Secrets of the City

From MPR: ”For many Minnesota Muslims, it’s been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Islamic law forbids the paying or charging of interest. To help close the home ownership gap among Muslim immigrants, the state’s housing agency has launched a new program offering Islamic mortgages … The state buys a home and resells it to the buyer at a higher price. The down payment and monthly installments are agreed to up front at current mortgage rates.

The deal is identical to a thirty-year fixed-rate loan, except there’s no additional interest, because the higher up front price factors in payments that would have been made over the life of a traditional mortgage. A handful of private banks and lending institutions offer Islamic mortgages in the U.S., but Minnesota Housing is the first state agency to offer such a product. The program is the brainchild of Hussein Samatar, director of the African Development Center in Minneapolis.

Some contend that Islamic mortgages show poor growth, and end up costing the bank more than a traditional mortgage. Some banks have even stopped offering them. Does anyone know more about these? Can anyone get a cost-plus loan? Or just low to middle income Muslims?

With the recent fair increase not working. And a financing system that is obviously flawed and counter-productive. When will someone finally act on finding alternate funding sources to save our public transit?

When there’s a Ponzi Scheme that scammed $50 billion dollars, as Bernard Madoff’s is supposed to, the fallout is bound to be felt far and wide, especially when the victims of the scam (like Carl Shapiro, who lost $500 million) are sizable philanthropists. KARE11 looks at local organizations that will feel the sting (the Strib also offers a list of local victims, and calls it a “bloodbath” for local investors), such as the locally based National Alliance on Mental Illness, which was notified that one of their largest donors will be cutting its funding. (”The e-mail just said we’re really sorry, but the funds were invested with Madoff.”) This makes the $10 million Ponzi scheme reportedly perpetuated by local businesmen back in 2004 look pale by comparison. Of course, Tom Petters’ scheme might have been for as much as $2 billion, which is no small potatoes.