Udon Thani Thailand Forum - Udon Thani, Thailand

Some not very good news from the USA about the housing market in at least the medium future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11944737

I also found interesting the comments surrounding the banks. I would have thought this far after the financial collapse that the customer feelings about the banks would have at least levelled off. Apparently not though, the actions by the banks since the crisis seems to have caused even greater resentment & a worrying lack of personal concern over how to deal with debts. The banks need to take notice of this otherwise they could be back deep in trouble again quite soon & I am not sure many would support another bailout now...

When you buy a house in the states that has the note guaranteed by the gov (almost all do) you are required to sign a mountain of documents so many your frigging hand gets sore you sign so many things attesting that you are aware of all things obvious and not, but does it really work? I think government backed loans, government sponsored loan mods are just a long painful road to societal hell when people won't take responsibility for their actions. Some people are just to dumb or lazy to enter into a meaningful contract and why should I pay for it.

There is a huge, and as yet unquantified, problem that I have been following for some time with regard to the fraudulent processing of documents by the US banks - it has been christened as "Foreclosuregate".

Trying to keep what is a highly complex situation simple:

• 1. In order to feed the “securitisation” frenzy that was blowing up before the bubble burst, there appears to have been wholesale fraudulent processing of documents by the banks.
  
  2. In pursuit of the foreclosure of mortgage payers who are in default now the bubble has burst there appears to be a whole raft of further wholesale fraudulent processing of documents.

Part of the problem (which was mentioned in the BBC article) has been the "robo-signing" of what appears to be hundreds of thousands of documents, in addition fraudulent notarisation of similar numbers of documents, false affidavits and a whole host of other legal infractions.

Judges are now going ape having discovered that the paperwork presented to the courts in many foreclosure cases was actually fraudulent – although in should be noted that in many cases the mortgage was in default and default was admitted to by the homeowner.

Any acceptance of fraudulent evidence sets an extremely dangerous legal precedent and makes a total mockery of the legal system.

Top end of the speculative estimates of the cost of putting it right are in excess of 100 billion dollars.

Some articles illustrating just a few of the problems:

• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-0 ... olner.html
  
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-1 ... olner.html
  
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-2 ... -weil.html
  
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-1 ... -weil.html
  
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-0 ... ourts.html

on "NBC" The Today Show ,today they said realestate in the us is down $1.7 trillion in 2010,They said since it becan in 2007 its down A total of $8 trillion.They say 2011 doesn't look good either.

Spoke with a recent transplant to Udon who may be typical, said he was "under water" with his mortgage in California so gave it back to the bank and walked (or ran).

Have been looking at property prices in CA and AZ on www.trulia.com, while some areas like Palm Springs or Scottsdale have good buys, in others like Orange County or San Diego area it seems one gets little for the money, even if prices are way below their previous highs.

My mother died 3 years ago and I held on to "our" condo in Naples FL in the hopes of a rebound of prices. Forbes magazine has Naples #1 of the top ten places where wealthy Americans are still buying. Still, the value has not budged in three years, stuck at rock bottom. Costing me $8000 per year plus a new $6500 central airconditiner, to hold on, I finally decided to list it for sale, this is money right down the toilet. Given the time and expense to get to FL from Udon, it is a luxury not worth having. Attrition comes to places like Palm Springs, Naples and Scottsdale as they are loaded with retirees who die off. And likely fewer snow birds are looking to have a second winter home in this bad economy. So good buys will likely remain the case for quite a while. For those looking to relocate on a fulltime basis eg retirees from northern states looking for warmer climates, US proeprty is looking great.

Another enterprising friend in Phoenix with good credit, seized the day and bought about ten distressed properties this year, fix them up and rent them out, he is on a roll to creating a lot of personal wealth eg "Rich Dad Poor Dad" style.

If you want to sell, price is still depressed; if you want to buy, price is still expensive.