Foreclosing on Rural America

[earthboundmisfit]

Rural America: Foreclosing on farms, neighborhoods, communities

By EVELYN NIEVES Associated Press
4/6/2008

MERCED, Calif. -- The end came in a blink outside the Merced County courthouse.
Only six people showed up for the foreclosure auction, Janice Pimentel and her son Nick included. By chance, the Pimentels' dairy farm was the first property offered. The auctioneer, a young man in aviator sunglasses and blue jeans, read their address and paused for bids. When none came, the Joe T and Janice R Pimentel Dairy Farm, 21 years in the life of the family, officially became the property of its main creditor, a local lender.

"Well," Janice Pimentel said, "that's that."

The Pimentels' farm was once a fixture in California's Central Valley, which is best known as the world's fruit basket and, these days, may have the highest concentration of foreclosures in the country. Many of the properties lost to foreclosure around here are in rural towns that are changing, perhaps forever, because of the nation's housing meltdown.

~snip~

The foreclosure problems in small-town America may be even more widespread than in cities. Mobile and prefab homes make up at least 15 percent of the nation's rural housing, and three-quarters of them were financed with installment or personal property loans rather than mortgage loans, according to the HAC. When the owners default, it leads to repossession rather than foreclosure, and these defaults are not recorded, Loza said.
And precise mortgage statistics for rural areas are hard to come by, because while large banks in metropolitan areas are required under federal law to report lending activity, many small, rural financial institutions are not.

more at link: Rural America: Foreclosing on farms, neighborhoods, communities

Not good. Not good at all.

[jody]

1. Sad because several of my close relatives face similar fates. In a couple of cases, the land has

been in the family for nearly two hundred years.

I guess I should thank God that government has bailed out the multi-billion dollar financial institutions.

That is what our Constitution says doesn't it "We the Corporations of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the corporate defence, promote the corporate Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to our corporations and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

[earthboundmisfit]

2. For sure - here's more from the article

It talks about how Merced County, population 246,000, underwent a housing boom over the past few years that saw developments spring up on what used to be farmland - but now, with housing values dropping as much as 50 percent, "the landscape is filled with for-sale and foreclosure signs, vacant houses with weedy front lawns, and graffiti on boarded-up windows. The skeletons of houses where construction halted when the market went bust stand across a development where houses that sold for $400,000 just three years ago are now going begging at half the price." (Doesn't spell out exactly how that ties in with the farm foreclosures, though - maybe that part was edited out for space, etc?)

and then, at the end of the article:

Janice and Joe Pimentel, who are 52 and 58, respectively, decided to follow their families' dairy farm tradition when they bought their 25-acre property in Atwater two decades ago. Their sons, now 21 and 30, decided not to go into the business, and the Pimentels thought they would retire one day and convert the farm into an almond orchard.

How they lost their farm, once a thriving business with some 200 cows, is not a simple subprime mortgage story. It has to do with a drop in the price of milk, a spike in the cost of feed, some bad luck and, yes, a five-year refinance loan with an interest rate of 12 percent. On top of their financial problems, in 2007, Joe's father developed cancer. With such a heavy personal and financial burden, the Pimentels could not give the farm the attention it required.

"At 58, I'm starting over," said Joe, who has started working for the county Department of Agriculture, setting pest traps. The Pimentels' farm is a ghostly sight, with its empty stalls, the flapping roof on the main barn, and weeds where flowers used to grow. Soon, the Pimentels will take their pets -- two horses and three dogs -- to the modest house Joe's father left them, about a mile away.

The Pimentels doubt their property will ever be a family dairy farm again. Maybe a developer will grab it, Janice said, "for when housing grows again in Merced, someday."

[jody]

4. I hunted over 60,000 acres as a boy, all owned by close relatives. Now some has been sold for

"country estates", a couple for mobile home parks, others for 1/2 acre lots.

My heart weeps whenever I return to visit a few hundred acres I gave to my grandchildren so they can get a glimpse of what used to be.

Gone are the wild plants and animals that make each farm a truly unique habitat.

I see in my mind, my great grandfather and grandmother cutting the first trees, building a log cabin, and waiting for the first seeds to sprout in their garden and fields.

Then I hear the cry of a new born baby, my grandfather, and the miracle of life that makes farming and all those who farm a unique lifestyle.

That took courage and physical labor to make dreams come true.

A :toast: to what used to be and hope that the future will be better.

[Mountainman]

18. He may be better off working for the county. I know I am.

He doesn't have the land but he has an income he knows he will get, plus health care, union membership, many holidays off with pay and a pension.

I am just sorry I didn't know how good it would be to work for the county. I could have had a pretty good retirement by now.

[varelse]

7. So it would seem

Apparently our constitution was amended (in invisible ink) to that effect without the usual ratification process. Only the current administration seems to have the necessary rove-colored glasses to read the new wording. "We, the people", don't rate.

[avenger64]

3. tear down the houses, and plant crops again ...

... the way food prices are going, we're going to need the supply

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. Bump.

[XemaSab]

6. I'm glad to see a pause in the development of the Valley

or at least a slowdown.

There are some BEAUTIFUL parts of the state disappearing under tract houses. :(

[dajoki]

8. I got lucky...

when the negotiator I hired worked out a deal with my mortgage company one week before the sale date. I live in a town of 6000 and I too was not in a subprime loan. But a series of personally catastrophic events caused us to fall behind. I have been saying all along that NO ONE knows what causes a family to get into dire straights financially, but its different for everybody. The government just assumes to know that you "overbought", when they really never bothered to see what happens to real people. I got lucky, but millions haven't, and if the government doesn't soon wake up many of our population will be living in "Hoovervilles".

[Javaman]

15. Thank you for saying that...

There is a segment here on DU that thinks that all the people who are going into foreclosure are because they overbought or borrowed huge amounts on their equity.

Most of the people out there, due to our lovely economy, lost their homes because of lost jobs or because because of also lovely health-care system, were bankrupted due to hospital bills.

I will get flamed now as I did before (perhaps not by you) for saying the following: take the money that was used to bail out the corps and instead use it to bail out the home owner and build back up the working base of this nation.

[dajoki]

19. I couldn't agree more...

let us both be flamed then because I believe the same thing should be done as you do. The worst part is that the government could do exactly what you say, but they would rather help the corps. than the people, which to me is sickening!!

Thank you for posting this, many people are afraid to express their opinions on this subject for fear of being attacked, but this must be discussed!!:pals:

[Javaman]

20. Cheers! :) (edited)

Here's something I posted last week on this subject.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3099719

[dajoki]

21. Thank you for that...

great thread, Its hard to swallow some of the coldhearted, meanspirited responses it got. I added a few of my own if you want to check it out. The more I have been reading around here about these issues, the more disheartened I am becoming, I can't understand what has happened to COMPASSION and CIVILITY!! You have lifted my spirits and thanks for that!!:toast:

[poppysgal]

9. 80's flashback

Here in the heartland we don't want to go "retro" and still remember farm sales and foreclosures quite well.:scared:

[lib2DaBone]

10. God Help Us

..There is no end to conservative policy.

[JCMach1]

11. There go the rest of America's family farms

meanwhile the factory farms will be raking in the bucks on high commodity prices.

[jody]

14. And subsidies, see database at Farm Bill 2007 below for recipients in all areas.

Farm Bill 2007

[JCMach1]

17. You bet :(

[trof]

12. So...just when we'll need local food producers most...

We shut them down?

My theory: The higher transportation costs (gas/diesel) climb, the more we better get used to eating seasonal produce grown within 100 miles or so of where we live.

[Romulox]

13. Living out in the middle of nowhere doesn't make you a farmer!

Just saying.

[Javaman]

16. however now, maybe it will. nt