Read the full report today from the Multiple Listing Service of Long Island, which shows that closed median prices dropped by 6 percent in Suffolk, 2.2 percent in Nassau and 9 percent in Queens between January of 2008 and January 2007.
The Nassau County Bar Association may be offering some free legal advice to borrowers caught in the mortgage crisis.
One idea that’s been floated is a sort of hotline where attorneys would donate their time to answer questions, such as whether borrowers have grounds to sue and what step to take next, said Abraham Krieger, co-chair of newly-created subprime subcommittee, which falls under the real property law committee.
“One of the things that we’re trying to do is integrate a program within the bar association itself, where borrowers might be able to have a place to go and at least a call to make and maybe the opportunity to interview or speak with an attorney initially to get some direction as to how and what to do with their loans,” said Krieger, a partner in the Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein firm, based in Garden City.
For many troubled borrowers, they're so in debt or short of money that they can't afford to pay a lawyer for advice.
Krieger said help from lawyer volunteers can be like initial consultations. The borrower and attorney can decide if a lawsuit should be filed, Krieger said, but that would be done outside the bar association’s purview. The trade group’s role does not cover filing and fighting suits on behalf of people, he said.
It’ll take about a month or two to set up any hotline and organize help efforts, the subcommittee head said. Retired judge Samuel Levine is the other co-chair.
“We certainly want to move quickly on this because the list of borrowers in the middle of this subprime turmoil is only growing,” Krieger said. “It’s not being reduced. So the sooner we come up with something more formal, the sooner we can act on it.”
Photo by Newsday/Alejandra Villa
Post holiday, everyone’s shopping for discounts, but developer Eric Friedlander isn’t looking for something like shoes.
The head of the Friedlander Organization and chairman of Windemere Development Corp. has been hunting for value in bulk packages of unsold, newly-constructed homes – practically entire developments sometimes – that developers and lenders want off their books. He’s been jetting around examining properties, mostly in Florida and Arizona. In Florida, for example, he’s made 12 shopping trips in the past six months, lost out on one deal there this month and is negotiating on 34 houses in Naples, on the state’s west coast.
Today, he plans to be in Fort Myers, also on the west coast, to peruse a bundle of about 25 homes.
“They were selling for $400,000, and I’m trying to get it from the bank for $150,000,” Friedlander said.
That’s the way supply and demand have been working recently in the “new build” sector of housing. Many developers raced to build as much as they could to take advantage of the housing boom and are now stuck with stock. Lenders who gave them money have called in their loans and now try to sell them off for under market value.
“It takes time for the seller to come to grips on what they’re able to get on a bulk sale,” he said. “You have to get as much as you can get for the money because who knows how long you’ll have to hold” the properties.
Like other developers, Friedlander, an East Norwich resident, wants to seize opportunities in the mortgage crisis and buy up in an industry he knows well. If there are half-built houses and roads, he knows how to finish them. He’s got the money to buy up blocks of foreclosures and low-performing loans that Wall Street and lenders have been writing off, but he said he’s not familiar with the business of selling foreclosures and doesn’t want to build his fortune kicking people out of homes.
Friedlander, who built subdivisions in North Bellmore, Coram, Bay Shore, Laurel Hollow and other communities, will sell his investment properties for more than what he paid but under market value – a way to get them off his hands quick – or rent them until the real estate sector stabilizes.
He’s heard complaints that buyers have refused to close on some new homes because they think the real estate market hasn’t hit bottom prices yet.
But Friedlander, a former bond trader, doesn’t want to wait for bigger discounts because the current market might turn out to be the rock bottom and once everything improves, he’ll have lost his bargaining leverage on “hard assets”.
“If you can buy value today,” Friedlander said, “there’s no reason you shouldn’t buy value today.”
In announcing a plan today to help strapped homeowners whose low introductory mortgage
interest rates are scheduled to rise, President George W. Bush gave out the wrong phone number, broadcast around the nation on television and the Web. It's not 1-800-995-HOPE -- which, at least for now, has a fast busy tone. No, as confirmed by a corrected release soon issued by the White House, the number is 1-888-995-HOPE.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
The White House today will announce a plan to freeze rates on some subprime loans for five years (or at least that's what's been leaked to the press). But will that help Long Islanders like Freeport homeowner Barbara Santamaria? In Newsday's cover story today, she says she and husband, Alex, pay $3,700 a month on a $414,000 loan. Her 7.5 percent rate from the summer of 2006 will go up to 10 percent in August. "Without a freeze, she said, 'I'm done. There's nothing I can do and there'll be no way I can keep the house.' "
Homeowners struggling to meet their mortgage payments can participate in a free online seminar from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. Nov. 19. The seminar, presented by Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, will provide tips on options available to those who are behind on their mortgages. Those interested can register here and click on "Start Now" under the "Gain Financial Confidence" section. Log in five to 10 minutes before the seminar begins.
The latest casualty of the subprime mess is Woodbury's Delta Financial. Read Ellen Yan's story here, along with the e-mail where the layoffs are announced.
