A weekend topic starting with WXYZ. “Among the states with the highest foreclosure filings? Michigan. Michigan ranks third in the nation behind Delaware and Illinois. Bankruptcy attorney John Kallabat told 7 Action News, ‘I’ve been doing this for about 28, 29 years, and this is about the most I’ve seen, all at once happening.’ Kallabat said his office is seeing a huge influx of people coming in desperate because they’re facing foreclosure. ‘I can only speak to the bankruptcies and seeing the rise, the calls, and the desperation of people,’ said Kallabat. ‘On Monday I had someone come who had a foreclosure Tuesday morning, and yesterday I had someone come who has a foreclosure tomorrow morning.’”
“One of those people is ‘Rob’ from Eastpointe. We’re not revealing his real name. Rob shared with us he’s self-employed and has a business that requires him to go inside of peoples’ homes, something he was unable to do when COVID caused shutdowns in 2020. Rob said his bills started to pile up, and even now that his business is picking up again he says inflation and higher interest rates are making it extremely difficult to pay off his accumulated bills. In the last year, he knew what he was going to have to face, foreclosure.”
“Rob shared that the dread of it was terrible, saying, ‘I would think, ‘Should I go to sleep, or should I try to go to sleep? Do I eat in the morning, or can I eat in the morning?’ It’s that gut feeling.’ Rob is far from alone. According to data from ATTOM, one in every 2,617 Michigan housing units had a foreclosure filing in January. One out of every 1,575 housing units had a filing in Detroit.”
“When asked why Michigan and Detroit seem to be suffering worse than other areas, ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said in a statement: ‘One of every 12 mortgages in Detroit was seriously underwater in Q4 2022, meaning that homeowners owed at least 125 percent of the estimated value of their homes. That was way above the national rate of one in 34. That higher rate could be prompting more homeowners behind on their mortgages to throw in the towel and let their lenders foreclose.‘”
The New York Post. “Despite bringing in the top guns to sell her longtime New York City townhouse, Sonja Morgan just can’t catch a break. In the last decade alone, the ‘Real Housewives of New York City’ star has had her Upper East Side residence on and off the market — but still, no takers. In July, after a year off the market, it listed for $8.75 million. Six months later, the home’s price has lowered by $1.25 million to $7.5 million, The Post has learned.Morgan, 59, attempted to remodel the home, located at 162 E. 63rd St., during the pandemic in hopes that it would attract a buyer. She even thought bringing in the top townhouse seller could finally make it work.”
“But unfortunately, plagued by rising interest rates to combat lingering inflation, it doesn’t appear the television personality and socialite was able to secure an offer. Sonja first listed the home for sale in 2013 for $9.95 million amid her divorce from J.P. Morgan heir John A. Morgan. She struck gold in 2017, when she found an offer, but ultimately decided to turn it down so her daughter could have stability during the separation.”
“The reality star and entrepreneur was allowed to keep the townhouse in 2015 after she settled her lengthy bankruptcy case following her divorce. ‘At this point, this house is nothing more than a financial drain, an emotional drain,’ she said on Season 12 of the Bravo series.”
The Brattleboro Reformer in Vermont. “I’d always known that I wanted to work for myself. In 1983, fresh out of school and starting my career as a freelance consultant, I began to wonder how I could plan for some kind of retirement income. One day as I walked into town, I noticed a for sale sign on a somewhat rundown two-family building. It occurred to me that this could be a solution. I could buy the building, fix it up, and maybe the rents could cover the mortgage, taxes and expenses. I could live in one unit and the other would provide some income. Not a big plan, but a start.”
“The owner was a woman who lived in one of the apartments. Her husband, who had taken care of the property, had recently passed away. The other apartment was now empty and she was desperate to get rid of the building. If I could make the apartments a bit nicer the rents might be able to pay off the mortgage in less than 30 years. The owner was thrilled to sell and be rid of the property.”
“I had just rented the first apartment when the gentleman who owned the three-family next door approached me. He asked if I would be interested in buying his building too. One of his apartments was boarded up because the last tenant had trashed it. The other two were very dated, but rentable. It looked like it could work and the buildings were an eyesore. I liked that these buildings were just a few doors down from where I lived. This seemed like a way I could help make my neighborhood a nicer place to live. I was all in. My plan had just gotten a bit bigger. Over the next 10 years I spent most of my free time and every dollar the buildings made, fixing them up.”
“Most of my tenants were and are wonderful, respectful people. They appreciated the apartments and took good care of them. Several tenants have become good friends over the years. But I also learned that some applicants were not as they appeared to be on their application. Once they moved in, pets would appear, or they would have numerous guests, some moving in, or just visiting for a few minutes. Possessions would collect in the hallways and yard, trash cans would overflow, the building would constantly smell of smoke, there would be loud music or arguing heard throughout the building. And my requests to be respectful neighbors and follow building safety codes would be ignored.”
“And so, I learned about Vermont courts and evictions. They are complicated, they take a long time, and they are expensive. You can hire an attorney for thousands of dollars, or try to do it yourself. But if you miss a deadline by a day, or one form isn’t quite right, you have to go back to ‘Go’ and pay another $295 filing fee and start over. This isn’t a game of Monopoly for the faint of heart.”
“Even though the problems I mentioned are technically lease violations, they are all hard to prove. If the tenant says ‘that wasn’t me’ or ‘oh, I cleaned that up,’ or ‘that was my friend’s dog, he was just visiting’ or such, the judge will say ‘OK,’ or ‘make sure that doesn’t happen again,’ and ‘case dismissed’… The benefit of the doubt always goes to the tenant.”
“Since then, I have picked up a few more buildings. Usually a foreclosure or a distressed property. Many of them are boarded up and unlivable. The banks have been happy to loan me money if I would take a property off their hands. My consulting career has fallen by the wayside. Property renovation and management is too consuming.”
“In 2019 and 2020 we had more than 10 apartments turn over with damages exceeding $10,000 each. The worst was over $23,000. That was when we sold our house and moved into one of our apartments. Every dollar went into renovations. That was also the year the Brattleboro Select Board passed a bylaw prohibiting the collection of a last month’s rent in advance, and limited a security deposit to just one month’s rent. An apartment can cost hundreds of thousands to buy and renovate, and I am only permitted to collect a security deposit of a single month’s rent.”
“And now the town is considering another bylaw which will prohibit a rental property owner from deciding not to renew a tenancy. The owner will have to file an eviction to end a tenancy. This will make it harder, take longer, and be more expensive to remove a problem tenant. The losers will be anyone living nearby, the owners who are trying to provide good, safe housing, the town who’s neighborhoods and downtown will decline.”
“And now, I am in my 70s and working more hours than I did when I bought my first building. I’m repaying loans that will exceed my lifetime. And someday, when I’m gone, someone will come along and buy these buildings from my widow who will be desperate to get rid of them.”
The Los Angeles Times. “Chu Fei thought she was doing everything right in life. At 30, she lived in Beijing and worked at one of the world’s largest tech firms. She had attended China’s top school, Peking University, and gotten a master’s degree at Stanford. She felt the same pressure as anyone else to work hard, buy a home and settle down. But last year, the striving that came so instinctively suddenly lost its meaning. She was exhausted by 12-hour workdays and long commutes, then nightmarish pandemic lockdowns. None of it seemed worth the financial payoff, the promise of which dwindled as the economy worsened.”
“In October, she quit her job, sold most of her possessions and moved to a provincial village some 800 miles from Beijing. ‘It just felt like my plan wouldn’t work anymore,’ she said.”
“The growing aversion to conventional expectations — build a career, get married, buy a home, have children — is discouraged by the ruling Communist Party, which prizes social stability. But China’s economic slowdown, jarring after years of supercharged growth and exacerbated by harsh COVID restrictions, has forced many to put their lives on hold. Tech companies, once among the most reliable and coveted employers, have slashed jobs. Millions of college graduates are struggling to find work in the toughest labor market in decades.”
“Even before the pandemic, backlash was growing over the punishing hours in China’s high-powered industries, a grind known as 996 — 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week. Employees endured because they believed with enough ambition and grit, anyone could make their fortune. But social mobility has stalled in recent years, undermining that premise. ‘It’s kind of like an adrenaline rush, a boost that drives people to work 996. But now the boost is gone,’ Chu said. ‘People are saying, Whatever you do, you’re not going to get rich, you’re not going to make a lot of money, you’re not going to be successful. So why not do something you like?’”
“For Chu, that means leisurely mornings and afternoons spent writing, making videos and selling goods online. With income from those new endeavors, she calculates she has enough savings to support herself for a few years in smaller, cheaper cities as she fleshes out her longer-term plan. For now, she’s settled in a once-bustling tourist town nestled between mountains and the shore of West Lake, a 40-minute drive from the city of Hangzhou.”
“She rents space in a villa that had been used as a hotel before the pandemic, living among the owner and his family — who moved in after tourism dried up — and often joining them for home-cooked meals. Around the village, neighbors tend to their vegetable fields and tea farms. ‘There’s kind of a feeling, like what have I done for all these years? I’ve wasted so much time,’ she said. ‘I can say I went to some good universities and worked at some big companies, but it’s not something you want to write on your tombstone, you know?’”
“Even if the economy recovers, Chu can’t imagine going back to Beijing, or her former life. ‘If I turn off my phone, this place is like paradise,’ she said. ‘I just hope that this life can last longer.’ At night, she often takes long walks around the tranquil village. She doesn’t remember the air ever smelling quite so sweet.”