Home-buying program has cash, controversy

[question everything]

The San Diego Union-Tribune


Home-buying program has cash, controversy

Undocumented residents being recruited for loans

By Janine Zúñiga
STAFF WRITER

February 6, 2006

A major U.S. bank has funded its first home loans to undocumented Mexican immigrants in San Diego County in a move that targets a lucrative, wide-open market while providing new grist for the debate over illegal immigration.

The local program, which uses tax identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, is similar to programs run by small lenders – and two state agencies – around the country that have distributed millions of dollars to undocumented immigrants over the past few years.

(snip)

The Pew Hispanic Center estimated that 10.3 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States as of March 2004. And a study that year for the San Diego-based National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals concluded that nearly 216,000 undocumented immigrants could become homeowners if they had better access to the home-buying process, collectively acquiring an estimated $44 billion in mortgages.

(snip)

Tax-ID numbers are used by those who need to report federal taxes but are not eligible for a Social Security number, usually because they are undocumented. Until the past few years, lenders would not – and most still do not – accept anything but a Social Security number for home loans.

(snip)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060206/news_1n6loans.html

[oioioi]

1. SD UT trolling. Readers wanted. Semi-literate reactionaries preferred.

[haele]

2. Question - how can undocumented immigrants afford San Diego -

Average housing price is around $400K for a 2bdrm crackerbox with a postage stamp yard in a poor neighborhood; $200K for a 800 sqft two bedroom apartment complex calling itself a condo.
Even with a good mortgage rate and, say, a quarter down, that's still over $1100 a month on average.
I don't see how an undocumented immigrant would be able to legally afford that much on whatever their employer(s) don't cheat them out of. Even if it's several working adults going in together on a house.

Heck, I haven't been able to see how the average citizen born in San Diego can legally afford that much on whatever their employer(s) don't cheat them on.

Buying a roach hotel in a neighborhood filled with gangs and decaying infrastructure for $425K on a 40 year variable (watch out for those balloons every five years!) does not bring a whole lot of dignity - or house - to that hard-working prospective home owner, no matter what his or her immigration status is.

The only way "real estate professionals" can sell to the average working family looking at a first time home anymore is if they're selling off fixer up foreclosure properties they've managed to snap up for under $200K and not put any money into repairs.

In San Diego, any new first time house (not condo!) owners have to have excellent credit, 20% down-payment saved, and be making close to $90K a year after taxes to honestly be able pay a home mortgage, property taxes, etc and still have a decent budget to be able to save (for upkeep and repairs, if nothing else) and live on.

Haele

[question everything]

3. First, they can live in the desert part of the county

away from the expensive coastal region.

Second, they usually have four or six co-owners.

If you have recently signed a loan secured by a house, you would see that there is a room for four signatures, while 20 years ago there would be only two.