Housing market: problems left unmentioned haunt the numbers.Foreclosure means someone's home. Foreclosure means someone's' family
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Our story is in Washington Monthly, has appeared in People Magazine, under "Contractors from Hell," and a seven page expose, in Mother Jones Magazine. Texas riddled with foreclosures. Austin Business Journal-January 26,2007 Naional foreclosure numbers are in and they are not pretty. Also see Money Magazine this month Pg. 45.

Texas finished 2006 with a total of 156,876 foreclosure filings -- the highest aggregate total of any state, according to a year-end report by foreclosure source RealtyTrac Inc. and they are predicting another 1.3 million this year. It is not just Texas it spans the US. From little Titus, Alabama to New Jersey and on to California. But Texas was intrumental in the new laws casing the problems. They started right here.

However, more homes are lost, than ever make the foreclosure filings. Scumbag investors come: out to your house uninvited, call you and stuff your mailbox with offers. Since you are going to lose your house anyway, they offer you a chance to save your credit rating. All you have to do is give them, your power of attorney and they cut a deal ... you can't, with your mortgage company. You lose your home, your money, but salvage your credit rating. Then the investors, cover up defects and dump your house on someone else.

No one mentions some of the reasons for foreclosure, like bad builders, substandard construction, or arbitration clauses that protect bad builders even bad lenders. No one mentions we no longer have access to the courts. Or the ridiculous delays and protection of builders, by the Texas Residential Construction Commission. We have over 12,000
complaints in the attorney Generals office and to our knowledge not one has been acted on and many are on the same companies.
The only reason for all these forecloses, that is implied ... is just stupid people. The papers say these stupid people spent more than they could afford, or got loans with Arm's, or interest only. Some did, and got plasma screen TV's and incentives to make the deals ... appear even more to their advantage. They were told it would be cheaper than rent and would be such a good investment. Relators were paid a bonus for selling these tract, thrown up homes and townhouses. Some people bought substandard houses that had prices so inflated they could never catch up. Appraisals run up by the builders and appraisers. Sometimes the builders buy homes in their own subdivisions or get a friend too, or buy them under their other numerous company names, making it appear these homes are worth the asking price. Realtors depend on the comparable sales of like homes in the surrounding area.

Proponents of affordable housing projects, break there arms patting themselves on the back, helping people into home ownership. But the quality, of what they have put these people into, leads them to problems they never imagined and have no idea how to handle, especially in Texas. So they find themselves homeless again. Mostly poor and middle class hard working people, many first time homebuyers, single women and senior citizens, like us are targeted. We had a fixed 6% mortgage and could afford our payments. We just couldn't afford the astronomical repairs necessary to keep our new Tremont/Stature home habitable. It went into foreclosure two years ago and still sits empty. So does my neighbors'. Three more have just gone into foreclosure in Hyde Park Crescent. Look at Tremont Tower!

In the great state of Texas, are we going to believe that one out of very 51 Texans is just plain stupid? Or are we going to look for the truth? More importantly, are we going to do something about it?
This sickness in the economy is because of greed and crooks. Not stupid homebuyers and it has reached epidemic numbers. Everyone, except the FBI seems not to notice. There is so much mortgage fraud here in Houston, they have had to set up a special task force.
We are senior citizens and we had a fixed mortgage on a $360,000 home our payment were never late. Until it became uninhabitable and we had to evacuate it and find another place to live, It still stands empty, rotting leaking and molding after three years. What we could not afford was 150,000 dollars in repairs.

Liberty and freedom still lie in our hearts but no longer in our laws. We are supposed to be a the example of how a democracy works, a county that respects the rights of people. Big Business has taken over. We the people, are now governed by big business. We have arbitration clauses: with our banks, our cars and house loans, in leases, in all our credit cards, even in our cell phone contacts. Most Americans are totally controlled by arbitration clauses and they don't even know it. I ask you, are we citizens or have we become subjects? Please don't believe me, check with your credit card company and lenders yourself.
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Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty. Without them we have no other fortification against being ridden like horses, fleeced like sheep, worked like cattle, and fed and clothed like swine. - John Adams 1774

This quote was borrowed from Stephanie Mencimers new book, Blocking the court house door. It should be required reading for all Americans, especially those who still believe, in the spin of tort reform and arbitration.

Jordan Fogal
jfogal281@aol.com
For more information google my name, tort deform, or go to HADD. Com, or HOBB. org. National organizations trying to protect the rights of homeowners.