Puerto Rico House for Sale - $80K US

Purchase your piece of paradise in Palmas Baja on Puerto Rico's south side. It was my parent's retirement home and can be yours for only $80,000 (US).

The tropical home has 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a living room, dining room and kitchen, and a bonus room.

Also featured is a water tank, carport, shed, gated driveway, porch and lush tropical plants.

On a quiet dead end street w/mountain views, the home is near the Guamani River, routes 179 and 15, and just 1 mile North of Guayama's famous Plaza Cristóbal Colón, Bellas Arte and Casa Cautiño Museum.

Situated close to everything, it's just minutes to Route 52 (Ponce to San Juan), coastal Route 3 and aqua green Caribbean beaches (Arroyo, Patillas, Salinas). For example, EL Legado Golf Resort 3 mi, Jobos Bay Reserve 5mi, Port of Arroyo 5mi, Lake Carite 8mi, Lake Patillas 10mi, Guavate Forest 15mi, Cayey 12mi, Carite Forest Reserve-Blue Water Pool 20mi, Ponce 38mi, City of Humacao 35mi, Tibes 'Taino' Ceremonial Center 40 mi, San Juan 50mi, El Yunque Rainforest 53mi, Fajardo 58mi (and the ferry to Vieques and Culebra), La Parguera EcoTourism Center 60 mi.

Offered at $80,000 (U.S.)

Contact:
Gerry Vazquez
631.338.7392
vazquezgerry@yahoo.com

About Guayama:
Bewitched In Guayama (by J.A. del Rosario, Puerto Rico Herald - 3.19.04)
Guayama, Puerto Rico Metropolitan Area (a listing of local camping, hiking, backpacking, lakes and beaches by Hikercentral.com)
Casa Cautiño Museum
Interamerican University - Guayama Campus"
Centro de Bellas Artes
Plaza Cristóbal Colón
EL LEGADO GOLF RESORT "HOME OF CHICHI RODRIGUEZ"

Latino Families Scramble to Keep Homes

In an editorial on the looming mortgage crisis, the NYTimes (Myths Spun by Lax Lenders - 7.10.07) noted that...

Mortgage defaults are rising, and worse is yet to come. Between now and the end of next year, the interest rates on $660 billion in adjustable-rate mortgages will increase for the first time. Over half of that is in subprime loans — those made to borrowers with weak credit — and is at high risk of default as monthly payments rise.

That same week, MarketWatch issued this warning (by Ruth Mantell, Minority Families Face Wave of Foreclosures - 7.6.07):

More than a quarter million black and Hispanic families are expected to lose their homes in the next few years due to foreclosure. For many, the financial trouble will be traceable to a mortgage they should never have been given.

The reason? According to Mantell...

The heads of these households signed up for mortgages that appeared affordable, some with enticingly low starter rates. But what they were really agreeing to were loans with ultimately onerous terms, high costs and prepayment penalties that make refinancing the loan difficult.

As predicted, Latinos and Africans Americans have begun losing their homes in large numbers. Enlace's Hiram Soto (translated by New American Media's Elena Shore) captures this evolving story in Latino Families Scramble to Save Homes.

Araceli Flores was so happy to buy a three-bedroom house that she didn’t ask many questions about the mortgage. “Everything I’ve achieved is suddenly falling apart.”

What's encouraging is that Latinos are a spunky people--and many of the homeowners are scrambling to preserve their hard-earned piece of the American Dream. However, the combination of expensive loans, language barriers and the unscrupulous practices of real estate agents, mortgage brokers and lawyers is too much for them to overcome.

Thankfully, a Latino professionals are mobilizing with the goal of providing assistance to distressed homeowners.

With volunteers from the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Agents at the forefront, this coalition has begun offering clinics in Spanish to provide one-on-one help for families that have problems paying their mortgage. The workshops have been crowded to maximum capacity, with experts analyzing each family on a case-by-case basis and lawyers available to help with any irregularities.

Of course, much more needs to be done by the government, financial institutions, the real estate industry and by civic organizations to educate and protect new home buyers.

However, it is unconscionable that Latinos and African Americans are 2.5 times more likely than whites to receive risky, high-cost loans--even when they have similar credit. Where are the civil rights groups, prosecutors, Congress and the Courts?

Related:

Disparities persist between white, minority mortgage applicants
Foreclosure Wave Bears Down on Immigrants
More minorities denied mortgages
Subprime Loan Sharks
Minority Borrowers Steered Toward Predatory Loans
Mortgage Discrimination Is Alive And Well
US: Banks prone to sell minorities pricey loans
Wealthier minorities still face loan rejection

Home For Sale in Puerto Rico

Purchase your piece of paradise in Palmas Baja on Puerto Rico's south side.

The tropical home has 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a living room, dining room and kitchen, and a bonus room.

Also featured is a water tank, carport, shed, gated driveway, porch and lush tropical plants.

On a quiet dead end street w/mountain views, the home is near the Guamani River, routes 179 and 15, and just 1 mile North of Guayama's famous Plaza Cristóbal Colón, Bellas Arte and Casa Cautiño Museum.

Situated close to everything, it's just minutes to Route 52 (Ponce to San Juan), coastal Route 3 and aqua green Caribbean beaches (Arroyo, Patillas, Salinas). For example, EL Legado Golf Resort 3 mi, Jobos Bay Reserve 5mi, Port of Arroyo 5mi, Lake Carite 8mi, Lake Patillas 10mi, Guavate Forest 15mi, Cayey 12mi, Carite Forest Reserve-Blue Water Pool 20mi, Ponce 38mi, City of Humacao 35mi, Tibes 'Taino' Ceremonial Center 40 mi, San Juan 50mi, El Yunque Rainforest 53mi, Fajardo 58mi (and the ferry to Vieques and Culebra), La Parguera EcoTourism Center 60 mi.

Offered at $80,000 (U.S.)

Contact:
Gerry Vazquez
631.338.7392
vazquezgerry@yahoo.com

About Guayama:
Bewitched In Guayama (by J.A. del Rosario, Puerto Rico Herald - 3.19.04)
Guayama, Puerto Rico Metropolitan Area (a listing of local camping, hiking, backpacking, lakes and beaches by Hikercentral.com)
Casa Cautiño Museum
Interamerican University - Guayama Campus"
Centro de Bellas Artes
Plaza Cristóbal Colón
EL LEGADO GOLF RESORT "HOME OF CHICHI RODRIGUEZ"

Latino Migrants as Recession Buffers (Don't You Love This Country?)

America derives an enormous benefit from its undocumented servants.

They boost the nation's wealth, shore up government programs, perform the most laborious and dangerous jobs, serve as scapegoats on-call--especially America's slacker class, fight and die in our wars, and remind us that some people still value hard work and families.

They also perform a tremendous benefit to their home countries. For example, Their migration North allows the elites to live in higher on the hog without having to support a social programs for the poor and working classes. And they return money, remittances, from their meager earnings to support their families.

Of course, we all know this already, right?

But here's a benefit I hadn't thought about: migrants as recession buffers.

Yes, consider the current recession in residential construction. According to U.S. government, data residential construction has fallen some 25 percent since early 2006. But employers shows a drop of less than 2 percent in jobs in the sector.

How is that possible?

There are different theories for this phenomenon in Is Mexico paying for U.S. housing downturn? (Reuters - 7.12.07), but it's clear to me that Latino migrant workers allow construction to expand and contract to meet market demands. As markets tighten, migrant workers are shed, company expenses are slashed, allowing Citizen owners and employees to weather the downturns without as much as scratch.

Latino migrants as human recession buffers!

A Tool for Shopping for Better Public Schools

Given the high concentration of Latino children attending low quality public schools, it's clear that we must do a better job around in order to get a better bargain for our school tax dollars.

One terrific tool to all Americans at no cost is the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center's New District Graduation Rate Map Tool.

Produced in collaboration with the Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI, this Web-based application allows users to easily map out graduation rates by zooming in on any of the nation's individual school districts.

Users may then download a special report for the district, with detailed information on graduation rates that includes an analysis of where students are lost from the high school pipeline.

The reports also compare district results with state and national figures.

What you'll notice is that schools vary tremendously in their ability to graduate students. Oftentimes, schools with similar demographics in nearby neighborhoods or schools districts achieve dramatically different results.

So when you shop for a new home, make sure you also shop for the better schools. Even if you don't use the local public schools, the better the local schools, the better your real estate investment.