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Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part V

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sad thing is with multiple code violations like Chuck and Thunes house and a shut off of electricity due to a tenants lack of payment to excel could end you up on the vacant list and 30,000 to 50,000 dollars worth of repairs.Its happened time and time again.The city has abused the vacant building statute by requiring a building to be brought up to todays building standards.Losing all grandfather protections.This is going to end up bitting the city.




Tim Ciani

10:42 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tim
What ever happened to the one nice cities in America, St.Paul has become to greedy.
The City Council and Mayor all want a pay raise, so then taxes go up and the way of life goes down.
But who cares, just as long as their lives say happy.
Chuck and David Thune should be investigated with a fine tooth comb.

7:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

11 Responses to “The Great Saint Paul Land Grab, Part V”

1. jdege Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 8:23 am

They have a point.

There are far more houses in St. Paul at risk of foreclosure than have actually been foreclosed. Theoretically, increasing the cost of foreclosing - by making it next to impossible for the mortgage-holder to recover anything from a foreclosed property - would reduce the number of foreclosures.

Of course, there are already plenty of reasons why the banks wouldn’t want more foreclosed properties than they already have on their books. I’m not sure we need more, and I’m not sure that this will make much of a difference.
2. Steve G. Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 9:19 am

“if they can build a bridge across the Mississippi in 24 months, they can sell a house in two years”

He left out something: “…they can rebuild and sell a house…”

In that analogy, what is the equivalent of the huge amount of money from taxes that went towards getting the bridge built that quickly? Banks /= governments.
3. nate Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 12:15 pm

If the objective was to force lenders to deal with homeowners by threatening the lenders with unsaleable foreclosed homes, why not go all the way and just ban foreclosures?

Is there some legality the says a city can’t ban foreclosures but it can make the sale of foreclosed property so expensive it’s a virtual ban?

What’s the diff and why the half-measure?

.
4. jdege Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 12:56 pm

It’s the state that writes the statutes that cover contract law, mortgages, foreclosures, etc. The cities don’t have the authority to change it.
5. joelr Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 1:02 pm

This looks pretty straightforward. Abandoned house on lot in less-than-great neighborhood (like, say, a block with 23 houses on them, more than half of which are unoccupied), requires $150,000 dollars in repairs in order to be sold, at which point it will be worth — assuming that the market doesn’t decline — $155,000. Writing it off, and letting it revert to the city costs zero, and has some bookkeeping/tax advantages (huge, compared to risking $150K to maybe make $5K). The city gets the empty house, the land, and the costs of demolishing the house (I mean, even the St. Paul City Council isn’t going to be dumb enough to spend that kind of money for such little possible profit) . . . or offers it to a developer, who gets the land, gratis, provided he demolishes the house.

Gee, I wonder what’s going to happen.
6. Mitch Berg Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 1:05 pm

Nate,

What JDege said. The city’s powers are enumerated (to some extent) and limited. The city doesn’t control state contract law - but they do control the criteria by which COOs are issued.

Hence, the COO is their leverage - the instrument they control that can completely negate any value in that asset.
7. nerdbert Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 1:57 pm

Hence, the COO is their leverage - the instrument they control that can completely negate any value in that asset.

Now, assuming a smidgen of rationality in the banks (rare, but it can happen), how easy is it for any homeowner in St. Paul to get a mortgage if the city makes it virtually impossible to foreclose on any home similar to these? How easy will it be to get a mortgage in a city that would rewrite its laws this way? And how much will this raise the cost of mortgages in St. Paul?
8. jdege Says:
July 31st, 2008 at 3:26 pm

“How easy is it for any homeowner in St. Paul to get a mortgage if the city makes it virtually impossible to foreclose on any home similar to these?”

Next to impossible, until the next red-lining scandal hits.

10:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

7:58 If you don't think that every ass hole on this blog hasn't been trying to get dirt on me, you're kidding yourself.

Thune has run for office multiple times with all sorts of folks taking cheep shots at him. His properties and his struggles to keep them up were in the newspapers.

All of this shit is old news.

Like I have said before Tim is too stupid to realize that Thune is his best vote on the council for giving property owners a second chance to repair their properties.

12 years on the city council and these guys can't come up with one time where he didn't give someone an extension on a demo if they requested it. 12 years!

But, he authored the smoking ban and the gay rights ordinance so he is a liberal... so he must be a commie... so they have to come after him.

Tim has these RICO guys so far up his backside he can't turn his head.

He doesn't know what else to do but spew venom at Thune.

...and the case is about ready to be ended with a summary judgement in favor of the City, so that has him ticked at me.

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

10:37 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

10:32 "jdeege"

Its pretty clear that you like so many folks don't understand what is creating this forecloser crisis. There are almost no banks that have the ability to renegotiate the mortgage notes on these properties.

Very few of the homes that are in forecloser have mortgages with the local bank. Most of the mortgages are paper that has been bundled with other paper and is owned in a package you can't just negotiate the note. There is nothing for the mortgage holder to do with the paper but to proceed with forecloser and to liquefy the asset. They don't have any choice.

So, Deutsch Bank or Countrywide Mortgage or Citibank have no idea what in the hell is going on in Saint Paul one way or the other concerning housing codes. And they don't care.

Where this thing will have an impact is on selling the properties. The idea is that the new buyer would end up having to post the bond because the bank sure as heck won't.

The City is just trying to stop the duct tape repair men from buying vacant properties.

JMONTOMEPPOF

Chuck Repke

10:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Chuck this city is going deeper and deeper in a hole.Tell me where the city looks better these days then 10 years ago.

Chuck now we get to see the Ricomens evidence all laid out on the table so get some sleep.You better start jogging in reverse so you can back peddle and spin when the shit hits the fan.



Tim Ciani

1:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not so fat Repke. Cinai is right. Ricomen do get a chance to respond to what the city has said. From what we've seen so far out of a city who lies, violates civil right on a wholesale scale, destroys evidence to cover it up, doesn't follow the advice of their own law office even when they are being advised that they are going to get sued, doesn't do any investigation of allegations that have enough substance to get a criminal indictment, but rather gives people pay raises and promotions to shut them up......I don't believe a damn thing they say about these ricomen. And what would they say anyways? Come right out and admit they are wrong? That'll get them a long ways huh?

5:23 PM  

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