Caught With Their Pants Down?

A Southern California city councilman and a Fort Worth, Texas-area college district chancellor were recently featured in possibly embarrassing stories in which both were described as submitting mortgage loan application papers in connection with a purchase of a second house where each declared that they intended to use as a primary residence. Reportedly, neither actually moved in and each continued to use their first home as their primary residence.

• The Orange County Register: [Newport Beach, California] City Councilman Steve Rosansky signed loan documents agreeing to live in a now-rundown house as his "principal residence" for at least a year, records show, but never moved in, according to neighbors. The councilman declined to explain the discrepancy, but real estate experts say it is common for buyers to sign "principal residency" clauses on income properties to obtain lower interest rates.

For more, see Newport councilman may have breached loan agreement (Steve Rosansky's deed calls for house to be principal residence, but neighbor says he's never lived there, and he's publicly called it investment property).

• Fort Worth Weekly: It would have been a long commute. Four years ago, Tarrant County College District Chancellor Leonardo de la Garza and his wife Virginia bought a four-bedroom, three-bath house with a brick and rock façade on the shore of a lake in Sugar Land, about 280 miles from his college office.

• The couple, who still owned a home in Arlington, did not declare the new house a “second home” on the loan agreement. They promised in the deed of trust to live in it as their “principal residence” beginning within 60 days following the filing of the deed and for a year thereafter. Lying about occupancy to a lender underwriting a home loan is a federal crime, though one often winked at by authorities, according to experts in real estate law.

For more, see House-Proud.