Foreclosed Homes Trashed

CBS

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uh it seems there's no good news when it comes to the housing market sales of existing homes Plunge 88.6% in November as compared to October it's estimated that 45% of sales of existing homes are foreclosed properties and as CBS News correspondent Kelly KOB reports many people take more than their Furniture when they're forced out of their homes from the street this foreclosed Florida home looks like a real bargain it sold for 325 back in 2006 and now it's on the market for $19 79 they put a new tile step through the front door and you see why but it looks a little rough it's a little rough there are holes in the walls in the ceiling where the lights used to be the stove is gone along with half the kitchen faucet both air conditioning units and most of the bathroom they took the bathtub and the toilet that's pretty unbelievable well it's um it's amazing what people do I mean I think people get pretty angry about what's going on these days half of the foreclosed homes realtor Myra beam's handles are damaged Often by angry or desperate owners trying to squeeze every last dollar from their investment this historic Palm Beach home was stripped bare right down to the kitchen sink according to the neighbors they had a yard sale they the former owners just took the kitchen out and sold it on the front lawn Nationwide experts say the loss from damaged foreclosures is in the hundreds of billions of dollars and has become a huge drag on the housing Market a recent survey of real estate agents across the country found about a third of foreclosed homes are so badly damaged that they don't qualify for standard mortgage financing and are priced at a big discount 30% or more if you happen to be a neighbor of one of these damaged foreclosed homes and you have to sell your house you can expect to sell it for about 20% less the leases live within a few blocks of four foreclosed homes who are in terrible condition they now owe more than their home is worth in part because of falling property values it's sad you know we we've basically invested our life in our home and what other people have done to get out of their particular misery or problem affects all of us buyers are starting to show interest the historic Palm Beach home without a kitchen sold for nearly $900,000 in 2006 it's now priced at $266,000 it will cost a lot of money and take a long time to bring this property back if I was going to end up with this but it would be worth it to avoid scenes like this some banks are offering cash to foreclosed owners who hand over the keys while the home is still in good shape in order to stop the damage before it's done C cooba CBS News tamarak Florida [Music]

Madoff Victim Commits Suicide

CBS

Transcript

[Music] a New York money manager who lost more than a billion dollars in Bernard Bernard mid's alleged Ponzi scheme has apparently committed suicide mid off is accused of swindling investors out of billions of dollars we're joined Now by Robert Shu says he and his wife lost 1.2 million dollars in the scam and her family much much more good morning sir good to be with you Harry and your column that piece that you wrote for Time Magazine here a week or so ago you said it's the kind of news that's been known to cause shortness of breath sudden car arrest revolvers pulled from bedside drawers when you heard about this suicide yesterday what did you think well I my heart goes out to to his family and um it was kind of an easy prediction to make I I'm afraid that this is just the beginning of this kind of um Devastation and tragedy it's just going to continue as the reality of this news for your family and especially your wife's family has begun to sink in what have been some of the thoughts what have some of the conversations been about well you try to figure out how to pick up the pieces and um and it's tough and I I I feel for the the people that are out there Mr mid off really sort of set off a a financial neutron bomb here we're all kind all the victims I think are kind of sitting around their their dining room tables going through bills trying to figure out how to make the next payments on the mortgage and pay off their credit cards they're sitting in their nice homes with their nice cars and nice artwork but the reality is is that they probably only have two or three months cash available and then it's it's over I mean they've got we've all kind of gone from General sort of wealth and feeling it we're we're safe and then with a flip of a switch you know many people are in poverty like a combination of maybe anger bewilderment what else well yes anger fun funnily enough we're not that angry right now we haven't hit that stage we're just trying to figure out how we're going to move forward in a positive way right Robert thanks very much for uh spending a couple of minutes with us today and giving us this Insight do appreciate you sir

Economy Dampens Holiday Joy

CBS

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even if americans could spend their way out of trouble there's not enough shop therapy underway to revive the economy consumer spending was down again in november for the fifth straight month please remember it took a lot of work to get us into this mess and it's going to take some time to get us out spending's down and unemployment's up 10.3 million americans are now unemployed 2.7 million of those jobs lost during this recession then there's the housing market sales of new homes are down 35 percent compared to this time last year the fact that 30-year fixed-rate mortgages hit a record low for the second straight week 5.14 percent could spark an upturn but only if banks lower the bar for lending say veteran real estate agents the low rates alone won't do it there's the qualification guidelines and because of the scare and the repercussion of all the bad loans that were made lenders have gotten over conservative with their qualifying guidelines today more and more hopes for a turnaround hinge on the huge stimulus package president-elect obama is preparing maybe as big as 850 billion dollars including the largest investment in our infrastructure since the federal highway system was built in the 1950s the goal is to create three million new jobs the greater danger is not in acting too quickly or too boldly but rather in acting too slowly or too timidly as for the 700 billion dollars for the financial bailout package it looks like the new congress convening next month will demand more information from banks that have taken the money two senators democrat dianne feinstein and republican olympia snow now say they'll propose laws compelling detailed reports from companies getting bailout money about how they've spent it and general motors got some news today it was looking for about federal bailout money the federal reserve has granted the request of gm's financing arm the gmac to be able to tap into the bailout fund this was widely seen as necessary for gm to be able to survive harry jim axelrod at the white house tonight thanks