HOBB Weekly Update Message - BusinessWeek Cover Story: Bonfire Of The Builders

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Subject: HOBB Weekly Update Message - BusinessWeek Cover Story: Bonfire Of The

Builders

A message from Janet Ahmad

BusinessWeek: Bonfire of the Builders - How they helped bring on the housing

crisis-and how far the damage will spread

BusinnessWeek Reveals the Shameless Scams, Schemes and Scandals of the Home

Building Industry.

This Cover Story exposes the building industry's world, which goes beyond

anything yet reported. " BusinessWeek Executive Editor Byrne and Banking

Editor Mara Der Hovanesian discuss how by rushing into the mortgage business

big-time, homebuilders helped fuel the housing crisis. Now they're hurting-and

so is Wall Street. "

Empty homes and subdivisions now stand empty as a reminder of an unregulated

industry whose unbridled power was its own undoing. This exceptional report

exposes the greed and even crimes that generated billions in profits from

building, selling and financing the promise of the American Dream that left

families with broken dreams in its path of destruction. Given the magnitude of

shoddy construction and mortgage fraud by homebuilder-owned mortgage companies

now being reported at alarming rates, the building industry has a lot of

explaining to do.

Please take this as an opportunity to become more involved. Begin by writing a

short e-mail with your thoughts about the article to the author and Banking

Editor Mara Der Hovanesian. Write your elected officials as well. (Find Who

Represents You)

Together we have and will continue to make a difference! Help us to help you

by keeping in touch. Your participation is vital.

Thank you,

Janet Ahmad, President

HomeOwners for Better Building

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Business Week Special Home Building Report

BusinessWeek Cover Story - Bonfire Of The Builders

Earlier this year, Beazer received a subpoena from the Justice Dept. seeking

documents related to its home loans, and the company is also under civil

investigation by the North Carolina Attorney General's office... Wall Street

egged on the often-reckless underwriting by buying vast quantities of home loans

for repackaging as securities. Now that the boom has fizzled and foreclosure

rates are rising, the important role of large homebuilders as lenders is also

coming into sharper focus...Builders allegedly violated federal lending

standards to get customers to sign on the dotted line. KB Home (KBH) paid a

record $3.2 million settlement in July, 2005, to resolve allegations by the

Housing & Urban Development Dept. that the builder's mortgage unit overstated

borrowers' income, among other practices, to obtain loan approvals. KB, which

denied wrongdoing, sold its loan business before settling... Busy developers

that provided Wall Street with equity-underwriting business discovered they had

friends in the investment banking world. Read more...

Janet Ahmad, President

HomeOwners for Better Building

http://www.hobb.org

210-402-6800

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