And of course BEM, The Man (I think) Who Started It All. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I heard about his original blog on KTVZ during Winter 2005-06. Those were good times. We were fighting a completely lopsided, uphill battle. For every RE bear, there were at least 10 ravenous bulls, and I regularly got whaled on for even THINKING that Bend would EVER experience gains under 25%, much less slow down or go down.
Anyone remember Life Is Good? He was actually a well-spoken bull, who at times, broke down & felt the need to just whale on me & others. He was the quintessential Perma-Optimist. He simply refused to accept that Bend would succumb to anything negative. Well, hopefully he's still alive & kickin'. I sort of wish far more True Believer Bulls would leave comments. I know those types have probably largely FINALLY given in to the idea that Bend is NOT immune from the downward spiral that is swallowing the US residential home market, and there are just not many unabashed bulls left. Maybe that's why: A year ago they could make a case, now they just sound like idiots. Oh well.
Anyway, there is a poll in the Bulletin about the Top 10 stories in Bend in 2007. It is a 1-to-10 choice, 1 being most important, 10 least, from a limited array of stories (actually hosted by a site called Zommerang). I figure it would at least be interesting to enumerate them, and throw in my 2 cents. I will list them in order as posted in the poll.
1) After soaring for several years, Central Oregon real estate market joins in the national decline
Paul-doh's rating: 3
Maybe I'm compensating for what I know are inherent biases, but a few things kept this from being an easy "1". First medians held pretty firm. Granted it is damn near impossible to realize any sort of sale at any price post-subprime & Alt-A implosion, but I was very surprised about how firm prices held. I may actually lose a bet to BendBB on this count. Instead of fairly firm pricing & falling prices, which is what we had, I really thought we'd have constant volumes & falling prices.
But the market actually deteriorated in a way that is far more detrimental to the industry. No volume at any price. In a way this is worse than my prediction. Would you rather have a 1 in 5 chance of making $10, or a 1 in 20 chance of making $15? I would take the former, and that's what I thought we'd have visa ve Bend housing, but we in fact have the latter. The former odds ensure a "vital" marketplace, because people can make quasi-informed bets & hope to win. The latter marketplace ultimately will bankrupt any participants that choose to participate. Bend is the latter.
Bend's RE market will ultimately be THE most important story in Central Oregon history, but it will probably become so via a long, Long series of 3's & 2's, not catastrophic, one-time 1's.
What may ultimately be more important, or at least as important, than the Bend RE meltdown, is the actual ACKNOWLEDGMENT by Bend media that it is even happening. I tip my hat to The Bulletin for actually listing this as a possible choice, AND listing it first.
2) Awbrey Butte woman’s clothesline becomes focal point for national environmental debate
Paul-doh's rating: 2
I actually thought this was more important as the Bend RE meltdown, because it focused WORLDWIDE attention on the absolute sleaziness & hypocrisy of many so-called "Green Bendites", including Hollern & Brooks Resources. Of course my vote for slimiest, sleaziest hypocrite in Bend history is Randy Sebastian, whose forearms I smote with the flesh-eating virus every night before I went to bed.
This story put Worldwide focus on a shameful aspect of Bend that is clear to see for anyone here, but is obscured as much as is humanly possible with glossy magazine covers, and massive PR/Marketing campaigns, all of which is taxpayer funded, of course.
The secondary, between-the-lines story here, is that as ANY place becomes more densely crowded, there starts a dog-eat-dog mentality: resources become scarce, or at least it feels that way, and human ugliness comes out in high-relief. This is always apparent in big cities, where there is no vigilant, and I mean VIGILANT, law enforcement. Look at Detroit. This story is a product of HUMAN HIGH-DENSITY LIVING. People start becoming intolerant. It's a natural process. Unfortunately, look for it to continue & actually become a reason people start to leave Bend, which is why it trumps the RE implosion in importance.
3) Bicyclist Kimberly Potter is killed in a hit-and-run crash, and four men face charges related to the case
Paul-doh's rating: 7
Not much to say, other than this was Cali-fueled insanity come to Bend. Sleaze, drugs, crime, all part & parcel of growing.
4) Broken Top Club members win the battle over club’s ownership
Paul-doh's rating: 8
I know, I'm supposed to think this is important, but I didn't really give a crap about this. It ultimately never came to anything, and only rich, white, gated B-Toppers gave a darn about their serenity being spoiled. If I lived in BT, maybe this would have been a "4". Had the carnival & ferris wheel come to fruition? This would have cranked up by 3-4 spots.
5) Bend man flies across Eastern Oregon in balloon-powered lawn chair
Paul-doh's rating: 5
Hey, this was a fun story! Nutty bastard flew a lawnchair over Oregon for God's sake! It's not going to change the World, but this was, with the laundry flap, the only national news covering Central Oregon.
6) Cessna buys Bend-based Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Co.
Paul-doh's rating: 1
I thought this was the most important story of the year. Well, at least a broadened & more generic version of this story.
First of all, Cessna bought Columbia, BECAUSE IT WENT BROKE. Columbia Aircraft going BROKE was The Story of the Year in Bend, or more broadly, Bend Industry Began A Long, Lingering Collapse. THAT is The Story Of The Year. The absolutely CRIPPLING EFFECTS of high real estate prices seeping into every nook & cranny of our economy became apparent. And this is only the tip of this iceberg.
Think about it: San Fran & other places have persistently high home prices, but they also HAVE INCOMES to support those prices (at least they have for about 15-20 years). We DO NOT. We have crap jobs, like housekeeping, landscaping, and cooks & waiters. High-paying, stable jobs WILL MAKE OR BREAK the RE market here. But what COULD be funneled into higher paying jobs, is being siphoned off by landlords. It's not greed per se, they just have to make a profit, like anyone else. So the inverse of what NEEDS to happen to keep RE firmly priced, is what is actually happening: We are creating shit jobs ($7.90/hr + tips) at a lovely rate, while REAL JOBS are running away at an alarming rate.
And note the DIRECT AND INVIABLE relationship between high wages & low RE "payments": Cessna said they would keep Columbia in Bend ONLY IF they got a huge break on rent. Less to landlord equals more to employees & owners. THIS IS THE PRIMARY & FUNDAMENTAL EQUATION OF BEND'S ECONOMY FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS. If RE doesn't come down, hard & fast, we will go broke.
7) Deschutes County proposes property owners between Sunriver and Klamath County border upgrade septic systems
8) Direct air service begins from Redmond Airport to Las Vegas
Paul-doh's rating: 10+
Huh? Who gives a shit about these two? BFD. Should not even be on the list.
9) Fight over two proposed destination resorts near the Metolius River invades the Legislature
Paul-doh's rating: 6
Another story that is only important from the precedent that it sets, and the idea that there is starting to be some backlash against mega-resorts populating every bare inch of pristine forest left in this place. Everyone who comes here wants to slam the barn door after their ass, but it's starting to gain traction sufficient to actually gain legislative attention.
Again, had this been stated more broadly as the Slowdown & Possible Collapse of Mega-Resort Building All Over Cent OR, I would rank this higher, maybe a 3.
10) Madras native Jacoby Ellsbury helps Red Sox win the 2007 World Series
Paul-doh's rating: 3
What can I say, I'm a sucker for a feel-good story! I felt this was a win for Warm Springs & native Americans in an arena they have not excelled at much. I thought this was a real "Colin Powell" moment for a lot of people, who really need a hero. Is there anyone who didn't feel real damn good about this story? C'mon! I thought this was a great one!
11) Oregon Legislature creates domestic partnerships for same-sex couples
Paul-doh's rating: 8
Who cares about a bunch of fags getting married? Yeah, FAGS. And maybe militant liberals and political-correctness Nazi's. Maybe this would rank higher had this not been undone this week by the Feds.
12) Property owners and public officials debate the expansion of Bend’s urban growth boundary, which dictates the areas for future growth
Paul-doh's rating: 4
This is the chokehold on bringing down prices on raw land in Bend. Should have been 3X as much, should have encouraged sprawl on a massive basis. Would it have uglified Bend? Hell yes! But the uglification of Bend is now going to happen anyway, it will just be uglified by upscale Yuppie crap service businesses that fail at n alarming rate & provide no living wage jobs.
13) Redmond hits some milestones of growth with opening of a Wal-Mart Supercenter, Home Depot and construction of Lowe’s and the Highway 97 reroute
Paul-doh's rating: 2
What? 2? Redmond? Wal-Mart?
I know. But this garners a "2" on the "Redmond Rising" theme. Redmond is actually Doing The Right Thing. They are expanding come hell or high water, uglifying an area without the preconceived Preserve Beauty At All Costs futility-laden idea that seem to imbue Bends City Fathers & most of its citizens.
Redmond is IT. Redmond doesn't give a shit about that soft-headed crap. Redmond will mow down Bend & it's artsy, fartsy anti-business, everyone is a non-profit or service business model. Madras & Prineville are too far away & too small. Sisters will implode simply due to inane prices. This leaves Redmond, which is going to KICK ASS.
14) Relationship between City of Bend and Juniper Ridge developers falls apart
Paul-doh's rating: 5
This soap opera was important only to the extent that it shone an uncomfortable light on the sleazy underbelly of Bend City Council & other ILLEGAL actions by said councilors. 2007 marked a year when the old boy network ran aground on the shores of progressively more acute PERCEIVED SHORTAGES created by the RE bubble. The piranha started to eat each others.
15) Six broken-down Bend Area Transit buses sit while City of Bend sues company that sold them
Paul-doh's rating: 2
Similar to the previous story, this one cast an unfavorable light on the dysfunctional nature of this city's inner workings. No due-diligence, no nothing, just DO IT NOW. Ultimately cost the city manager his job. This one is more broadly about the FLAGRANT WASTE of taxpayer monies. Should have included the cripple ramps, and other old-boy bullshit projects that infect virtually every decision made by the 100% CORRUPT CITY COUNCIL. This will maybe become a "1", when our beloved town ultimately goes broke. 2008? Maybe.
16) State returns largest kicker in history to taxpayers
17) Teenager Tyler Eklund paralyzed while snowboarding
18) The Tradition, a major PGA tournament, comes to Crosswater Club in Sunriver
Paul-doh's rating: 10
Yawn, double yawn, and triple yawn. Why Eklund made the news is still a mystery to me, I guess just endless PR by the parents for want of a new double-wide. Of the 3, the "Crosswater" golf story is important to the extent that it illustrates WHY marketing & PR money spent on promoting One Time Events is a waste of money: It was hailed as a BOON for local hospitality & restaurants & RE. Was it? Hell no! Short-lived, fleeting, and all but forgotten. Maybe -- MAYBE-- it sold one house. Millions blown to sell one house. Worth it? According to Bend Visitors Bureau, I'm sure they will justify such money-hemorrhaging efforts till the cows come home. As will the city. Maybe I should rank that higher, simply because it illustrates well a mentality that'll bust this town.
19) Tire baron Les Schwab dies
Paul-doh's rating: 4
I don't know, I just think this guy achieved singlehandedly an incredible amount for the city of Prineville, more than anyone else in history. He WAS Prineville in my mind. Just picture Priney w/o Les Schwab, and you got a markedly different place. His death was mainly symbolic in nature to LS, as virtually all operating decisions had gone to others, but Les Schwab was probably the most important business person in Central Oregon over the past 50 years.
20) Voters approve Measure 49, narrowing impact of M-37 property rights law
Paul-doh's rating: 6
This was important mainly because it undid something that could have left a lifetime blighting on virtually ALL of Oregon. Since many filed & got M37 approval, we'll still see a lot of ass-ugly & financially idiotic projects go up. Maybe. Since rationality has returned in some measure to the development trade, most of these will go down in flames, Thank God. M37 was a potential LIFETIME deal-breaker for Oregon. Blighting this place with pock-marked development would have driven many, including me, from Oregon ultimately.
And that's it!
I know, I know, I was supposed to be rabidly anti-RE, and all that. But I think putting RE before the perilous state of living wage jobs is putting the cart before the horse. A Healthy RE Market is the product of Good Jobs, NOT THE CAUSE!
We need to focus on attracting living wage jobs. Someone earning 125% of the median wage in Deschutes county cannot afford 93% of the homes here. THAT will be the death knell of this place. We are attracting $8/hr jobs just fine. But that simply ensures a mass influx of illegal immigrants visa ve Whitey. It also ensures gold-rush shacks will be inhabited by 25 people, not 3-4. Crime, unemployment and the like will go up. Quality of life will go down. It's already happening. We're already seeing stories whose real driving cause is HYPER-DENSITY LIVING. This ALWAYS causes problems. People NEED space, and when they don't have it, they turn on each other.And don't think the Bend media BS machine has stopped either, after a heinous year of being called to the mat on LIE-PACKED stories. The Dec 26 story in The Bulletin, was case in point:
Remodeling business is booming
Area contractors don’t feel pinch of industry downturn
I mean, you can tell the gist of the story solely by the headline, and it's available in it's totality online, so I'll spare you the slimey excerpts. But contrast it to the following blog post by Bend refugees who moved to Baker City:
A slowdown in Bend
December 22, 2007A group of guys came into the restaurant last night who knew Whitey from when we lived in Bend. They had heard that we opened our place, and sought us out while in town for work. What kind of work?
Construction.
JP said that he and his crew have been out of work, and he was able to find a job in Baker City. So they’re staying at a local hotel while doing a house remodel, and that they plan on coming back in a couple of months for another big job. He said that Bend has changed; whereas he used to turn away jobs because he was so busy, now everyone he knows in the business is scrambling for work.
Now, I know for a fact that there are perfectly capable contractors that live here in Baker. Knowing that this crew had to travel, pay for a hotel, and eat out every day while they are here makes me wonder how competitive their bid was to convince someone to not hire someone in area.
Right. According to the Bulletin, the remodeling biz is chugging right along. Modus operandi for justifying such BS is SOP: Find idiot who will say just about anything to get free PR, and conduct lopsided interview based on 1 observation.There is a VERY INTERESTING quote in the piece that highlights how The Bulletin has chosen to cover the total & complete collapse of Bend's primary industry: AMBIVALENCE:
Whether there’s more or less money, overall, going into local remodels than there has been in recent years is hard to say, but companies that have specialized in remodels for years say they are seeing little drop-off in activity.
Is it going up? Down? Well, let's just say IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT. I've started to see this in more & more stories. Look for this sort of language to permeate Bend RE coverage.
"Where's the industry going?"
"IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT."
When things were going well, or even starting to flatten out, by God, there was no end to the number of interviewees that predicted nothing but nosebleed acceleration to the upside. Now that shit has completely hit the fan?
"IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT."
That's what I call fair & balanced.
Now to end the year on an upnote, THIS has my vote for best story of the year. Paul-doh had to fight back a lump in his throat on this one:
Happy Holidays All.
88 comments:
Woof! Sorry about the heinous fontification! My Lord, once I pasted in that video, it all went to hell on me.
Best Craiglist Post Ever!
$599000 Worst house in Bend
Reply to: hous-523354590@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-12-30, 7:51AM PST
I'm completely embarrassed. I never realized how undesirable our home is. I apologize to anyone that's visited it. We only wish our friends would have told us just how miserable of a place it really is. PRESS RELEASE: The home is available under market price @ $599,000 for immediate sale. 3 bedroom , 2.5 bath, 2071 square feet. Builders own personal home. Built in 2006. This is a great opportunity to own a unique home in one of the most desirable areas on Bend's westside. It's located within a few blocks of everything downtown has to offer,Newport Market, Nancy P's Bakery,Deschutes River,Drake Park, Deschutes Brewery.
I'll consider trades of value for partial or all of the asking price & discount for a cash/clean deal.
Now that's funny. Glad I could immortalize it before it is (probably) removed.
Please contact: Paul 541-419-4403
Now that's funny. Glad I could immortalize it before it is (probably) removed.
Ooops, that was my comment about it, not a part of the posting.
Predictions for 2008.
Mega developments like Awbrey Butte, of Brooks Resources will start fucking home owners.
HOA's will go astronomical.
Brooks could have modified the home-owner charter in 2007 regarding the 'clothesline', but he didn't for fear that might open the pandora's box of change. Start letting home-owners in Brooks Developments know that they can 'modify' their HOA Constitution and the Brooks Retirement Plan just might implode, we can't have that.
Soon all homer-owners will have to re-side and re-roof whether they want to or not, and they must paint the houses.
Brooks Building, Painting, Siding, and Roofing will be the mandatory contractor, and the price will be pulled out of Brooks ass. You can be sure "Brooks Contracting Service", will charge 10X the prevailing rate for maintenance.
For many of these owners, the price of maintenance will exceed what they originally paid for the homes.
This is the FUCK of 2008. It's coming to ALL Brooks Resources developments, and there are 100's in the Bend area.
BUY A FUCKING CONDO IN BEND
Pay for your time-share, say $15,000.
Then pay $500/mo HOA's, whether you use 'your' unit or not.
Then pay another $50/night 'house-keeping' fee, should you actually use 'your' condo.
Then the development owner assesse's you a $30,000 maintenance fee every few years.
WHY IN THE HELL WOULD ANYONE BE SO FUCKING STUPID TO BUY A TIME-SHARE IN BEND, OREGON????
My personal GUESS is that ALL CONDO's in BEND were a GIANT-PONZI scheme, with NO new money coming to CONDO's, and NO new condo's to be BUILT, the ONLY game in TOWN is too FUCK the existing owners.
In time, the money grabbed can be used to 'fix' the condo's, and then dump them to some other new owner, who can then fuck the little-owners even MORE.
It's OVER, everyone now knows that CONDO is a BEND-OREGON scam, and you'll get fucked even being near one. Given that there is NO newbies to fuck, then only the old time low income white-trash folks that bought in the last 20 years can be fucked.
Given that BEND-OREGON is ONLY about fucking retirees out of their last 401K nickel, and given those nickels are running low. It's going to get a lot worse.
Expect to see large "Brooks Resources" Developments start fucking entire neighborhoods like Awbrey, expect to see everyone get a HUGE bill. This is what Broken-Top was recently about, trying to make the oweners of BT homes pay ten's of millions for a GOOF-COURSE they don't USE.
No new money coming to Bend, now you can ONLY fuck those you have trapped. All new development by Brooks Resources will be low-income housing, in order to house, all the broke fuckers that are left to clean toilets for Bend's Rich Tourists.
A kid with Autism play basketball. Is homer trying to bring tears to our eyes? Show his sentimental side? Is this going to be the 2008 new Homer??
I still say its almost time to start being contrarians, we need to start talking about the Bend BULL Bubble, its coming back soon.
This is the story of 2008, about how all of Bends new parks will be 'private', Golf-Courses are OUT! The future is parks that contain NO locals, rednecks, or general riffraff. City-Hall tried to expel the red-necks but failed, so Brooks is now selling 'exclusive nieghborhoods' with 'closed parks'.
North Rim's First Park in Bend Oregon Now Open for Residents
Bend, Oregon; Dec 30 2008
North Rim, a community that features one-acre and larger premier homesites on Bend Oregon's Awbrey Butte (http://www.brooks-resources.com/north_rim.php), today announced the North Rim Park project has been completed. The private park will serve residents of North Rim with a tennis court, picnic seating area, open spaces and trails. The park was designed by Drake Design Group and constructed by Botanical Developments.
Romy Mortensen, vice president of sales and marketing for Brooks Resources Corporation, a Central Oregon real estate (http://www.brooks-resources.com/index.php) developer, which is developing North Rim, said, "This park will be a great amenity for our residents at North Rim and give them a fabulous outdoor space in which to gather and play. We are really pleased with the way the park showcases the native high desert landscaping, which is a key part of the concept of the North Rim community as a whole."
The park features native plantings and rock outcroppings, along with erosion control elements to help stabilize the area on which the project sits. An open round pavilion area sits on the edge of the park, overlooking the Cascade Mountain range and the Deschutes River.
The North Rim Park tennis court was designed and constructed by Cushion Courts of Oregon, which has patented its court building process using a recycled tire surface on asphalt. The recycled tire surface protects the court from the sun's UV rays, keeping it from cracking, as well as providing a low impact surface for players. More information can be found by calling 541.550.0941 or cushiontenniscourts4u@msn.com.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
More About North Rim
At the northern tip of Awbrey Butte inside the city limits of Bend, Oregon, lies the private and serene park-like setting for the North Rim Community (http://www.brooks-resources.com/north_rim.php). Developed by Brooks Resources Corporation, this 200-acre community with minimum one-acre homesites will appeal to those who long for a quiet locale where nature and technology are uniquely blended. North Rim will maintain surroundings that blend into the natural landscape and preserve the unique character of the high desert, while simultaneously providing the first fiber optic connection to an entire residential community in Bend. The spectacular homeowners' lodge, designed by renowned architect Thomas Hacker, is the focal point of the community, giving residents a special place to meet and relax. Residents will appreciate the stunning views and numerous trails that lead through the development to the Deschutes River and its extensive trail system. www.northrimbend.com
Paul, fuck all the haters. I love that story in the video. I work with kids like that all the time, and sometimes magic just happens.
BTW, The "One Flexible Girl" video that showed up as an option after yours ended was hot ;)
This is the problem when you only have 4 fans that use a blog-site.
Put two on vacation, and one has to entertain the relatives, and you have nobody.
Big Zero.
Fuck those that don't love Bend's autistic renters. Fuck all the haters.
Builders own personal home.
Folks, they're ALL the "builder's own home" until they sell it. Well, they should be more truthful, it's the bank's home, or it will be soon.
Nothing like pissing off/insulting potential buyers, eh?
Re: Big Zero.
Hey, you're here!
Remington Ranch will be the next destination resort failure. Pronghorn was given extension on meeting their overnight housing requirement. You will never see a hotel at Pronghorn or Tetherow.
After the Broken Top redevelopment failure, Brenneke left Bend with his tail between his legs. Mountain Gate Crossings is now DOA.
Re:After the Broken Top redevelopment failure, Brenneke left Bend with his tail between his legs. Mountain Gate Crossings is now DOA.
Best thing that could have happened here. Our local rich fucks actually stood up. Inn at the 7th Mtn may be the next win.
why... Why.... WHY!
Why has no one ever mentioned Jakes Diner before? Gat Dang! I had dinner there today, and almost went into a protein coma the hamburger was so gat dang big! Dang, and it was GOOD too. Jakes Megaburger. Holy crap, it was 1/2lb of pure goodness.
Been here 6 years and never been to Jakes... what a crime!
BTW, The "One Flexible Girl" video that showed up as an option after yours ended was hot ;)
Yeah, I saw that too. Nice bonus.
BTW, The "One Flexible Girl" video that showed up as an option after yours ended was hot ;)
Yeah, I saw that too. Nice bonus.
Paul, fuck all the haters. I love that story in the video.
Yeah, Paul-doh got a soft spot for that stuff. And GOOD REPORTING too. Could have been a fairly flat story, but it was well done... Oprah directed, maybe.
Why was that last post doubled?
WHY?
WHY?
Our local rich fucks actually stood up. Inn at the 7th Mtn may be the next win.
*
Bruce PUSSY, INN@7th, will have NOT a fucking thing to do with Bend.
What Pape has DONE is FUCK with the #1 Jewish folk in Oregon, not to tell you your history, cuz me don't know if you from SAC or Provo, BUTT here in Orygun, on the West Side of the Cascades the Hebrew Run the Fucking State, and on the East the Fucking Mormron.
A couple of the MOST influential Jews of PDX got fucked by PAPE in the last year, and they're NOT taking this sitting down.
See the problem, is that all the newbies in Bend, don't understand how Oregon works.
Too much has already been written, but I'll say this When PAPE decided to Bill $20 Million to the some of the Major Jewish Developers of PDX , he/she MADE a major fucking mistake. First of all these folks KNOW how much it costs to re-side, and re-roof a condo, cuz this what they have been doing in PDX, before PAPE even learned to spell condo.
Yes, there will be a win at inn@7th, but will have NOT a fucking thing to do with Bend, it will have to do with the fact that Old-Boyz of Bend, have crossed the fucking boundary, "Beware of WHO you fuck".
I have said before here, and I'll say again, "NEVER FUCK with a Jewish Lawyer, who is working pro-bono for his/her own cause".
Perhap's they'll not win the +50% of HOA majority, but they will win the lawsuit. What I like best is THEY'RE NOT suing the Fucking LLC, e.g. INNsprir... they're suing PAPE.
This is a sign to COME for ALL those who have been fucked in Bend, ALL Hollern's LLC's are worth a SHIT, when the lawsuit is to Hollern.
Summary, this is da shit dat happens when bubbles implode.
Moses,
Been here 6 years and never been to Jakes... what a crime!
*
What about the 10LB bugger @ Pilot Butt?? That's a lot of dead cow.
Also there is the 8LB Burrito @ taco-shack, ...
I have said before here, and I'll say again, "NEVER FUCK with a Jewish Lawyer, who is working pro-bono for his/her own cause".
I ran a search on that phrase, and found nothing. I found something about "boning a Jewish lawyer just 'cause", but nothing else.
First medians held pretty firm
HOMER, First of ALL medians Don't MEAN SHIT. We have NO idea of what stuff is selling for in Bend, because NAR data is based on recorded closings, and they're all fucking FUNNY-NUMBER's. Again for the sixth time in a week, lets look at the "David Kidd" lot purchase @ Tetherow.
He paid $300k in REAL-MONEY (BofA Loan), but they recorded the SALE as $750K. This is WHY the Bend medians have held, because the cunts that RUN BEND RE will do anything to hold up the medians.
***
1) After soaring for several years, Central Oregon real estate market joins in the national decline
Paul-doh's rating: 3
Maybe I'm compensating for what I know are inherent biases, but a few things kept this from being an easy "1". First medians held pretty firm
The 'problem' with Bend Medians, is all you LAZY RENTER CUNT, are TOO lazy to use the real data on all suspected SALES,
If I actually cared about this issue, what I would do from a scientific point of view would be to go back an look at the actual amount of CASH that the bank brought to the came. That would be the trend I would look at.
There was a report a few weeks ago that over 50% of all transactions, now have over 20% kick-backs to increase the recorded closing price. This means that the BUYER actually is paying on AVERAGE 20% less than what is being recorded, and thats just the average.
In a place like Bend, far more than 20% is being padded to the recorded sale price, BEND RE CUNT would like NOTHING MORE than to show that BEND RE went UP during the RE bubble collapse.
Thus until you lazy renter cunt, start thinking like an owner and look at REAL fucking cost to an OWNER, you'll continue to be SUCKING NAR/NRL COCK.
It's NOT just this group, its all these blogs nationally, they're all hosted and occupied by smug renters, who not only don't have a bone in the game, but don't have a clue of how the game is played, because they have not real-world experience. They ONLY KNOW what the BULL tell's them.
I ran a search on that phrase, and found nothing. I found something about "boning a Jewish lawyer just 'cause", but nothing else. - homer
*
Leave it to Homer to get a Boner, when 'jewish lawyer' is mentioned.
Inn@7th is a good Bend story, of which I had been writing about here for almost a year. In many ways to reflects the stupidity in everyone's love of Medians. When PAPE bought the inn@7 back in 2004, the prices collapsed 80% because of the 20X increase in HOA/mo. Did this show up in MEDIAN? NADA
Dozens of the MOST influential Jews of PDX, including #1 developers, and #1 lawyers, bought these CONDO's at 15% of VALUE. They accepted the $1k/mo HOA, because PAPE promised it would be temporary, and that it would be used to re-side the condos'. It never happened, now two years later, PAPE is trying to get the owner's to pay for the Restaurant being remodeled.
PAPE, Widgi Boyz, MT-B Village and Tetherow are now going to be shown how worthless their LLC's are.
Bend is about FUCKING dimwit cali renters, who come up here and BUY a crap-shack or CONDO. The 'lucky' hairlips that run this town, have been real lucky fucking CALI's. Now things will turn.
(1) Bypass the FUCKING LLC's go straight the neck of the Vampire by naming PAPE in the lawsuit, rather than INNspried,LLC.
(2) Developers selling HOA's wholesale, and then pulling monthly HOA's and maintenance fee's out of their ASS will now be questioned by all.
The easy days are over for Bend's Developers.
No more trailer trash to fuck, no more calis to BUY crap-shack time-shares, this means that most of downtown bend will close as its all crap-shack sales orfices.
I love that story in the video. I work with kids like that all the time, and sometimes magic just happens. - bruce
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I agree watching bruce shoot those ball's through that ring brought tears to my eyes.
6) Cessna buys Bend-based Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Co.
Paul-doh's rating: 1
I thought this was the most important story of the year.
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This story was BULLshit, first of all "columbia" was 100% owned by Malayasia, it was simply easy oil money being parked in the USA. Given UNLIMITED access to capital, the 'investors' pulled the plug on the pig, and Cessna bought the scraps, or I should say DEBT for penny's on the dollar.
If NOT for stupid foreign investors, there would never have been a Columbia, those days are over, money is now dear, there will be no more 'columbias' coming to Bend. With the coming recession, and the loss of easy money to rich hobbyists sales of this type of aircraft will drop.
This wasn't even a story, sort of like making "accident on I97", into #1 story.
The #1 story's in Bend, were not even covered by the BULL in 2007.
Homer,
Another fucking comment, on your premise that somehow fucking columias demise was tied to expensive real-estate.
Not a fucking thing to do with on another. The Malaysian Government decided to quit bleed, and quit handing Columbia Cash, at that same instance Garmin the maker of electronic navigation, quit giving Colubmia Credit, Columbia owed Garmin $10M. Garmin said NO fucking more debt, and Malaysia told Columbia no fucking more cash.
Not a FUCKING thing to do with Bend Real Estate.
The ONLY profitable business model for Bend is Juniper-Ridge Prison, under Garzini, where 1,000's of $1.20/hr slave-laborers make Bend economically competitive. Housing is NOT a problem, to quote Garzini "Prisons are just like Hotels, except that prisons are always fully occupied".
It's always been CHEAPER to rent in Bend, as long as I can remember.
$500/mo for an apartment
$750/mo for a house
Always been this way, the only people who buy homes in Bend are people with money, and in Bend, now that nothing-down loans are gone, buying a home is NOT an option for Bends Sea of Renters.
Homer, With Our RE-Ho's this could be any of them, if our BULL reported, the following is the kind of storys we would be reading in Bend, OR.
Flame out
30 Dec 2007, Tracy CA
Leesa Ward was once a thriving real estate agent, but her business is now closed and her career seems to have ended in a string of lawsuits.
Image
The Ward Real Estate office at 11th Street and Central Avenue has sat empty for months. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press
The lobby and front counter at Ward Real Estate and Foreclosure Inc. are expensively overlaid in granite. But the marble fountain that faces the glass double-doors is dry, and the office plants that decorate the foyer are dusty and neglected.
Out front, a stack of uncollected phone books sits at one side of the entrance, and trash overflows from a standing ash tray nearby.
The property on the corner of Central Avenue and 11th Street used to house a company owned by one of Tracy’s most successful Realtors — 42-year-old Leesa Ward.
But with little notice late last year, she dropped out of sight, leaving behind a stack of unfinished business and a handful of lawsuits. The few properties left to her name have slid into default.
Neighbors, former colleagues and a slew of past clients wonder where Ward went — and why.
It’s clear she left behind a tangle of angry customers, employees and colleagues — and at least one who may have sought revenge nearly five months ago by detonating a pipe bomb that shattered a window at her abandoned office.
Police don’t know who placed it or why, according to Lt. Ken Bunch, the Tracy police officer who handled the incident.
Judging by the number of allegations against Ward, though, the perpetrator could have been an upset investor or homebuyer, or a disgruntled former employee.
ward
Leesa Ward
About 10 former coworkers and acquaintances were interviewed for this story, but most refused to be named.
The story they tell, which is backed by public records, is one of a woman who extravagantly rebuilt an office that fronted a failing business, lured investors — and ultimately left a trail of lawsuits in the wake of a career that collapsed with the housing market.
Ward, along with her business partner and sister, Athena Handleson, sold $1 million in shares to local investors beginning in August 2005, according to a notice from the state that charged Ward and Handleson with misleading investors. The team promised to use the money to buy “foreclosure properties, homes in distress (and) fixer-uppers,” said the statement, signed by California Corporations Commissioner Preston Dufauchard.
Handleson did not return phone calls, and Ward could not be found for comment.
But according to the state Department of Corporations’ Desist and Refrain Order, Ward said she would renovate and resell the homes at a profit, then return the surplus to investors.
State investigators allege that Ward and Handleson lied about their ability to repay investors the promised interest and further misled them about how the money would be used. Instead of buying homes to flip for resale, Ward used the money to pay her top staffers and pay off some of her personal expenses, the state’s notice reads.
Ward promised shareholders that even when her company’s profit dropped to nothing, they would “take none of that risk,” the documents said. But everyone who bought stock in Ward’s company either lost their money entirely or got next to no return. Furthermore, no one involved in Ward Real Estate had a legal license to sell stocks in the first place, according to the state.
Ward and Handleson were barred from selling any more stock in California as of Nov. 28.
The state’s ban is one of several cases against her, her company and some of the people she worked with.
Tracy resident Kenneth Rines, along with his wife, Tami Rines, a former agent of Ward’s, will take Ward to court the first week of February for an alleged breach of contract.
The elusive Ward has another hearing in April for a lawsuit filed by a former receptionist, Danielle Young, who claims sexual harassment. Ward’s close friend and co-worker, Alison Jensen, is jointly named with Ward in the suit.
Another lawsuit has been filed by two homebuyers who claim that agents who worked for Ward’s company lied about their home’s value.
As little as a year and a half ago, few people would have predicted the agent’s career would end so abruptly.
Some of the 15 agents who worked in the Ward office say they had no idea the company had operated briefly on money from investors or that the company was poised to collapse.
But things weren’t always so dire for the vanished Ward.
She got her start in real estate in the late 1980s, on the brink of the housing market crash a few years later. Her career took off on the steps of the San Joaquin County Courthouse, where she bought foreclosed homes with money she’d earned from her own commissions, well before refurbishing bank-owned and abandoned properties was “the thing to do,” said Tracy Realtor Bill Barringer.
A former assistant of Ward’s said she was bright and successful. The assistant worked for Ward for 10 years but asked that her name be withheld to avoid any association with her.
“She was very smart when it came to real estate,” the assistant said. “She was a sort of prodigy in the business (and) had a lot of foresight.”
Born Leesa Marie Poulos in Michigan in 1965, Ward grew up in a Greek-American family with her two sisters, Athena and Maria Poulos, who years later became business partners through Ward’s shuttered business.
She moved to the Bay Area with her mother and sisters as a child and went to high school in San Jose.
Young and ambitious, Ward moved to Tracy in her early 20s, with her first husband, Walt Wehrle. The couple had their first child, Taylor, soon after Ward got her real estate license and just a few years after they’d settled in Tracy.
Despite her newcomer status, Ward had little trouble wooing clients.
In a few short years after getting her start, Ward found her niche in real estate — “flipping” foreclosed homes. Her winning bids on cheap, bank-owned properties earned her a name in the business — and a consistent six-figure income during her first decade as an agent, remembered a former co-worker.
“She made a comfortable living,” Ward’s former assistant said. “Nothing lavish, but she did well for herself.”
Ward was still in her early 20s when she earned her broker’s license, and in 1989, she got her start as an agent at Century 21 Realty in Tracy.
Her good looks and friendly personality helped secure her place as a well-liked and respected agent. Her peers thought well of her, and young as she was, she had little trouble securing clients.
Several acquaintances remember her as a devout Christian, who loved to help people. One former co-worker, who declined to be named, said she volunteered at various nonprofits, including a stint as a board member for the Pregnancy Resource Center in Tracy. She also donated large sums of money to the San Francisco-based Women’s Community Clinic, which provides health care to uninsured women.
“She really did want to help people, whether it was to give them a leg up in life or give them a good deal on a home,” said the longtime assistant. “Success was simple for her.” Ward worked her way up from Century 21 to sole Realtor at a startup company called Albright Real Estate.
It was during her time at Albright that she met her second husband, Tom Ward, a city engineer who was working to redevelop 11th Street, where the Albright office used to be, said Ward’s former assistant, who worked with her at Albright. The couple had two children together — a son in 1997 and a daughter in 1999. They divorced in 2001, less than a decade after they met.
Neither Tom Ward nor Walt Wehrle returned phone calls for this story.
From Albright, Ward and her assistant quit and joined Coldwell Bank in 1995, where they stayed for less than a year. The two got another job in late 1995 at ReMax.
Ward invested most of her time and work to refurbish her short sales and foreclosures from the time she started in the early ’90s until about eight years later, when she met a local broker, Kimberley Celeste Ayers, who gave Ward the financial backing to buy, flip and sell even more homes.
Their professional relationship proved successful, and Ward began work under the umbrella of Ayers Investment Group in 1998.
Ward and Ayers got along well enough to eventually form Ayers and Ward Real Estate Lending Inc. The partners bought the old Wells Fargo Bank building at 1034 Central Ave. in 2001 — the one that now collects dust, litter and the occasional loiterer.
But the Ayers partnership was a contentious one. Records show that after a legal battle, the two parted ways. Ayers moved to a branch in Modesto, and, like Ward, apparently left the business once the market took its recent turn for the worse.
“There was a little tension about who was really in charge,” the assistant recalled.
The longtime assistant left the company as an office manager before things started to fall apart. By then, in 2005, Ward Real Estate and Foreclosure, Inc. was a family-run company. Ward, Handleson and her husband, James, and their sister Maria Mekus and her husband, Larry, partnered with Ward to get her business off the ground.
A phone number listed for the Mekuses in Tracy is disconnected.
Meanwhile, Ward’s old street-corner office has changed hands twice since it was closed. It was sold in January to a third-party lender and again in August to a small title company.
'Branding' Prineville and overnight 30 years of inventory - SOLD.
Prineville wants to brand itself. Here's one vote for Schwabville.
Posted by mrollins December 31, 2007 06:44AM
When I think of Prineville, I think of Les Schwab. Not "The Best of Town and Country." Which is what the chamber came up. That I thought of Schwab right away is the problem I think they're trying to solve. So, how about this slogan? "We're the wonderful little town that Bend used to be." The Central Oregonian has the story on the branding efforts.
The subject of branding Prineville was discussed at the Dec. 11 city council meeting by Diane Bohle, executive director of the Prineville Chamber of Commerce. The council voted to grant the chamber $2,500 to proceed with a new branding project that will further solidify Prineville's identity.
Bohle mentioned that around four or five years ago, some forward-thinking members of the chamber felt that Prineville needed an image change.
"So that we could say we're not that small town 40 miles from Bend. We're Prineville," she said. "We wanted to take hold of our identity and express it."
The chamber worked with Ken Atwell, a professor at Central Oregon Community College, who had branded the Seattle Fish Market.
After deliberation by a 50-member panel, the current slogan, "Prineville: The Best of Town and Country," was decided upon.
The slogan was meant to express two things: Prineville's rural, as well as its town heritage.
"It says it quickly, and sums things up. It gives people a mental image of who we are," Bohle said.
Now, the chamber is looking to improve upon Prineville's brand and is waiting on a decision from the county, which will deliberate on the issue Jan. 2.
Bohle stressed the importance of a brand that highlights a city's individuality, while making it attractive to potential visitors.
"We can't forget that cities are competing for lifestyles, we're competing for work force and we're competing for tourism dollars - what's going to make Prineville and Crook County stand out?" she asked.
This morning, a commentator on CNBC pointed out that 1 in 4 or California Realtors sold ZERO properties this year.
I'd love to know the stats for Bend.
So, how about this slogan? "We're the wonderful little town that Bend used to be." The Central Oregonian has the story on the branding efforts.
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"We're the wonderful little town that Bend used to be."
That's it, that should be Priny's 'brand'. Or you can do Walla-Walla'a - "DONT 'BEND' OUR TOWN".
Everywhere in Eastern Washinton/Oregon 'Bend' is synonymous with sodomy, calis, grifters, swindlers, and calis.
Thus Bend brands 'Bend', as the #1 tourist destination in the West!
CNBC pointed out that 1 in 4 or California Realtors sold ZERO properties this year.
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In Bend 1 in 4 has a RE license, but only 10% actually ever did use it, thus you can extrapolate, 2,000 realtors, 200 active. Less than 100 sales per month. That means that the average realtor who is amongst the top-ten is doing one house every two months. These are the lucky dogs.
My high-end top realtors, have all told me months ago ...
"Working 4X as hard as ever, for 1/4 the income" That's been the way of 2007 in Bend.
Most of our 2,000 realtors are 'retired' calis, that came up here to retire, with the idea that they could make some spending money on RE. The one in ten are the Becky-Breeze types that do the work, or Sandy-Coleman, who use to be #1 @ Coldwell.
Sandy Coleman was always top 1% of the Bend RE pool.
Can our RE geeks tell us which realtors are doing the closing's by name?? Find out how many sandy has closed using here as reference and then divide her sales by ten to get the top-performer, and then by 100 to get the third tier.
Given less than a 100 a month, there's not much data out there.
Note a lot of the RE deals that are closing, are contractor sales where a realtor isn't even involved, so in terms of sales it would be interesting to differentiate MLS sales, versus direct new-home super-deal giveaways, which I think is what is really selling.
The builders are desperate and will to go below cost. The existing cannot generally go down, and then there are the foreclosures, how many of our 80 sales a months are foreclosures??
I don't pay attention to these stats for all the fucking time that BENDBB & HOMER and all the 'renters' at BENDBB study this data they should be able to answer these questions "TIMMY", as your one of them.
This is the 'mother-source', so I'm giving all you Einsteins the Raw Feed. The gist is DUMBYA got ten's of millions to let the sub-prime create the mechanism for his second-term. Best of all this from the WSJ, in the coming weeks you'll here more KEYWORD(S): Ameritrade, DUMBYA(twisted-little-shrub), CASH
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Lender Lobbying Blitz
Abetted Mortgage Mess
Ameriquest Pressed
For Changes in Laws;
A Battle in New Jersey
By GLENN R. SIMPSON
December 31, 2007; Page A1
During the housing boom, the subprime industry succeeded at more than just writing mortgages. It also shot down efforts by some states to curtail risky lending to borrowers with spotty credit.
Ameriquest Mortgage Co., until recently one of the nation's largest subprime lenders, was at the center of those battles. Working with a husband-and-wife team of Washington lobbyists, it handed out more than $20 million in political donations and played a big role in persuading legislators in New Jersey and Georgia to relax tough new laws. Those victories, in turn, helped blunt efforts by other states to crack down on reckless lending, critics of the industry contend.
THE SUBPRIME LOBBY
• The Threat: Subprime lenders worried about a wave of restrictive new laws from state legislatures.
• The Reaction: In New Jersey and Georgia, lenders lobbied and made political donations, helping to defeat legislation.
• The Result: Changes that might have protected homeowners who are now in foreclosure were rolled back.
Home loans made by Ameriquest and other subprime lenders are defaulting now in large numbers, roiling global credit markets and sparking debate about whether regulators and lawmakers should have anticipated the mess and taken action. A close look at Ameriquest's lobbying and political donations shows how the subprime industry maneuvered to defeat legislation that might have contained some of the damage.
Executives at Ameriquest, based in Orange, Calif., acknowledge that the company lobbied heavily against state lending restrictions, but say that other subprime lenders did so as well. In fact, a host of subprime lenders and banking trade groups, including Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Countrywide Financial Corp. and the Mortgage Bankers Association, spent heavily on lobbying and political giving.
Ameriquest, a unit of ACC Capital Holdings, has stopped making new subprime loans, and it has sold some operations and is winding down others. It is now a defendant in hundreds of lawsuits alleging mortgage fraud.
Data from federal and state campaign-finance records, Internal Revenue Service filings, and the National Institute on Money in State Politics show that from 2002 through 2006, Ameriquest, its executives and their spouses and business associates donated at least $20.5 million to state and federal political groups. In comparison, over the same time period, Countrywide Financial, another large subprime lender, gave about $2 million in campaign gifts, and spent an additional $6.7 million lobbying in Washington, records indicate.
[Roland Arnall]
Some of the giving by Ameriquest executives and associates was high-profile. President Bush received more than $200,000 for his 2004 re-election campaign, and Ameriquest founder Roland Arnall and his wife, Dawn, contributed more than $5 million to political organizations that backed the president. Last year, President Bush appointed Mr. Arnall ambassador to the Netherlands, and his wife took over as chairman of Ameriquest's parent company. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaigns received at least $1.4 million, along with stacks of tickets to a Rolling Stones concert that were used to lure big donors. A spokesman for Gov. Schwarzenegger said his decisions are not influenced by campaign contributions. Mr. Arnall declined to comment. The White House said Mr. Arnall was nominated because of his qualifications.
Much of Ameriquest's efforts took place below the national radar, at the state level. State legislatures wanted to crack down on so-called predatory lending, which refers to the use of deceptive or unfair practices in the sale of high-interest loans, often to low-income borrowers who can't afford them. In New Jersey, for example, lawmakers passed a strong predatory-lending law in 2003 that made it difficult for Ameriquest to continue doing business there.
[Wright Andrews]
Washington lobbyist Wright Andrews and his wife, Lisa, coordinated much of the industry's lobbying. Mr. Andrews's firm, Butera & Andrews, collected at least $4 million in fees from the subprime industry from 2002 through 2006, congressional lobbying reports indicate. Mr. Andrews didn't represent Ameriquest directly. He ran three different subprime-industry trade groups: the National Home Equity Mortgage Association, of which Ameriquest was a member; the Coalition for Fair and Affordable Lending, which spent $6.3 million lobbying against state laws before it dissolved earlier this year, according to federal filings; and the Responsible Mortgage Lending Coalition.
[Money Trail]
In 2003, Lisa Andrews was appointed senior vice president for government affairs at Ameriquest. Her public-relations firm, Washington Communications Group Inc., claims credit on its Web site for coordinating the industry's victory in New Jersey, as well as its overall strategy at the state level. Ms. Andrews left Ameriquest in 2005 and returned to her firm..
Ameriquest was founded by Mr. Arnall in 1979 as Long Beach Savings & Loan. He later shed all of the thrift's operations except its retail-mortgage unit, which he renamed Ameriquest. During the refinancing boom of the 1990s, Ameriquest became a player in the business of lending to low-income homeowners. The company persuaded many homeowners to take cash out of their houses by refinancing them for larger amounts than their existing mortgages. Many of the new loans carried relatively high interest rates.
Settling Claims
Last year, ACC Capital, its parent company, agreed to pay $325 million to settle regulators' claims that it charged excessively high mortgage rates and didn't adequately disclose loan risks. Some of the state attorneys general who signed the settlement, including Greg Abbott of Texas, received campaign donations from the firm. Utah's attorney general, Mark Shurtleff, received a $1,000 contribution and Rolling Stones tickets. A spokesman for Mr. Shurtleff says the attorney general was not directly involved in negotiating the settlement. A spokesman for Mr. Abbott notes that the settlement was also negotiated and approved by 48 other state attorneys general.
Ameriquest also handed out Rolling Stones tickets to state legislators in Georgia, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and California, according to ethics records and local news accounts.
Federal lawmakers didn't pose much of a threat to the subprime industry in recent years. Members of Congress received at least $645,000 in donations from Ameriquest and large sums from other big subprime lenders, Federal Election Commission records indicate. They debated new oversight of the industry, but took no action.
The states were a different matter. "What seemed to be developing in the states was that there was going to be a wave of legislation," Mr. Andrews, the lobbyist, said in an interview.
In 2001, Georgia passed the Fair Lending Act. Among other things, it required lenders to be able to prove that a refinancing of any home loan less than five years old would provide a "tangible net benefit" to the borrower. Ameriquest began lobbying the state legislature to remove that provision, arguing the standard was too vague. Other lenders also complained about the law, as did Fannie Mae, the giant buyer of mortgages.
"Ameriquest was very, very engaged," recalls Georgia state Sen. Vincent Fort, who authored the law. Mr. Fort says that Adam Bass, a lawyer for Ameriquest, lobbied him directly. The state senator says he accused Mr. Bass of victimizing poor minorities, which angered Mr. Bass. A spokesman for Ameriquest, speaking on Mr. Bass's behalf, says the meeting "was a very candid conversation about complex policy issues."
Mr. Andrews, the industry lobbyist, had roots in Georgia. He had attended college and law school there, and in the 1970s, had worked for Sam Nunn, then a U.S. senator from Georgia. Mr. Andrews got involved directly on the subprime matter, lobbying in his capacity as executive director of the Responsible Mortgage Lending Coalition, one of the subprime-mortgage trade groups he ran out of his Washington office. "I wouldn't say it was a huge effort," he says. "We were just part of the overall picture."
[table]
Ameriquest began contributing to Georgia politicians. In December 2001, it donated $2,500 to Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor after he emerged as an influential figure in the debate, according to Georgia State Ethics Commission records. It followed up with another $2,500 in September 2002. Mr. Taylor says he remembers Ameriquest as one of the subprime companies that was lobbying, but doesn't recall meeting anyone from the company or getting the contributions.
In October 2002, Ameriquest announced it would stop doing business in the state until the law changed. Shortly thereafter, Standard & Poor's Corp. announced it would no longer assign credit ratings to many mortgage securities containing subprime loans from Georgia. The ratings agency said that under the new law, such loans, if found to be in violation of the law, might carry legal risk, potentially tainting the securities. Without credit ratings, such securities are virtually unmarketable. The change raised the possibility that subprime lenders would simply stop making loans in Georgia.
The subprime industry mounted a campaign against the Fair Lending Act. Within months, the Georgia Senate voted 29-26 in favor of a new law that eliminated for nearly all loans the tangible-net-benefit requirement opposed by the industry. The state House passed the law, 148-25.
Problems were also developing for the industry in New Jersey. The state Assembly there passed a similar law against predatory lending, the Home Ownership Security Act. It too contained a tangible-net-benefit rule, but it didn't provide much guidance on how the standard would be applied. "The New Jersey law makes it impossible for anyone to be in compliance," Mr. Bass, the Ameriquest lawyer, complained at an industry conference.
In October 2002, Ameriquest and Mr. Andrews's lobbying firm contributed $4,500 to five New Jersey state senators, state campaign reports indicate. The American Financial Services Association, a subprime industry group that included Ameriquest, predicted the law would cause lenders to abandon the state. Nevertheless, in the spring of 2003, the bill passed the state Senate and was signed into law.
At that point, opponents of the new law got some help. Just as it had done in Georgia, Standard & Poor's said it wouldn't rate some securities containing loans from the state. In addition, federal banking regulators issued a series of regulatory orders banning states from applying state consumer-protection rules to federally chartered banks and thrifts, part of a turf battle between federal and state regulators. That put pressure on states to soften predatory-lending rules so federally chartered banks didn't have an advantage over state-chartered ones.
The subprime industry set to work trying to roll back the New Jersey law. The National Home Equity Mortgage Association, one of the subprime groups run by Mr. Andrews, released a survey predicting that the law would reduce mortgages in New Jersey by $4 billion.
Ameriquest and Mr. Andrews's lobbying firm began handing out campaign contributions. Among the recipients were John Adler and Gerald Cardinale, two state senators who had voted for the new law. In October 2003, Mr. Cardinale, a Republican, received a $2,200 donation from Ameriquest, according to state election records. In November 2003, Mr. Adler, a Democrat, received $1,200 from the lobbying firm, the records indicate. In early December, the two senators introduced a bill to make changes sought by the industry.
'Remove Barriers'
"I don't remember ever being lobbied by Ameriquest," says Mr. Cardinale. "I do recall that we were trying to make it easier for folks to be able to access funds. And, in general, I feel it is a good thing for us to remove barriers to people being able to buy homes." He says he doesn't remember receiving any contributions from Ameriquest. "You guys think we know all of our contributors, but that's usually on a staff level. I don't frankly know who Ameriquest is."
Mr. Adler says he doesn't recall meeting anyone from Mr. Andrews's lobbying firm.
That December, Neil Cohen, a state assemblyman who had voted for the new law, received a $500 donation from the lobbying firm, state records show. The Assembly's Financial Institutions Committee, which was headed by Mr. Cohen, offered its own legislation to soften the lending law. Mr. Cohen couldn't be reached for comment.
In 2004, as debate over the predatory-lending law dragged on, Ameriquest and Mr. Andrews's lobbying firm together donated an additional $3,200 to Mr. Cohen, $1,100 to Mr. Cardinale and $1,300 to Mr. Adler, according to state records. Ameriquest gave $10,000 to the Democratic Party in the Assembly, $10,000 to Democrats in the Senate, and $7,000 to Senate Republicans, the records indicate.
Mr. Andrews's wife, Lisa, then head of government affairs at Ameriquest, was also focused on New Jersey. On the Web site of her Washington public-relations firm, she says that she "built a coalition of mortgage brokers, mortgage bankers, appraisers, title companies, and others involved in home mortgage lending to create a grass-roots lobbying campaign that produced 7,000 emails and faxes to state policymakers in a six-week time frame."
Rolling Back
In June 2004, New Jersey's Assembly and Senate unanimously passed bills that rolled back parts of the earlier law, including the tangible-net-benefit rule. Mr. Bass, the Ameriquest lawyer, announced that the company would "be offering a full range of loans in New Jersey." Thousands of New Jersey homeowners subsequently refinanced existing mortgages or took out new loans with Ameriquest before the subprime market tanked. Many of those loans are now in foreclosure.
After the victories in New Jersey and Georgia, the subprime industry and its lobbyists used similar tactics to fend off unfavorable laws in other states. Texas, for example, was debating new restrictions on home appraisers, whose overly generous valuations contributed to subprime-lending problems. ACC Capital, Ameriquest's parent company, and its executives gave more than $350,000 to Texas politicians in 2006, including $100,000 to Gov. Rick Perry, according to state records. No new appraisal restrictions were instituted. A spokesman for Gov. Perry says ACC did not ask for the governor to take any action on behalf of the industry.
In the wake of the collapse of the subprime market, Mr. Andrews's subprime lobbying business has withered. The three trade groups he ran are gone, and most of his subprime clients have stopped lobbying.
"I certainly was not aware of the degree to which many in the industry clearly failed to follow proper underwriting standards -- the standards which they represented they were following to those of us who were lobbying," Mr. Andrews says.
But he also faults the Federal Reserve for letting the industry get out of control.
"Personally, I think and have long felt the Fed should have done more early on," he says. "But I don't think anybody realized the level of problems that were going to come out in the last year or two. If you had said to me the industry was going to melt down, I would have said you were absolutely insane."
YOU are a permanent captive of 'Busters' 24/7 Prison Blog.
This message was paid for by Ron Garzini. Bend City Manager.
Re: Garzini's prison
I'm not so sure this is viable, given that the Madras facility is having a hard time finding enough inmates.
Maybe if we all scream loud enough, and vote, we can save this Juniper Ridge thing for real jobs with real pay yet.
I know, I'm a fucking optimist, but I was born that way. Just as I was born curious and willing to fight.
INNof7th OWNERS WIN - First Time in History of Central-Oregon Little Shits Kick Some ASS - New Day in SHITHOLE BEND
Owners revolt over $17.7 million condo repair bill
Feud - A group claims to oust the family-run board for control of the inn near Bend
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
BRYAN DENSON
The Oregonian Staff
A group of central Oregon condo owners says it narrowly voted out the Inn of the Seventh Mountain's board of directors Monday and promptly killed plans to charge the homeowners nearly $18 million to repair their units.
The vote -- yet to be validated -- likely means a courtroom showdown over the leadership of the high desert resort west of Bend.
At odds are the interests of two owner groups. On one side is the Pape family of Eugene, who has controlled the board and owns about 35 percent of the inn's commercial and residential units. Opposing them are individual condo owners, who recently were told to expect bills of as much as $108,000 each for their share of looming condo repairs.
Elite SODOMISTS in BEND get New Year Enema - What ye shall Sow so shall ye Bend
Owners revolt over $17.7 million condo repair bill
Feud - A group claims to oust the family-run board for control of the inn near Bend
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
BRYAN DENSON
The Oregonian Staff
A group of central Oregon condo owners says it narrowly voted out the Inn of the Seventh Mountain's board of directors Monday and promptly killed plans to charge the homeowners nearly $18 million to repair their units.
The vote -- yet to be validated -- likely means a courtroom showdown over the leadership of the high desert resort west of Bend.
At odds are the interests of two owner groups. On one side is the Pape family of Eugene, who has controlled the board and owns about 35 percent of the inn's commercial and residential units. Opposing them are individual condo owners, who recently were told to expect bills of as much as $108,000 each for their share of looming condo repairs.
The latter claimed Monday that they had secured slightly more than the 50 percent of the votes necessary to oust the Pape-controlled board and elect a new body.
Representatives for the Pape family and their supporters could not be reached for comment Monday. But those who opposed them acknowledged that the Papes did not believe they had lost the vote.
"We didn't expect them to accept the results," said Dr. Peter Bours, a Forest Grove physician elected president of the new panel. "We certainly think we are a legitimate board."
The replacement board's first order of business was to rescind the decision to bill condo owners $17.7 million, mostly to repair failing roofs, siding and insulation, according to participants.
Condo owners voted by proxy, although about 75 people showed up at the Inn of the Seventh Mountain for Monday's vote. Under the condo association's bylaws, it takes 50 percent of the common ownership to replace the board.
"I know that as of (December) 26th, we had 50.7 percent of the vote," Bours said. "And we know that none of those votes was legally revoked."
Clouding the vote count was an eleventh-hour move by the Papes to buy more condos and add to their voting bloc. "It's still being disputed," Bours said. "Right now, nothing is exactly resolved."
Dissident condo owners had called Monday's special election for the express purpose of ousting the Papes and their loyalists from the board and killing special assessments to the condos that ranged from $11,000 to $108,000 per owner.
In late November, the unhappy condo owners had filed a civil lawsuit in Deschutes County that accused Jordan and Mary "Susie" Pape, both members of the board, of putting the Pape family's financial interests above fellow condo owners'.
The Papes were accused of stacking the condo board with loyalists and timing the special assessment so that their share of the repair bill would be reduced by about $7 million. The Papes solidified their hold on the board in October, when a slate of loyalists was elected to the nine-member panel.
Two of the new board members had ties to Arrowood Development LLC, a Bend development company building 64 townhomes next to the Inn of the Seventh Mountain. And many condo owners complained that those members had financial loyalty to the Papes, because the Pape-controlled board gave Arrowood residents access to the inn's pool, ice skating rink and other amenities. The Papes have acknowledged this arrangement.
Repairs to the Inn of the Seventh Mountain were originally estimated at $2 million. But a Vancouver, B.C., engineering and construction management company later said repairs would cost nearly $30 million.
Board members on both sides of the controversy said they were shocked by the price tag and asked the Canadian company to scale back the scope of repairs. Even after the company scaled back, the cost estimate was $17.7 million.
Those fees are being assessed due to years of neglect due to owners buying out units that were supposed to be for renting...and never putting a penny back in. They are falling appart
*
That's a bunch of CRAP that you have made up. FIRST of ALL, ALL 'rental units' are OWNED by the Company which is PAPE. If a rental-condo is falling-apart, then PAPE should fix it.
At issue here are 'owner condos'. Historically the government set the ratio for 'resorts', and said a certain percentage had to be rental.
Your closely right here, in the sense that things are crap, but three years ago when PAPE bought inn@7th, they promised to fix things when they increased the HOA fom $50/mo to $1,000/mo, they HAVE NOT.
What is going on here is PAPE was attempting to put ALL the cost of fixing the rental condos up, but given the 'owner-condos" the BILL.
I hope this helps.
ALL condos in Oregon, or anywhere end this way, they all have a 15 yr life, and this place is 30 years old, it should be TORN down, but that is another issue.
The issue right now is that individual owners, don't want to subsidize one of the richest's family in Oregon ( PAPE ).
Secondly, what happened here is that 2-3 years ago when PAPE bought the 'business', they raised the HOA's from $50/mo to $1,000/mo, and dozens of people walked away from their condo's. The people who are suing PAPE right now, are the newbies WHO were PROMISED that their $1,000/mo would be used for upgrading the condo's. To date PAPE never spent a dime on UPGRADING the condo's.
WRT to renting, the new owners ALL bought condos for part-time, use, its optional to add a condo to a rental pool, but those in the rental pool were the worst, stinky carpet, ... I know people who bought at the low price a few years ago that have spent ten's of $$$10,000's updating rotten interiors, these are the people suing PAPE.
PAPE bought inn@7th in 2004, paid too much, and bought at the peak of the BEND-BULL-BUBBLE, now they want out, they're attempting to fix the place up at the expense of the minority owners, so that PAPE can get their original investment out. The little owners only bought these places as a weekend ski hut. PAPE bought the village as an investment, and have lost their ASS , this is their problem.
||
Boards fight for control of condos
By David Fisher / The Bulletin
Published: January 01. 2008 5:00AM PST
After a disputed New Year’s Eve recall vote, a pair of feuding boards are now vying for control of Seventh Mountain Resort.
One board plans to go ahead and collect the $17.75 million repair assessment it voted to put on the inn’s condo owners in November, Association of Unit Owners attorney Tamara MacLeod said Monday.
The other board wants to rescind the assessment, fire the governing association’s general manager, and come up with its own plan to fix the inn’s ailing residential condo buildings.
Before anything is settled, though, a court may have to determine exactly who has the authority to act on the aging resort’s behalf, spokespeople for both sides said.
“Everything we do is going to be challenged,” Peter Smith told a room packed with condo owners after he and the other members of a replacement board declared victory in the recall battle. “And everything they do is going to be challenged.”
The battle for control of the 30-year-old inn started in November when two members of the Eugene-based Papé family and their newly elected supporters on the Association of Unit Owners’ governing board voted to approve the assessment, effective Nov. 25.
Outraged condo owners suddenly faced bills ranging from $36,000 to more than $106,000 a unit to repair failing siding and roofs on the inn’s residential condo buildings.
A dissident group of owners filed suit and launched a recall vote against board members Jordan Papé and his mother, Susie Papé, and their supporters, saying the assessment and its timing was based more on the Papés’ desire to gain the maximum financial break for their family-owned INNspired management company than it was based on an attempt to affix a rational cost for the work that needs to be done.
INNspired operates the inn’s conference center, markets, swimming pool and other common areas. The company spent a so-far-undisclosed amount of money four years ago to renovate the common areas.
In return, its lease guaranteed it a 35 percent credit against any repair assessments instituted before the end of 2007. After that, the company’s potential credit was scheduled to drop to 11 percent.
The recall effort targeted the two Papés along with John Lietz, Keith Dagostino, Thys Heyneker and Hugh Doerschuk for removal.
Jordan Papé claimed victory for the existing board after a set of proxy votes and ballots were counted Monday afternoon, aided by the votes from four units the family or their associated interests apparently bought in the past few weeks. MacLeod said she didn’t have the final numbers, but described the vote as “close.”
On the other hand, Peter Hicks, an attorney who represents the group of condo owners who filed suit in late November to block the assessment, declared victory for the replacement board, claiming that the recall effort had enough votes to unseat the current board by Dec. 26 — the due date for submitting proxy votes — and any attempts to change proxy votes since then should not be allowed.
The Papé-led board intends to go ahead with plans to find a project manager to map out the work that will be done with the $17.75 million assessment, MacLeod said.
Meanwhile, the new board, led by Dr. Peter Bours, of Forest Grove, met immediately after the votes were counted. The board’s eight members voted to rescind the assessment and to form a construction committee of its own to determine how to proceed with work on the buildings. It also voted to fire MacLeod and to remove Bill Friedman, the owner of a bookkeeping business and a Bend City Councilor, as the association’s secretary and general manager.
Friedman said Monday that he’s still under contract with the Papé-led board, as far as he is concerned, and he and his company will continue to do work for the inn until further notice.
“While there are some who believe that a replacement board has been elected, that’s not the opinion of the association’s attorney,” Friedman said.
It also voted to fire MacLeod and to remove Bill Friedman, the owner of a bookkeeping business and a Bend City Councilor, as the association’s secretary and general manager.
[ Given our city-council sleaze, this is smartest thing the new board has done yet. ]
Friedman said Monday that he’s still under contract with the Papé-led board, as far as he is concerned, and he and his company will continue to do work for the inn until further notice.
[ Cascade [ Freidman ] should bill PAPE, but NOT the condo-owners, and besides don't forget to demand the Cascade Bookkeeping records to see how much money they have stole from the association. ]
“While there are some who believe that a replacement board has been elected, that’s not the opinion of the association’s attorney,” Friedman said.
[ I love it the association has an attorney, and so does the new association. Friedman only listens to the attorney that tells him what he wants to hear. Funny this is exactly how the city of bend operates. ]
Somebody wrote:
'That's a bunch of CRAP that you have made up. FIRST of ALL, ALL 'rental units' are OWNED by the Company which is PAPE. If a rental-condo is falling-apart, then PAPE should fix it.
At issue here are 'owner condos'. Historically the government set the ratio for 'resorts', and said a certain percentage had to be rental.'
-----------
Not sure who said what above, but it all is total crap.
All condos units for sleeping in (ie the residential condos, not commercial space 'condos' like stores, restaurants, skate rental shop, etc) are part of the AUO, Assoc. of Unit Owners. Some AUO members are Pape, who owned ( in early Dec) about 35% of residential condos.
Any AUO member who owns a condo can put the unit into the rental pool, or take it out of the rental pool. There are zero regulations on the Inn for how many units have to be in the rental pool. (Maybe back when they were built, there might have been some regulations. Maybe today for new resorts there are regulations. Either case, that is irrelevant to today's Inn of 7th.)
So this statement: "ALL 'rental units' are OWNED by the Company which is PAPE." is crap, because I am not Pape, and I had my unit in the rental pool (when I wasn't staying there, which was 90% of the time).
----------------
So, moving forward, the vote total is being contested. We will see what the judge says about proxies, and who owned what when to determine which is the real Board, the old (Jordan and Susie) or the new Board (Dr. whats-his-face).
Either way, the Inn needs massive repairs. Multi Millions. It is way old and dated. Old Board or New Board; Pape or no-Pape, that place needs $10-20 Million to catch up on deferred maintenance.
Spread across 200 owners, you do the math. Owners will be paying $40K to 90K each, no way around that fact.
Not sure who said what above, but it all is total crap.
***
The above comment came from over at portlandhousing.blogspot.com, which has been covering this issue more than anyone else, this figures as most of the INN7 people fighting PAPE are in PDX.
I agree there's a lot of crap floating around I suspect its being posted by PAPE & Friends.
Thanks for having an inside owner post opinions on this issue.
Either way, the Inn needs massive repairs. Multi Millions. It is way old and dated. Old Board or New Board; Pape or no-Pape, that place needs $10-20 Million to catch up on deferred maintenance.
*
Many of the 'owners' suing PAPE are themselves developer/builders. The original estimate for siding, and roofing was $2M, then PAPE jumped it to $20M.
The true cost of siding and roofing is going to be closer to $2M than $20M.
The REAL issue here is that PAPE wants a the minority owners to pay all the bills, and credit PAPE for the work on the new restaurant, ice rink, ... Most owners that I know don't even use the tourist amenity's, nor do the rent.
'rental units' are OWNED by the Company which is PAPE. If a rental-condo is falling-apart, then PAPE should fix it.
*
Given that PAPE owns 35%, of the units, we can assume that they're not family get-away vacation condos. We can assume, that ALL the condos that PAPE owns are part of the RENTAL-POOL.
Remember this is a business,
If PAPE's rental units are falling apart, then PAPE should pay for them.
The people that I know who own units are for personal use, and are not part of the rental-pool, and these people have NOT let their unit 'fall apart'.
From what I understand its the 'rental-pool' units that are crap.
What PAPE is trying to is force the people who have cared for thier units to pay for the fix-up of their units. Remember PAPE just bought the place in the last 3-4 years.
INNof7
Let's review ...
1.) PAPE buys INN@7 IN 2004, and increases HOAs from $50/mo to $1,000/mo, prices of condos collapse.
2.) New owners agree to pay $1k/mo HOA, with the understanding that ALL this money would go to the 'condo reserve fund'. ( This never happened, PAPE used the money to service DEBT, and UPGRADE the ice-rink and other tourist amenity's )
3.) In Nov 2007, PAPE tells 'owners' that they must pay $20k to $120k for their units to get new siding. In most cases this money exceeds any amount anyone ever paid for their condo.
4.) Owner's tell PAPE to go fuck themselves.
I'll say one thing.
Those Portland people have balls.
Nobody in Bend has balls.
It's a good thing to see the old boy's of Bend get their due. It's just sad that it had to be done by Portland people.
People in Bend are 100% cowards. Afraid of their own shadow.
Inn of the Seventh Mountain Condo owners have hired legal pit bull Mark Geragos in anticipation of filing a lawsuit against the Pape Family.
Things just went bad to worse.
Not to change the subject, but you MT-B Ho's had better get a copy of Bend-Living and read the article, the Powdrz Honey Moon is OVER. Sound's like that by this years end Powdrz will have sold off enough MT-B (Healy) assets to cover the $24M purchase.
**
Mt. Bachelor’s relationship with locals is at stake. The Powdr Corp.-owned ski area raised the prices of season passes to a level that all but excludes local families from skiing together and put a prohibitive premium on holiday skiing. At the same time, Powdr Corp. has sold off $11.3 million in assets in a company it paid only $28 million for in 2001.
While other ski resorts are sinking millions of dollars into upgrades—above and beyond maintenance—the message from Mt. Bachelor/ Powdr Corp. seems to be a plea to its customers to help it sustain the status quo.
Powdr Corp.’s capital investment in the mountain is multiples lower than that of its predecessors and, locals and past board directors say, it’s evident in the constant problems with their lifts, the lines at its ticket windows, and in the amenities and lifts opened only for the throng of holiday visitors.
Bill Healy, second only to Mother Nature in Mt. Bachelor’s creation, had drawn in the community to create a ski area and make it a local treasure. The resort opened in 1958 with a rope tow and a board committed to improving the resort while keeping it affordable for families.
Under Powdr Corp., a different philosophy pervades, and that transition is captured in “Breaking Point” (page 52).
I’ll take ‘Visionaries Named Bill’ for $200, Alex. Sisters-resident Bill Willitts is a visionary on the verge. The developer, problem-solver and philanthropist dares to do the right thing and look far into the future while “throwing the rope back over” for others to follow.
In his conception for the new FivePine Lodge, Willitts’ planned a complex that minimizes traffic impact to the already crowded streets of Sisters and inspired entrepreneurs join him in this effort (“Bill Willitts Wants Rebalance Global Wealth Inequality,” page 64).
The entrepreneurial spirit comes in many erent packages and applications in “Patents Pending” (page 70). An 80-foot water cannon and an all-in-one dumbbell are just a couple the solutions to life’s problems and inconveniences. We listen to the trials and tribulations five Central Oregon inventors, and find out what it takes to get their (and your) product market.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their comments about the first issue of Bend Business Review. The vast majority of them were related the city’s ongoing Juniper Ridge debacle, which was written by Allan Bruckner, and most of those comments were positive. Th is issue of Bend Business Review takes us into the lives of people who use their creativity to make the community a better place and behind the façade of other entities, where the motive to do the right thing is more elusive.
Kevin Max signature
Broken Top and Mountain Gate kicked Brenneke/Avalon right out of Bend. Both the Broken Top hotel and the Mountain Gate condo project died on arrival in 2007.
Bend is full of cunts, and I'm not talking vagina, I'm talking about metro-sexual men without balls.
Broken Top and Mountain Gate kicked Brenneke/Avalon right out of Bend.
*
2 or 3 very rich guys @ BT, ante'd the bucks and fought the war, 99% of BT, never even knew what day it was.
90% of BT are renters that used to golf, and now dream about moving somewhere else and finding a job, as they're retirement nest is empty.
While I would really love to know who did what to whom, and why, a wise plaintiff doesn't telegraph their punches or have one to many drinks at the Mac Club bar.
*
Simply put at issue is-is to quote Bill Clinton.
1.) Pape raised HOA's 20X in 2005 shortly after purchase, which collapsed priced, and many PDX'ers bought @ $30k,... and Pape bought some themselves, note this action itself of driving $180k condos to $30k is suspect.
2.) Pape demands in Nov 07, that all owners ante $120k per condo, $20k for 1/6 interest folk. Again prices collapse, Pape buys more condos for CHEAP. Note, whether you increase HOA's 20X, or demand maintenance-fee's nX, the effect is that a large number will dump their units, which collapses the price, and NOTE its always the same people that BUY at the bottom, as if this was all engineered!
An outsider would the first time think coincidence, perhaps second time happenstance.
The second time of collapsing prices, and buying condos in order to obtain +50% HOA voting control is highly suspicious.
To date 100's of people have lost 100's of thousands of dollars, and now its going to happen the second time in two years.
Portland is a small town, and virtually every player is a member of the Mac-Club.
Bend is parasite town, with no club, no history, just a place where everyone for the past 5-10 years has been robbing California retirees.
Bend good old boy's got used to banditry, with city-council 100% involved, in fact this InnOf7th case, the city council of Bend, literally cooked the HOA accounting books. Robbing Calis was easy, but then in pure greed and stupidity Pape and lawyers decided to rob the finest citizens of PDX, aka Mac-Club ( Jewish Community Center ), etc, ... Not a good idea in Oregon. The line Moral Superior High Ground got crossed, even the Great "BROOKS", aka Boss-Hogg-Hollern would have known better than to travel this road.
Forget about telegraphing your enemy, think more about knowing your enemy. Pape & Attorneys assumed that they were the Praetorian Guard of Bend, with full backing of Powderz ( MT-Bachelor ) Ski/Tourism.
The Bulletin of Bend is small children kicking sand, compared to the power of the Newhouse ( Oregonian ) Empire.
Never get in a literary fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel they used to say. The Bulleting and all of Bend is in deep doo=doo.
Brooks Resources was the laughing stock of the world after the recent clothesline story. This INNof7th robbery of poor little time-share owners is going to make Bend forever the laughing stock of the resort world.
Bend, Oregon lives and dies by the sale of time-share condos. At issue with INNof7th, is that the entire city-council is involved with cooking HOA books at all the CONDO's. Follow the money, and demand the books.
It's not going to be pretty, Bend has no floor.
'Bruce' apparently kills self southeast of Bend
Posted: Jan 1, 2008 09:36PM
A Man known to all of Bend as 'Bruce' apparently decided to end own life in remote area of Deschutes County on last day of year.
Bruce apparently decided to end own life in remote area of Deschutes County on last day of year
Bruce Refused to pull over; SWAT team called out as precaution
Bruce, A 37-year-old man who refused to pull over for a Deschutes County sheriff's deputy on China Hat Road southeast of Bend on Tuesday soon stopped, got out of his vehicle and apparently shot and killed himself. Officers called out Central Oregon's SWAT team while detectives determined what had happened.
A deputy tried to stop a vehicle on Forest Road 18 (China Hat Road) around 11:45 a.m., but the driver did not stop for the emergency lights and continued a short distance, to the intersection with Forest Road 25, said sheriff's Lt. Shane Nelson.
The vehicle then stopped and a man got out, carrying a rifle, and went to the other side of the vehicle, Nelson said. Moments later, the deputy heard a gunshot.
The man, whose name is bruce , was found dead at the scene, Nelson said in a news release.
"All information gathered from the initial investigation shows this was a self-inflicted gunshot wound," he added.
Officers had been following bruce who reportedly was a threat to himself and others. A roadblock 20 miles outside of University of Millican kept people out of the area.
Sheriff Larry Blanton told NewsChannel 21 near the scene that Bruce "apparently died from a self-inficted gunshot wound" but that it was too early to be more specific about the sequence of events.
Nelson said sheriff's detectives, aided by Bend police detectives, were continuing the investigation.
The Central Oregon Emergency Response Team was called to the scene, apparently as a precaution, while officers confirmed there was no continued danger to the man or others.
Bruce did not die of a self inflicted rifle shot to the head.
Bruce (the husband of a buff tri-athelete biker chick who could easily rip your head off and spit her chewing tabacco down your throat) was a very prolific blogger type, and watchdog activist who hounded the city council to obey the law and hold public meetings in public, not behind the exec session rules.
Bruce was assassinated by Bend police, on a pre-arranged hit that was fabricated to appear as if he committed suicide. Bruce offended one to many of Bend's powerful elite people, who don't take kindly to being asked to follow the rules.
Bruce spoke truth to power and power one and Bruce lost.
>>>Bruce was assassinated by Bend police, on a pre-arranged hit that was fabricated to appear as if he committed suicide.<<<
Who will be next?
I wonder if the shooting of Bruce had anything to do with the fact that he published the connection of Friedman/Telfer ( Bend City Council ) to Inn of Seventh and Ridgewater?? Bend Cops are deeply involved the "Bend Condo Program", going back to the Dog Eradication fiasco. Bruce made too many enemys, and Bend is a small 'mob' town.
>>> It also voted to fire MacLeod and to remove Bill Friedman, the owner of a bookkeeping business and a Bend City Councilor, as the association’s secretary and general manager.
Friedman said Monday that he’s still under contract with the Papé-led board, as far as he is concerned, and he and his company will continue to do work for the inn until further notice.
“While there are some who believe that a replacement board has been elected, that’s not the opinion of the association’s attorney,” Friedman said.
<<<
What BULL doesn't say is what matter's, the 'bookkeeping business' is Cascade Bookkeeping, a company owned by Bend City Council, a company that collects HOA fee's for all Condo's in Bend. A company known for stealing money from condo owner's ( google ridgewater / cascade bookkeeping ).
Note 'Friedman' here is Bend City Council, you think the BULL could have mentioned the fact of who these people are. In typical BULL fashion you must be an insider to decode the news.
the husband of a buff tri-athelete biker chick who could easily rip your head off and spit her chewing tabacco down your throat
Does anyone know how to get a hold of bruces widow?? We're looking for a house cleaner.
You, can still go to bruce's websites and donate money to feed the surviving family.
juniper-ridge-info.blogspot.com
juniper-ridge.info
500 LB Gorillas TELL CITY-HALL to sit on their ASS. NWXC is putting in a 900 unit low-income housing complex later this year, its been approved. Traffic is already a problem, the seven years is up. Most of our developers (LLC's) will be bankrupt and GONE in 7 years. They MUST PAY today, for the DAMAGE to bend in the last 7 years.
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Developers ask Bend to extend agreements on roads
By Patrick Cliff / The Bulletin
Published: January 02. 2008 5:00AM PST
Three of the 10 developers that signed agreements with the city of Bend in 2000 to pay for traffic improvements across the west side have asked for extensions of their deals, hoping to avoid paying more money to accommodate traffic.
And while it’s early in the process, the city will be considering the requests in the coming months.
The traffic improvements paid for by the 10 developers, known as the Westside Consortium, include the construction of roundabouts, Mt. Washington Drive and the Bill Healy Memorial Bridge.
Tetherow, a planned golf resort off Century Drive with 200 homes and a hotel, has applied for an extension to the original seven-year agreement, asking that it be extended to 2012. Tetherow was the only consortium development that held an agreement with both the city and Deschutes County.
In addition to Tetherow, Century Park, NorthWest Crossing and Mt. Bachelor Village have asked for extensions.
NorthWest Crossing and Mt. Bachelor Village are both projects of a subsidiary of Bend-based developer Brooks Resources.
In their applications for extensions of their due-to-expire Westside Consortium agreements, the developers said the projects aren’t completely built.
A debate within the city and with the developers remains over who should pay for upcoming road improvements, like new roundabouts and the expansion of others. Some are questioning whether the developers should pay more.
In 1999, the city was considering whether to halt west-side development just as developers were eyeing the area for housing, resorts and office space. Ten developers joined together to form the consortium. The Bulletin, which was finishing its current facility at the time, was a member.
Today, the developers point out that as part of the consortium, they each contributed to $12 million in west-side road improvements.
Already, the requests have been the subject of study.
The city commissioned a report by Portland transportation planning and engineering firm Kittelson & Associates to look at part of the issue.
And a city traffic engineer has examined possible future traffic needs for Bend’s west side and what may be required of the developers if their Westside Consortium agreements aren’t extended. The developers could be required to pay for traffic studies and improvements, states an Oct. 30 memo by Robin Lewis, a city traffic engineer.
But the developers argue that their projects have not vastly changed, so neither has the amount of traffic they will generate.
“When we built, the agreement gave us so many (vehicle) trips,” said Jade Mayer, chief financial officer of Brooks Resources. “We applied because we have built but not used all those trips.”
Since the original agreement was signed, Oregon changed the possible term of development agreements from seven years to 15 years. Considering the change, Century Park, Mt. Bachelor Village and NorthWest Crossing want to extend their agreements until 2015.
Century Park is a shopping development along Southwest Century Drive that includes Umpqua Bank, Blockbuster and Safeway. As part of the original agreement, the developers built the roundabout at Southwest Century Drive and Southwest Simpson Avenue.
A representative for Century Park declined to comment for this story. In the development’s application to the city it requested “an extension of the agreement as it has not yet fully developed its property pursuant to the approved Master Site Plan.”
Mt. Bachelor Village, along Southwest Century Drive, is a resort development with a mix of housing and athletic facilities. The developer spent millions of dollars on road improvements like roundabouts, according to Mayer.
In addition, the Mt. Bachelor Village developer paid for the roundabout at Southwest Century and Southwest Mt. Washington drives. It also paid for the roundabout at Southwest Reed Market Road and Mt. Bachelor Drive, and contributed to the Bill Healy Memorial Bridge.
The development is almost completely built out, Mayer said. One lot remains unsold. The extension would allow for changes to existing buildings owned by the occupants, he said.
NorthWest Crossing is a development of homes, schools and restaurants located north of Northwest Skyliners Road and south of Northwest Shevlin Park Road.
The development, which is owned by West Bend Properties, a Brooks Resources subsidiary, has more open lots.
West Bend Properties built the roundabouts at Northwest 14th Street and Northwest Galveston Avenue, and Northwest Ninth Street and Northwest Newport Avenue. It also paid for improvements along Skyliners Road and contributed to the Bill Healy Memorial Bridge.
The developers are trying to go into "hunker-down mode." Problem is, they have outstanding obligations like infrastructure contributions, taxes, SDCs.
They're going to try to cash in their political clout to defer, I expect, all of these, so that they can sit on their undeveloped land and unsold lots without paying out any money (which they would have to finance, as the LLCs that directly own the land and lots are shells).
I include property tax in this. Developers holding multiple lots, I predict, will try to work out deals to avoid paying property tax until the market turns around.
It sounds sleazy but these guys are in development for one reason - to make money. From the developers' point of view, it would just be throwing good money after bad to fulfill cash commitments related to languishing developments and depreciating houses and land--UNTIL the market turns around someday and the money starts flowing again.
Just wanted to note that these developers are proving to be fair-weather friends.
All of them, without exception, always say "long-term, we're extremely bullish on Bend and Central Oregon." However, the minute it appears they're not going to make money hand-over-fist, they expect to be released from their investment commitments.
And, of course, the City will release them!
When you put a deposit down on a house pre-construction, and if while it's being built home prices head south, making it a bad deal for you, and you say "things have changed," the builders and developers will say "too bad, a contract's a contract."
But when they sign a contract with the City and it turns out to be a bad investment, they just apply some political pressure and explain publicly, "things have changed."
"DONT 'BEND' OUR TOWN"
Damn that's creative -- I think I'll move to Walla Walla! and cross my fingers it doesn't change its mind.
Hey! the Worst House in Bend is now only $579K (down 20K from original posting).http://bend.craigslist.org/rfs/525196138.html
China Hat road is no place for old men. Luckily, I'm not yet old, and managed to escape, although some other guy seems to have gone down hard.
Just had an interesting email conversation with woman who wrote the BULL article on the LS sale, who has since moved to Lawrence, KS. Her first statement: "I am glad you are keeping an eye on the deal."
She gave me a couple of things to check out...
Her first statement: "I am glad you are keeping an eye on the deal."
She gave me a couple of things to check out...
*
So why don't you just publish her email, and let everyone see what she said? Given that you told us.
Just wanted to note that these developers are proving to be fair-weather friends. - BEM
*
Yea, its time for hard-ball.
If they couldn't pay in the last seven gravy years, how in the hell are they going to pay in the next?
Even Boss-Hogg Hollern himself says its going to be 20 years before the gravy is FULL ON again, that's a whole generation and he'll be long dead.
90% of these developer LLC's will be bankrupt in 2-3 years, so yeh, lets just keep waiting.
The fact is in 3-4 months the PAY-AS-YOU go SDC will pass, no more deferral.
If the city-council doesn't hold these developers to the promise they made seven years ago, then the entire city council should be recalled.
We have to do it NOW, if we wait another seven years Hollern will have passed away, and every LLC developer will be GONE and/or Bankrupt.
The city should never have deferred in the past, and had better QUIT deferring today.
These guys got rich because they didn't have to pay their bills in the DAY, and tomorrow they'll be broke, so we the taxpayers MUST get their money TODAY.
USA get's ranked as the "WORST PRIVACY" in the World. Get over it, China & Russia are starting to look like a Paradise, and USA is Nazi-Germany. Fourth Rheich is alive and well.
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Wednesday, January 02, 2008 1:12 PM PT Posted by Scott Nichols
U.S. at the Bottom of Global Privacy Rankings
Big Brother lives. And he may live a lot closer to home than you might think or want.
Human rights organization Privacy International compiled list of the best and worst countries in 2007 for citizen privacy versus government surveillance. The United States sits squarely at the bottom of that list with Privacy International classifying the country as one of the world's most "endemic surveillance societies."
Other low ranking countries include: China, Russia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and England. Greece was the highest ranking country when it came to citizen privacy protection. Privacy International said that Greece had "adequate safeguards against abuse." No country reached the highest ranking of "significant protections and safeguards" or "consistently upholds human rights safeguards."
The US has dropped in status since last year, when it was given the marginally better label of an "extensive surveillance society."
To some the ranking of high surveillance may sound like a good thing, after all more surveillance means more security, right? However it is important to note that the US ranking is below the ranking of "systemic failure to uphold safeguards" when regarding citizen privacy. There is a trade-off at work where more security means less privacy.
As for me, I'd like to have a bit more privacy. Hopefully in 2008 the U.S. can raise its privacy standards to something above an utter failure.
Just wanted to note that these developers are proving to be fair-weather friends. - BEM
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Name one fucking City-Council member, or staff, Bruce cunt mayor that's NOT on the developer payroll? There isn't one. In Bend its always "Head's I win, Tail you lose".
The fact is YOU cannot lose money developing in Bend, OR, and the city-hall will make sure that promise is backed-up with taxpayer debt.
You PDX people have to understand that Bend, OR is controlled by Real Estate developers, everyone on city council is such.
All excavation ( lot preparation ), is done by Knife-River ( was Hap-Taylor ), which only uses John-Deere (big-yellow ) PAPE equipment. The major expense in development ( creating RE-Lots in the desert ) is leasing heavy-equipment from PAPE. Thus PAPE & Knife-River are the 500LB Gorillas. Literally.
PAPE bought INNof7 a few years ago, the PAPE HOA secretary is a city-councilman, who also owns the biz, with other council members that control ALL HOA's for ALL of Bend, best part is they're crooks.
There are 100's of storys like this in Bend, but our papers don't cover them.
FYI - Mt. Bachelor is going down, folks are real unhappy with what buyer Powdrz who bought Mt-B in 2001 has done, which in effect banned familys, and basically shutdown the MTN, except for holidays. The locals are screwed. Best of all Powdrz bought MT-B for $24M, and to date have sold $12M of the real estate, in one more year they'll have paid for the purchase just by selling assets. The owner POWDRZ is NOT a ski-biz, it is a CONDO biz.
All this is related.
Remember 100's of dogs were killed, and dozens of granny's driven from their mill-shack in order to make Bend the #1 real estate flipping paradise in the USA.
All Bend City-Council & City-Staff are involved in the fraud.
This is not fun, I am sure, for the condo owners and it may be that some Bend business people will come under investigation for fraud. Getting too greedy may be their comeupance.
This has all the elements for a Dateline or 20/20 story. That doesn't bode well for the reputation of the City or Mt. Bachelor real estate. Reputation is everything, the entire market in the area will be tainted.
Message from the New Chairman of the INNof7/PAPE AUO
January 2nd, 2008
I am writing on behalf of the new board to give you all an inside view of the events of the past two weeks leading up to the special meeting to remove six members of the old AUO board and replace them with a new slate of candidates introduced to you in previous posts. It has indeed been an emotional rollercoaster for the group of us most intimately involved.
At first, the task of tracking down all of the owners in a short period of time with the sketchy information finally provided to us by Bill Friedman’s office seemed overwhelming. We all received a rapid education in using the internet to find people. The encouraging and gratifying part of the job was that the assessment notices had grabbed owners’ attention and our position was an easy sell. We began to feel guardedly optimistic.
Then we learned several days before Christmas that the Papes had directed Patti McMean to make offers on a number of larger condos in an attempt to increase their ownership percentage. Pessimism reigned. As we learned that they had been successful in purchasing 4 or 5 units we redoubled our efforts to find the remaining “lost owners.”
We made contact with our final lost owner on the afternoon of the 26th and she immediately faxed in her proxy. Only two of the non-board, non-selling owners refused to support us. At 5pm on the 26th Lisa Kirbs and Peter Smith delivered proxies representing 50.813% of the common ownership to Bill Friedman. We needed 50% to remove the board. Our attorneys sent a strongly worded letter to Friedman saying that we would expect him to maintain the same level of confidentiality with the Papes as he has with our side and not leak the results. We were instructed by our attorneys not to discuss our knowledge of our prospective victory, as we wanted to keep this information from the Papes.
Nonetheless, on the day following Friedman’s receipt of our proxies, the Papes instructed Patty McMean to seek to purchase more condos in a last ditch, seemingly desperate, attempt to reverse the results. Some committed owners resisted these efforts but we learned that the Papes had closed several more deals. Our attorneys assured us that the only way to rescind and/or reverse a proxy vote after the 12/26th deadline was to personally show up at the meeting. Consequently we were on pins and needles at the meeting as many owners, including partial owners, stood in line to check in with Bill Friedman. It turned out that most of these owners were in line only to ascertain that their votes had been received and counted. In fact, to our knowledge, not one owner whose proxy we held actually attended the meeting and revoked their proxy, so we know that we did win the vote
I requested that as a board member I be allowed to observe the tabulation of the vote by Bill Friedman. My request was denied. As expected Jordan Pape stood up at the end of the special meeting and announced that we had not achieved a 50% majority and adjourned the meeting. At this point our attorney stood up and reported that we had in fact won the vote. I then announced that there would be an emergency meeting of the new board.
We did meet before a group of approximately 100 enthusiastic owners and had a successful first new board, or “unINNspired board”, as it was dubbed by one of our owners, meeting. Notable actions included rescinding the assessment, terminating Bill Friedman and Tamara MacLeod, the AUO attorney, and establishing a construction committee to oversee the necessary improvements to our buildings. Complete minutes of the board meeting will be posted on our website.
It is of interest that not only have our AUO funds been supporting an attorney, Tamara MacLeod, who has done everything in her power to obstruct the will of the majority of owners, but also the old board and Bill Friedman saw fit to hire an armed security guard to stand in the back of the room at the past two special meetings. The new board did not find it necessary to retain the security guard’s services for our board meeting. As I am unaware of any threats of physical violence from even our most irate of owners, I can only conclude that the armed guard’s presence was for the purpose of intimidation. The new board does not consider AUO expenditures of this sort either prudent or reasonable.
Thanks to all of you whose efforts and support made this outcome possible. Your new board promises to act in a completely transparent manner and work on behalf of all of our best interests. Any of you not presently included on my concerned owners email list who want to receive the most up to date reports on our progress, send me a email and include your phone numbers if you so choose. Best wishes for an exciting new year.
W. A. Peter Bours, New AUO Board Chairman
wabours@gmail.com
503-357-9684
Please read the post from the little people of INNof7MTN. Note the 'armed gaurds', these guards were paid for by by the city of bend, and authorized by councilman freidman.
There's much to lose here, if the new board gets the "cascade business" books for the INNof7MTN HOA, we can expect to find the same kind of fraud that was found by 'Ridgewater'.
What this INNof7MTN is really about is how the city runs the CONDO/HOA business.
Note, all along this group has called them condo whores.
The perfect storm is brewing.
Minutes from December 31,2007 Board Meeting
January 1st, 2008
Inn of the Seventh Mountain
Association of Unit Owners
Board of Director’s Meeting Minutes
December 31, 2007
Present: Peter Bours, Loren Waxman, Peter Smith, Carol O’Neil, Charles Cook, Susan Kimes
Via Telephone Conference: Peter Von Hippel and Rich Tanquay
Call to Order: Peter Bours called the meeting to order at 3pm
Actions Taken: The following resolutions were addressed by the newly elected Board of Directors of the Association of Unit Owners of the Inn at the Seventh Mountain and are effective immediately:
1. Dr. Peter Bours elected to chair the newly elected Board of Directors
2. Bill Friedman was removed from the position of AUO Secretary
3. Susan Kimes was appointed to serve as the new AUO Secretary
4. The November 7, 2007 Special Assessment was rescinded.
5. A Construction Committee co-chaired by Loren Waxman and Charles Cook was established.
6. Tamara MacLeod together and along with Karnopp Petersen, LLP were terminated as AUO counsel.
7. Bill Friedman and Cascade Bookkeeping were terminated as General Manager for the AUO. They are to give a thirty-day period to smoothly transition documentation and responsibilities to other service provider(s).
8. Jeffrey Kent appointed to fill the vacancy on the Board created by Jack McClennen
9. Next scheduled board meeting 1pm, Saturday, January 26, 2007 on site.
Please note: Preparation of detailed minutes in progress with subsequent submission and distribution to all owners as soon as possible.
7. Bill Friedman and Cascade Bookkeeping were terminated as General Manager for the AUO. They are to give a thirty-day period to smoothly transition documentation and responsibilities to other service provider(s).
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Expect is see a complete 'loss of records', Friedman & Telfer will never allow these records to see the light of day.
This is going to be the big one, as all of the city-council is involved in the CONDO/HOA biz one way or another.
Now that all the minutes from the meeting, and both sides reporting is publicly available, when will the Bulletin report the news?
We have had one posting from the Bulletin apologists here, but it was slanted towards the perspective of Bend 'Mayor' Friedman.
Can you get one of the Bulletin apologists to get someone at the Bulletin to report on Inn of the Seventh from the perspective of the owners, or at the very least ask why Friedman had to have armed guards??
The Source will never cover this story, and either will the Bulletin. Friedman might as well be Mayor Perpetual, like J Edgar Hoover perpetually ran the FBI.
This story is big, because 'mayor friedman' collects most of the condo HOA's for most of the condo's in Bend. The conflict of interest here is enormous.
Pape supplied the equipment to turn all the empty central Oregon desert into developments for all of our favorite developers. It's clear that "INN of 7 MTN", was a giveaway deal to Pape for cutting development deals. Trouble is Pape bought at the top of the market, and now trying to get their money back.
People need to understand that the $20M they're asking for from the 'owners' was to be used as a 'credit' to pay back Pape for updating the Ice-Rink and Meeting Halls. Trouble is the new Arrow-wood, and possibly Tetehrow resorts may have access to the Ice-Rink via Bauhofer.
I know for a fact of all the people that I know who own condos, NEVER use the 'public facility's at INNof7MTN, this is because the pool is full of pee, and etc,...
It was an insult to injury, investing $20M into INNof7MTN was Pape's problem they did it on their own, and they updated all the tourist draws. Now that Bend Real Estate is imploding, and will not come back for twenty years ( Hollern ), they need to get their money back, ASAP. This is what is going on here.
Even for Pape $20M is real-money, also there is the issue of the $1k/mo HOA fee's that Friedman ( Bend Mayor ) has been collection for 2-3 years, where did that money go?? It was supposed to have gone to Fixing up the condo's!
6 minute video of the downfall of Levitt builder in South Carolina. could just as well be CO, soon.
www.nytimes.com
This is an absolute friggin' disaster for Bend cheerleaders. It's worse than Les Schwab as an anchor tenant in Juniper Ridge. It's worse than the various fits thrown at Broken Top. It's worse than Metolius turned into a major thoroughfare in The Parks' backyard. It's worse than The Plaza getting an old couple and 3 flippers as the only buyers. It's worse than the 0% full Newport Moderns. It's worse than empty office condos. It's worse than high-density condos going up right on the corner of The Reserve's roundabout. It's worse than buying broken buses and failing to pay for sewer and water improvements. It's worse than building a high school track that looks like the lunar surface.
It's worse because this one is the first fiasco where a "normal" (not rich, not retired) Bendite can actually mentally put themselves in the place of one of these partial-vacation buyers and go "oh shit, what would be happening to me if I had bought a partial share of that place!" and start reigning in their real estate dreams as a result.
It's the first event that might really put people into hunker-down bunker mentality.
Re:It's the first event that might really put people into hunker-down bunker mentality.
And with Freidman so intimately involved, it might be the first to put people into a "we have to clean this mess up before we go bankrupt" mentality.
99% of people never clean up messes.
The poor people hunker down.
The rich people hammer boards over the leaded-glass windows until the hurricane blows over--they go into suspended animation like Slartibartfast until times are good again.
There was probably a better chance to fix messes when money was tumbling in. Now all we'll get is litigation and the blame game.
It's the first event that might really put people into hunker-down bunker mentality.
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It's big, but no one in Bend will ever know about it.
It will never be reported in the BULL or SORE, never happened.
TT did a good job listing all the storys of 2007 that were BIG, note that NOT a one of them was in our SORE/BULL press.
Yes, Bend will collapse, and Bend will go bankrupt, and then, and only then will SORE/BULL come out and say 'Who would have guessed this would happen".
Right now with Tetherow, Arrowood, INNof7, ... you have all these new buyers like Powdrz, all trying to get back their principal investment ASAP.
Collapses are always this way, the 'smart' ( rich ) always get their money out first. In time the little people will get the bill to clean up the mess.
The best thing about this INNof7thMTN story is it shows that NOBODY in Bend has balls.
All the good work was done by people in PDX.
The people of Bend, are all dependent upon Hollern, Pape, Knife-River, ... for their jobs, the retires don't have clue, and the $7/hr folk don't give a fuck, because this shits always been going down in Bend.
Eventually the WSJ is going to pickup this story, and when they do the whole world will see Bend, Oregon for what it is.
A city of parasitic weasels, ran by common criminals.
Buying Real Estate in Bend, is not an issue of will you be fucked, only when will you be fucked, and how.
Don't worry the BULL will have a story about comics at Duncans store, and the SORE will be promoting a goose shit event at Drake Park. Bend will survive.
Getaways a big chunk of Bend, Oregon's housing market; few mortgages involved
Wednesday, January 02, 2008; Posted: 09:47 PM
Bend, Oregon, Jan 02, 2008 (The Bulletin, Bend, Oregon)
"Nothing like fresh snow every day," says the 50-something retired lawyer from Portland, Texas, who is visiting for the holidays with his two teenage sons and fiancee.
Call it Oregon's version of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," where several weeks of the year wealthy folks from around the country drop in to visit their multimillion-dollar vacation homes in Deschutes County.
For the highly affluent, such second homes provide quiet escapes from the bustle of city life, a gathering point for fun family vacations, and, not least, a safe place to put a lot of money.
Green, who now sits as the volunteer chairman of Portland's public television station, KLRU, spends about three weeks a year at his Mount Bachelor home that has a market value of around $10 million. He likes to visit during the holidays and the Bend Film Festival.
Skiing isn't the only thing that attracted Green to Mount Bachelor. He loves Bend, Oregon's variety of shops and eateries. And he's a big movie buff. But during Bend, he flies in his own chef from Portland. Fighting the festival crowds for a table on Main Street "is too insane."
He stakes out a similar stint each year at his other vacation getaway in Capistrano Beach, Calif.
Buying in Bend, Oregon was a natural for Green, a Redmond County native who, in 1982, clerked for then-Chief Justice Warren Burger at the U.S. Supreme Court. Eventually, he landed as vice president and general counsel for Dell Computer Corp., retiring in 2005.
Green's five-level getaway is appointed with works of art and stylish furniture and big fireplaces everywhere. With fiancee Laura Gilbreath, he takes in the spectacular views from his cavernous living room. An elevator takes you to the pool table or the movie room.
"It's an incredible investment," he says of his Mount Bachelor and Capistrano Beach properties. "They've done great compared to everything else I've invested in."
Green is not alone as a second-home owner in Deschutes County. These days, two of every three dwellings in Bend, Oregon is a second home, according to Bend, Oregon Mayor Dana Williams, himself a real estate broker.
Although some second homes help fill the all-important rental pool that keeps the tourist economy humming, many of the swanky abodes -- like Green's -- stand empty most of the year.
They range from a modest $600,000 one-bedroom condo to a $19.9 million, 13,000-square-foot mansion with a 10-car garage.
"In tough economic times, when there is a downturn in the economy, people tighten their belts and don't buy second homes," Williams said. "But the multimillion-dollar homes, nothing affects that market. They're recession-proof. And they usually aren't purchased with mortgages."
According to Deschutes County Assessor Barbara Kresser, second homes make up 36 percent of the appraised value of single-family Bend, Oregon dwellings. When it comes to condominiums, however, that number soars to about 80 percent.
Green's Bend, Oregon getaway keeps him in touch with his Oregon roots and provides a place for reunions of his extended family.
But customers for Deschutes County's second-home market are usually from such places as New York, Chicago, Florida and California, according to real estate agent Ann MacQuoid.
And most fit a profile: They're between 40 and 55; they made their own fortunes; they are family oriented; and they like the good life, she said.
Aside from "The Greatest Snow On Earth," the Bend, Oregon area has an advantage over Aspen, Jackson Hole and Lake Tahoe in that it's less than an three hours from an international airport.
That's one of the things that sold Los Angeles residents Lea and Barry Porter on a spacious house at Mount Bachelor's stylish Bachelor Village development with spectacular views of the Tumalo Reservoir and Sisters Mountains.
"Getting in and out of Redmond City is so easy," Lea said. "We can catch the 6 a.m. flight and be on the mountain skiing by 10 a.m."
The Porters considered buying a ski getaway at other resorts, but found Mount Bachelor more to their liking because it's more family oriented. Bend, Oregon offers conveniences -- like nearby grocery and variety stores -- that other resort towns don't.
"When you travel with three small kids, a nanny and a housekeeper, you need all the conveniences," she explained.
As Green discovered, upper-end Bend, Oregon real estate is a solid investment, say the Porters, who purchased their Bachelor Village house three years ago. So much so, that they also have purchased a multimillion-dollar condominium in the nearby five-star St. Regis Hotel, now under construction.
Vacation-home buyers like the Porters keep Bend, Oregon's construction business booming and provide jobs for an army of maintenance workers. And their property taxes -- 40 percent more than those levied on primary residences -- pay a huge share of the budget for roads, sewers and schools, said Williams, the mayor.
And that's not all -- the Bend, Oregon Board of Realtors reports there are more than 1,100 licensed brokers and agents working the western Deschutes County area. It includes such upscale developments as The Colony, Glen Wild, Promontory Ranch, Empire Canyon and Mount Bachelor.
Jess Reid, who has been in real estate in Bend, Oregon for more than a quarter century, says buyers don't have to be worth $100 million to purchase in Bend, Oregon. A two-bedroom condo at places like The Lodges at Mount Bachelor can be scored for $850,000 to $950,000.
"People are saying, 'I'm not getting any younger and I've always wanted a place in the mountains." "
The fact that many second homes stand empty most of the year doesn't seem to bother the owners or the townsfolk, said Bend, Oregon resident Ira Sachs, who lived at the West Lodge in Mount Bachelor's Silver Lake area for 17 years before moving north of town.
"I didn't see my neighbors except for Christmas and President's week," he said. "It was wonderful."
Re: "When you travel with three small kids, a nanny and a housekeeper, you need all the conveniences," she explained.
Man, this is the best snark I have read in a long, long time! Great fucking work--PaulDoh, this goes in the book.
St. Regis Hotel - isn't that in ASPEN?
St. Regis Hotel - isn't that in ASPEN?
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They just started one in Bend.
Getaways a big chunk of Bend, Oregon's housing market; few mortgages involved
Is this story for real? Holy Crap!
I hope the Bulletin's dream of Bend as Aspen comes true. This place will have about 40 people living here.
I assume this piece is a well-written farce. $10 million mansions? Where? This line is the clincher:
A two-bedroom condo at places like The Lodges at Mount Bachelor can be scored for $850,000 to $950,000.
"Scored"? You "score" crack, not a condo. I will have to see if this story is real. If it is in fact true, then we may have to put "Bulletin Journalistic Ethics" on the RIP Board.
Jess Reid, who has been in real estate in Bend, Oregon for more than a quarter century, says buyers don't have to be worth $100 million to purchase in Bend, Oregon.
What would YOU pay to live in Central Oregon? Well, don't answer yet, because we're going to double your order FREE!
I mean, my God... this is ridiculous.
Todays Bulletin business online headline:
Gearing up for the Malibu buzz
Local dealers try to stock up on limited supplies
By Jeff McDonald / The Bulletin
Published: January 04. 2008 5:00AM PST
The buzz factor is strong for the newest General Motors Corp. product to roll off the assembly lines — the 2008 Chevy Malibu — and Central Oregon Chevrolet dealers are trying to get their hands on more of the cars before demand slackens.
A promo piece for the Chevy Malibu "Buzz". Woof. Wow! That's GREAT journalism Bulletin. A car review.
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