| City explores suing 100 North Main St. developers
Personal guarantees by the developers to repay city debt from the construction of the apartment complex at 100 N. Main St. may be unenforceable now that a bank has initiated foreclosure on the building. Under a developers agreement, Ben Ganther and Ronald Niebauer personallyand as 100 Block LLCagreed to cover the citys debt should the building fail to generate enough tax revenue to pay off tax incremental financing district bonds issued to assist with construction of the six-story downtown development.
The city contributed $2.2 million to the $8.8 million construction project$2.06 million for construction costs, and land valued at $165,000, city records show.
Now, after the partners defaulted on a $6.1 million construction loan from Bankers Bank, city officials are trying to sort out what standing they have to collect any part of a projected $2.8 million shortfall in TIF payments.
Stockton Foreclosure Rate Highest In Country
Stockton now has the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, more than 8,000 foreclosures for the first part of this year, which is one foreclosure for every 27 households. This is a 256 percent increase compared to the same time period last year. Much of the reason is blamed on low-interest financing to first-time homebuyers. "If you have a small loan in the range of $200,000 or a loan in the range of $500,000, those payments can jump anywhere from $150 on up to $1,000 a month," said Bryan Laber of Compass Mortgage. One foreclosed property in north Stockton has been on the market for 208 days, it's dropped in price from $304,000 to $233,000, a $71,000 price difference. The foreclosed homes often bear the telltale signs of dried lawns or boarded-up windows.
Foreclosure rates remain high in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida continues to post one of the highest home foreclosure rates in the nation. In July, Florida recorded more than 21,000 filings for foreclosure -- second only to California. For the year to date, Florida has had more than 111,000 filings and analysts predict the troubling trend will continue another 12 to 18 months. The Florida Bankers Association blames much of the problem on adjustable-rate, subprime mortgages that were available in recent years. Spokesman Alex Sanchez says that kind of creative financing often went to people with weak credit. Sanchez says too many people got into homes that were over their heads and they should not have been given credit in the first place. Nationwide, there have been more than 600,000 foreclosure filings this year.
Home sales hit 12-year low for July in six-county area of SoCal
Home sales in a six-county region of Southern California dipped to a 12-year low for July as a growing percentage of homes went on the market as a result of foreclosures, a research firm said Tuesday. Foreclosure resales accounted for 8.3 percent of sales activity in July, up from 7.7 percent in June, according to DataQuick Information Systems. In all, 17,867 homes and condominiums were sold last month in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Orange and Ventura counties. The total represents a 27.4 percent drop from July 2006 and an increase of 0.6 from sales in June, the firm reported. Last month's sales were the slowest for July since 1995, when 16,225 homes were sold. DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said the region was experiencing a recession and people were leaving the area the last time Southern California saw home sales this slow.
Central banks' easy virtue, easy money
There's an old story about the late British statesman Winston Churchill at a party. Probably on one of those many nights where never in the field of human excess had so much cognac, brandy and scotch been consumed by a person who historians now say was not an alcoholic, he staggered up to a socialite matron and posed a question:
Churchill: "Madam, would you sleep with me for 5 million pounds?" (In the 1930s, when the British pound was worth more than twice as much to the US dollar than it is now, this was a
particularly impressive sum over which to surrender one's virtue.)
Woman: "My goodness, Mr Churchill ... Well, I suppose ... we would have to discuss terms, of course."
Churchill: "Would you sleep with me for 5 pounds?"
Woman: "Mr Churchill, what kind of woman do you think I am?!"
Churchill: "Madam, we've already established that.
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