4br/3bath 2700s.f. - never lived in - $255K

said by Kibbles :

The mortgage company I am dealing with talked to the investor and he thinks the housing prices in this area have stopped dropping..that is why I can still get a 70-80% LTV loan.

said by (From today's AP wire) - Housing slump slows U.S. economy--> »www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007···6428.txt :

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The worst economic growth in four years is raising concern that troubles in the U.S. housing market will spread and throw the country into a recession before the year is out.

The economy practically crawled at a 1.3 percent pace in the opening quarter of 2007, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That was even weaker than the sluggish 2.5 percent rate in the closing quarter of last year.

The main culprit in the slowdown: the housing slump...
The reading on gross domestic product in the first quarter was the weakest since a 1.2 percent pace in the opening quarter of 2003. The performance was even weaker than the 1.8 percent economists had forecast.

The biggest factor behind the first quarter slowdown was the crumbling housing market.

“The report tells me housing is probably going to be in a more prolonged and deeper recession,’’ said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.

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said by Mass Foreclosures in nicer neighborhoods. L.A. Times 5/6/07--> »www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-e···eadlines :

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snippets:
Better-heeled failing home economics too
As more owners are unable to make higher payments, Deputy Strickland finds himself evicting people in nicer neighborhoods.

The deputy spends most of his days at down-market apartment complexes, where the destitute, the addicted and the forlorn fitfully live. But in recent months he has begun venturing into neighborhoods with spacious homes and groomed yards, bringing his legal warnings to those who have fallen hopelessly behind on their mortgages.

These people typically bought a home they couldn't afford or drained their equity through incessant refinancing. If they had a chance to sell, they passed it up.

A couple of years ago, a foreclosed man in Rialto shot himself when Strickland [Deputy Sheriff] showed up.

Indeed, defaults and foreclosures are rising nationwide as subprime loans with low introductory rates adjust higher and homeowners struggle with payments.

The trend is especially apparent in such areas as the Inland Empire, where tracts of new homes drew first-time buyers, who are especially vulnerable to foreclosure because they often have little equity.

In the first three months of the year, San Bernardino County recorded 909 foreclosures, according to research firm DataQuick Information Systems. That's double the number in the last quarter of 2006.

"A lot of people live over their means," Strickland says. "One little thing goes wrong, they're in a world of hurt."

He located the foreclosed house, which appeared to be at least 4,000 square feet.

A Perris family, which hadn't made a mortgage payment since March 2006, proved particularly intractable. Perkins heard a different explanation each time she stopped by to remind them that they no longer owned the house and had to move.

"The husband had an accident, the husband was hurt, the husband has a bad heart, this is going to kill him, then the daughter had an accident," she recounts.

"You're going to have to leave in a week," he said. When she finally understood, her breathing became labored, as if she had gone into shock.

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said by That L.A. Times article :

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He recently went to do an eviction at a gated community in Chino Hills. The foreclosed owner, not realizing he was out of time and luck, was still trying to sell the place.

As soon as he noticed Strickland, he jumped in his car and drove off, leaving a prospective buyer bewildered at the curb.

He stops to post an eviction warning in a neighborhood where many houses fetch the high six figures.

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