From the category archives:

rent

Renting Is Better For The Poor

by Moe Bedard

While suffering through the Great Depression, my grandparents never faced the challenge of making a fixed mortgage payment. Instead, they rented and moved every year. Their circumstances dictated whether it would be a move to a larger or smaller apartment. But mostly, in that era of deflation that lowered wages and prices, they were driven [...]

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Foreclosures are creating a new breed of apartment dwellers

by Moe Bedard

Most of the renters were displaced when homes they leased from real estate speculators or small-scale flippers fell into foreclosure, she said between fielding calls at the leasing office.
It’s created a new market for apartment dwellers.

On the other side of the Coachella Valley stands The Vineyards, a multimillion-dollar construction endeavor that kept many construction workers [...]

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Renters Become Victims of Predatory Landlords

by Moe Bedard

In Los Angeles, foreclosures for buildings with five or more units totaled 78 — encompassing 1,344 units — in the first three quarters of 2009, compared with 49 buildings and 432 units over the same period last year, and 13 buildings and 239 units in the same period of 2007, according to the city’s housing [...]

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Federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act Saves Renters

by Moe Bedard

The federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act, which was adopted in May, “was a complete game changer for renters,” Marx said. Before this, a foreclosure discontinued the lease and tenants lost the right to stay in their homes.
Marx said the July 13 letter, which was signed by “evictions team lead” Daniel J. Lailer of the [...]

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Fannie Mae Deed for Lease Program Allows Homeowners to Rent Back

by Moe Bedard

WASHINGTON, DC — Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) is implementing the Deed for Lease™ Program under which qualifying homeowners facing foreclosure will be able to remain in their homes by signing a lease in connection with the voluntary transfer of the property deed back to the lender.
“The Deed for Lease Program provides an additional option for qualifying [...]

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Unemployment Soars as Rents Plunge in the West

by Moe Bedard

The average asking rent fell to $965 from $1,002 a year earlier, said Novato, California-based RealFacts, which surveyed owners of more than 12,600 complexes. The occupancy rate dipped below 92 percent from almost 93 percent a year earlier.
U.S. employers cut 263,000 jobs last month, more than forecast, and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent, [...]

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Apartment renters become victim of predatory landlord

by Moe Bedard

HEMET, Calif. (KABC) — A Hemet neighborhood with a history of financial woes was in even more trouble Monday night. Almost every apartment unit on the 500 block of Mobley Lane has gone into foreclosure. And residents say they’re being told to leave, even if they’ve paid their rent.

Read more from ABC

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Tenant Protection Act saves this renter

by Moe Bedard

Velquez said that it was about the same time that he discovered the Tenant Protection Act, passed by the Obama administration, which gives tenants whose landlords fall into foreclosure 90 to 120 days to remain on the property even after it is sold.

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Fixing foreclosures with a right to rent

by Moe Bedard

One proposal making the rounds in D.C. is Right to Rent: a program, first floated two years ago by liberal think-tanker Dean Baker, that would allow folks who have lost their home to foreclosure to continue living in the home as a renter.  As Baker sees it, giving the foreclosed the right to rent their [...]

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Renting has become hip again

by Moe Bedard

Everyone’s doing it. Maybe you should try? Come on, you may like it!
Owning a home was once the most sought out American Dream in dreamers land. A dream that since the 1950’s came with Mom’s apple pie and baseball at the local park. Fast forward to over 50 years later and that dream is nothing more [...]

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Rental Scams on Craigslist

by Moe Bedard

FBI – You arrive at the home on the agreed-upon date, but there’s just one small problem—the house is not actually for rent and its owners know nothing about your agreement.
Craigslist used to be a cool place to find free information on things for sale, rentals and local jobs. But now that place has so many viruses, [...]

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