Underwater Homeowners Gather To Talk 'Housing Hell'

WASHINGTON -- Last month, HuffPost meetups across the country propelled Americans to political action. In Sacramento, Calif., meetup participants held a protest at their local Bank of America, while in Seattle, Karen Pooley asked for support from fellow meetup attendees as she prepared to testify before the Olympia legislature. HuffPost's next monthly mortgage meetup is set for Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m., and several groups have contacted us to detail their plans. Click here to find the HuffPost "Housing Hell" meetup nearest you.

Liz Coursen said the February meetup in Sarasota, Fla., which was attended by roughly a dozen people, spurred her to organize a foreclosure seminar later in March. "I asked a local foreclosure defense lawyer to run it," she wrote in an email. "He said he would, and we're going to advertise it in the three local papers. Should be interesting!"

Coursen added that the March meetup in Sarasota, which is scheduled to take place at a local library on Tuesday night, will be a bit smaller this month. "Wednesday is the second annual 'Rally in Tally,' so I know that a number of our most important activists are going to be home preparing for that," she said in a phone interview on Monday. Coursen's organization, the National WaMu Homeowners Support Group, is one of several Florida groups helping to organize the rally highlighting the state's foreclosure crisis.

In Boynton Beach, Fla., ForeclosureHamlet.org, an online site for homeowners navigating foreclosure, is encouraging HuffPost meetup-goers to join their "Freedom Ride" to a rally slated for March 9. Demonstrators will take an overnight bus trip to the state Capitol, meeting with state representatives and holding press events in Tallahassee the next day. "The Housing Hell meetup could turn into an all-night, all-day affair in Florida," Lisa Epstein of ForeclosureHamlet.org told HuffPost.

If you want to cover a meetup as a citizen journalist or are a real estate expert, attorney or someone interested in organizing an event but having trouble getting it started, email us at [e-mail], [e-mail] or [e-mail]. Answers to some frequently asked questions appear below:

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Q: How do I find a meetup near me?

A: Follow HuffPost's link to find your local chapter, type your town and state into the search box in the upper right-hand corner, and click "Go." The meetup scheduled nearest you will automatically show up. It may not be in your neighborhood, however, since the system is designed to foster a critical mass of participants by showing meetups in your area with the most activity.

Q. I want to go to a meetup, but I don't see one that's close enough to me. How do I start a new meetup in my town?

A. If you do not see a scheduled meetup that is close enough to you, you can create your own by following the directions above, and then, when presented with the locations nearest you, scroll down a bit and click on "Show 10 more." Having clicked on that, scroll all the way to the bottom of the list where you'll find a button that says, "Start a new community in [your location]." Click and follow the prompts.

Q. I am looking at this meetup, but there's no specified venue -- does that mean the meetup is not happening?

A. All it means is that you have to suggest a location. The meetup may not happen unless you make it happen. To suggest a location in a meetup that doesn't already have one, click "Suggest the place" in the "Where" section of the event details. If other people want to meet somewhere else, you can hash it out with them in the comments section.

Choosing a venue can help boost turnout; the sooner you suggest a place, the better.

Q. How do I get more people to come to my meetup?

A. Promote it! Tweet it, Facebook it, call up your friends and tell them about the meetup. The more you mobilize your own community, the better the meetup will be.

Q. What should we do at the meetup? Just talk, get drinks, eat?

A. Anything you want. We hope people to come together to talk about their mortgage problems and find solutions together.

 

Comments

[Maranda MassieGuthrie]

04:32 PM on 03/26/2011

this makes me happy, and i am in if i can find it in my area!!

[Rob Harrington]

08:52 PM on 03/09/2011

1- WAMU typically lied, cheated and stole to make loans to unqualified people (and to even dead people) with other peoples' money.
2- WAMU and Chase worked out a scam for a takeover to launder the money created by the defrauded WAMU homeowners' homes.
3- Chase at best is only owed a third of a penny on the dollar by WAMU homeowners (as this is what Chase paid for WAMU via a sham deal with the FDIC.)
4- Chase at worst doesn't own a single WAMU home as WAMU sold all their loans throught the securitization market. Chase is thusly just as crooked as WAMU ever was?
To anybody ignorant of this scheme, as is readily obvious by the "blame the homeowner" commentors, feel welcome to follow us at www.wamuloanfraud.com and learn something before you expose your own ignorance of why our economy has tanked. P.S., It all began with criminal lending behavior by most banks (who are now conveniently out of business.)
Thank you to the many National WAMU Homeowners Support Group members who went to the Rally in Tally today. A lot of ignorant Florida politicians were also there.
Rob Harrington/ Co-founder - National WAMU Homeowners Support Group.

[Brenda Keck Reed]

03:50 PM on 03/09/2011

Members of the WAMU Homeowners Support Group held a rally Friday, March 4th 2011 on the steps of the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, California during a foreclosure auction. We numbered 50 - 60 people and had great media coverage -- except for the newspapers who refuse to address the situation. Homeowners came from the Central Valley, Fresno, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Vallejo and the east bay. We say no to bank fraud, no auction block for us.

Come join us in Oakland on March 19th at 10:00 AM for the Foreclosure & Economic Crisis Solutions Forum at St. Luis Bertrand Church, 1410 100th Avenue, Oakland, CA. Fight Bback. Demand that the banks follow the rules. Sponsored by ACCE and Local 1021 SEIU. Supported by the Home Defenders League and other community organizations. We will be getting ready to march on Sacramento. Join Us!

[carolinindy]

08:28 AM on 03/09/2011

good morning huffpo

[effect]

11:03 PM on 03/08/2011

The banks created money out of thin air. They created imaginary values for homes and then loaned against them. Worse, they issued booby-trapped loans that were guaranteed to fail - and then be against them via credit default swaps (CDS) - which persons could obtain, and sell, for cents on the dollar, even if they had no capital to actually make good on them. Then they defrauded the global market place by selling the booby-trapped loans bundled as supposedly gold-plated securities (which they were already betting against).

When the booby-trapped loans began exploding and people who owed the promised benefits under the CDSes could not pay, the first dominoes fell. Although tens of trillions of value invented by the banks was completely imaginary, the Masters of the Universe had already paid themselves huge dividends and bonuses in real money, and they were never giving it back. Terrified the resulting vacuum from the revealed absence of value in these "assets" (securitized instruments) would implode the banks, they slammed the doors on credit so as to protect their reserves. The suction which followed emptied the pockets of small business and the middle class, and the whole thing fell down, taking millions of jobs with it.

Yet, some posting here imagine that if we would merely continue to fill the pockets of the fraudsters, all would come right again.

Dream on.

[fortressfountain]

08:02 PM on 03/08/2011

Where is the personal responsibility? Why it is right beside the wall street executives who lost their jobs, took no bonuses and had to repay people due to their fraudulent business practices.
Guess only a dream.
Too bad I did not know I could buy a home and squat for a few years. Sure could have used the money.

[fortressfountain]

07:31 PM on 03/08/2011

But this did harm to the world economy. The people should not be left holding the bag because the politicans took lobby money from the banks who wanted to hose the public.
This would not be a problem had the government served the best interests of the people and the country they are suppose to represent.
Homes were a safe.stable investment since the 1940s. If people knew they were a form of speculation do you not think they would have chose to rent?

[jabreal00]

01:05 PM on 03/08/2011

The bottom line is that the overwhelming majority of people who bought a home within the last 10 years were doing it primarily as an investment or a tax-shelter (for mortgate interest deduction). No one complained when their investment was appreciating 25% a year. Some people made off like bandits, profiting up to $200K on houses they purchased 2-3 years ago. Now the economy soured because of the shell-game of housing speculation fell apart. People are now upset that they're underwater? A house should be bought primarily as a domicile. If someone plans on raising a family in a home, it doesn't matter what the price currently is as long as they can afford to pay the note they signed for.

I am sick of people whining about the losing bet on their investment. If someone overpaid for a house 2-3 years ago and now is upset that they're under-water, why should I care?

[effect]

11:10 PM on 03/08/2011

The banks made the bet on the value of homes. When they lost that bet, they took it out of OUR hides.

They said - "Hey - your home is worth half a million. I'll give you 550K against it, and if you don't pay, then I get the home - deal?" Lots of people said "OK, deal!" When the supposed value of the home (invented by the banks) turned out to be wrong, millions of homeowners were forced to honor their side of the contract by giving the home back. The banks made bad bets, but we, not they, are being impoverished by this fact.

[jabreal00]

11:30 PM on 03/09/2011

Everyone was in on the scam, banks, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and buyers. Banks had billions in write down. Sure they got bailed out but they had to pay the money back with interest. I still have no sympathy for the overwhelming majority of "investors" who are underwater.

These people should also feel no compunction about walking away. I would if I were in their shoes.

[karen1p]

12:03 PM on 03/09/2011

The reason you should care....is because the banks have used the public as their own ATM machine. They took out all the money, sold worthless Nothing-Backed Securities, and crashed the world economies.

If you can't understand that this Chit affects YOU, you aren't paying attention. And it will smack you right between the eyes. I, for one, will be glad to see it go down.

[slogward]

01:03 PM on 03/08/2011

EXCLUSSIVE ON HOW HOMEOWNERS AND PROFESSIONS ARE UNITING AGAINST THE BANKS WORLDWIDE....

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/bank-of-america-demo-signals-broader-alliance-against-banks/

[leorangerie]

12:59 PM on 03/08/2011

When I read these sad accounts of homeownership disaster, I reflect on the fact that Barney Frank seems to be getting a continued pass from the media. Rep. Frank FORCED banks to make subprime loans, time an again. He DEMANDED they make loans to people who could not afford them. Instead of improving lives, lives have been derailed and wrecked. And Barney Frank points at Wall Street as the culprit. Wall Street, with its ridiculous collateral swap investment vehicles, IS a culprit. But so is Frank. He remains in office by deflecting this truth, and the media in large part seems to be his co-conspirator, reflecting some collective guilt for promoting the 'spread the wealth' by force attitude that helped bring on a massive recession that we are still paying for.

[traceymarie]

01:36 PM on 03/08/2011

Bush not barney Forced banks to make sub-prime loans. Barney was not even in charge of fannie/freddie which were made to up their stakes in the sub-prime secondary market from 2003-2006.

[leorangerie]

03:07 PM on 03/08/2011

Ah, right, it's Bush, not Barney...even though Mr. Frank had been pushing banks to make subprime loans...for the last TWENTY-THREE YEARS. I'm no Bush fan. But blaming that mess on him is simply not supported by facts.

[TaylerWoods]

11:40 AM on 03/08/2011

Does anybody take the time to learn the PITI principle (Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance) before signing a mortgage contract anymore nowadays, or do they just walk in and sign on the dotted line because the salesperson is just so danged congenial and all that? On the other hand, I wonder about the legality of mortgage services selling loans over and over again to different investors via MERS with homeowners getting jacked up fees each time their mortgage goes to a different investor. Is that in the fine print nowadays? It seems unethical.

[TEHelms]

10:39 AM on 03/08/2011

Oh, so many moralistic puritans here..I work in the mortgage industry and have for thirty years. My wife was also in the industry and was out of work for almost two years which pretty well wiped out our 401K in combination with the stock market decline. At 64 I had planned to retire next year and sell my house. But, the value has declined to the point we are about 150K upside down now. I did plan ahead by the way. We made decisions based on our knowledge of the market and the industry. We had saved money. We didn't then and don't now live extravagently. When we bought the house we needed the space and the location was great but our kids have moved out and we may have to bail in order to live next year.

So, tell me, all you wise moralists? Explain to me where I went wrong here and chastize me all you want. You are so wise and I am such a fool.

I will make it so I'm not whining. There are plenty of homeless people out there who need help much worse than I do. It is those out there who have no sympathy for the plight of the kids and the elderly who are so ready to take the roof from over their heads, the food from their mouths and the hope of any tomorrow who just tick me off.

[james rimes]

11:01 AM on 03/08/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej-rN1gnMV8

[Peter007]

11:08 AM on 03/08/2011

If you borrowed money to buy a house you were gambling. Simple, you lost.
Now, everyone gambles but to varying degrees of Risk.

Being $150k underwater is not bad if your house is worth over 3 million. If it's worth $200,000, it means you paid well over $350,000 for it. What was the house worth 5 or 10 years before you purchased it?

If it was worth $100,000 in 2003 and $200,000 in 2005, that's an indication of a bubble investment. High Risk Investment.

People that paid $200,000 for a house and sold it for $400,000 3 years later made the correct decision.
You didn't.
Do you want to be prohibited from making any future financial decisions?

[voagirl]

10:29 AM on 03/08/2011

I am suing my bank for fraud --American Home Mortage Servicing, Inc. Would be happy to discuss that offline. How do I do that (am new to posting)?

[Peter007]

11:09 AM on 03/08/2011

What kind of fraud? Do you have $5,000 to lose on Attorney fees if you are wrong?

[voagirl]

12:29 PM on 03/08/2011

It's called a Quiet Title Action which asserts the invalidity of the origination of the loan. Google "Utah -- Quiet Title" and you will see the precedent that worked for a homeowner there. I have also alerted the attorney general in my state -- three attorneys general (Massachusetts, Ohio and Texas) have already sued this particular company for illegal activities against borrowers.

[TaylerWoods]

11:25 AM on 03/08/2011

I believe many states' Attorney General Offices are looking seriously into possible mortgage lender fraud. Yours may be one of them? It might be be worth your making a call or two?

[Philclock]

09:45 AM on 03/08/2011

Oh, stop whining and go rent for awhile, like the rest of us!

[den1953]

09:53 AM on 03/08/2011

yes i guess i am in the rare breed that planned ahead and made sure my home is paid for enjoy your no matter how the GOP screwed American life!

[Philclock]

05:40 PM on 03/12/2011

Oh, I see, you've given this all careful thought, and concluded that Demo-rats had NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MESS??

Please explain, I'm all ears. And tell me how the Democratic National Party, representative of Big Union, the Welfare class and Big Government, has strengthened this country along the road that's made it the miracle that it is...freedom and the opportunity for growth?

[Mr Hankey]

04:14 PM on 03/26/2011

Even if we "go rent for a while" as you recommend, do you realize that these mortgage-servicer abuses will continue into the future? So when you're ready to buy a house again, nothing will be fixed if we don't fix it now.

[den1953]

09:13 AM on 03/08/2011

As GW Bush so famously said in his state of the union speech more Americans are enjoying home ownership, never before have so many Americans been able to own a home, now the sad part never before has he and his cohearts on Wall street ever worried about how those Americans would pay for those homes.........

[zatgy]

09:41 AM on 03/08/2011

If home prices hadn't escalated so much perhaps we won't have so many home owners in the predicament they are in. What fueled the increase in prices? Since there were so many houses and condos being built before the meltdown you would think the prices would not have risen by so much. With more supply to meet the demand the prices should have risen only modestly. It was speculation that did us in. Now with oil (speculation). Our Govt. needs to get on the ball and pass bills to STOP SPECULATION since it distorts market supply/demand dynamics.

[den1953]

09:50 AM on 03/08/2011

Fanned and agree the problem is no one in Washington wants to upset the sugar daddy affect Wall Street has on Washington!

[Peter007]

11:13 AM on 03/08/2011

Money for speculation has to come from somewhere. Its not found in the ground. If there is an abundance of easy cash laying around, a lot of it will be used for gambling and speculating. If people have to work hard for their money, its not so easily gambled away.
Every purchase you make is speculating. Commodity speculators provide liquidity to markets and allow trade to prosper. Without liquidity, we would be in a depression.

[Mr Hankey]

04:17 PM on 03/26/2011

Especially after the financial industry collapsed the global economy making unemployment skyrocket. Yes, when your household income is a fraction of what it was, it gets kinda tough to pay your bills.