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Old October 21st, 2007 #1
Joe_J.
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Default Atlanta Area Home Builder Late On Payments, Stops Construction.

Quote:
Silence hung as thick as the autumn mist over Seasons at Laurel Canyon.

Once a-thunder with hammers, saws and graders, the unfinished community in Cherokee County fell silent this week as its developer, Levitt & Sons, became one of the latest casualties of the crashing housing market.

Levitt announced last week it is trying to restructure its debt after missing $2.6 million in payments to five of its lenders Oct. 10.

While negotiations are going on, Levitt has issued cease-work orders to all its builders and subcontractors, bringing construction to a halt at two "active adult" communities north of Atlanta — Seasons at Laurel Canyon, near Canton, and Seasons on Lake Lanier in Hall County.

Simultaneously, Levitt informally notified officials in Peachtree City that it is pulling out of plans for a Seasons community there.

After walking through her finished home Oct. 10 as Levitt's finances began to unravel, Mary Ann Voeglie returned to temporary quarters in Pennsylvania last weekend to finish preparations for her move to Seasons at Laurel Canyon from her former New Jersey home.

With a closing scheduled for Wednesday, she made final arrangements for the moving van to deliver her belongings the next day.

By the time she got the news that her closing would be postponed, the moving van was already on the road.

"I'm livid at this point," Voeglie said in a telephone interview from Jasper, Ga., where she is living with her son. "I feel Levitt & Sons has been totally insensitive to my needs."

Voeglie, a retired federal program analyst, diverted her belongings into storage and has been trying to get some answers about when she can close on her house and move in. So far, she said, her calls to the Levitt customer hotline, 877-538-4889, have produced no results.

With dozens of closings pending at its two metro Atlanta Seasons communities, the troubled Levitt will have a sizable backlog of unhappy customers like Voeglie to appease if it manages to avoid bankruptcy by restructuring its debt with creditors.

"Levitt should have sent representatives down here and talked to all the people with closings," Voeglie said.

In a prepared statement, company officials said Levitt is "working around the clock" to remain viable and come up with a new financial plan that will get construction going again.

"We are in active discussions with our lenders to obtain additional funding," the statement said. "While these negotiations are in progress, Levitt & Sons has asked its vendors to discontinue their work for a short period. We anticipate this situation is temporary and that our banks will respond to these requests promptly."

Levitt officials declined to provide information about the current populations or pending contracts at its Atlanta-area Seasons communities.

Laurel Canyon resident Carol Jobin said as many as 40 lots under contract there are hanging in the balance, not to mention work on the community's long-awaited, 28,000-square-foot amenities center, idled just as it neared completion.

"Some people are nervous, of course," Jobin said. "We're just trying to wait and see."

Jobin and her husband, J.P., were among Seasons' first residents when they moved from Woodstock about a year ago. So far, Levitt has sold 192 of 766 potential homes at Laurel Canyon, according to information provided by Databank, a real estate data collection and analysis company in Atlanta.

The Jobins have relished settling into their new home. New neighbors from metro Atlanta and other parts of the country have joined the couple in fulfilling Seasons' promise of coordinated leisure and social activities for adults at least 55 years old amid north Georgia's scenic mountain surroundings.

"We really have nothing bad to say about Levitt," said Carol Jobin, who with her husband just made reservations for Seasons' New Year's Eve party. "They've been great to us."

Though Levitt's problems have been a topic of discussion among homeowners, Jobin said they are trying to "stay calm" while they wait for official word from Levitt, which they hope will arrive within two weeks.

In Peachtree City, Mayor Harold Logsdon said he has been assured by landowner Brent Scarborough, a contractor, that he will carry out independently the development plan Levitt negotiated with city and regional officials last year.

"We are fortunate we have a person standing there ready to move forward. He's going to build the development using their plans," Logsdon said.
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/...vitt_1019.html
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Old October 21st, 2007 #2
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The Senate has created a bill to allow a homeowner to withdraw up to $100k from a retirement account, penalty-free to help keep homeowners in their homes.

http://coleman.senate.gov/index.cfm?...=PressReleases....
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Old October 21st, 2007 #3
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Default Calling For CEO Mozilo's Ouster.

Hasn't served the juden well enough, I suppose.

Quote:
A union-affiliated pension plan wants the board to replace Angelo Mozilo and add two independent directors.
By Kathy M. Kristof, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 20, 2007

A union-affiliated pension plan is calling on Countrywide Financial Corp. to take the chairman's post away from Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo amid growing criticism of the company's management and a sharp decline in its stock price this year.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sent a six-page letter to the Calabasas-based lender's board late Thursday, citing a long list of shareholder grievances and asking that the board replace Mozilo with someone who is not an executive of the company.

The letter also calls for adding two independent directors acceptable to major institutional shareholders to the board and for the replacement of the members of the board's compensation committee with people "untainted" by the panel's actions.

"Adding new independent directors is a way for stockholders to change an atmosphere that allows a dominant dual-role chairman and CEO to operate without appropriate checks and balances," wrote union President Gerald W. McEntee, who signed the letter in his role as chairman of the pension plan, which represents 1.4 million members and holds Countrywide stock.

"We are looking for structural changes," said Richard Ferlauto, director of pension and benefits policy at the Washington-based union. "The current arrangement has not served stockholders well."

Countrywide representatives did not return phone calls for comment.

The move by the union, which has previously protested Mozilo's pay, comes as Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, is struggling to deal with the effects of the housing downturn and a credit crunch stemming from the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

The company's stock tumbled $1.28, or 7.8%, on Friday to $15.23, a four-year low, on a day when the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.6%. Countrywide shares have lost 64% this year.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...lines-business
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Old October 21st, 2007 #4
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"I'm livid at this point," Voeglie said in a telephone interview from Jasper, Ga., where she is living with her son. "I feel Levitt & Sons have Jewed me royally!"

It's been my experience that when a builder this big is into his lenders -- five of them in this case -- for this much debt, and only one month in arrears on his interest payments, they will work with him and do what's necessary to restructure, consolidate and save the project. Banksters do not want these unfinished projects, especially not in the current glutted housing market with all the foreclosures resulting from predatory lending.

This Jew outfit, Levitt, is credited with giving birth to "urban sprawl" with huge tracts of homes financed with low interest Veteran Administration loans extended to returning GIs after WWII: http://www.hoovers.com/levitt-and-so...actsheet.xhtml Think Levittown, the birth of an alleged "American Dream" that in hindsight should have been aborted: http://server1.fandm.edu/levittown/default.html

The brainchild of developer William J. Levitt, Levittown, Pennsylvania was the largest planned community constructed by a single builder in the United States. By the time it was completed in 1958, the development occupied over 5500 acres in lower Bucks County and included churches, schools, swimming pools, shopping centers and 17,311 single-family homes.

To its 70,000-plus residents, Levittown represented the American Dream of homeownership. To many others, Levittown epitomized postwar suburbia—a place often criticized but widely copied.

In honor of its 50th anniversary, this exhibit explores the early history of Levittown from the perspective of those who built and lived the suburban dream.


So, while the Levitt's cool their jets from mansions afar in sunny Fort Lauderdale, Cherokee County, GA, is crawling with thousands of their invasive low-cost, out-of-work Mexican laborers who are not migrants, but permanent "undocumented Americans" who just love the area and are squatting only Gawd knows where, doing only Gawd knows what. Atlanta needs burning and selectively cleansed again! And Levittown, and Ft. Lauderdale and...

Last edited by White Will; October 21st, 2007 at 12:21 PM.
 
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