The Destruction of wealth of African Americans and Latinos

Credit Crises, Mortgage Crises, Bank Crises, Bail out, Wipe Out...Whatever you call what is happening the hurt really has a human face. The impact on the Hispanics/Latinos is enormous.
Specially, the crises is eliminating the wealth and savings of African Americans and Latinos to greater degree as stated: "The housing and subprime-mortgage crisis stands to cost minority homeowners 40 percent more of their wealth than white homeowners in similar circumstances, an advocacy group says. Some estimates put the loss for African-American homeowners who lose homes to foreclosure at $122 billion, while Latino homeowners stand to lose up to $129 billion, according to a study by the nonprofit group United for a Fair Economy.
A national conference on subprime lending, foreclosures and race is being held today and Friday, hosted by Ohio State University's Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity.
National experts on race, law, finance and real estate will examine the subprime crisis' disproportionate effects on African-Americans and Latinos, and try to develop solutions for the growing problem, said Jason Reece, a senior researcher at the Kirwan Institute."
(Thursday, October 2, 2008 3:06 AM , By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH , http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/business/stories/2008/10/02/racial_foreclose.ART_ART_10-02-08_C8_VABG18N.html?sid=101)

The real estate meltdown and life changes -a private note.

Hi everyone. I want to share parts of an article I wrote recently for LatinoWebWatch on online marketing for Latinos. I was reflecting on the current state of real estate and my career as a Broker and an Online Real Estate Marketing:

I work as a real estate broker in San Francisco, but I am hoping that I can make Online Marketing my full time profession(ie. money making job). Online Marketing is my passion and my hobby but until recently I have been so busy with real estate and mortgages. I am still quite busy, however, I see the writing on the wall--the home buying and home financing industry has dramatically changed. And I think that these industry/consumer changes are economical and STRUCTURAL. You see, with the high number of foreclosures, the short sales epidemic, the credit crunch and election year politics the real estate and mortgage industry has changed. New laws are being created that may over regulate, that may eliminate hard working and willing to pay home buyers from buying, and home owners from refinancing.

Oh, I forgot to add that although I am still quite busy, a lot of my work seems more like non-profit counseling trying to help customers either to refinance, renegotiate with their lenders or just try to comfort them and help them move out.

Although I like helping people, and this is one of the reasons I got in real estate [being a member of the communities I serve] I see that it will be very hard to make a living. I think that what has helped me "survive" this long is that all throughout my real estate career I have been very proactive in real estate online marketing.

Coming from an eCommerce background before getting into real estate I knew and still believe that the Internet/eCommerce will completely change the Real Estate & Mortgage business...and it has, see move.com, zillow.com, realtor.com, ziprealty.com, trulia.com, etc.

And this is all happening real time and now.. So I hope to focus more on my passion of Real Estate Online Marketing and Latino-Hispanic Online Marketing, and I hope to make a living out of my dream.

Dumping the First Time Home Buyer at the first signs of trouble

Where have all the lenders and agents gone? 

Has the real estate and loan industry abandoned the Latino
First Time Home Buyer? It seems they have. It was only a few months ago that most major companies and reports where announcing their plans to serve the growing latino home buyer. But that was until this subprime mess exploded.

What about all those first time home buyers that bought with adjustable loans
with a 2 or 3 year period. A lot of these loans are adjusting now and causing
great suffering to these home owners. Many of these borrowers cannot afford the
payment increase and or can no longer refinance, or sell due to current market
conditions. So now what. I recently wrote Senator Feinstein asking her to get
the lenders to waive various onerous conditions especially the Pre Payment
Penalty. This penalty imprisons someone from refinancing due to the high cost of
this penalty.  If borrowers wait until the penalty expires it may be harder
to get a loan.

I recently heard from a real estate agent at PruLatino (Prudential's Hispanic
Full Service real estate office) in northern California. He was complaining
about how Prudential has abandoned their focus on the latino home buyer due to
current subprime problems.

As Realtor Magazine states: "Reaching out to Latino customers in word
and deed.  Several years ago, the California Association of Realtors
release research showing that 20 percent of California home sales involved
buyers or sellers with a Hispanic surname.  Those findings motivated Ed
Krafchow, president of residential brokerage giant Prudential California/Nevada/Texas Realty, to conduct similar research on his company ... In response, Krafchow initiated a Hispanic outreach effort and this year launched  a Spanglish language listings magazine, Palacio." (Realtor Magazine, August 2007)

However, it seems the magazine has not been released, and if my friend at
PruLatino is correct, it seems Prudential was "reaching out for the easy
MONEY only and not in word and deed."

So for all of us involved in the real estate business, let's not forget those
buyers and future buyers who fed us and our families while it was good.

Short Sales & Taxes / Venta De Casa Por Menos De Lo Que Se debe al Banco

Very simply: A short sale is when you sell (must sell) your house for less than what you owe the bank on your mortgage.The difference between what you owe the bank and what the bank accepts as sales price may be tax by the IRS as ordinary income, capital gains. Please see a real estate tax expert.

Usted vende su casa por un "Short Sale" cuando tiene que venderla por menos de lo que le debe al banco por la hipoteca. Usted podra tener que pagar impuestos (Federlales, Estateles) en la cantidad de lo que el banco le perdona.