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Arizona Real Estate Blog Archives: July 2009 « August 2008 | Main | October 2009 » Wednesday, July 15, 2009Wells Fargo Sues Itself In Mortgage Foreclosure CaseOkay, just when you thought things in the mortgage industry couldn't get any more insane... Wells Fargo files a lawsuit against itself. That's right, Wells Fargo Bank NA v. Wells Fargo Bank NA. Apparently, the lawsuit is related to a mortgage foreclosure case in Hillsborough County, Florida. Wells Fargo spokesman, Kevin Waetke reportedly said, "The primary reason is to clear title and ownership interest in a property to prepare it for sale". Personally, I've never found it necessary to sue myself in order to prepare a property for sale. But then I've also never been dumb enough to give both a first mortgage and second mortgage to the same person on the same house either. So I guess it makes perfect sense if you're a "too big to fail" lending institution like Wells Fargo. You know, the kind where the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing so they end up hiring lawyers to sue themselves, and then have to hire lawyers to defend themselves too. Who knows, it might be a brilliant legal strategy because even if Wells Fargo loses, they also win! But then even if they win, they also lose. The biggest losers here are the taxpayers who bailed this company out thinking it was "too big to fail". Sometimes stupidity needs to be allowed to fail. If Wells Fargo has nothing better to do with the BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars they received under the recent government bailout (TARP), why don't they just pay it all back?
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on July 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (17) Kids will be Kids in Gilbert, AZSome kids in Gilbert, AZ are entertaining themselves this summer by turning off people's power. They run through the neighborhoods, open unlocked power boxes and flip the switch, turning off all the home's power. This story has been in the news but it's a great reminder to put a lock on your electrical breaker box. Sudden loss of power can sometimes cause damage to computers and other electronic devices.
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on July 15, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5) Monday, July 06, 2009Did your AZ Representative Help Defeat the Anti-Sanctuary City Bill?Before adjourning July 1, the Arizona House defeated a bill (HB 2280) by Senator Russell Pearce that would have cracked down on pro-illegal alien “sanctuary” laws and aided in immigration enforcement by expanding the state’s trespassing law. While the Senate approved the bill 16-11, the House was five votes short of the 31 needed for passage. Democratic politicians usually oppose illegal immigration enforcement, as they need the pro-illegal money and votes to get re-elected. But three Republicans also opposed this bill even though the State Republican Party unanimously passed a resolution supporting it and numerous law enforcement organizations endorsed it (at least those who haven’t had long-standing ties with open-borders groups and cheap-labor business lobbyists). The 3 Republicans and 12 Democrats who opposed this bill were:
What's really disturbing is that 19 members of the House (listed below) did not even vote on the bill at all. Shame on them. I was told the six Republicans listed below physically left the Capitol building so they didn’t have to go on record as opposing HB 2280 (sadly, my Representative was among them):
Is this really what we pay our elected officials to do... play both sides of the aisle and hide their true beliefs so nobody knows what they support or oppose? I know I didn't vote for that. I expect my elected representatives to help Americans, not illegal immigrants. And no, I'm not a racist although the pro-illegal immigration crowd will say anyone who wants our immigration laws enforced must be a racist (so go ahead and send the emails anyway - my delete key is ready!). I simply want our laws to be respected by all. You and I must obey the law or pay the consequences. Why are illegals getting a free pass at our expense? Our immigration laws have been ignored for long enough, and selective enforcement of some laws results in lack of respect for all laws. If all laws are not enforced, how do you know which ones they're really serious about? So what does this have to do with real estate? PEOPLE DON'T WANT TO LIVE IN SANCTUARY CITIES. Eliminating sanctuary city policies will not only aid law enforcement and make our cities safer, but this bill will also alleviate some of our financial problems. Sanctuary cities are plagued with increased costs and decreased quality of education, healthcare, law enforcement and all other social services. Sound familiar? Our current budget mess reminds us that Arizona can't even afford the services it's currently providing. So do we raise taxes, reduce services & quality of services provided to legal residents, or eliminate services for those who are here illegally mooching off the rest of us? Seems kind of like a no-brainer to me, especially considering that many legal Arizona residents are currently unemployed and in need of assistance. But then I'm just a lowly taxpayer so I don't have all that special "State Representative" knowledge that's required to make such important decisions with other people's money. The defeat of this bill means that sanctuary policies, like those in Mesa and other Valley cities, will continue to:
When public assistance agencies are prevented from inquiring about an applicant's immigration status, benefits are distributed to ineligible illegal aliens. Sanctuary policies directly violate Federal law and make it easier for illegal aliens, including criminal aliens, to live undetected in Arizona. How many citizens, including police officers, have to die or be maimed before we decide to enforce our immigration laws? ATTENTION STATE LAWMAKERS: If you oppose a bill, at least have the backbone to stand up and say so. Otherwise, don't ask for my vote next time you run for re-election... because I will show up to vote against you (and I'll encourage everyone I know to do the same). And by the way, illegal immigrants don't vote, but angry American citizens do. If your AZ Representative is listed above, be sure to email them and let them know how you feel about their vote (or lack thereof) on this issue. Just click the email address of your Representative to send a pre-written letter, or edit the email to say whatever you'd like. Click here to look up your Representative.
Posted by Shannon Hubbard, Arizona Real Estate Agent on July 6, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (7) Sunday, July 05, 2009AWOL Blogger Returns to BlogArizona - Happy 4th of July!I know I haven't blogged forever and a day, so I guess it's time again! How could I have stayed away so long with so much to blog about lately? Honestly, I've been overwhelmed with work and life in general. Since the end of last year, the real estate & home inspection business have kept me working 12+ hour days, 7 days a week. Funny how the free markets actually work if the government stops interfering long enough to allow it. When AZ real estate prices came down low enough (last year), the buyers started to come out and inventory has come down significantly now. No, it wasn't the stimulus or the tax credit - it was lower prices (a function of supply and demand, not government intervention). For those of you who have emailed and left comments telling me to update BlogArizona... thanks! Even after months of not blogging, BlogArizona has still been visited by thousands of loyal readers and the search engines still seem to like us quite a bit. In fact, I still rank high enough to command attention from the bubble bursting crowd (what an honor!). After being quoted in this LA Times article by Nicholas Riccardi (which was also picked up by the Chicago Tribune, etc), I was recently bashed by Boom2Bust because I wasn't negative enough when discussing the Arizona real estate market. Okay, in all fairness, Boom2Bust was actually criticizing the use of Arizona real estate professionals as sources for the article... an article which happened to be about the Arizona real estate market (need I say duh???). Here's what Boom2Bust says about the Chicago Tribune article...
There were a few other AZ real estate professionals quoted, and Boom2Bust concluded/implied that real estate agents just say good things about the real estate market so they can make money. So who should Mr. Riccardi have called to interview for his article about the Arizona real estate market... some doctors in Nicaragua? Everything stated in the article was true, and the sources for the information were fully and accurately disclosed - so what's the problem? Boom2Bust goes on to give alternate sources of information about the Arizona housing market, to balance the opinions of us greedy real estate professionals who were quoted...
Note that Boom2Bust uses only national statistics and sources to talk about the Arizona real estate market. Should we tell Boom2Bust that real estate is local? The national numbers mean nothing to us here in Arizona, even if those numbers come from Yale scholars (Yale isn't even in Arizona!). So Boom2Bust would prefer generic, national sources rather than first hand information from people in the AZ trenches? The Arizona real estate market was among the hardest hit and therefore the first to start the recovery (when prices got low enough). Who do you think is more likely to know when that recovery has started... a Yale professor or an Arizona Realtor? Okay... considering I haven't blogged in many months, I guess I should just feel loved since I'm still being contacted for interviews by major newspapers and bashed by bubble bloggers. Never a dull moment. But don't worry, I'll be back for more much sooner this time. Hope you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend!
Posted by BlogArizona BlogMaster on July 5, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (8) Federal Reserve Keeps Interest Rates Low... No Worries About InflationI'm really sick of looking at this really old post about the Federal Reserve and interest rates so I'm posting an update! At the end of June, the Federal Reserve met and decided to keep the federal funds rate the same at 0 - 0.25%. The federal funds rate is the rate banks charge each other. This was really no big surprise, as most economists expected the Fed to leave the rate alone. It hasn't changed since December 2008 and isn't likely to increase anytime soon. The Fed says that the pace of economic contraction is slowing and there's evidence of household spending stabilizing, but inflation does not seem to be a worry to the Fed right now.
Posted by BlogArizona BlogMaster on July 5, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (5) |
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