclosed in Beverly Hills? Well, now Donald Trump is swooping in to help out the former Tonight Show sidekick. Trump, who doesn't know McMahon--"I grew up watching him on TV"--told the LA Times it would be "honor" to lease the mansion to the 85-year-old, who defaulted on $4.8 million in mortgage loans with Countrywide (the house is a 6-bedroom, 5-bath home, bought in 1990 for $2.6 million). Details are still being worked out, but Trump said, "When I was at the Wharton School of Business, I'd watch him every night. How could this happen?" We wonder if this means McMahon will have to appear on the next season of The Apprentice.

John Brennan was arrested after drawing a gun on sheriff's officers who had come to move items out of his 88-year-old mother's foreclosed home in Saddle Brook, NJ. His mother was unable to pay off her refinancing payments and the home was sold at auction in May. When movers and officers arrived yesterday, Brennan refused to let them into the house, wielding a .22-caliber gun. Eventually, the officers were able to calm Brennan down. Charges are pending against the 60-year-old; his mother was taken away in an ambulance. A mover told the Bergen Record, "I don't want to have any more experiences like this again."

The Post reported that, when comparing July 2008 figures to July 2007, foreclosures were up 67%. Here's how it broke down by borough: A 16% increase in the Bronx; up 63% in Brooklyn; up 7.6% in Manhattan (but a 55% increase between June and July of 2008); up 81% in Queens (half the foreclosures there were); and up 215% on Staten Island. The Post adds that Queens "appears to be at the epicenter of the national housing crisis," what with high foreclosure rates, the low number of houses sold, and median sale prices dropping. PropertyShark.com CEO Bill Saniford said, "The numbers are pretty dramatic for New York City.l In Queens, it's quite scary."

The site of the 43-story tower at the corner of East 51st Street and Second Avenue may remain a partially built tragic reminder of the fatal March 15 crane collapse for a long while, because the developer's lender has started foreclosure action against him. Apparently developer, FDNY veteran James Kennelly, hasn't paid $70.4 million in loans; though he couldn't attempt to get new financing, bankers tells the NY Times it's harder for developers to get loans these days. After the crane collapse, it was revealed the building's plans should never have been approved by the Buildings Department in the first place, and though the DOB and Kennelly were working out a compromise, the DOB revoked the site's building permit in June.

Don’t get too comfortable homeowners – the city’s foreclosure rate is skyrocketing, up a startling 66% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to last year, according to Crain’s and the housing research site Property Shark. Queens saw more foreclosures than the four other boroughs combined, with 508 in the first quarter, up 59% from the same period in 2007.

A real estate agent who was handling the sale of a foreclosed houes in Jamaica, Queens discovered 100 marijuana plants inside. The subprime meltdown really is hitting all corners of the city.

According to The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 11233 zip code that encompasses Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights had the highest foreclosure rates for subprime mortgages in the entire nation in October. More than one in four people, or 25.2%, with subprime loans in the zip code lost their homes to foreclosure. That's almost four times the national average of 6.9%.