KeNo's Housing and Economic Portal: Wednesday September 15 Housing and Economic stories

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Schaumburg man living in his driveway after eviction - (www.dailyherald.com) A Schaumburg man who's been living in his driveway during foreclosure proceedings on his house won his demand for a jury trial Tuesday to stop a village request for permission to forcibly clean up his cluttered property. John Wuerffel, 62, of the 1400 block of Hampton Lane, will represent himself in court Thursday for both jury selection and the trial itself. Because there was no possibility of jail time on the charge of violating village ordinances, the use of a public defender was not an option for the apparently broke homeowner. "You are entitled to represent yourself," Associate Judge Hyman Riebman told Wuerffel. "You will be held to the same standards as any lawyer that comes into this courtroom." Village Attorney Elmer Mannina had argued against the use of a jury trial because he said the violations for failure to keep the outside of the home free from garbage and the interior in a sanitary condition should be handled under civil procedure. But because the violations carry the possibility of monetary fines, Riebman considered them to be quasi-criminal and granted Wuerffel's demand for a jury trial.

Wall Street Insiders Want Out, Selling $100 Million in Stock - (www.cnbc.com) In a move that may reflect a growing unwillingness to tie their personal fortunes to those of their companies, insiders at the country's seven biggest banks this year have undertaken more than five times the number of stock sales of their corporate shares as they have purchases. Officers and directors of Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo have sold about $100 million worth of stock so far this year, amid relatively small buying activity, according to public stock filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that have been analyzed by the research firm InsiderScore.

San Diego condo gives back buyer deposits - (www.signonsandiego.com) The developer of downtown San Diego’s largest residential high rise said Monday that it has halted sales on the 679-unit condo project and is returning deposits to dozens of buyers who had been awaiting the close of escrow. The move to abandon sales marks the second time in the last year that the developer has given deposits back to buyers in the beleaguered Vantage Pointe project, which has faced one setback after another since launching sales six years ago. “We’re not able to meet the Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or FHA requirements in this marketplace because we can’t get enough sales,” said Randy Klapstein, CEO of Pointe of View, developer of the 40-story complex that completed construction last year in the midst of the economic downturn “We’re not getting the traction we’d hoped for, and we don’t want our customers to stay in limbo, so it’s best to move on.” It is now likely the $280 million East Village condo project will remain a rental complex for the foreseeable future, said Klapstein, noting that there are roughly 200 renters, about a dozen of whom are buyers who were renting while waiting for their sales contracts to be finalized. “At this point, we’re going to continue renting,” he added. Since defaulting on its original $210 million construction loan earlier this year, the loan has been marketed for sale, but no deal has been finalized yet. When asked whether it was possible that the condo project might be sold, Klapstein would only say, “It’s always a possibility.”

Fewer interested in houseownership - (www.signonsandiego.com) Fewer people see homeownership as a crucial part of attaining the American Dream, says a recent survey by Trulia.com. The real estate website said that only 72 percent of respondents said they needed to own their own home to achieve their financial goals. That’s down from 77 percent at the beginning of the year. While 27 percent of renters said they had no interest at all in owning their own home, the rest said they would eventually like to buy. But those home-buying plans were off in the future, with 68 percent saying that it would be at least two years or more before they took the plunge. When asked what would get them to buy a home within the next 12 months, the responses went like this:

· 59 percent said having saved enough money for a down payment.

· 35 percent said getting a new job while 29 percent said getting a promotion or a raise.

· 35 percent said interest rates staying low or going even lower.

· 31 percent said if buying made better financial sense than renting.

Mortgage lending down amid warnings of second house price crash - (www.telegraph.co.uk) The latest figures from the Bank of England revealed that net lending – which strips out redemptions and repayments – dropped to just £86 million in July, a steep fall from June’s £518 million. It is the fourth lowest level since the Bank’s records began in 1993. Leading financial analysts warned of misery ahead for home owners as banks continue to impose strict lending criteria on borrowers. Andrew Goodwin, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, said: “The housing market is heading for a double dip, with net mortgage lending pretty much flat and the number of mortgage approvals remaining very low. “These figures tend to be well correlated with prices and they point to falling prices over the second half of this year, particularly now that the supply shortages of the early part of the year have eased.” Howard Archer, an economist at Global Insight, said: “It is hard at this stage to be optimistic about house prices in 2011 as the fiscal squeeze will increasingly kick in, which will hit people's pockets and lead to serious job losses in the public sector.”