What Happens When We Do It Wrong
A report from the Connecticut Post. “Foreclosures are so prevalent in New England that one Massachusetts-based research firm is tracking them weekly as an integral part of the real estate market. The Warren Group announced Monday it is offering a new quick-search feature listing foreclosures by state and county for subscribers. The Warren Group said there were 3,789 filings in the first quarter of 2007 in Connecticut, compared to 5,855 in the first quarter of this year.”
“‘It’s not good,’ said veteran mortgage broker and Realtor Mark Ballaro, of Fairfield. ‘I don’t need The Warren Group to tell me that.’”
“Ballaro, who has been in the business for 23 years, said this market is reminiscent of the 1990s, when sales and prices crashed. ‘Im showing the places,’ Ballaro said. But he’s not getting many offers and those he does get are often $100,000 less than the asking price.”
“These days are a far cry from 2005 and 2006, when the ‘asking price was the starting price,’ he said, which meant a higher sales price. Buyers are thinking, ‘Why should I buy now, when next year I could buy for less?’ Ballaro said.”
“Todd Martin, of Fairfield-based Todd P. Martin Economic Services, agreed the problem in Connecticut is similar to the 1990s in that there is too much supply.”
“Martin said the real estate agents he talks to say there are people putting their homes on the market to see what kinds of bids are out there. They’re not selling because they have to move, Martin said, they’re seeing whether they can turn a profit.”
“During the week of May 9 to May 16, there were 237 foreclosure filings in Connecticut courts, according to The Warren Group. New Haven County had the highest number of new filings that week, with 77. Hartford County had 65 and Fairfield County 46.”
The New Haven Independent from Connecticut. “When they knocked on the door of L & S Mortgage, Delroy Reid and Debra Willoughby just wanted to buy a home. After getting lured into buying a broken-down house through an alleged mortgage fraud scam, they found themselves knee-deep in sewage - and debt. The unwitting first-time homebuyers have gone to court to try to recover.”
“‘We got suckered,’ said Willoughby, a heavyset mother of nine struggling with cancer and unemployment. She was brought to the point of tears as she recounted how she and her partner, two low-income, unsophisticated first-time homebuyers, got swindled into buying a home they would never have wanted for a price they could never afford.”
“Jan. 18, 2006, the couple signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement to buy the Hobart Street home for $395,000. ‘We were really happy,’ recalled Willoughby. ‘I was like, oh my God, I really got a house!’”
“On April 17, 2006, just before the closing, L & S told Reid the home was not available, but he could have 192-194 Winthrop Ave. instead. In an admittedly unwise move, the couple agreed to close on the home the next morning - without ever taking a look inside or seeing an appraisal.”
“As a result of the alleged false application, Reid got hooked onto a loan he would have no way of supporting…a subprime loan that stayed at $2,100 per month for the first two years, then ballooned - by over 50 percent - after the two-year mark.”
“The biggest surprise of all came when the couple entered the house. ‘As soon as you hit the kitchen, you had the biggest hole, and water leaking,’ Willoughby recalled. There was trash all over the house.”
“‘I was pissed,’ said Willoughby. ‘Look at this shit.’ The third-floor apartment had 25 violations disqualifying it from Section 8 funding.”
“‘It’s just a raggedy-ass mess,’ Willoughby said.”
“But the battle has been a losing one. The couple, both of whom are now unemployed, have failed to make mortgage payments since December. ‘The bank account went down, down, down, until there was nothing,’ Willoughby recalled. ‘We livin’ up in this house with stress. Stress, stress, stress, stress, stress.’”
“‘We would have been better sitting back in an apartment, not owning a home,’ she said. ‘They really took advantage of us, they really did.’”
The Boston Globe from Massachusetts. “MassHousing said yesterday it is teaming up with real estate agents on the weekend of May 30 to host home-buying fairs and open houses for properties listed at prices that qualify for MassHousing’s loan program for moderate- and middle-income buyers.”
“The agency makes loans for houses priced up to $428,000 in high-cost housing markets in Eastern Massachusetts, such as Somerville, Cambridge, Dover, and Nahant, and as high as $396,000 in communities such as Lawrence, Andover, and Boxford. In Western Massachusetts, the maximum price is $273,500.”
“The median price for a single-family house declined 8.4 percent in April, to $315,000, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.”
“‘We’re going to have listing sheets right there for homes in the area that fall within the purchase price limits,’ said Thomas Gleason, MassHousing’s executive director.”
“During the housing boom, many low- and moderate-income buyers flocked to subprime mortgages that were aggressively marketed by loan brokers. But many could not afford those high-rate loans, and a record number of Massachusetts homeowners are now facing foreclosure.”
Gleason said that home buyer courses are filling up in the wake of the subprime mortgage crisis. ‘People are saying we’re going to do it right because we’ve seen what happens when we do it wrong,’ he said.”
“Sometime late next year, the first residents are expected to move into the brick town houses and contemporary Colonial homes built on what was once an airstrip for Navy A-4 Skyhawks flying training missions for the Vietnam War.”
“These newcomers are supposed to be pioneers in one of the biggest residential developments in Massachusetts, the transformation of the 1,400-acre South Weymouth Naval Air Station into SouthField, a trendy ‘urban village.’”
“But its long-awaited launch could hardly come at a worse time. As housing sales plummet across the country, no one knows whether this grand enterprise will turn into the next hot spot for young families or something closer to a desolate outpost in the woods.”
“‘You know the old saying, if you build it, they will come,’ said Robert W. Terravecchia Jr., the president of Weymouth Bank who served for two years on a commission overseeing the project. ‘Well, what if you build it and no one comes?’”
“In Concord, the developer of a luxury condominium complex completed last year auctioned off 25 of the 58 units after they failed to sell. In Braintree, the developer of another luxury condo complex completed last year auctioned off 10 units after just 12 of the first 24 sold, with the rest of the 304-unit complex still on the drawing board.”
“An LNR marketing study identifies the development’s biggest target audience as ‘upwardly mobile young adults migrating out of Boston, as well as Gen-Xers from neighboring communities.’ The study also features photos of a family picnicking and a gray-haired couple drinking coffee in a cafe.”
“‘We have our foot on the gas right now, and the feedback we’re getting back from the market now is we should not let up,’ said Kevin R. Chase, VP of LNR’s Northeast region.
“Houses will be sold at prices that Chase said are equal to or less than current market rates; 10 percent will be offered at more affordable rates under state guidelines. They will include 3,000-square-foot ‘golf homes’ near the links that will retail for about $825,000, 2,500-square-foot ‘garden courts’ with yards that will sell for about $687,000, and 1,000-square-foot condos that will sell for about $275,000.”
“‘The biggest impediment to this thing actually doing well is the economy: Can this particular region on the South Shore absorb that many homes over the next 10, 20 years?’ Terravecchia said. ‘It’s really not the best time in the world to be trying to sell brand-new construction.’”
The Boston Herald from Massachusetts. “In South Boston…a pair of high-powered local developers, after initially planning high-end condos, has shifted gears and will build 139 apartments on the former Cardinal Cushing High School site.”
“The decision comes amid a tough sales market for new condos, one that has seen other for-sale projects near North Station and in the Charlestown Navy Yard go rental.”
“The $61 million project takes shape not far from a pair of expensive condo high-rise projects. Slated to open in fall 2009, rents at the West Broadway apartment complex will range from $1,800 to $4,000 a month.”
“‘The city is really excited that there is new housing going up in this area,’ said Jessica Shumaker, a spokeswoman for the Boston Redevelopment Authority. ‘For many years nobody lived around the Broadway T station because it was primarily commercial.’”
The Long Island Business News from New York. “The number of personal bankruptcies on Long Island is way up in 2008, another sign that mounting mortgage defaults and the climbing prices of necessities like food and energy are taking a toll on locals.”
“Thousands of Long Islanders whose home prices have declined are finding they have little or no equity left in their homes to draw on.”
“‘When the economy is in recession, or even in subpar growth, all the borrowings that people made in the good times come back to haunt them,’ said Pearl Kamer, chief economist at the Long Island Association.”
“Many homeowners have turned to bankruptcy as a way to stall foreclosure filings, which jumped 11 percent on Long Island in the first quarter compared to the prior-year period.”
“‘You can literally file a bankruptcy case five minutes before the auction is about to go off and stop a foreclosure proceeding,’ said Pat Collins, chair of the bankruptcy law committee for the Nassau County Bar Association.”
From Reuters on New York. “As foreclosed properties stack up in up-market areas of Long Island, New York, one company is capitalizing by taking potential buyers around the empty homes.”
“‘People have been evicted, it’s a terrible thing,’ David Farrell, director of tourism of the Long Island Foreclosure Tours told Reuters TV. ‘But for the most part people have been out of their homes for six months, a year. The people who lost, lost a long time ago. Banks lost, homeowners lost. Now what we have are two people who can win.’”
“‘This is devastating to see how these beautiful houses, and up and coming neighborhoods can be so dilapidated, so gutted,’ said prospective buyer Cathy Germaine from Franklin Square, Long Island, who was on one of the tours.”
“But she said she was ’sick and tired of renting’ and was looking for a property to buy with her fiancee.”
“Among houses on the tree-lined tour was a $372,500 four-bedroom property in New Hyde Park which the previous buyer paid $475,000 for a few years ago, according to Farrell. Another with three bedrooms in the same neighborhood which went for $550,000 in 2006 is now on the market for $324,900.”
“Farrell said of the properties he was showing on Saturday the majority could be purchased for less than the cost to rent. ‘To me, that’s intrinsic value in real estate — when you can live in a house and every month your bills are lower than they’d be as a rental. It’s hard to lose if you’re a long-term purchaser and it costs less every month to buy than to rent.’”
The Associated Press on New York. “In the past, people who sold their own homes could pocket the commission that otherwise goes to a broker. But in today’s tough housing market, doing it yourself isn’t so easy.”
“‘Two years ago, homes were selling overnight, and all you really needed was a yard sign,’ said Steve Udelson, CEO of a resource site for buyers and sellers.”
“In Brooklyn, Sheryl Miller put her two-family house up for sale last summer. After living there for 10 years and making significant upgrades, she thought her first offer of $700,000 was too low. The house appraised at $800,000; her asking price was $750,000.”
“She decided to wait. ‘If I could do it again, I’d price it below $750,000, but try to keep it above $700,000,’ Miller said. ‘I should’ve priced more aggressively. I lost out on that opportunity.’”
“After three months with no other offers, Miller took it off the market. The dream of her family living life at a slower pace in Maryland will have to wait.”
The Press of Atlantic City from New Jersey. “The latest positive numbers for home sales and prices have divided real estate agents, ordinarily a group uniformly upbeat about the housing market.”
“Some doubt the numbers, even though they’re from their own association, and say it’s making it tougher to get home sellers to reduce their prices to more realistic levels.
“Kevin Dawe, a real estate agent in Northfield, said last week’s report that the median home price in the Atlantic City area rose 4.8 percent in the first quarter didn’t match what he’s been seeing.”
“‘As we talk to our sellers about the declining market we are actually facing and the fact that they have to be aggressive in pricing their homes if they expect to find a buyer, the statistics in your article are baffling and impact our credibility with customers,’ Dawe said.”
“To Eileen Raynes, an agent in Margate, the higher sales and price figures were a very welcome break from media coverage she described as ’standing on a corner screaming ‘Get your dead fish.’”
“Bruce E. Breunig Jr., broker in Margate, admitted that ‘we Realtors remain part of the problem. We blame the media for fueling the downturn and try to counterbalance it with our own positive spin.’”
“Farrell said of the properties he was showing on Saturday the majority could be purchased for less than the cost to rent. ‘To me, that’s intrinsic value in real estate — when you can live in a house and every month your bills are lower than they’d be as a rental. It’s hard to lose if you’re a long-term purchaser and it costs less every month to buy than to rent.’”
Ah, so THAT’s what the actual value of a house is!
Looks like one realtor broke the code.
Yeah, well we are hearing a lot of this ‘cheaper than renting’ stuff these days. I’m skeptical.
Agreed.
The overhang of supply will reflect itself in the rental prices. You have to be cheaper than that too to actually buy.
But if they keep repeating it, it will encourage people to do the math.
It’s a very expensive rental market in the NY area if you don’t have some kind of deal (rent regulation, public housing, other subsidized middle income housing). So rent is more than you might think for equivalent square footage, but it’s hard to tell exactly because there are relatively few rented homes compared with the Southwest.
I’d say the rental equivalent of my house is 40% down from the peak.
“But if they keep repeating it, it will encourage people to do the math.”
I agree. Over the last few years, the kool-aid thinking has been that it’s ALWAYS better to buy than to rent. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it sure as hell isn’t, and it all depends on how the numbers pencil out.
Of course no one’s bothered to do that for the last several years, but people may be starting. I can only hope -);
10-20% away from that here in 22151
And potential buyers in these big northern cities need to allow an extra cushion for property taxes over the term of ownership. The budget messes at the state and local levels are not going to just disappear. Of course the REIC doesn’t even given that issue one iota of thought because they probably think the federal tax benefits of paying mortgage interest trump it.
Here in Florida, we are not at all close to cheaper-than-renting with the possible exception of the #35-50K fixer shacks that are rented to the lowest ranks of tenants. What’s overlooked in some of these reports is that rents are declining at the same time as selling prices, so the ratios do not “improve” nearly so much as would be implied by lower selling prices.
We are also going to hear more of this…
“She decided to wait. ‘If I could do it again, I’d price it below $750,000, but try to keep it above $700,000,’ Miller said. ‘I should’ve priced more aggressively. I lost out on that opportunity.’”
Put this to music and it should play well in the RE Top Ten “Cry in your beer” songs for the next few years
Heard that from a colleague who resides in FL.
Beach front home, got offered last yr, $1.6, she wouldn’t accept anything less than her asking of $2. I would wager, she & H still own it. Seemed to be nonplussed about the economy and that was October07.
Exactly! And what we don’t hear are the terms that would make it cheaper than renting. 15 yr or 30 yr fixed, or no deal.
BayQT~
If you’re talking about real estate agents then you should be. In rental comparisons they invariably overstate the income tax benefit and leave out maintenance and replacement reserves. For my formerly owned attached house (I refuse to call it a townhouse - the Bellamy’s in Upstairs/Downstairs lived in a townhouse) I had to set aside $175 per month for maintenance plus I set aside $150 per month for component replacements.
Yeah, well we are hearing a lot of this ‘cheaper than renting’ stuff these days.
————————————————————–
I am not worried about today…I am worried about all the days that follow.
‘properties listed at prices that qualify for MassHousing’s loan program for moderate- and middle-income buyers…priced up to $428,000 in high-cost housing markets in Eastern Massachusetts, such as Somerville, Cambridge, Dover, and Nahant, and as high as $396,000 in communities such as Lawrence, Andover, and Boxford. In Western Massachusetts, the maximum price is $273,500.’
‘The median price for a single-family house declined 8.4 percent in April, to $315,000, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.’
Moderate- and middle-income? And while prices are falling and have been for years now? Folks in Massachusetts say it’s a highly educated group, with lots of colleges, etc. But I’m starting to think otherwise.
Educated folks can be emotional. I have a coworker that’s getting preapproved for a $400K condo in the Boston Area today. He’s a very smart guy and knows the economy, housing market, etc. But what do you do when your wife really wants a place?
“Bee-yatch, here are the divorce papers”?!?
Ha! Careful careful. Large V is going to come after you for a comment like that…
uhhh…are Bee-yatch and Bee-itch….sisters?
“But what do you do when your wife really wants a place?”
You think about how she’s going to blame you when the condo is worth 100k less in 6 months.
Yeah, get her a new diamond or something like that instead, even a new car, way cheaper.
“But what do you do when your wife really wants a place?”
Run out of ink. Just one signature won’t get it done.
Edumacated folks (bushism!) can be stupid as posts.
They have no excuse, whereas unedumacated folks are just that uneducated.
spelled it wrong on purpose/.
“Educated folks can be emotional. I have a coworker that’s getting preapproved for a $400K condo in the Boston Area today. He’s a very smart guy and knows the economy, housing market, etc. But what do you do when your wife really wants a place?”
I hear ya. A co-worker (sw engineer) who used to live in the same rental community as I bought a house (Dublin, CA) for $700k. He thought it was a deal because, in his words, “this model used to be in the $900s!” Dude is VERY smart….work-wise…but obviously not up to date on the market. We had had a few market conversations in the coffee room, but (damn it!) they didn’t stick.
What can you do? Smile, say congrats, and keep moving.
On the other hand, daughter/SIL w/baby on the way postponed looking this year. They will start again next year. (Whew!) Mainly, it’s because she’s on modified bedrest and won’t be able to get around much until after bambino is born. Sometimes the universe just lines things up for a reason.
I’m hoping I can convince them to hold off until LATE next year, if not 2010.
Keep your fingers crossed for me.
BayQT~
I still don’t get this whole “baby’s-on-the-way, so OMG we just *have* to buy a house right NOW!!” thing.
Even if the baby is expected today, it’s still 5-6 years before enrollment in Kindergarten, right? Pre-school is private anyway, so no big hurry, right? And what makes mom think that there’s zero chance that dad won’t get relo’d/promoted, laid off, etc. in the intervening time? Or for that matter, what’s so freakin horrible about renting a nice house in the same neighborhood when the little tyke starts school? Do 3rd graders really *care* whether or not little Billy’s parents are house renters or money renters?
Ladies… a house is four walls and roof. It is also an expensive, illiquid, depreciating liability that needs constant maintenance, gets slapped with taxes and special assessments each year, and cannot be transported when *you* need/want to move. Get over the “nesting” thing already.
You’re preaching to the choir, Harm. I’m definitely trying to slow their roll. There is really no need for the rush… not at all, and they could just as well rent a nice house.
I’m workin’ on them. Trust me.
BayQT~
When we were first married 13 years ago, many of our peers were buying up Dover. My husband was still building then while attending school and was putting together a behemoth where the wholesale bill for the cabinets alone was higher than most home prices in the late 1990s. I can’t imagine they’re going to feel too happy w/moderate and middle income people getting help to be their neighbors. That was their trophy address. I think it would be fair to say that many of them felt that address set them apart.
Gee in NY, they just opened a small public access area on a site willed to the state 10 years ago for out of towners (read those of lower social status) to fish in the upscale town’s lake. A sizable number of residents went nuts. Some claimed that their higher taxes meant the lake belonged to them even though state money helped stock and maintain it. Committees were formed to block it and town meetings had some contentious moments. I can only imagine the cadre of lawyers yanked together if the state tried to give people of lower means money to “live” in their neighborhoods. Heads would roll somewhere, I’m sure.
Carrie Ann
yer story reminds me of when I first became acutely aware of different american social classes; early teen years, used to ride my bike down Ringling Causeway, from Sarasota proper, out to North Lido beach. Passing thru St. Armands Circle(Rodeo Drive atmosphere), the snotty moneyed shoppers would sneer at me with contempt!
Was always puzzled at their lack of civility at the time.
a t-shirt that read ‘ CUTTERS ‘ on the back, while singing eye-talion operas, would have been hilarious, but this was a few years before the movie Breaking Away.
MA has a program for everything- their FREE-er healthcare is already 400 mill in the red and it excludes lots of folks= universal anyone?
With all due respect, having lived in Mass for nine years now I know that the cross section of American life here is no different than anywhere else. You’ve got your working class, you’ve got your white collars, you’ve got your crooks, you’ve got your bums, you’ve got the outspoken ‘gobberment must do something about gas prices’ group. We all know the mantra, “But it’s different here…just like everywhere else…” Trust me, if Mass was smarter than the rest of the country you think the Commonwealth would have kept a career DUI/manslaughter perp in Congress for over 40 years and have news anchors crying as they read his has been diagnosed with a terminal illness?
Almost weekly I hear someone from Mass tell me they’d never want to live anywhere else because everyone in Mass is smart and educated and cultured and we’ve got Harvard and MIT by golly. Meanwhile, the people telling me never stepped foot in a college classroom and the last time they attended any of those cultural activities they’re so proud of was during a high school assembly. It is pitiful that so many locals believe that living in proximity to a $40,000 per year university imparts knowledge. It may not appear so based on local myth, but Mass has the same percentage of idiots as anywhere else in the country.
Well, if Boston ever implements one of those toilet to tap schemes, it really will be in the water up there.
“Mass has same percentage of idiots”
Well, yes and no. I taught both secondary school and undergraduate college in both Mass and Fla. Inner-city MA students more knowledgeable than farm-raised or beach-raised FL students in grade 9. Community-college MA students more motivated than private college sophs in FL. My answer: the challenges of surviving urban life impart some minimal knowledge and drive, at least. That said, I agree there are plenty of adult dunces in MA.
Speaking of DWI’s and manslaughter, how’s the smirking chimp and the Laura STOP sign doing these days ?
Yes, walking away from a drowning woman and not reporting it till the next day is SOOOO equivalent
All the paperwork detailing Laura Bush’s car crash, in which she killed a high school student, has disappeared from the courthouse in Texas. As is the record of whether she was tested for alcohol use, and the results.
Gee, there’s a surprise.
Walking away from an accident as an adult where you could, very possibly, have SAVED someone’s life is equivalent to a solitary DWI and a (sadly) fatal teenage driving accident?
I guess we’ll do whatever it takes to keep the myth alive that the “Liberal Lion” somehow “cares” more about the “little people” than anyone else. I wonder how that squares with claiming a completely phony Florida residency for a parent……to evade Massachusetts death taxes…..
DWI is serious. So is any fatal accident at anytime. But to imagine they are remotely similar to the clearly criminal act of an abject coward is an exercise in contortion that is utterly remarkable.
DWI is serious. So is any fatal accident at anytime.
Gee,that’s insightful. Let’s see, W has 2 DWIs, though he worked overtime to keep them hidden, Cheney has 5, and Laura was an adult, 18, when she ran a stop sign on a country road and plowed into an honor student who had dated and dumped her. Then all records of the crash and the alcohol tests on Laura were removed from the Texas courthouse, and shazam…vanished just before the 2000 campaign.
So Teddy is an “abject coward”…why, he was probably loaded, just like Laura Bush. Is she an abject coward too?
Years ago I got my mother out of Boston, MA when her cost of living got much higher than her income. She retired & moved in with me in OH. She regretted all the interesting people she would meet casually in the stores & on the MTA, and said the folks in OH were just dull by comparison. She did understand the necessity of living where it’s affordable. I compensated for her loss somewhat by taking her on trips all over the USA with the money saved.
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“Bruce E. Breunig Jr., broker in Margate, admitted that ‘we Realtors remain part of the problem. We blame the media for fueling the downturn and try to counterbalance it with our own positive spin.’”
Media didn’t fuel the downturn, the high prices and excess inventory did, Mr. Breunig. Yes, we all know at your positive spin. Reality meets the spin and beats it often enough.
Jas
Buyers are thinking, ‘Why should I buy now, when next year I could buy for less?’ Ballaro said.”
Oops the mass psychology has changed. RE is a very illiquid market when this happens.
People still tell me that I should buy a house. Platitudes abound in my ears when they won’t be paying the overpriced mortgage.
“You will be building equity” lololol. Debt slaves………
1997 prices are coming. Long term charts don’t lie and when bubbles burst they usually overshoot.
A variant I heard floating around was, “depends on whether you want to play the equity game or not.”
What game is that? LOL
It’s that new game that’s all the rage:
e - QUIT - ease - where you bet someone else’s money on a house. If the value goes up, you borrow more. If the value goes down, you just QUIT - with ease.
Butch Cassidy: Ah, you’re wasting you’re time. They can’t track us over rocks.
Sundance Kid: Tell them that.
Butch Cassidy: [after looking for himself] Who are those guys?
REPO MEN
“the mass psychology has changed.”
Appropriate for this thread.
So much for the Spring Bounce in sales:
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080523/economy.html
The New Haven Independent from Connecticut. “When they knocked on the door of L & S Mortgage, Delroy Reid and Debra Willoughby just wanted to buy a home. After getting lured into buying a broken-down house through an alleged mortgage fraud scam, they found themselves knee-deep in sewage - and debt. The unwitting first-time homebuyers have gone to court to try to recover.”
Oh these poor people! They were lured! I imagine they were taken by gunpoint and held hostage! And then forced to sign a dozen documents to complete the sale of a home! And then held in captivity for a few months after so they couldn’t report that they were coerced into buying a him to the authorities!
‘‘I was pissed,’ said Willoughby. ‘Look at this shit.’ ‘It’s just a raggedy-ass mess ‘We livin’ up in this house with stress. Stress, stress, stress, stress, stress.’ ‘We would have been better sitting back in an apartment, not owning a home,’ she said. ‘They really took advantage of us, they really did.’
People are smart…
Didn’t they check the place out before they bought? How could they not have noticed the place was flooded with raw sewage?
No.
It was a bait-and-switch at the time of closing.
Which is really wild, usually you hear about that tactic in regards to the loan terms, not the property itself.
There’s a reason these folks are unemployed. Who in their right mind would buy a house with even seeing it, without looking inside? And who would accept the switch the night before closing? Do they go to the supermarket and let the grocer load up a bag and sell it to them at his price, without even looking inside?
They had the option of notifying authorities IMMEDIATELY after they discovered they were “duped”. They chose not to. This leads me to doubt they’re telling the whole truth
You know, fear is a HUGE motivator, and it looks like they were afraid they’d never get a house if they didn’t do exactly as told.
My Oregon friend is pretty intelligent, but she’s VERY afraid she won’t get the house of her dreams, so she’s now buying (after already buying a first house 8 months ago), relying 100% on the real estate crook selling her the house, who she even trusted to do the inspection and even to decide how much to offer! He offered 10k less and they came back at 5k off, so she now has a house that’s already been on the market forever at a measly 5k off.
She doesn’t even know how much the taxes or utilities are. This is the woman I’ve mentioned before who scrimps and saves every penny, won’t even go out to eat. I’ve spent hours talking to her about the bubble and she vehemently agreed with everything I said about it being a bad time to buy. She did a FSBO on the house she sold at the peak, daily cussing RE people and talking about how she’d never deal with them.
Now I don’t even want to talk to her anymore, my respect for her is that low, as I now realize she is totally run by her fears and insecurities. When she calls, I just say, congratulations, what else can you say (well, and be somewhat civil)?
We all have fears, but wouldn’t you think it would be wise to at least acknowledge them and try to overcome them? I’d love to have a house (mostly because of all my pets), but about 10 times a day I tell myself how stupid it would be to buy now (with reinforcement from you guys and Ben, thanks, BTW).
And I’m living with the uncertainty of squatting, for Pete’s sakes!!!
I actually feel sorry for them. Clearly they were unsophisticated and first timers…and behaved like children making their first adult decision. It’s possible they thought buying a home is like buying a pair of pants…if it doesn’t fit, you can return it after a couple of days, right?
That still doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be held responsible for their own stupidity. They should at least have gotten the opinion of a friend or co-worker, if not a buyers RE agent.
She has cancer AND 9 kids??? Sheesh…
maybe she’s boinking the realtor
I just say, congratulations, what else can you say
This is what I like about being a guy…at least amongst the blue collar types I hang out with, if I think one of em is doing something stupid, I can just laugh and make fun of them and we are still friends.
Except for when my buddy just got married a month ago to this chick…ug.
Dont’ worry - in the article it says her two daughters got jobs at Home Depot to help out. Yah, Home Depot.
I agee. The real sewage in the story is what is coming out of these “unsophisticated” buyers’ mouths. If something doesnt sound reasonable. It’s usually not correct.
“It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money”
Money seeks its rightful owner.
Life is hard. It’s harder if you’re stupid.
Now, that explains a LOT! Thanks.
him==home
“Ballaro, who has been in the business for 23 years, said this market is reminiscent of the 1990s, when sales and prices crashed”.
These dim-wits really have no clue! What is happening in this RE market, in NO way compares to the 90’s. No matter how hard they wish/hope.
You mean it’s a lot worse, right?
90’s was geographicly in sections over 5 years
oil patch
cape cod
w ca in the rear (so to speak)
also the 1986 depreciation change slowed investment
If Wishes were fishes..
Early 91-92s wish I had bought the s/e corner high flr 3/2 condo,overlooking Manhattan, and down south the Statue. for
get this $170k. With a wrap around porch. River Road.
ugh. Wages weren’t high enough for banks THEN to qualify.
OH what is that you say, Qualify? Yep, used to have to do that in the old days.
–
“… MassHousing’s loan program for moderate- and middle-income buyers.”
I wonder how many govt loan programs are there. Every solution during the 1930s, beginning with Hoover, involved govt loan programs for farmers and for homes. Fed and USG behaved in 1930-31 very much like they are doing for the past 9-10 months. We have a long ways to go in Fed and USG bailout of home mortgages.
Jas
in 1921 the year of the greatest price declines the was “the relief” now there are hundreds of welfare programs
more on the wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Always you brutalize the truth for the sake of your agenda. Back in 1921 industrialization was changing everything, but cheap cars were not yet available. At that time the nation was agrarian and the fallout from the Great War was devastating the global economy. Since that time much has come and gone. Federal Welfare, one of the most prominent elements of the Great Society push has since been scrapped. Unfortunately, no one ever notices when a program goes away because we are too busy putting all of our attention into the multi-trillion dollar being the world’s daddy program. What frugal saver types you are, reshaping the world in your image and all that. Childish and stupid escapism, all of it
“‘We got suckered,’ said Willoughby, a heavyset mother of nine struggling with cancer and unemployment.
‘Heavyset’ mother of 9. So how did she get fat, with no job cancer and 9 kids? Sounds like other people/taxpayers have been footing her bill for a long,long time.
Odd that the media felt it was important to stress that she is heavyset. What value does that add to the story?
So that perhaps we can take comfort that she has enough stored energy to make it through these tough times?
harnessing fatsos may be the next great thing
Stop. The snorting liquids through nose, hurts!
Dunno, I didn’t need the descriptor after seeing the photo.
It adds nothing to the story. But it makes those people in the oh-so-toney hills around New Haven feel on-so-superior to this lady. After all, the toney people wouldn’t dream of doing anything to ruin their figure.
It tells you that she is a big, fat, lazy, useless welfare slob, with a 9-point government paycheck, without actually saying so.
Need mo money………have more kids!!
The “government” will pay….meaning us.
Go live amongst people like this for a time and you will know exactly why stereotypes are often true.
I’ve lived among such people. And, trust me, it doesn’t make me more amenable to increase entitlement program spending.
That’s odd, usually cancer treatment causes loss of weight….
With 9 kids I assume it is s—-n retention.
“‘We have our foot on the gas right now, and the feedback we’re getting back from the market now is we should not let up,’ said Kevin R. Chase, VP of LNR’s Northeast region.”
Wow. Talk about delusional . . .
Look at the target groups featured in their marketing study! Empty nesters, and yuppies - sorry Charlie - the entire nation already has dibs on them all. Maybe he can find some Euro…er forget it.
“Empty nesters, and yuppies - sorry Charlie - the entire nation already has dibs on them all.”
Naaah… Austin has double dibs. Who would stay in Mass when they can wake up here to 79 degree temperature with 78 % humidity at 6:30 AM in May?
Ok it’s not directly a housing thing, but the title of the thread makes me think of images like this. Completely work safe, and a pretty funny site to boot, if you like internet memes and laughing at the state of the economy.
http://icanhazbailout.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/reserves.jpg
One feels for these people. However, the factory that makes statuettes for the Darwin Awards is going to have to step up production.
“‘I was pissed,’ said Willoughby. ‘Look at this shit.’
LMAO.
And, sweetie, while you’re at it, look in the mirror.
I went back to the article to view what you guys were seeing, and oh lawdy, did the writer really really have to add the descriptive?
And, I was trying to hard to not be Un PC, but somewhere in my mind, I ‘thought’ the husband might be a Leroy.
I feel so bad now for my un pc thought. Well, not always right, just most of the time. LOL
And what are you? Not to be “un-PC.”
“To Eileen Raynes, an agent in Margate, the higher sales and price figures were a very welcome break from media coverage she described as ’standing on a corner screaming ‘Get your dead fish.’”
I think it is the RE agents screaming about dead fish. So many of them want to trick their buyers into spending too much money for too little house.
As George V. Higgins wrote:
“Life is hard, but it’s harder when you’re stupid.”
STAGflation pics
Lots of savy folks on this BB any pics?
I like bwc,igd,sgl
“The biggest surprise of all came when the couple entered the house. ‘As soon as you hit the kitchen, you had the biggest hole, and water leaking,’ Willoughby recalled. There was trash all over the house.”
“‘I was pissed,’ said Willoughby. ‘Look at this shit.’ The third-floor apartment had 25 violations disqualifying it from Section 8 funding.”
“‘It’s just a raggedy-ass mess,’ Willoughby said.”
Hell fire and sh!t damn — they done gone and screwed themselves up the corn hole! BwaHaHaHAHAHAHAHA!!!