EASTERN PA. Attorney general says builder deceived Poconos home buyers

The attorney general says the builder lied to home purchasers.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The attorney general filed a civil lawsuit Thursday accusing a Poconos builder and executives at his company of using deceptive sales tactics to persuade dozens of first-time home buyers to purchase houses at inflated prices.
The suit seeks $7.2 million in restitution and $1.1 million in penalties from builder Thomas Senofonte, several of his employees at Keystone Custom Homes and three real estate appraisers who gave independent home-value estimates to his prospective buyers.
Attorney General Mike Fisher said Keystone's salespeople lied to buyers about how much their homes would cost, what their mortgage payment and interest rate would be, and how much their homes were worth if resold.
He said many of the 85 buyers whose complaints formed the basis of the suit were working-class families from metropolitan New York who had seen television advertisements decrying city life and promising paradise in the Poconos for little money down and low interest rates.
What happened
The suit is the second the state has filed in response to thousands of foreclosures in the Poconos, which officials said were prompted in part by questionable loans to inexperienced buyers.
Senofonte denied the charges Thursday.
He said the homes in question in Monroe County sold for an average of $65 per square foot, a price he called "one of the lowest anywhere." The claims made in the television advertisements were accurate, he said, as were the appraisals of home value, and all of the deals were reviewed and approved by reputable banks.
"We were being as credible as we could. We had to work hard at it to grind out a profit," Senofonte said.
Fisher previously filed a similar suit against two other builders who sold homes in some of the same developments as Keystone, alleging that buyers were misled into purchasing homes they couldn't afford.
In some cases, families were left with buildings worth far less than their mortgage. One couple included in the Keystone suit purchased a home for $246,900, only to have it appraised two years later at $167,000, Fisher's office said.
Senofonte said no one was forced to buy his homes or tricked about the price.