Thread: Question re: Housing Market Crunch

I know that lenders have been providing loans for mortgages to illegal aliens. Loans that do not require them to provide the same documentation that Americans have to provide.

My question is how many of these "sub-prime" loans that are now causing such a problem are the ones they provided to illegal aliens? Any one know if there is a connection?

Yes, we have mounting evidence from around the nation that the illegals are starting to get nervous and many are leaving and attempted border crossings are decreasing.

Illegal immigration is the only thing keeping new home sales cooking in America for the last few years and millions of Americans flee the invasion areas looking for higher ground!

W

(quote)

Rocky Mountain Mortgage Fraud Fever

By Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
December 11, 2006

District Attorney Scott Storey of Jefferson County, Colorado is one
busy lawman. The local housing market is chock full of mortgage fraud
varmints. One particularly pesky ring, operating for roughly 5 years,
recruited hundreds of illegal immigrants to act as "straw buyers," the
lowest players in the mortgage fraud game. Ringmasters were mortgage
brokers, realtors, and loan officers in local banks. Straw buyers were
supplied with stolen identities, including drivers licenses, social
security cards, and income tax returns. Some were given green cards of
legal immigrants. What couldn't be stolen was forged.

False docs in hand, straw buyers obtained mortgage loans they had no
intention of paying. Some 300 single family homes in Jefferson County
and the adjoining Denver area are known to have been involved. In 191
the mortgage loans have gone into foreclosure. Millions of dollars have
been lost.

Tuff luck for lenders? Not as much as you'd think. The mortgages were
insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), a sub agency of
the U.S. Department Of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Taxpayers picked up the bad. Expect them to pick up more. D.A. Scott Storey believes thousands of other properties were obtained by the same ring and that similar frauds are widespread in the Denver area. And in an
August 24th Denver Post article, "FHA program key in surge of
foreclosures," a government source estimated that "20,000 illegal
immigrants hold FHA mortgages in metro Denver alone."

Many of the frauds perpetrated by the Jefferson County ring were
powered by an FHA lending assistance arrangement under the HUD category
Downpayment Assistance through Secondary Financing Providers. Aka DAP.

This particular DAP arrangement is commonly called the FHA gift program and is meant to benefit low income, first time home buyers. Mortgages
insured by the FHA require 3% down payment. In the past, only family
and friends were allowed to provide down payment assistance. But in
1998, the FHA started letting sellers contribute down payments via
group funds administered by charitable, non-profit organizations. Eight
years later, even HUD acknowledges such organizations are frequently
for-profit fronts. Plus, sellers raise the price of properties to cover
down payment contributions. Closing costs and FHA insurance premiums
are also rolled into the loans. Ultimately, gift program mortgages,
granted in the name of affordable housing, wind up costing buyers more
than the property is really worth.

The gift program gouges sincere home buyers, but gifts grifters who
instantly default. For the past eight months, Colorado has led the
nation in foreclosures. The foreclosure tsunami has been most
destructive in low income urban neighborhoods, where the gift program
has been used in the name of urban revitalization.

Several years back, a realtor in Jefferson County tipped HUD in Dee Cee
to the mortgage fraud ring which was using illegal immigrants as straw
buyers. But the frauds went on for another 2 years. According to HUD
Deputy Assistant Secretary Jereon Brown, the size of the ring made it
more than an "overnight case".* Meanwhile, the Gaming Unit of the
Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) launched an investigation of
complaints by a casino re forged proofs of casino employment being used
to qualify for mortgage loans. This led to investigations and a series
of indictments by D.A. Scott Storey. The D.A.'s office is now working
in tandem with the county Sheriff's Department, the Colorado Attorney
General's Office, HUD, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the
Social Security Administration, Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S.
State Department.

Like love, justice has been coming in spurts. A number of ringmasters
have been sentenced. Despite the extent of the fraud and its
destructive impact on neighborhoods, plus the cost to taxpayers and
those whose identities were stolen, penalties have been light.
(However, a wee bit of HUD restitution has been part of the sentencing
package.) Illegal immigrants who acted as straw buyers are now being
arrested. Officials claim they'll be deported. But in Dee Cee, Columbo
hasn't yet knocked on the door of HUD or its mini-me, the FHA, asking
"just a few questions about your response time and oh yeah, that gift
program". Nor has the Denver Homeownership Center, HUD's rep in
Colorado, been grilled re possible oversight problems.

The stated mission of the Denver Homeownership Center is to "insure
single family FHA mortgages and oversee the selling of HUD homes". The
center serves 14 other states besides Colorado, including several hot
spots for mortgage fraud. Colorado makes the FBI's mortgage fraud top
ten list. Though not the top spot. That distinction belongs to Florida.
Where swampland has always been popular.

Recently, Jefferson County D.A. Scott Storey and his posse rounded up
another batch of baddies from the fraud ring. In the post-bust press
release, HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary Jereon Brown weighed in,
saying: "as much as we intend to expand the FHA program to help more
families become homeowners, we will not do so at the expense of the
financial integrity or reputation of the Federal Housing
Administration."

Truly, HUD is the gift that keeps on giving.

Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Mondo QT

* Mortgage Fraud Ring obtained FHA loans for noncitizens, Matt Carter,
Inman News, 11/28/06

http://groups.google.com.gi/group/misc. ... 66b1d77552


http://www.realestatejournal.com/buysel ... ordan.html

Psalm 91

From what I've read here yes......I've heard there's groups (latino and black) that want to do something to keep these people from loosing their homes. Unfairly targeting them. I know we've had alot of forclosures ....... alot trying alternatives to keep from destroying their credit. The only "stories" I've read about are those who have lost their homes, are white people, where the man lost his job due to closing, downsizing, or out-sourcing and not being able to find employment. All thought their jobs were secure.....them bam...gone. All were trying desperatly to find ANY work and couldn't find any. Problem is....there's nothing to rent that's affordable either.....not on one income with kids. Too much money to qualify for aid and not enough to live on. I'm sure there's plenty of white people who fell for this as well.....unfortunatly it seems the only "victims" are just minorities.

Yes, we have mounting evidence from around the nation that the illegals are starting to get nervous and many are leaving and attempted border crossings are decreasing.

What is the source of these statistics? I read that phrase every day and I just can't get my arms around a method that would be reliable to count dozens of people who are scaling fences and sprinting across the dessert.

If they are relying strictly on the number of arrests made, that too would be flawed. It doesn't mean fewer people are crossing; only that they are not being arrested.

There was a story in the Wash Post the other day that was absolutely incredible. An illegal alien woman stole a man's wallet and actually purchased a home for over $400,000 using the man's identity. She had a male relative pretend to be the man. She even went to the same mortgage company and received a second mortgage for over $90,000. All of this was done without having to produce a tax return or verification of employment.

She was exposed only because the actual man received a refund from the mortgage company and contacted them because he had never had a mortgage loan with the company.

When I purchased my home, they wanted everything but blood. I'll try to locate the article.

Originally Posted by Nouveauxpoor

Yes, we have mounting evidence from around the nation that the illegals are starting to get nervous and many are leaving and attempted border crossings are decreasing.

What is the source of these statistics? I read that phrase every day and I just can't get my arms around a method that would be reliable to count dozens of people who are scaling fences and sprinting across the dessert.

If they are relying strictly on the number of arrests made, that too would be flawed. It doesn't mean fewer people are crossing; only that they are not being arrested.

I'm with you. I am very suspect about all these figures we are being given.

Remember, these are probably the same people who still say there are only 12 million illegals here.

I'm living in Colorado zip code 80011, the epicenter of our foreclosure crisis. Vacant homes, desperate sellers, decaying bank-owned property. Just like last year, now that the spring-early summer selling season is waning, the 'for rent' and 'rent to own' signs are popping up everywhere.

Are we looking at another bail out like the S & L???

fedupDeb wrote

There was a story in the Wash Post the other day that was absolutely incredible. An illegal alien woman stole a man's wallet and actually purchased a home for over $400,000 using the man's identity. She had a male relative pretend to be the man. She even went to the same mortgage company and received a second mortgage for over $90,000. All of this was done without having to produce a tax return or verification of employment.

She was exposed only because the actual man received a refund from the mortgage company and contacted them because he had never had a mortgage loan with the company.

When I purchased my home, they wanted everything but blood.

Show me one person who brought a house with little or no paperwork (Lord knows that is impossible to do!!!), I'll show you an illegal!!