KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Wednesday September 2 Housing and Economic stories

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TOP STORIES:

Dealers want end to Cash for Clunkers - (money.cnn.com) National Automobile Dealers Association wants an orderly closure of program and again expresses concerns that funds are running out. The National Automobile Dealers Association is urging the federal government to begin shutting down the Cash for Clunkers program immediately. In a statement released Wednesday evening, NADA said that, given the rapid pace at which deals are being done, it will be difficult to say when the program's funds may run out. Dealers have complained of problems and delays in getting payments due to them under the program. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said earlier Wednesday that all dealers would be reimbursed. "They're going to get their money," LaHood said during a press conference. "We have the money to provide to them. We have put an enormous number of people on the task of processing the paperwork. There will be no car dealer that won't be reimbursed." The NADA said, in its statement, that the group had "confirmed elsewhere" that dealers would not get paid if cash ran out. Still, the dealers' group said that it had held meetings with officials from the Department of Transportation and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Wednesday morning in order to reiterate concerns about the program. "As the first order of business, NADA stressed the importance of addressing - as soon as possible - how the program will end, including the possible suspension of the program," the organization said.

My Bad! Woman's House Mistakenly Auctioned by Bank - (www.nbcmiami.com) A Homestead woman's home was auctioned to the highest bidder. You know times are tough when people are getting kicked out of their house when it’s not even for sale. That’s what happened to Anna Ramirez after she found all of her stuff out on the front lawn of her Homestead home last week and a strange man demanding she get out of his newly purchased house. The eviction came after Ramirez’s home was mistakenly auctioned off to the highest bidder by her bank, Washington Mutual (yes, we know WaMu is now Chase, but we're in denial). Usually, you get a warning before you get the boot. A foreclosure letter. Maybe a sign saying your house is up for sale. Not Ramirez, who found her belongings bashed and battered in the street. "This came out of nowhere," Ramirez said. "The bank took the house from right under my feet." The man who bought the house told Ramirez he paid $87,000 for it, which shocked Ramirez, who bought the house for $260,000. What's worse is her husband, daughter and grand children were also kicked out by Homestead and Miami-Dade police officers, said Martha Taylor, who witnessed the unexpected eviction. "I have never seen anything like it," Taylor said. "They literally threw all her stuff on the front lawn. I didn't sleep that night and it wasn't even my house." Ramirez and her family had three hours to get out of the house, police ordered. They had to stash their belongings at multiple locations and shacked up with a friend for the night as cops chained the doors of their home. With Taylor's help, Ramirez appeared before a judge two days later to explain what happened. "I had all my stuff scattered everywhere," she said. "They did this in front all my neighbors. It was so embarassing." A mistake in the Miami-Dade Clerk's Office appears to be behind the mishap, which landed Ramirez homeless for more than 24 hours.

Public workers' hefty pensions strain budgets - (www.dailybulletin.com) At a time when government agencies are cutting back on law enforcement, health care for children and services for the poor, the number of public servants collecting $100,000-plus pensions - including one raking in nearly $500,000 a year - has exploded in recent years, in some cases tripling or even increasing sevenfold. In Los Angeles County, the number of retired county employees receiving pensions of $100,000 or more has nearly tripled from 1,198 in 2004 to 3,096 today, the Los Angeles Daily News has learned through a series of Public Records Act requests. Throughout California, the number of retired state workers collecting $100,000-plus pensions has mushroomed more than sixfold from 816 in 2004 to 5,115 now. And the number of school administrators and teachers collecting six-figure pensions has rocketed more than sevenfold from 427 in 2004 to 3,088 now. Los Angeles, excluding the Department of Water and Power, currently has 600 retirees collecting more than $100,000 a year. The dubious honor of collecting the state's highest pension belongs to former Vernon City Administrator Bruce Malkenhorst, who receives $499,675 per year - even though he is currently facing two counts of misappropriating public funds for allegedly taking $60,000 in city money for personal use. Malkenhorst's attorney did not return calls for comment. As grand juries throughout the state are investigating pension systems, former Assemblyman Keith Richman, president of CFFR, said these huge pensions are the result of a "corrupt pension system." California, Richman said, is the only state in the nation that allows employees to use their highest year of salary - including unused vacation, vehicle allowances, bonuses and other compensation - in calculating their pensions. "The bottom line is we have very extravagant pension benefits that taxpayers can't afford," Richman said. "Pension-spiking has played a large role in this. We have public employees throughout the state who are retiring at age 50 and collecting more than 100 percent of their salaries, getting annual cost-of-living raises and lifetime health benefits." Union leaders bristle at the suggestion that most public workers receive extravagant retirement benefits. Barbara Maynard, a consultant for the Coalition of LA City Unions and the Coalition of County Unions, said only a small percentage of retired public servants receive "these exorbitant pensions."

CalPERS Backs National Health Care Reform Effort - (www.calpers.ca.gov) The corrupt CalPERS of course supports national health care reform as they have blown 25% of their cash they are managing due to risky real estate and equity investments. Therefore, time to blame health care costs as the root cause of their troubles. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today sent a letter to members of the California Congressional delegation urging that they enact national health care reforms, calling the status quo an “untenable policy choice.” In a joint letter, Rob Feckner, CalPERS Board President and Anne Stausboll, the pension fund’s Chief Executive Officer discussed the problem with the failure to act. “There are systemic health care issues that require national attention and there will be a huge cost to inaction at this critical point in our nation. The status quo is an untenable policy choice.” As the largest purchaser of public employee health benefits in California, and the second largest public purchaser in the nation after the federal governament, CalPERS will spend $5.7 billion this year on health benefits for more than 1.3 million members and their families. Over the last six years, health premiums for its members have increased 60 percent. In the letter CalPERS supports concepts in the America’s Affordable Health Choice Act 2009 that are closely aligned with the pension fund’s own health care priorities. Those include: Making health care affordable for all Americans; Finding innovative proposals to constrain costs, increase value and improve quality and efficiency in the health care system; and Controlling the growth of prescription drug costs. CalPERS believes its own experience fighting rising health care costs and the initiatives that it has launched in recent years are prime examples of the savings that can be realized at the national level. CalPERS decisions and actions in recent years have saved the System’s health care program more than $600 million.

43 Percent of San Diego Mortgages Underwater - (www.voiceofsandiego.org) The share of San Diego homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their houses could sell for today has grown significantly this year, according to new data released by First American CoreLogic. At the end of June, the number of mortgaged homes in the county that are underwater had grown to 258,253. That's 42.64 percent of all properties with a mortgage. About another 23,000, or about 4 percent, are close to being underwater, the firm said. This means almost 12 percent more homeowners are underwater than were six months previously. At the end of 2008, the share of underwater loans was 30.7 percent. The new numbers for San Diego are quite a bit higher than the share of underwater loans nationwide. The firm showed more than 15 million loans underwater across the United States, representing about 32 percent of all mortgaged properties. San Diego's underwater share is in line with California's, however, which was also 42 percent. This percentage does not count properties are that are owned free and clear, which account for one-quarter of the county's owner-occupied units. Second homes and investment properties aren't counted in that owner-occupied ratio, but loans on such properties might be included in the underwater numbers. Why is this number important? My first look was in December, in this story. Here's why I am very interested to see how this number is changing: