Housing
“House of Lies” continued
In another installment of The Miami Herald‘s House of Lies series, reporter Debbie Cenziper found documents, emails and correspondence that showed Miami-Dade government leaders were warned about serious breakdowns in public housing but failed to take action, costing taxpayers millions of dollars.
Read MoreLein sales a quick fix with dire consequences
Over several months, Tom Meagher of the Herald News examined the records of a bulk sale of property tax liens that the city of Paterson, N.J., conducted to raise the revenue needed to balance its budget. While this resulted in a quick influx of cash for the city, the short-sighted plan cost the city millions…
Read More“Caltrans: Road to Nowhere”
A watchdog report by Kimberly Kindy and Natalya Shulyakovskaya of The Orange County Register looks at how the California Department of Transportation “has repeatedly displaced property owners for highway projects that went nowhere — from the abandoned widening of Pacific Coast Highway through Orange County to Hayward
Read MoreHomeowners stay put in New Orleans
Jean Guccione and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times analyzed data from the Small Business Administration, the federal agency primarily responsible for disaster reconstruction loans, and found that of more than 150,000 homeowners and business owners approved for the loans, 2% were transferring the money to a new property in New Orleans. “Most New…
Read MoreLong Island migration trends
Katie Thomas, Tom McGinty and Andrew Strickler of Newsday used IRS migration data to show that "Long Islanders ... are leaving the region in growing numbers, and while traditional destinations such as Palm Beach, Fla., and Fort Lauderdale are still popular, many are bypassing those locations for fast-growing areas such as North Carolina and Tampa,…
Read MoreMiami housing agency fraud continues
In a recent installment of the on-going series “House of Lies,” the Miami Herald’s Debbie Cenziper and Larry Lebowitz uncovered more corruption in the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. Oscar Rivero had become a favored developer for the local housing authority – collecting millions, yet building nothing. “Today, the land where Rivero promised dozens of homes for…
Read MoreHouse of Lies
An extensive four-part series by Debbie Cenziper, Susannah Nesmith and Tim Henderson of The Miami Herald has uncovered extensive corruption in the Miami-Dade Housing Agency. Their investigation uncovered a system which has operated like “an unchecked cash machine for developers and consultants and its own leaders and failed the families it was meant to serve.”…
Read MoreMinorities denied for loans more often
Mc Nelly Torres and Jeremy Milarsky of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act data for 2000-04 and found that “blacks and Hispanics who have applied for conventional mortgage loans in South Florida were denied more often than white applicants, even when income levels were about the same.” The analysis also…
Read MoreFighting eminent domain mostly a losing battle
Steve Kemme and Gregory Korte of The Cincinnati Enquirer analyzed real-estate sales records and found that those who sold their homes for an urban renewal project in suburban Norwood made more than twice what their homes were worth — while those who had their properties taken by eminent domain made three times their appraised value.…
Read MoreHomes remain out of reach for many
Gina Edwards, Deirdre Conner and Kori Rumore of the Naples Daily News analyzed real estate transactions culled from property appraiser records to show how the real estate market has shifted. In 2003, in Collier County, Fla., almost 60 percent of single-family homes on the market — more than 4,500 — sold for less than $300,000.…
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