Posts Tagged ‘sub-prime market’

The club is scheduled to be handed over to the highest bidder at an auction to be held on 26th December in Pitt County Courthouse. It will start at 2 pm as per an insertion in the classified section of a daily newspaper – The Daily Reflector.
The Brook Valley Country Club boasts of an eighteen-hole golf course and has presided over Michael Jordan Celebrity Golf Classic as well as NGA Hooters Tour Touchstone Energy Open. The current owner is Brook Valley Country Club of Greenville Inc. Bob Edwards is the president of the club board. He did not comment on the pending matter.

The highest bidder will take over about 152 acres short of the actual clubhouse, situated on Oxford Road. The house is specifically exempted from the foreclosure notice. Apart from the sprawling golf course the property also includes a swimming enclosure, tennis courts – all amounting to a heated area of about 22,000 square feet.

The total value of the property is over $3.9 million as per records with the break up being $1.44 million being land value and $1.4 million being value of building. $1 million is calculated to be value of extra features. In 1986 it was sold for $1.75 million.
The Brook Valley Country Club with its golf course made its debut in 1966. The East Carolina Bank is handling the foreclosure. It remained non-committal and excused them by saying that they are legal hurdles about discussing without seeking the permission of their clients.

The foreclosure auction notice said that a cash deposit not more than 5% of the amount of the bid or $750, whichever is greater would be required at the time of the sale. If an upset bid is filed within 10 days then the offer will be made to one who bids the highest.

With such a giant like Brook Valley Country Club facing the anvil at an auction the question that rises to the forefront is the reason for this turmoil on the socio-economic front in general right across the country. Experts and analysts are huddling together with explanations but no magic solution has been found as yet. The prime blame is being made on the sub-prime market, which made easy money within everyone’s reach. When interests rose, so did delinquencies, foreclosures and auctions. The government is trying remedial measures. One has to wait and watch.

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The epicenter of the foreclosures tornado seems to Henry Long Blvd, Stockton, California. Out of every eight house one is up for sale. There is no need to look at the notices – the overgrown lawns will do the speaking. In one locality there are nine houses and of these as many as four are on sale.

Stockton is abuzz with all sorts of activity related to the foreclosure fracas. The accusing finger points to the sub-prime market where predatory lending and greedy borrowing has done a lot of damage. It has become a countrywide socio-economic issue. The authorities are beginning to sit up.

One person is acting on behalf of the bank giving out cheques to people and getting them out of their homes. Another fellow wants to invest in a foreclosed homes and then ‘flip’ it. The seasoned real estate agent is of the opinion that the real big and fancy houses have not been affected – one has recently been sold for a record. The dental assistant who is a single mother of three has a frown on her forehead for she has to vacate her house within a fortnight. Where will she go with her credit history in shambles?

Nobody will rent out any unit to her. Her tale is the one of many – after resetting her mortgage payment shot up. She is sorry not to have thought about the future and allow herself to get talked into this mess. Now her prime focus is on finding a roof – she has no time for blaming games. Notices on the main door are beginning to peeve her little ones. The general sympathy is for her but she cannot be bailed out to stay in a house she could ill afford from the very start. But borrowers who were responsible and stayed within their budgets are being affected also in similar manner.
In Stockton things are going to get darker before the sun comes out again. The market has to work out its own routine.

Some opine that one has to wait till 2011. This means more will be thrown out with bad credit and nowhere to hole in. The dental assistant has surely had a bitter real experience. Her advice to others is very down to earth – keep within your budget and your foot on the ground when you look to the sky.

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It is hard logical reality that in some way or the other foreclosures are affecting all of us. For instance let us first take the case of the elderly lady Jones who suddenly finds that she has to lose the house she has lived in for many years because of failure to meet enhanced mortgage dues for quite some months. Despite tears on her part and efforts on the part of rescue teams nothing could be done. She was evicted.

But where did she or many other Jones like her go? Nine times out of ten the only alternative is a public house or a federally subsidized rental unit. It is the ordinary citizen who pays for the subsidy and the upkeep of these shelters. It comes from the taxes – from the pockets of Tom, Dick, Mary and Jane.

Jones could leave nothing behind for her heirs despite years of hard work. Her heirs being her kith and kin are also low-income folks who further fall into the quagmire of poverty. This intensifies the polarization of wealth and divides society dangerously.

The sub-prime market with sharp rises in rates is the prime accused for this situation. It is not just the mortgage industry but the entire financial zone has become sore and infected. It is a scene out of a horror movie. There is no ready quick surgical solution for the gangrene that has set in. It does not mean however that one should sit back. Immediately clear and effective legal steps must be taken to stop once and for all such infamous mortgage deals. But it should not victimize the mortgage industry as a whole and throw away the baby with the bathtub in its zeal. Well thought out legal and official action is the call of the hour.

The next step is making the public financially literate so as to prevent them ahead from taking false steps. Here three questions arise. Who will advice? Is it compulsory? Who will pay for it?

Whatever the answer, the ball that has been set rolling regarding internal policing within the mortgage world and interacting with the borrowers must not be allowed to stop but rather it should be kicked to pick up more speed. Other venues of approach and suggestions should be tapped. The welfare of Jones and our interests are identical.

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