The financially-troubled Tamarack ski resort development faces yet another issue as Bank of America threatened to remove two ski lifts when lease payments fell into arrears.

Bank of America started foreclosure proceedings on a three building conference centre, and Stirling Bank started similar proceedings on an employee housing facility. There are sheriff’s sales scheduled for October and December.

We reported back in July that construction was at a standstill at the Tamarack Resort in Idaho, and no progress has been made since that time. Tennis stars Andre Agassi and Stefi Graf have both pulled out of the planned Fairmont Hotel/sports complex; and rumors are flying that the CEO, Jean-Pierre Boesspflug will step down as head of the company if that is what it takes to secure an influx of money.

I understand an agreement now has been made regarding the two ski lifts; the Wildwood and Buttercup. “They (Bank of America) gave us due notice and we immediately opened the communication channels,” said Ken Rider, the Tamarack spokesperson. No details were given.

Tamarack is still trying to find a buyer or a cash investor and is exploring some unusual avenues, including the possibility of working with Idaho’s affordable housing lender to generate $670 million in revenue bonds. But with the foreclosure rate continuing to increase, this seems unlikely to solve the problem.

According to the latest figures from Realty Trac, one in 416 home owners in the US got a default notice in August, which is the highest monthly figure since records started in January 2005. Bank seizures have more than doubled over the last year, defaults have risen 10% and auctions are up 7%. None of which bodes well for an investment of this size in a luxury ski resort development by an affordable housing lender.

RealtyTrac Foreclosure Activity Report

Ann Brenoff has posted on the LA Times blog that the Donald Trump-Ed McMahon deal may not go through, as The Donald now has competition to buy the place.

The listing agent reports that an anonymous second buyer has shown up. Interesting. We thought the listing agent went to New York to ask Trump to please help out McMahon. And now there’s a mysterious buyer.

Are they hoping for a bidding war, perhaps? The Wall Street Journal was reporting that McMahon owes various creditors, not just the mortgage company, several million dollars. So while a sale may help him avoid foreclosure, it won’t help him pay off the other bills he has.

So we wonder, is this situation something cooked up by the listing agent to get a higher price out of the house? Or is this second buyer really legit? We’ll keep watching for updates.

Tomorrow morning we’ll have a beautiful Canadian home to show you, instead of all of this McMahon news. Promise.

Well what do you know? It looks like Donald Trump has stepped up to rescue Ed McMahon from foreclosure. And none too soon, it appears.

We saw in the LA Times today that Trump has agreed to buy the McMahon home, and he’ll allow McMahon and his wife to continue to live there. As we mentioned just a couple of days ago, McMahon had slashed his home’s asking price in hopes of avoiding imminent foreclosure.

And it appears he just may have dodged that bullet.

Trump said he didn’t really know McMahon, but grew up watching him on TV. He plans to buy the home and then lease it back to McMahon. Um, that’s great, Donald. Really nice of you. But if McMahon hasn’t been able to work for the last 18 months due to a neck injury, and is over $644,000 in arrears on his mortgage, how in the world is he going to lease his beloved home from you?

Just saying.

The actual details, including purchase price, are still being worked out. According to the Times, McMahon’s listing agent actually flew to New York to personally appeal to Trump. We guess it worked.

We’re actually quite relieved that this situation looks to be resolved in a favorable manner. I grew up watching McMahon on the Tonight Show, and later I even watched him on Star Search (shut up). And who wants to see an 85-year-old man and his wife booted into the streets?

McMahon’s 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom house has been on the market for almost two years. They kept dropping the price gradually, hoping to attract a buyer.

Ed McMahon is still desperately trying to sell his Beverly Hills home. In fact, he just recently dropped his asking price by $1,900,000. That’s a big reduction by anyone’s standards.

As we previously mentioned, McMahon is trying to avoid foreclosure by Countrywide. In June, it was reported that McMahon was $644,000 in arrears. And since it appears he still hasn’t been able to work, that number can only be growing.

The current asking price for the home is $4,600,000 according to the listing. The home, which has been on the market for two years, started out at $7,700,000. He gradually reduced the price to $5,700,000. Inexplicably, the price went back up earlier this year before the most recent decrease, according to Dr. Housing Bubble.

We wonder how much longer McMahon can avoid foreclosure. With real estate values dropping everywhere, it’s entirely possible that with two mortgages he is upside down on his property value.

It looks like Ed McMahon faces foreclosure on his 7,013-square-foot Beverly Hills home. Countrywide Financial Corp. is starting proceedings due to McMahon’s reported $644,000 past due. As we mentioned previously, McMahon’s home has been on the market since July 2006. He has lowered the price from $7.7 million down to $5.7 million.

McMahon broke his neck about 18 months ago and hasn’t been able to work since. That could easily wipe out a large bank account, couldn’t it my pretties? Poor McMahon — 85-years-old and about to lose his beloved home.

As we do a little more research, we find that McMahon’s home once flooded and subsequently filled with toxic mold. He insists that they gutted the place and got rid of any mold. But that may explain why buyers are avoiding the house, no matter how much redecorating they’ve done.

Really, darlings, I just feel sorry for the man. How terrible to be in your golden years, facing serious health problems, declining finances, and a very public foreclosure battle. Maybe he should enter the Publisher’s Clearinghouse sweepstakes?

We don’t think you hear about this too often. Mostly we read about celebrities and their fabulous digs, fancy decorators and amazing properties. But once in a while, a celebrity hits hard times or maybe just decides that something is a losing investment. And this time, it’s Jose Canseco.

Canseco, who admitted to using steroids to improve his baseball game, decided to stop making payments on his 7,344 square-foot home in Los Angeles. According to public records, he purchased the home in 2005 for around $2.8 million. It has four bedrooms, six baths and a pool.

The retired baseball player told the Associated Press that he had a judgment against the home anyway, so it was easier just to let it go. While Canseco earned some serious coin as a ball player, taxes and a couple of expensive divorces have eaten away at his finances.

But Canseco has sympathy for other families losing their homes who don’t have the option to just walk away. Usually, they have nowhere else to go. Not Canseco, though. He chose this situation rather than continuing to pay on a home that was losing him money. Most people also don’t have the luxury of walking away unscathed, as letting a home go into foreclosure means their credit rating suffers as well. Apparently Canseco isn’t worried about that either.

Reports didn’t mention where Canseco will be living, or how many other properties he still owns.

Image: panoramadebc

We had last heard that Michael Jackson had made a deal to save his neglected Neverland, but the newest dish is that he didn’t exactly refinance his $24+ million loan.

Fox 411 reports that a foreclosure is still scheduled for the declining property. In fact, the public auction is set for May 14 in Santa Barbara.

Looks like one of Jacko’s lawyers made a teensy-tiny error with the statement that a deal was made. Instead, there’s only a two-month extension on the auction. So developers can go back to salivating over this prime property. Oh, the greedy development dreams they must be having!

Apparently a group in LA has funded an escrow account with $46 million to make a refinance deal with MJ on Neverland. But while they thought they were working with Jacko’s people, it’s rumored that it was Jackson’s former manager Raymone Bain behind the chaos — and MJ knew nothing about it!

It’s a confusing mess over there, with new reports coming in all the time. Jackson’s going to sell Neverland. No, he’ll never let it go. He’s going to refinance. No, he can’t. Wait, there’s a deal in line! Never mind, that was a crazy scheme by someone else!

So is the LA group going to make a deal? We’re not sure, but the escrow account is apparently still funded. The Real Estalker reports yet another rumor that MJ managed to get his loan at Fortress restructured. We’re just as skeptical about the rumored deals as RE is, though, considering such a large sum of money is at stake. It’s doubtful that a big old finance company would want to keep giving breaks to MJ when there’s so much money to be had in the deal.

Will Jackson sell the property before the auction? Oh darlings, it’s anyone’s guess at this point. The behind-the-scenes shenanigans are enough to give us a headache. Jacko just continues to attract the drama, doesn’t he?

Photo by robstephaustralia licensed under Creative Commons.