bubbleinfo.com

For Law enforcement officers, pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade teachers and firefighters/emergency medical technicians, HUD offers a substantial incentive in the form of a discount of 50% from the list price of the home. In return you must commit to live in the property for 36 months as your sole residence. 

When a law enforcement officer, teacher, firefighter, or emergency medical technician chooses to use an FHA- insured mortgage, the down payment is $100.

Eligible Single Family homes located in revitalization areas are listed exclusively for sales through the Good Neighbor Next Door Sales program.  GNND buyers can bid in lottery, exclusive, and extended phases, but can bid exclusively on insured single unit homes in revitalization areas in the lottery phase. GNND buyers are given preference over government agencies and nonprofits in the selection of a bid-winner in the lottery phase.   

Search for available properties at www.hudhomestore.com. Enter State and Buyer Type: Good Neighbor Next Door. 

Good Neighbor Next Door program Q&A here.

Here are the available HUD properties in SD County: HUD foreclosures in SD County

From wsj.com:

Highly ranked school districts may have been spared the worst of the foreclosure crisis, according to a new analysis, showing that the housing crash was akin to a tornado that tore through wide swaths, but hit with particular force in certain areas.

The analysis, conducted for Developments by Location Inc., a Worcester, Mass.-based company that mines local data for businesses and consumers, looked at six months of 2011 sales data collected by RealtyTrac Inc. It showed that the percentage of foreclosure (or “real-estate-owned”) sales went down as the school ranking went up in five metro areas – Jacksonville, Fla; Atlanta; Toledo, Ohio; Stockton, Calif.; and Seattle. Higher-rated school districts also maintained higher home-sale prices, and higher home prices per square foot.

“If you are looking to buy into one of these good school districts, it is very rare to find a foreclosure,” said Location Inc.’s chief executive Andrew Schiller, an expert in demographic analysis who conducted the research with his colleague Jonathan Glick. “It’s better to just go into a normal sale.” (The five cities were chosen to provide a general market overview.)

The finding is, to a certain extent, not a surprise. Schools have long been a driver for home buyers, whether in determining location or timing. So it would make sense that school ranking could serve as a kind of proxy for measuring the damage from the foreclosure crisis.

It’s also not that foreclosure sales don’t exist in highly ranked districts; they are just much less of a factor, and the reason could be income. Stan Humphries, chief economist for real-estate data company Zillow, said that it’s “likely both educational outcomes and foreclosures are ultimately linked to income, not to each other.”

The upper tier of homeowners saw less of an impact from the housing crash than the bottom tier, according to Mr. Humphries; the top third of homes dropped 26% from the recent high point; the bottom third of homes in value fell 37%. Some sought-after neighborhoods probably saw less severe price erosion, which in turn helped sustain property taxes and protect a vital funding source for schools.

Mr. Schiller said he sees school quality as both a result and a driver of income concentrations in parts of metropolitan areas. “Once in place, the higher-quality school systems reinforce this, causing higher demand for properties there, and higher values.”

Good schools may also be one of few factors keeping buyers in certain markets today, further bolstering prices and property-tax bases in sought-after districts like Newton, Mass. and Cupertino, Calif., said Glenn Kelman, chief executive of the online brokerage Redfin. “People always want to live in those school districts,” Mr. Kelman said. “And those school districts have remained well-financed even as neighboring districts have to cut costs.”

The boom brought in all kinds of potential buyers, Mr. Kelman said, but potential buyers today “better have a damn good reason, and usually that reason is 6 years old.”

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Hat tip to the several people who sent this in!

In Joe’s last video he talked about the anti-deficiency rule.

Here he is discussing how second-mortgage lenders still have recourse in a foreclosure:

From the nytimes.com, via cnbc.com:

Truckee, Calif. — When Mimi Ash arrived at her mountain chalet here for a weekend ski trip, she discovered that someone had broken into the home and changed the locks.

When she finally got into the house, it was empty. All of her possessions were gone: furniture, her son’s ski medals, winter clothes and family photos. Also missing was a wooden box, its top inscribed with the words “Together Forever,” that contained the ashes of her late husband, Robert.

The culprit, Ms. Ash soon learned, was not a burglar but her bank. According to a federal lawsuit filed in October by Ms. Ash, Bank of America had wrongfully foreclosed on her house and thrown out her belongings, without alerting Ms. Ash beforehand.

In Texas, Bank of America had the locks changed and the electricity shut off last year at Alan Schroit’s second home in Galveston, according to court papers. Mr. Schroit, who had paid off the house, had stored 75 pounds of salmon and halibut in his refrigerator and freezer, caught during a recent Alaskan fishing vacation.

“Lacking power, the freezer’s contents melted, spoiled and reeking melt water spread through the property and leaked through the flooring into joists and lower areas,” the lawsuit says. The case was settled for an undisclosed amount.

More common are cases like Ms. Ash’s, in which a homeowner was behind on payments, perhaps trying to work out a modification, when bank crews changed the locks.

In Florida, contractors working for Chase Bank used a screwdriver to enter Debra Fischer’s house in Punta Gorda and helped themselves to a laptop, an iPod, a cordless drill, six bottles of wine and a frosty beer, left half-empty on the counter, according to assertions in a lawsuit filed in August. Ms. Fisher was facing foreclosure, but Chase had not yet obtained a court order, her lawyer says.

The break-in was discovered when a Canadian couple renting the house returned from the beach.

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Hat tip to SM, from the WaPo:

Attorneys general in Connecticut and California ordered Ally Financial’s GMAC mortgage unit to freeze all foreclosures within their borders, joining a growing list of states investigating whether the firm and other lenders improperly kicked people out of their homes.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Monday accused Ally of using “defective foreclosure documents” in its filings and said he ordered the moratorium “to forestall horrendous, illegal harm against homeowners.” California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. on Friday called Ally’s document review process a “sham.”

In Illinois, Attorney General Lisa Madigan said she “wants to see Ally stop the filing of foreclosures in Illinois as well until this situation can be remedied,” a spokeswoman said.

The actions taken by state officials are illuminating an overburdened foreclosure system that relied on shoddy or fabricated paperwork to deal with the massive pile of cases.  Now criminal and civil inquires are widening to other major companies who might have engaged in similar conduct.

“This has the potential to be an industry-wide issue,” said Patrick Madigan, an assistant attorney general in Iowa who is chairman of a national foreclosure prevention group that includes law enforcement officials and bank regulators, among others.

The City of Carlsbad approved 1.5 million square feet of office and light industrial to replace Carlsbad Raceway, while at the same time approving 2.1 million square feet across the street at Bressi Ranch. Doesn’t it occur to these guys whether we NEED 3.6 MILLION SQUARE FEET??

Maybe after this sits for a few more years we can convert it back:

A trip down memory lane:

Check out these websites for photos:

http://www.carlsbadraceway.org/index.html

http://www.savecarlsbadraceway.com/index.htm

http://www.carlsbadskatepark.org/index.html