The Frontlines Of The Foreclosure Crisis

After Banks Take Over Homes, Squatters Move In, Leaving Enforcement In A Bind

(CBS)  "Code enforcement officer! If you're inside, make yourself known now!"

Tom Curl and Jose Mendez work the frontlines of the foreclosure crisis, inspecting vacant and often vandalized homes taken back by the bank. Even in nice neighborhoods, appearances can be deceiving, CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy reports.

"Code enforcement!" the officers said. "Anybody in here?"

"Yes, I'm in here," someone said.

"Can you come on out now please?" the officers said.

"Yes sir," the voice said from inside.

The officers call him a squatter - someone who moved into a foreclosed home after a family was thrown out.

"Obviously he was staying here. And looks like he's been basically staying here for a long time now," Mendez said.

The house is ransacked; the walls covered in mold; plumbing no longer doing its job.

"They're living in filth," Mendez said of squatters. "I mean they're literally living in feces."

These are the ugly inside effects of the housing market meltdown, which has emptied out entire neighborhoods.

Pointing around one neighborhood, Mendez said: "That's been foreclosed and that's been foreclosed. You have one, two, three, four, five."

A recent survey by the National League of Cities found that in 33 percent of cities nationwide, vacant homes and blight are a growing problem.

"When you have small kids like mine, you really don't sleep at night because everything you hear - you're jumping up to see what it is," said Sacramento resident Elohim Cofield.

Local governments try to keep squatters and vandals out - but their rules are often broken.

Some of these squatters are even more brazen. they'll clean a place up, get the power hooked up, then they'll change the locks on the door and actually rent it out, collecting money on a place they don't even own.

Real estate fraud detective Mike Wood says scammers reel in unsuspecting tenants by posting on sites such as Craigslist.

"It's not till months later that the bank finally sends someone to check on the house and to discover that someone's actually living in there," Wood said.

That makes it hard to know who belongs and who doesn't.

"I don't know if you're aware but this property has been foreclosed," Mendez said to one woman.

That mother and her daughter were found living in what should be uninhabitable.

"Does your heater work?" Mendez asked her.

She said: "Actually, no."

"And you say you don't have power right?" Mendez said.

"No," she said.

The officers report these problems to the banks, who own the homes, but they rarely even respond.

"I give out my personal cell number - nothing ever rings," said officer Curl.

That leaves the officers to climb into yet another subprime mortgage mess.

[hoopersports]

SO HOOPERSPROTS, TELL ME THIS WHY IS IT OUR FAULT THE BIG BANKS SOLD THIS MORTGAGE TO OTHER INVESTER FOR BIG MONEY SAYING THEY WOULD BE WORTH SO MUCH MORE AND THEY DID..NOW COMES A WAR, AND BUSH NEED TO HIKE THE INTERSEST..THESE BANKS TOOK A BIGGER CHANCE ON WHAT THE MORTGAGES WOULD BE WORTH 2,5,7 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD NOT US..........

Posted by forthepeopl1 at 04:29 PM : Apr 25, 2008

LOL LOL LOL how did I know that was coming. The typical liberal viewpoint....it''s Bush''s fault, he did it we never did anything wrong it''s all Bush and his war BooHoo!! Thanks I got a good laugh out of your post.

[forthepeopl1]

SO HOOPERSPROTS, TELL ME THIS WHY IS IT OUR FAULT THE BIG BANKS SOLD THIS MORTGAGE TO OTHER INVESTER FOR BIG MONEY SAYING THEY WOULD BE WORTH SO MUCH MORE AND THEY DID..NOW COMES A WAR, AND BUSH NEED TO HIKE THE INTERSEST..THESE BANKS TOOK A BIGGER CHANCE ON WHAT THE MORTGAGES WOULD BE WORTH 2,5,7 YEARS DOWN THE ROAD NOT US................

[forthepeopl1]

under water" as their loans exceed the diminishing value of their properties.

please this is a simple thing to fix, why are you bending over for all of the wallstreet scum.
you have the right to do what this paulson/ben did for wallstreet,saying they had to to save america. so you can say the same thing, but this time you would be saveing america, and not wallstreet.
you must come out and stop the forcloseing of all these millions of homes, now,
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS MANDATE THAT ALL MORTGAGES THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT FROM 2000 TO 2007 BY ALL AMERICANS TO BE RE-FI A.S.A.P. NO EXCEPTIONS,


NO MATTER WHAT THE CREDIT IS, THEY WILL RE-FI EVERYONE AT JUST OVER PRIME, AND AT A RATE OF 40% OF WHAT IS OWED ON THE PROPERTY( PERSONAL HOMES ONLY)!!
WHY, BECAUSE MOST HOST ARE SELLING AT FORCLOSER FOR 20 TO 30 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR, SO AS TO WHAT PAULSON SAID TO BEARSTEARN 2 DOLLARS IS BETTER THAN NO DOLLARS SO TAKE THE DEAL..NOW REMEMBER ALL OF YOU, IF THIS COMPANY IN 6 MONTHS LOST 98% OF THEIR VALUE FROM 700 BILLION TO WHAT IS IT NOW. AND FOR SOMEONE TO COME IN AND BUY IT FOR NOTHING, WHAT IS THE REAL VALUE OF ALL THESE HOMES???NOBODY KNOWS, SO WHY NOT JUST START OVER??? AND STOP THE BLEEDING FOR ALL AMERICANS.

[e-mail]
DAVID A BELANGER
AND LOOK AT THIS MORNINGS NEWS, THE GREAT POTATOHEAD PAULSON,AND BEN ARE IN TALKS WITH ANOTHER WALLSTREET FIRM GOING DOWN. MERRILL LYNCHWHAT MORE BAILOUTS FOR WALLSTREET COMING.

[hoopersports]

This crisis has nothing to do with either political party. It has to do with dumb people taking out loans on houses they coulden''t afford and banks giving loans to people who coulden''t afford them. Why is everything the government''s fault? The people who are losing their house are the ones who coulden''t afford the loan they got in the first place. They had it coming, the free market bit them in the ***. The best thing our government can do is nothing, stay out of it and let the free market run its course.

[sebastian27-2009]

This "crisis" was years in coming, but was brought to a head in the past 7 years by turning the printing presses to "automatic." Every time that the economy appeared to be slowing down, the "money people" ie. banks, mortgage brokers, FDIC etc came up with another scheme to enable more people who were not qualified because of their handling, or lack of handling, of their finances to buy homes.
This created a "house of cards" in the financing of homes as stock brokers, the mother of all bubbles, sold worthless stock backed by worthless mortgages to us greedy investors. We are all culpable.

[pedroalbizucampo]

The Appreciating America initiative is gaining support and is a viable solution for this mess that we''re in. In its simplest format, Appreciating America is a national plan to help homeowners, and their lenders, whose property is worth less than the original mortgage balance. Often, these properties need to be refinanced due to a resetting ARM which puts the property in danger of foreclosure. The plan allows homeowners to refinance their %u201Cunderwater%u201D mortgage up to 85% of the current value of the home. Any remaining balance is put into a second mortgage with no payments for five years. After five years, the homeowner and lender will share in any appreciation of the home to pay off the second loan. The first mortgage offers an affordable monthly payment which prevents financial ruin and foreclosure for the borrower. After a defined period of time, the second mortgage is paid off to the lender, with the lender and borrower sharing in any appreciation on the home.

I read more about it today (here:http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080424006087&newsLang=en) in fact that indicated that a NY congressman has endorsed the plan and has brought it up with Federal Housing Authority Commissioner. On the surface it seems to be a more tangible solution that what''s currently being proposed. bailouts don''t work and we need to find real solutions for real people before this thing gets even worse.

[forthepeopl1]

Under Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson%u2019s .. Former leadership at
Goldman Sachs, the company has been instrumental to its penetration of Western
capital and other markets. - - Henry Paulson was vastly effective in Communist
China%u2019s .. Interests and enabling their access to Western economic assistance
and high technology

In late January 2006, Goldman Sachs purchased a stake in the Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China%u2019s biggest bank, for $2.58 billion
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson''''''''s .. Personal stake .. In this transaction
was $25 million

A PERSONAL BAIL OUT for : Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and His
Criminal Friends

(Mar 27, 2008 (ruters.com) BBC) ... White House Resists Pleas for .. Mortgage Bailout
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As clamor rises for federal help for homeowners
who face losing their homes .. U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson .. Seems
to be digging in heels against the effort.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Paulson sounded a tougher note than ever against any
possibility of bailout for individual mortgage holders, singling out the growing number
going "under water" as their loans exceed the diminishing value of their properties.

[forthepeopl1]

please this is a simple thing to fix, why are you bending over for all of the wallstreet scum.
you have the right to do what this paulson/ben did for wallstreet,saying they had to to save america. so you can say the same thing, but this time you would be saveing america, and not wallstreet.
you must come out and stop the forcloseing of all these millions of homes, now,
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS MANDATE THAT ALL MORTGAGES THAT HAVE BEEN TAKEN OUT FROM 2000 TO 2007 BY ALL AMERICANS TO BE RE-FI A.S.A.P. NO EXCEPTIONS,


NO MATTER WHAT THE CREDIT IS, THEY WILL RE-FI EVERYONE AT JUST OVER PRIME, AND AT A RATE OF 40% OF WHAT IS OWED ON THE PROPERTY( PERSONAL HOMES ONLY)!!
WHY, BECAUSE MOST HOST ARE SELLING AT FORCLOSER FOR 20 TO 30 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR, SO AS TO WHAT PAULSON SAID TO BEARSTEARN 2 DOLLARS IS BETTER THAN NO DOLLARS SO TAKE THE DEAL..NOW REMEMBER ALL OF YOU, IF THIS COMPANY IN 6 MONTHS LOST 98% OF THEIR VALUE FROM 700 BILLION TO WHAT IS IT NOW. AND FOR SOMEONE TO COME IN AND BUY IT FOR NOTHING, WHAT IS THE REAL VALUE OF ALL THESE HOMES???NOBODY KNOWS, SO WHY NOT JUST START OVER??? AND STOP THE BLEEDING FOR ALL AMERICANS.

[e-mail]
DAVID A BELANGER
FOR COMMON SENSE THIS IS SO EASY TO FIX DONT MAKE IT HARDER THAN IT IS PEOPLE.

AND LOOK AT THIS MORNINGS NEWS, THE GREAT POTATOHEAD PAULSON,AND BEN ARE IN TALKS WITH ANOTHER WALLSTREET FIRM GOING DOWN. MERRILL LYNCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHAT MORE BAILOUTS FOR WALLSTREET COMING.

[magoo2u1]

"this crisis was perpetuated by both parties, who don''''t care about you or me and more importantly America itself."

Parties? This mess was created by the greed of banks but was unchecked by the republicans. Now they have tied an albatros around Americas neck and it may pull the entire world under.

have we left the 6th grade yet? (all of these stupid negative comments)

this crisis was perpetuated by both parties, who don''t care about you or me and more importantly America itself.

[mythoughtsr]

lastdance, as I said on the other site you spammed (the showbuzz site) you need help. Get it, please.

[lastdance116]

Spammers have Seized - The CBS News
Web Site away fromThe CBS News Management - AGAIN

Spammers posting Spam and Profanity - 24/7 on CBS ....
CBS News Management Approved Spam -

CBS News Seized By Chronic - Habitual Spammers - Again !
Chasing Away Serious Posters and former Patrons of CBS ...
Commercial Advertisers should take more Consideration in the Money they Spend
On the Incompetent and Inept - CBS News Management
_____________
Shows how delusional you are.
Posted by speakinup at 08:00 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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CAN YOU READ ?
Posted by speakinup at 07:58 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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Go join the Syrian relief, IOWEIGN. We don''''t need aholes like you on our side.
Posted by speakinup at 07:55 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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So in the venacular - bugger off - both you and the camel you road into town, AHMED!!!
Posted by speakinup at 07:54 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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Yeah - dems are so fuggin gullible!
Posted by speakinup at 07:40 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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jmcgilvray - I''''d take the 60-80 a week to be rid of far left liberals.
Posted by speakinup at 07:35 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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I speak my mind - coward.
Posted by speakinup at 08:07 PM : Apr 24, 2008
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What''''s the matter - don''''t you like to be opposed in your idiot view ?
Posted by speakinup at 08:15 PM : Apr 24, 2008
_____
Very disarming.
Posted by speakinup at 08:22 PM : Apr 24, 2008
_______
now I may have missed it, but would like to ask you to prove what you claim.
Posted by speakinup at 08:20 PM : Apr 24, 2008