Historic Hawaiian homes get big tax breaks

Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter Rob Perez found that owners of million-dollar historic homes on Oahu were getting major property-tax breaks without meeting a key requirement of the exemption program — that the homes be visible from public streets. He also found that the city did not verify the owners' required statements that the pre-exemption level of taxation was such a burden that the continued existence of the historic homes were threatened. The city simply took the owners' word and granted property-tax exemptions that were among the most generous in the country. Regardless of the value of the homes, owners pay only $300 annually in taxes.

An investigation by David Andreatta of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, N.Y.) found hundreds of vacant, boarded-up homes in Rochester are accruing huge water bills because the city Water Bureau does not turn off the water at many homes, and continues to bill the homes based on estimated water use when it does turn off the water. Some vacant houses are running up water bills in excess of $10,000 annually in a city where the average occupied house pays $317 a year for water.

After a staff member at an adult foster care home in the Duluth, Minn., area was left alone with and nearly raped by a resident who had twice been civilly committed for mental illness, the Duluth News Tribune investigated the homes and found numerous incidents of residents with severe mental illness, drug addiction and violent criminal histories being left with staff members who were poorly paid and minimally trained to handle the residents. The paper also found that the majority of the residents being cared for came from out of the county and the social workers that place them often don't tell the providers about their clients criminal backgrounds.

In Florida, convicted scammers and thieves are among workers selling unproven fixes and dubious diagnoses in the completely unregulated Chinese drywall "remediation" and inspection industry, a Palm Beach Post investigation found. A lack of state oversight makes dealing in drywall remedies a free-for-all for even the least qualified entrepreneurs, who are capitalizing on homeowner's fears that bad drywall is sickening families and ruining investments. These workers offer solutions, and can charge tens of thousands of dollars of more for fixes, even though state and federal researchers have yet to determine what causes the drywall to corrode pipes and eat through wiring. The stories also highlight a self-proclaimed drywall expert who holds no contractors license but runs an educational institute out of a Gainesville post office box. He offers to certify workers (while the state does not) and charges about $1,000 a piece to teach people his drywall remediation techniques.

Paul Reyes, with support from the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, reports on housing issues in Miami, Fla. where over 70,000 are on a waiting list for public housing.  Additionally, Miami ranks fourth in foreclosure rates in American cities.  Reyes followed community activist Max Rameau, founder of the organization Take Back the Land, as he attempts to get families back into homes they've been evicted from, while trying to place others looking for housing in home held by banks.

A review of government and court records by the Huffington Post Investigation Fund shows that two nonprofit groups worked closely with some of the nation's biggest home builders to broker tens of billions of dollars in no-money-down mortgages. Now these loans are defaulting at up to three times the rate of other FHA loans, one reason the housing agency’s insurance fund is about to drop below its required capital level for the first time since it was created during the Great Depression.

Many homeowners have struggled to obtain loan modifications through Litton Loan Servicing, according to a report by Mc Nelly Torres for ConsumerAffairs.com. Dozens of complaints against Litton have been filed with ConsumerAffairs.com. Months-long delays on promised modifications have left many customers vulnerable to or victims of foreclosure. Litton settled a class action suit last spring "alleging that the company failed to credit borrowers' mortgage payments in a timely fashion, then turned around and charged late fees for the purportedly tardy payments. In some cases, consumers' accounts were put into default."

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Cary Spivak and Ben Poston uncovered the latest fallout from the mortgage crisis: foreclosed properties abandoned by lenders, also known as "walkaways." Using city and county databases the reporters found that walkaway properties were already costing the city of Milwaukee more than $400,000 in back taxes, fees and demolition costs. The properties are also causing distress and assorted problems in neighborhoods throughout the city.

An analysis of the latest national mortgage data by The Charlotte Observer found that "as the credit spigot dried up in 2008, blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be denied mortgage loans than whites." The analysis found that nearly one out of two African Americans applicants were denied loans for the purchase or refinance of a home. The rate of denial was similar for Hispanics. In contrast, the denial rate for white applicants was nearly one in four.

A Los Angeles Times analysis of fire inspection reports "show that personnel from the department's Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety have been falling behind in their efforts to flag hazards such as inoperable sprinkler systems, illegally stored hazardous materials and broken or missing fire extinguishers. In some parts of the city, inspectors were surveying fewer than a third of their assigned buildings, according to the records."