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

To: bentway who wrote (175054)	1/4/2009 10:28:25 PM
From: neolib	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Fine Homebuilding has had several articles over the years on special projects that HFH did, and they looked very interesting. At least they tend to add a little architectural style to low income housing rather than the depressing doublewide slums of Americana. Sounds to me like the real problem in this case is the site, not the construction, and that might not be HFH's fault. I recall visiting some nice housing developments in the East Bay built by contractors, where an earthquake fault ran smack through the development, and indeed, smack through quite a few house's foundations. After 4-5 years, there was about that many inches of shift on either side of the fault (no earthquakes involved yet either!). Roads cracked, curbs cracked, and foundations cracked. Had nothing to do with the quality of the houses, but rather the choice of the site. I guess that was ultimately the fault of the zoning permit process. At some point some of those houses are going to literally fall apart, especially if they actually get hit with a major quake on that fault. Big CA quakes can shift 10 feet or more on either side of a fault. Not too wise to try and split that across your house.

To: bentway who wrote (175054)	1/4/2009 10:40:43 PM
From: Les H	Respond to of 306849

They had similar problems with the public housing project that stood on the same grounds. I'll have to assume that the land was donated to HFH by the county housing authority. The complaints with the current project have been going on for quite awhile. --------------------------------------------------------------- But when homeowners started having problems, several of them said the organization was aloof and unresponsive. In 2005, the cracks in one foundation became so severe that the house had to be lifted and settled on piers. Engineers hired by HabiJax found six feet of debris buried under the soil. April Charney, a Legal Aid lawyer representing the homeowners, said HabiJax had an obligation to tell residents that part of the development’s land had previously been used as a garbage dump. Before October 2005, few knew how widely their complaints were shared. Then, Shirley Dempsey, president of the homeowners association, said she began having a series of dreams that she said were religious visions, leading her to discover problems in her house and others. Most had the same complaints: cracks in the slabs and walls, rotting door frames, leaky plumbing. Many residents had developed rashes. nytimes.com

To: bentway who wrote (175054)	1/5/2009 12:06:17 AM
From: Lizzie Tudor	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

ah heck. Building homes on garbage dumps is par for the course out here. Milpitas, California (former garbage dump) zillow.com Here's the city website. Surprise! No mention of the fact that it is a former garbage dump. These 2 guys appear to be wanted for murder though. ci.milpitas.ca.gov