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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Vosilla who wrote (137111)	7/28/2008 5:25:21 PM
From: Live2Sail	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Having children is for... well... kids. You get one that doesn't sleep well, and your life becomes a shambles.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (137111)	7/29/2008 10:34:00 AM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

Haitian death squad in the Biz... Haitian strongman convicted of mortgage fraud in U.S. cnn.com CNN) -- A man once convicted of heading up a ruthless Haitian death squad that is blamed for raping and killing political rivals has been convicted of carrying out a mortgage fraud scheme in the United States. Emmanuel "Toto" Constant, 51, former leader of the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti, or FRAPH, was convicted Friday of arranging millions of dollars in fraudulent financing for three Brooklyn properties, according to a statement from the New York attorney general's office. "Emmanuel Constant will no longer be a menace to our society," Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said in a statement. "Constant is going to jail for harming New Yorkers through an elaborate mortgage scheme. Until he was arrested for mortgage fraud, this lifelong criminal and former leader of a notorious Haitian death squad was living freely in New York." Constant could face from 15 to 45 years in prison at his September 10 sentencing, according to the attorney general's office. The U.S. State Department has accused Constant of atrocities in Haiti when he founded FRAPH after the fall of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1993. "There has to be some penalty that he has to pay for what he did and how he destroyed so many lives," said Jennie Green, a senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who monitored the trial. Human rights groups say that Constant's organization was little more than a death squad targeting Aristide's followers. As FRAPH's front man, Constant approved the torture, gang rape and killing of thousands of Haitians, according to declassified State Department documents and files from the United Nations. "A high level of human rights abuses continued for the first nine months of the year [1994], including political and extrajudicial killings by the security forces and their allies, disappearance, and politically motivated rapes, beatings and other mistreatment of citizens," one declassified State Department document says. Constant, however, has denied the allegations of abuse against him. He dismissed the State Department documents as "hearsay" and told CNN that his role in the organization has been widely misconstrued. "Haiti for me is a country that I love, and I love the people so much," he told CNN in a prison interview before his conviction. "I'm not saying that I was more of a humanitarian; I was a political leader, fighting for a cause." That cause, he said, is "democracy, the right for people to have a better life."

To: John Vosilla who wrote (137111)	7/29/2008 11:32:43 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

Another one bires the dust. July 29, 2008 Another Tampa luxury builder bankrupt blogs.tampabay.com Smith Family Homes, a mid- to upscale Tampa builder that's been slammed by the suburban housing slump, is going out of business. Founded in 1998 as Premier Homes of Southwest Florida, the family-run business field for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation on Friday. Smith Family Homes thrived during the housing boom, selling homes for between $200,000 and $600,000 in ritzier-than-average communities like Seven Oaks, Connerton and Wilderness Lake Preserve. But like many builders, the downturn left it holding large mortgage payments on overpriced lots it couldn't sell. Among the builder's top creditors are Wachovia and SunTrust banks. It also owes money to several dozen suppliers and contractors. Debts range between $10- and $50-million. Levitt & Sons filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November. Tousa, formerly known as Transeastern Homes, entered Chapter 11 in January. In June, SimDag LLC, developer of Trump Tower Tampa, threw itself on the mercy of bankruptcy court.

To: John Vosilla who wrote (137111)	7/29/2008 11:35:35 PM
From: Jim McMannis	Respond to of 306849

Metrostudy: Housing starts pick up even as inventory hits record palmbeachpost.com Second-quarter housing starts picked up in Palm Beach and Martin counties but fell in St. Lucie County, research firm Metrostudy said Tuesday. Palm Beach County saw 489 single-family home starts in the second quarter of 2008, up from 353 starts in the first quarter. In Martin County, builders began construction of 77 homes, up from only 27 in the first quarter. In once-hot, now-not St. Lucie County, there were 60 home starts in the second quarter, down from 95 in the first quarter. “The only good news for the housing market is that inventories of new homes continue to decline as builders limit production in response to the slower economy,” said Metrostudy’s Brad Hunter. “However, the months of supply of finished vacant homes remained at a record 6.1 months as the annual pace of move-ins slowed.” See the report here.