Housing

I sure hope King Carty does not try to steal the show when Extreme Home Makeover comes to Toledo. Carty is bad news all the time. We don't need or want him on TV.

Maybe the TV show will treat him just like the DNC and Obama has! Cold, Real Cold !

The cold shoulder !

Carty, a real %$%^%&*# !!

Thieves scoured Kalinda Sanders' West Toledo house earlier this month, looking for anything that could be scrapped for money.

They ripped out her bathroom sink and tore a hole in the wall next to her bathtub, leaving remnants of installation scattered all over the floor.

"A study about vacant properties in Ohio released earlier this year said vacant and abandoned properties cost Toledo taxpayers at least $3.8 million in 2006 in demolition, boarding-up, grass-mowing, and trash-removal costs.

The announcement, presented by the Dept. of Neighborhoods, is as follows:

RESIDENTS & BUSINESSES WITHIN THE AREAS BOUNDED BY
Greenwood Avenue, Spring Grove Avenue, Idaho Street, and Navarre Avenue,

PLEASE JOIN US FOR A "MODEL BLOCK" PRESS CONFERENCE
ON MONDAY AUGUST 4, 2008 @ 11:00 a.m.

Questions and answers about the Hope for Homeowners Act of 2008, passed by Congress last weekend to try to steer as many as 400,000 struggling homeowners away from foreclosure:

Q: What exactly will the legislation do?

As the story says below, the "chronic" homeless numbers have gone down, but the newly homeless numbers are increasing (families).

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-28-homeless_N.htm
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

Toledo City Councilman D. Michael Collins yesterday floated the idea of doubling the city's monthly storm water assessment to drastically cut the number of years it would take to complete $44 million in improvements the city needs for storm water control.

The current $3.16 assessment is charged on Toledo water bills and generates about $8 million annually.

From lowering property values to increasing the risk of fire and crime, vacant properties contribute to a number of neighborhood problems, as anyone who has ever lived near one can attest.

" ST. LOUIS - Debbie Halcomb unpacked boxes as she moved back into her flood-damaged home, but worried that her damp carpet harbors mold. She enjoys the normally tranquil setting of Winfield, a community about three miles from the Mississippi River. But she's had enough. She's hoping for a government buyout so she can move to higher ground.

People who have experienced property damage because of flooding or other natural disasters are reminded that they may qualify for a reduction in property taxes.

http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080714/NEWS12/446026...

"In serious consideration for ambassador to Belarus." That's the role John McCain joked that former senator Phil Gramm might have in a McCain administration. Gramm is McCain's most senior economic adviser, the one best qualified to lead the finance team of a McCain presidency. Now, however, Gramm faces political exile because he made the mistake of telling the truth.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest providers of financing for US home loans, tumbled to the lowest in 17 years in New York trading after a former Federal Reserve president said the companies may need a government bailout.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac tumble on insolvency fears

For sale: New single-family homes, close to brand-new elementary school, park land, convenient to downtown, transportation, other amenities.

Sound appealing?

A North Toledo development organization hopes buyers think so.

WASHINGTON - A massive foreclosure rescue bill cleared a key Senate test Tuesday by an overwhelming margin, with Democrats and Republicans both eager to claim election-year credit for helping hard-pressed homeowners.

GULFPORT, Ill. - Juli Parks didn't worry when water began creeping up the levee that shields this town of about 750 from the Mississippi River — not even when volunteers began piling on sandbags.

A large, empty plot of cleaned-up riverfront property near I-75 could soon be in the hands of a self-described "visionary developer."

When Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota wanted a mortgage for his beach house, he turned to a Washington insider, James A. Johnson, former head of Fannie Mae, the government mortgage giant, who then put the senator in touch with Angelo Mozilo, chief executive of the mortgage lender Countrywide Financial.

The vast majority of people who owe the city of Toledo money for razing nuisance buildings, cutting grass and weeds, or clearing away debris never pay up.

Over the past two years, the city has collected just $35,000 out of $4.1 million billed to current and former property owners.

The increasingly controversial proposed Toledo law to require owners of vacant buildings to register and pay a fee was vehemently denounced yesterday by a number of opponents and applauded by others during a lengthy City Council committee hearing.

If approved, the fee starts at $100 for residential buildings and increases the longer a property is vacant.

Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner plans to introduce
legislation to City Council calling for the creation of a vacant
residential building registration.

The legislation would require registration and fees for each vacant residential structure in the city.

Toledo homes may not be selling rapidly, but income-generating rental properties are.

Thirteen apartment complexes were auctioned off in Toledo this week as one of the largest commercial auctions in the area by the Pamela Rose Auction Co. LLC.

Up for bid were 17 properties with up to 28 units each, and 40 potential buyers participated at the event in Gladieux Meadows in south Toledo.

"Senator John McCain, who drew criticism last month after he warned against broad government intervention to solve the deepening mortgage crisis, pivoted Thursday and called for the federal government to aid some homeowners in danger of losing their homes, by helping them to refinance and get federally guaranteed 30-year mortgages.

The Federal Reserve System on Tuesday announced the availability of a set
of dynamic maps and data that illustrate subprime and alt-A mortgage loan conditions
across the United States.

http://www.reuters.com/article/gc03/idUSN2830318520080328

By performing this act, the city has just told people to stop paying their mortgages. They also told people to stop paying their property taxes.

(Renters, of course, being second-class citizens, must still pay their rents or they will be evicted.)

I can't find this mentioned anywhere, but if you heard Maggie Thurber, or Fred glance over on WSPD this morning, they talked about the proposed empty house ordinance. Here is what I know/remember:

1. If the house/property is empty for a certain amount of time, owners need to board up the windows.
2. Owners must register and pay a fee to register the empty house.