Tricia Houston

In the most recent couple of weeks, my HOA (Highlands Ranch Golf Club) has been notified that Shea is trying to re-zone an area of land that they own located on the northwest corner of Lucent and Town Center Drive. The original plan for this land was to be commerical but they have recently submitted a request to change the zoning to residential apartments stating "that there is not enough apartment units in the area and this is a major factor in recruiting large companies to Highlands Ranch".

When we were first notified of this change, they had said the name of the project was name was to be "Villas at Highlands Ranch Golf Club" and clearly our HOA was not happy about this because they were essentially stealing our name and marketing themselves as if they were located inside the Highlands Ranch Golf Club and they were not.

Their proposal is stating that there will be 13 buildings with approxmately 208 units and about 75% of them will have detached garages. They will be 2 stories high and you will access the units off of Lucent Blvd. Shea is claiming that because they are changing zoning the impact on the surrounding single family homes will be less than the originally proposed commerical buildings. There will be less water used and less traffic.

The first Developmental Review Committee for HRCA was last week and members of the Highlands Ranch Golf Club HOA attended to voice there concern about the name and the increased traffic to our neighborhood which is located directly west of the proposed units. Shea agreed to change the name to Villas at Highlands Ranch but denied any sort of compromise on the increased traffic, water and pressure to the schools where children from this apartments will be attending.

If you live in Highlands Ranch, you will know that our schools and roads are already busting at the seams. To bring in more residential development into this market seems crazy. There are plenty of homes people can rent if they need too. A quick search on Craigslist brings up 1000 ads for home rentals. Many members of our community have already voiced there opposition to this re-zoning as it will directly affect the water, traffic and school system in this area....despite what Shea wants to tell you.

I encourage you to attend the next HRCA BOD meeting on October 19th at Eastridge. The DRC committee will be presenting their notes from the meeting and discussing it with our local delegates.

View shea development in a larger map

JP Morgan Foreclosure Statistics

I had the opportunity to listen on the earnings call this morning from JP Morgan Bank and of course the topic continually kept being brought up about the foreclosure halt and how that is affecting the bank. Jamie Diamond, the CEO gave some statistics on the foreclosure break down from his bank. I found them very interesting because I have read many people's blog entries about dealing with Chase and his perception seems to be a bit "rosey" compared to what I have personally seen and heard from my colleagues in Denver.

What are your thoughts on this and do you think these numbers are accurate?

Delinquent loan facts

_ Average delinquency at foreclosure is 448 days

_ Florida 678 days

_ NY 792 days

_ ~35-40% of homes are vacant at the time of foreclosure sale

_ ~20% of all loans in active foreclosure are non-owner occupied on the application

_ Around half of seriously delinquent loans have not gone to foreclosure of which:

_ ~20% cured

_ ~25% modified or short sale

_ Remainder in some form of Loss Mitigation

_ 51 Chase Home Ownership Centers established to help people face-to-face

_ Currently 6,000 employees serve as counselors to assist customers

Best Pumpkin Patches in Denver

Tis the season for picking HUGE Pumpkins! I love Halloween in Colorado because we have so many farms here going out to get a pumpkin is truely a great expierence. I remember when I was a kid growing up here, we would go to the local farm and sort through hundreds of pumpkins until we found the perfect one.

Here is a list of farms that I would suggest visiting. Many of these have so much more going on than just picking a pumpkin, it is truely an all day excursion and SO much fun!

Berry Patch Farms

13785 Potomac St.

Brighton, CO 80601

Phone: (303) 659-5050

Web site: www.berrypatchfarms.com

Our Harvest Festival is designed with young families in mind. Northing scary, nothing ghoulish only wholesome activities at an affordable price. The price of admission ($6.00/person, children 2 and under free, family of 4 at $20), includes: craft, hay ride, straw maze, games, pinatas, mural colording, music, silhouettes. Face painting, pumpkins and food items extra.

Cottonwood Farm

75th St. and Arapahoe Rd.

Boulder

(720) 890-4766

Web site: www.cottonwoodfarms.com

Fall Festival, pumpkin patch, cornfield maze, straw bale maze, farm animals, farm equipment display, steam tractor, Indian corn, corn stalks, straw bales. School group tours available by appointment.

Rock Creek Farm

2005 S. 112th St.

Broomfield

(303) 465-9565

Web site: www.rockcreekfarm.com

Corn maze, Halloween activities, small children hay maze and farm animal petting zoo. U-pick: pumpkins & pie pumpkins, squash, cornstalk bundles, gourds, Indian corn, straw, caramel apples, baked goods, handcrafted gifts. School groups welcome. No general admission fee. Real Farm. If muddy, possibly closed. Check web site daily.

Denver Botanic Gardens at Chatfield

8500 Deer Creek Canyon Rd.

Littleton

Web site: www.botanicgardens.org

Corn Maze:
$10 adult, $6 child 4-12
Weekends, September 10 - October 31
Friday, 4 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Saturday, 12 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Sunday, 12 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Pumpkin Festival:
$6 adult, $4 child 4-12 (child in costume free)
October 9 and 10
9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Happy Pumpkin Picking!

HUD Announces Emergency Bridge Loans For Colorado Borrowers in Trouble

October 6, 2010 HUD has announced another program to help homeowners who are having trouble making their payments. HUD will provide $41,286,747, to help struggling homeowners in Coloradothrough its Emergency Homeowners Loan Program (EHLP). EHLP will provide assistance for up to 24 months for homeowners experienced a substantial reduction in income due to involuntary unemployment, underemployment, or a medical condition and are at-risk of foreclosure. 32 states qualify for this emergency money provided and is based on the each states unemployment rate. HUD is stating the program will be up and running by the end of the year.

Who Will Be Helped: The program will complement existing Administration efforts to assist struggling Colorado homeowners- including the Home Affordable Modification and Hardest Hit Fund initiative administered by the U.S. Treasury Department. Under the EHLP:

1. the borrower must be at least three month delinquent in their payments and have a reasonable likelihood of being able to resume repayment of their mortgage payments and related housing expenses within two years
2. the property must be the principle residence of the borrower, and eligible borrowers may not own a second home
3. the borrower must have suffered at least a 15 percent reduction in income and have been able to afford their mortgage payments prior to the event that triggered the loss income.

How They Will Be Helped
The HUD Emergency Homeowners Loan Program will offer a forgivable, deferred payment "bridge loan" (zero percent interest, non-recourse, subordinate loans) for up to $50,000 to assist eligible borrowers with their mortgage arrearages and payments on their for mortgage principal, interest, mortgage insurance premiums, taxes and hazard insurance for up to 24 months.

Mistaken Foreclosures - When Will Bank of America Learn?

Several years ago, Bank of America had a reputation in the lending world of being very conservative and not willing to go out on a limb for many loans. With Countrywide doing all there shady antics and many other banks following suit they really didn't need too. If they just sat back and waited it out those banks would implode and Bank of America would look like the best bank in the world.

Like I said....that was several years ago!

Now, all you ever hear is what a nightmare Bank of America is to work with and how they are now doing all the unethical antics that were previously done by Countrywide. My personal opinion is that when B of A decided to buyout Countrywide I don't think they really took a good look at some of the employees they acquired. Everyday there is now a story about how some of their employees are being busted for fraud.

The irresponsible foreclosure practices of banks have been in the headlines. Employees of both GMAC and JPMorgan Chase have admitted to signing off on foreclosure documents without actually having read them. The reports have led to renewed questions about the banks' foreclosure practices. But as usual, the no holds barred winner in the irresponsible bank tricks department is BofA.

Bank of America has outdone itself yet again.....

The bank recently foreclosed on a Florida property that doesn't even have a mortgage, the Sun Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale reported. The foreclosure was started in 2008 by Countrywide, the notorious subprime mill the bank acquired in a fire sale that year. It continued with the proceedings even after the current owner, Jason Grodensky, paid cash for the house last December.

In another 2009 case, the bank went a step further. Not satisfied simply to lock out a Pittsburgh-area homeowner, Angela Iannelli, who was current on her payments, the bank decided to shut off the utilities and take her pet parrot. She is suing the bank, which apologized for the "stress" its errors caused, though surely BofA was privately pleased with itself for at least having targeted someone with an actual mortgage

So I guess I just do not understand how you can foreclose on a property without being given any notice? In most states you have to go through the proceedings first before you can take it back. In Colorado, you have at least 120 days before the bank can take the house so what the heck is B of A doing! How do you make such a mistake as to take a persons home that is paid off? They have computers...do they not check them????

It seems most of the banks have learned nothing from all of this and I would say that once Bank of America bought Countrywide, they essentially just continued in the same role instead of trying to pursue a better reputation than Countrywide had. It's a shame that there are not more banks that can get it together and work with the customers instead of making such HUGE mistakes as these.

I suppose they will learn when the real estate market picks up again and the consumer decides NOT to work with companies who have such bad reputations!