Things Were A Lot Different Two Years Ago
The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. “Home prices in the Denver area fell by 4.8 percent in the one-year period ended in May, well below the record 15.8 percent drop in 20 major metropolitan areas surveyed around the country, according to the closely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices released today. ‘The overall real estate market continued to slide in May,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at Standard & Poor’s.”
“‘Since August 2006, there has not been one month where we have seen overall price increases’ in the two composite indexes it tracks, Blitzer said. Blitzer noted that Sunbelt cities such as Miami; Tampa, Fla.; Phoenix; Las Vegas; San Diego and Los Angeles ’saw the biggest booms and now see the largest declines.’”
The Daily Sentinel from Colorado. “The time for rapid home building in the Grand Valley is becoming a far-off memory. ‘We have no construction going on right now,’ said Glen Whaley, president of Hunter Construction and Development.”
“‘To me, the good part is I think this needed to happen. Land prices were starting to get ridiculous,’ Whaley said. ‘I don’t know how people have afforded the houses they have now in the first place. My first house after college was $66,000, and I’m in my late 30s now. I don’t know how people are doing $280,000, $300,000 houses. For $300,000, $350,000 houses, I don’t know who makes that kind of money. What I made out of college, I don’t make 10 times that compared to what homes have gone up to.’”
“‘When I first started building, you could get a lot for $20,000,’ he said. ‘You build it for four times your lot. Now, they’re selling lots for $100,000. Now you’re selling for $300,000, $400,000 on those. The payment on that is ridiculous.’”
The Deseret News from Utah. “Utah ranked 14th in the nation in the rate of foreclosure filings in the second quarter of this year, up from 18th during the first quarter, according to a report. The St. George area saw filings jump 446 percent year-over-year and 56 percent from the first quarter of 2008 to the second quarter, the report said. The Provo/Orem area had the second-highest foreclosure rate among Utah cities.”
“Because of the poor loans made by numerous financial institutions, some borrowers are in the process of deciding whether to try to work out a solution with their bank to avoid losing their house or just walking away, said Salt Lake-area real-estate broker David Seiler.”
“‘The banking industry was stupid,’ Seiler said. ‘We’re starting to see the ramifications all over the place.’”
“‘If it doesn’t start to pick up in August, then we’re going to start to see people start to lower their prices,’ he said. ‘They don’t want to go into fall and winter and not sell, if they don’t have to.’”
“Home-sales numbers indicate that the Wasatch Front’s housing bubble has truly begun to burst: 61 of 81 ZIP codes in four counties saw decreases in median home prices during the second quarter of 2008, compared with the same period last year.”
“‘Last year’s reckless lending artificially inflated sales,’ said Jillinda Bowers, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, in a prepared statement. ‘Finally, we have gotten rid of the rampant speculation and loose lending standards.’”
“Among the areas hit hardest by declining prices was Kaysville in Davis County, which saw its median sales price fall 23.2 percent year-over-year to $266,500. In Utah County, the median home sales price in Alpine fell nearly 27 percent from the second quarter of last year to the second quarter of this year.”
The Arizona Republic. “The stories from the Gardens in Gilbert are the same as many American communities. Times were great until the housing market plummeted. Now foreclosures and short sales are beginning to crop up in the development, like many others across the southeast Valley.”
“Take Celestial Williams. Her family is selling their home in the Gardens by Trend Homes but is moving to another house in the subdivision. The family is being forced into a short sale because foreclosures on the market have dragged down prices.”
“Their home had no chance to sell in 2007 because another family who sold a home comparable to the Williams’ home in the Gardens took a $100,000 hit.”
“Three years ago, when the family moved to subdivision from Orange County, Calif., the family didn’t foresee the market crash. Now they are being forced to sell the home to stay out of debt.”
“‘We planned on living here forever,’ Williams said. ‘House prices were still going up when we bought it.’”
“Above Alecia Sibio’s door is a black plaque her son made when she moved into her townhouse in the Gardens. The tri-level was the first home Sibio owned. The plaque engraved ‘Established 2005′ made her feel like she finally arrived in her new home.Three years later, Sibio’s dream home has turned into a short sale, and she’s being forced to look at homes in Queen Creek.”
“‘In the beginning you feel like you are a wretched loser that’s not smart, wise or frugal,’ Sibio said. ‘You start beating yourself up emotionally. But thousands of people in the country and hundreds in the town are going through the very same thing.’”
“The pop of the housing bubble has hit few groups harder than those in the mortgage industry. As mortgage companies continue to fold, employees are struggling, largely without success, to find jobs with comparable pay. Many who were making six-figures at the height of the housing boom are taking whatever they can to pay the bills.”
“Brian Hamerla said every time he goes to an interview, the employer asks for financial advice not about his skills. ‘Interviews that I have been on, they treat us like we have the plague,’ he said. ‘There’s a reputation out there of mortgage brokers being untrained.’”
“Hamerla said he’s earning about a third of the six-figure salary he was making a few years ago as a mortgage broker. He is looking for a management position but hasn’t had any offers, even though his girlfriend runs an agency.”
“‘The biggest struggle is the stereotype put on mortgage brokers,’ he said.”
The East Valley Tribune from Arizona. “Free rent! Move in free! Free big-screen TV with move-in! Pass by any apartment complex across the East Valley and chances are you’ll see banners or signs promising big savings to whoever wants to become a tenant.”
“‘The negative for apartments is the fact that there are so many empty single-family residences … that people tried to sell and couldn’t, and then they end up renting them,’ said Bob Kammrath, owner of Valley research firm Kammrath & Associates.”
“The apartment market was vastly overspeculated, meaning property values were driven unrealistically high, and it is now getting back to reality, said Pete TeKampe, senior investment associate with Marcus & Millichap, the nation’s largest commercial real estate brokerage.”
“‘It’s kind of like we had this big party and now there’s the hangover, and when you hit it really hard when you go party, the hangover seems more severe,’ he said. ‘There were a lot of deals that went down, and you’re left scratching your head thinking, why did that guy do that?’”
“Anita Collum, certified property manager with P.B. Bell, said this economic cycle is more severe than past ones. ‘The single-family residential products coming on line and competing with our apartment rentals is a phenomenon that we’ve never experienced before, just because of the quantity of them on the market,’ she said.”
“In addition, the collapse of the condominium-conversion market and the drop in population growth have contributed to higher apartment vacancy rates, Collum said.”
“One of the prime groups for apartment occupancy is new arrivals to the Valley, and it’s now clear that ‘almost everyone has overestimated how many people are coming here,’ Kammrath said.”
“‘We have negative job growth, no jobs, and if people can’t sell their homes elsewhere, why would they move here?’ he said.”
The Review Journal from Nevada. “Don’t call them layoffs. According to developer Donald Trump, roughly 70 employees at the Trump International Hotel & Tower were ‘impacted by changes in their schedules’ due to the slowdown in closing sales of the building’s 1,282 studio, one-bedroom and penthouse units.”
“‘This is not really any different than what has gone on in Las Vegas,’ Trump said. ‘We’re adjusting schedules because of the volume of business. As soon as the units open up, we’ll bring people back on.’”
“Before the building was topped off a year ago, Trump had said all the units had been reserved by potential buyers who plunked down 20 percent nonrefundable deposits for residences that carried prices of between $700,000 and $5 million.”
“The current mortgage crisis, he said, has slowed the closing process. In June, Trump said sales had been completed on 250 units. However, a report by Deutsche Bank a week later pegged the closings at almost 200 units as of June 12.”
“‘We’re working with people. We’re doing everything we can to help them,’ Trump said. ‘Look, I could have just taken the 20 percent deposits and moved on. But I wasn’t going to do that. We’re working very hard to help everybody who bought a unit to close their sale.’”
“Trump blamed the problems that befell Countrywide Financial for the slowdown in closings. ‘Countrywide really let us down,’ Trump said. ‘Things were a lot different two years ago.’”
“Plans for a second Trump tower have been placed on indefinite hold until the real estate and construction market recovers, Trump said.”
In Business Las Vegas from Nevada. “The Las Vegas economy is continuing its slump, and commercial real estate and development are paying the price. Pressured by overbuilding and retail outlets closing, Las Vegas recorded its highest retail and office vacancy rates in two decades. As a result, commercial construction has fallen 66 percent in the past year.”
“Triggered by Las Vegas’ 2-year-old housing slump and coupled with this year’s slowdown in tourism and gaming and commercial construction, the local economy is in a recession.”
“‘This is the worst I have seen it here in 20 years,’ says John Restrepo, an economist and principal of Restrepo Consulting. ‘People are in shock because they are used to the economy bouncing right back, but I don’t think we are going to have that quick of a recovery.’”
“‘We have had such a long period of economic expansion and growth, I don’t think anybody thought we could have a recession like this,’ says Keith Schwer, the UNLV’s Center for Business and Economic Research’s director. ‘With housing, we know it was a case where we overbuilt, overlent and overborrowed, and I think it was the same with commercial development.’”
“Some analysts attribute the weakness in the office market to ‘irrational exuberance’ two years ago when credit was easier to obtain and office developers not anticipating a housing bubble, credit crunch or slowdown. The problem should worsen because another 3.6 million square feet were under construction at the end of June.”
“Brad Schnepf, president of Marnell Properties, an office and commercial developer, agrees that a recovery could take time.”
“‘You would have to be nuts if you were not concerned,’ Schnepf says. ‘We were appreciating at double digits on an annual basis, and you wondered how far that could go.’”
“Las Vegas has obtained a national reputation as sort of a ground zero when it comes to home foreclosures. The City Council is cracking down by imposing $500-a-day civil penalties for properties that are creating blight in neighborhoods.”
“Last week, the council assessed its first three penalties against property owners of 6216, 6241 and 6225 Bellota Drive.”
“If the daily civil penalties don’t force the property owners to clean up sites, city officials are counting on the fines adding up to such large amounts that the owners would sign over the homes to the city.”
“In the past the city would clean and board up the properties and place liens on the property to recover its expenses, but that wasn’t having any effect on owners of foreclosure homes, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman says.”
“‘We just got tired of people creating blight in the community, and they wouldn’t contact us. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,’ Goodman says. ‘They just left their properties there to become a nuisance.’”
Las Vegas Now from Nevada. “President Bush is expected to sign a bill aimed at helping hundreds of thousands of struggling homeowners. Jill is one of those homeowners in trouble. She agreed to tell us her story as long as we covered her face. She’s a professional, and says she’s embarrassed about the predicament she and her family are in.”
“‘I go home crying. I don’t have control that’s the worst thing not having control,’ she said.”
“Jill wishes this housing legislation would have been passed earlier. She says she and her husband took out a second mortgage to help him start his own business. Then he got sick and couldn’t work. Jill was left to support her family on a salary that didn’t cut it.”
“‘I had a decent job. I can’t make any more, we’ve been living on credit cards. We had to do something,’ she said.”
“The I-Team has uncovered a major mess for renters and homeowners in this valley. Elvis Nargi is an unlicensed broker and is accused of breaking into homes and renting them out. Since our story first aired, the I-Team has been flooded with calls from people who say they rented homes from Nargi.”
“Elvis impersonator Elvis Nargi does not have a proper license to be renting homes. Neither does the person who handles the rental agreements. The houses they rent out are going through foreclosure.”
“Those details are actually very easy to uncover. You can start with a property management permit. ‘Anyone should be able to produce their pocket card. You’re supposed to carry them with you,’ said Sue Naumann. She leads the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.”
What do you know, lending seniors a bunch of money may not be such a good idea.
‘His wife is deceased, he just underwent back surgery and now William Lancaster is told he owes $170,000 on a reverse mortgage for a home that’s worth $130,000 tops. So much for his plans to move back to New Jersey and live with his grandchildren.’
‘Lancaster is stuck in Las Vegas with a financial disaster created when he took out a home equity conversion mortgage, also known as a reverse mortgage, on his east Las Vegas home in 2005. San Francisco-based Financial Freedom Senior Funding Corp. paid off his $54,000 mortgage and gave him a $60,000 line of credit, which now has a balance of less than $1,000. The latest monthly statement from the lender shows a payoff of more than $170,000.’
‘I’m still a little baffled with what actually happened,” Lancaster, 72, said as he sat at his living room table thumbing through paperwork. “I figured I had some equity, but I don’t have any. They have it all. I owe them.’
A couple of years ago, an elderly neighbor took out a reverse mortgage.
There’d been rumors that she was losing her mental faculties, and her post-reverse mortgage behavior confirmed them.
She proceeded to go on a bizarre spending spree, which included things like buying a fancy-dancy coffee grinder and signing up for some coffee-bean-of-the-month club. And she didn’t even drink coffee.
Late last year, she fell and broke a leg in three places, and the long and short of it is that she had to sell the house. It’s on the market for quite the wishing price, and I don’t think that anyone will pay it.
Hopefully, some of these senior’s that have good families and they will keep a closer eye on them and their financial status in the future.
It will really be bigtime “Open Season” on them by these unscrupulous financial flim-flam men as this recession deepens
cool.. he found a way to blow off all the equity in his house without having to sell it, and can now live there for the rest of his life for free.. There’s a lot of sellers today who would jump at the chance, but don’t qualify for a RM.
William is not “leaving las vegas” .. ‘cept maybe in a box.
Here’s a Wow!
Sen. Stevens indicted: 7 false statements counts
Prosecutors said Stevens received more than $250,000 in gifts and services from VECO Corp., a powerful oil services contractor, and its executives. From May 1999 to August 2007, prosecutors said, the 84-year-old senator concealed “his continuing receipt of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of things of value from a private corporation.”
The indictment unsealed Tuesday says the items included home improvements to his vacation home in Alaska, including a new first floor, garage, wraparound deck, plumbing and electrical wiring, as well as a Viking gas grill, furniture and tools. He also was accused of failing to report swapping an old Ford for a new Land Rover to be driven by one of his children.
The Justice Department said Stevens would not be arrested and would be allowed to turn himself in.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_go_co/stevens_indictment
I guess grumpy old senator Ted Stevens is ONE senior that the whole Country will be keeping an eye on NOW
1 down, 99 to go.
Amen, brothah!
And furthermore, with a VERY few exceptions, I’d like to invited every skank politician at all levels to go screw themselves deaf, dumb and blind (so we don’t have to listen to them anymore) and get a JT PERMANENTLY implanted in their hindquarters.
Everytime I see a commercial or clip that features either the Manchurian Candidate doing his Weekend at Bernie’s routine or the Narcissist having a love affair with himself, I wanna get the barf bag.
I’d like to see the same happen to every drooling idiot who put these swindlers into office, and who continue to vote for whatever Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum the Establishment duolopoly puts in front of them.
What is amazing is he sold himself out for trinkets of little real value compared to his salary and benifits. A little bargining and he could have got all that crap within HIS means.
The amount he stole and has hidden in places that won’t be found is the real payoff for his services.
Yep we need to roll back regulation more. These old people understand what’s going on, all they have to do is read 20 pages of microprint and understand legal jargon.
“I don’t know how people are doing $280,000, $300,000 houses.”
Bingo! People have gotten so used to rocketing home prices that it seems normal to list average resale or entry level spec new homes for $300k. This is an EXPENSIVE home for someone that has $60k to put down and a household income of near $100k.
That describes me, I’ve got about 70k if I were to buy right now and approximately the same hh income.
If I were going to buy something now, it would have to be under 200. 300 is through the roof.
and approximately the same hh income
I mean the same as in your example. The wife and I make just under 100.
Yeah, that article about a young couple in San Marcos who were thrilled to “be able” to buy a home for $470,000 blew my mind. They put something like 5% down, so I just roughly calculated that their monthly payment would be about $3,000. They’ve been certainly brain-washed to think these costs are normal.
The $300K is 3X income and that is not bad. Here in Silicon Valley the ratio is about 7-8X, ouch.
“Brian Hamerla said every time he goes to an interview, the employer asks for financial advice not about his skills. ‘Interviews that I have been on, they treat us like we have the plague,’ he said. ‘There’s a reputation out there of mortgage brokers being untrained.’”
“Hamerla said he’s earning about a third of the six-figure salary he was making a few years ago as a mortgage broker. He is looking for a management position but hasn’t had any offers, even though his girlfriend runs an agency.”
Uh…huh… Brian, here’s a clue for you: potential employers aren’t worried about people like you being “untrained”. They’re (rightly) worries about people like you being crooked, reckless and stupid. They’re worried that handing someone like you access to company finances might be a *tad* risky.
“they treat us like we have the plague”
No… more like radio-active. They have a Geiger counter set by the door and it starts clicking any time a MB walks through. No seriously HARM, I think it’s just a matter that employers are tired of these “migratory” people that simply follow the next big thing. They train and support them and at the 1st sign of a slowdown, they’re gone.
Any attempt to imply they’re being treated unfairly will fall on deaf ears. Righfully so.
Just because these people were making a lot of money does not mean that they are worth that to someone else now.
The entry level was set so low that barely a hint of education was needed to get in and become ’successful’ at it.
Of course, their actual lack of skills translates to a much lower salary in the real world.
A lot of these ex-RE people have peaked in their lifes and will not see the ‘good times’ come back again.
That sucks, but well deserved for many.
SMF,
From a pure sales standpoint, how hard is it to sell ‘borrowed’ money at 4 or 5% ? I mean that was substantially below real inflation and most borrowers were at least smart enough to figure that out.
I imagine a lot of the banks and mortgage firms are feeling pretty silly about handing out 15 and 20k plus fees to MB’s now? To be truthful, I don’t think any of us will ever see money ‘that’ easy again?
Your right, not a chance we will ever see it again. Unless some of these banks get amnesia and forget how bad it is/was. Funny thing is, the same thing seems to happen every 15 years or so….
Ted,
No reason to doubt you but in 15 years I’ll be 65 and the old Reverse Mortgage Fi-Beta Slamma’ Jamma’ will be about the only move left in my arsenal?
I think the imperative for those of us in that crowd will be to well secure our income streams for our retirement and making sure our rent is locked-in to a 10 year lease. After that WFC’s?
Reminds me of something I just read about in the Vanity Fair article called “An Oral History of the Internet”. They said that after the dot.bomb crash, there were bumper stickers in Sillycon that said “Dear God, Please One More Bubble Before I Die”.
palmetto,
Seriously? Man I wish I could have got my hands on some of those babies! Is it too late? To be honest, even at my current age of 49, folks my age are out of the running for the most part.
Early on I was foaming at the mouth thinking ( somehow ) this would be confined to RE and it would be a “neat hobby” to go to auctions and pick up cheap cash-flow positive properties. You know, just something fun to do on weekends?
Wow. What kind of a cloud was I living in? At this point there are so many ( non-IRA havin’ ) REIC playuhs desperately trying to salvage their scenario there really isn’t any room for outsiders. I mean that. I’m not talking about knife catching I’m talking about a carcass that’s picked so clean there’s just no point in even discussing it?
“Seriously? Man I wish I could have got my hands on some of those babies! Is it too late?”
I got a kick out of that when I read the article. The folks got their wish, only it was real estate bubble, not a tech bubble, that turned out to be the “one more bubble”.
Maybe we should print up some ourselves. Bet there’s a lot of folks feeling that way right about now.
Me, I’m sick of bubbles. Let the knife-catchers take it in the shorts.
palmetto,
Exactly. There was perhaps a juncture where we could have gotten off that track and all would’ve been just fine. Now that we’re in a death spiral all we can do is stand clear. I’ll continue to scavenge for “value” and ultimately would love to have a “downsize” or ret. home that’s completely paid off.
The way these guys have piled on? True values will be few and far between. Why bother?
amen
The lure of easy Money with no thoughts of the future or consequences are killing the economy. Way too much Money being invested in the wrong places.
If You’re looking for a good stock buy , guaranteed to never lose value, and won’t cost You or others their financial sanity………try MyMIllionDollarScam .Com
It’s the lure of easy money,
It’s got a very strong appeal.
Perhaps you’d understand it better
Standin’ in my shoes,
It’s the ultimate enticement,
it’s the…
“‘We just got tired of people creating blight in the community, and they wouldn’t contact us. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,’ Goodman says. ‘They just left their properties there to become a nuisance.’”
As opposed to say, taking them with them, I guess.
“You’re fired!”
“Don’t call it being fired.. call it being laid off.”
“Don’t call them layoffs. They were ‘impacted by changes in their schedules’.”
Don’t call it layoffs, call it “Force Management Plan”.
They are:
-Involuntarily pursuing other interests
-referred to Helen Waite in HR……..any inquiries about future employment will be directed to call Helen Waite.
-watching the grass grow from the wrong side.
“We’re not as bad as X”, coming soon to every Mountain West newspaper and continuing for the next five years. My patience for this type of silly reasoning is spent already.
I guess the only thing to do now is to make it into a drinking game. Hmmm..
“Jill wishes this housing legislation would have been passed earlier. She says she and her husband took out a second mortgage to help him start his own business. Then he got sick and couldn’t work. Jill was left to support her family on a salary that didn’t cut it.”
why does someone who took out a second mortgage to invest in a business feel like the government needs to pick up the tab for her?
I just don’t understand the entitlement mentality.
YOU OWE MORE THAN YOU MAKE. You made the deal.
It’s time to liquidate your assets till you can pay your debts.
P-p-p-p-p-pay your debts???
Careful diogenes, a few more un-Uhmerikan statements like that and there’ll be a holding cell at Gitmo waiting for you.
After renting them, Elvis leaves the building?
“The I-Team has uncovered a major mess for renters and homeowners in this valley. Elvis Nargi is an unlicensed broker and is accused of breaking into homes and renting them out”
You have to appreciate the irony of an Elvis impersonator running a rental scam in Las Vegas. Just one more way for that town to fleece the tourists. I wonder if he serenades them before stealing their deposits?
“…You cheated and you schemed
Heaven knows how you lied to me
You’re not the way you seemed…”
(Your the) Devil in Disguise
“‘Last year’s reckless lending artificially inflated sales,’ said Jillinda Bowers, president of the Salt Lake Board of Realtors, in a prepared statement. ‘Finally, we have gotten rid of the rampant speculation and loose lending standards.’”
The sheer hypocrisy of these NAR shills is breathtaking. In 2005 they were shamelessly and enthusiastically contributing to said rampant speculation by their cheerleading and “buy now or get priced out forever” mantras. They steered victims, er, clients, to unscrupulous hit-the-numbers appraisers and mortgage brokers, heedless of the disaster they were creating. Do you think in 2005/2006 they warned their “clients” - who foolishly trusted their professional judgement and “research” - that reckless lending was artificially inflating sales prices? Hardly. The Axis of Weasels - Realtors, Mortgage Brokers, and crooked appraisers were all in league to led the FB lambs to the slaughter. Now they sanctimoniously condemn the practices they played a lead role in promoting.
My disgust knows no bounds.
“Don’t call them layoffs. According to developer Donald Trump, roughly 70 employees at the Trump International Hotel & Tower were ‘impacted by changes in their schedules’ due to the slowdown in closing sales of the building’s 1,282 studio, one-bedroom and penthouse units.”
“‘This is not really any different than what has gone on in Las Vegas,’ Trump said. ‘We’re adjusting schedules because of the volume of business. As soon as the units open up, we’ll bring people back on.’”
Oh, I get it. Just like the Air Traffic Conrollers in 1981. They merely had their schedules “re-adjusted.”
And six years later, the ATC replacements formed a union of their own.
TODAYS HEADLINES: Stocks are buoyed as cheerier consumer confidence and lower crude prices offered some respite to ongoing concerns about the economy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1r6GcPqFSo&feature=related
Anybody else see this?
‘Extreme Makeover’ house faces foreclosure
Mon Jul 28, 11:32 AM PDT
More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” team demolish a family’s decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
Three years later, the reality TV show’s most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.
After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it’s set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
http://tinyurl.com/62kpzj
Unfrickinbelievable.
yeah.. it was posted here yesterday.
Having wealth is one thing.. keeping it is quite another.. or as some wise guy once put it: “Give a man a fish and feed him for a day… he’ll need another fish the next day, and another the next, so you best own a fish market before you head down this road.”
And to think that construction was already starting to slow back in ‘05.
Totally *not* funny. Yet… totally predictable.
I always knew that show was a hoax. Never saw a single episode but with a boom going on, how hard was it to imagine as the last work truck rolled out, a MB in a Mercedes was rolling in?
“Do realize just what a “resource” you’ve stumbled into!?” And of course post haste they’re in the construction biz too! What a joke.
“Beazer Homes’ employees and company partners also raised $250,000 in contributions for the family, including scholarships for the couple’s three children and a home maintenance fund.”
…
Did the children receive their education in Hawaii or some exotic resorts? What happens to the “home maintenance fund” when there is no more home to maintain?
How do the now laid-off Beazer Homes’ employees feel now?
Do-gooders love to rush in with donated (usually by others, usually extorted by the tax-man) to lavish aid on “victims.” Feel-good feelings all around. What they don’t like to do is acknowledge the inconvenient truth that poverty usually is a consequence of poor choices by basic low-lifes. If you redistributed all the wealth equally, within a year or two most of the poor would have squandered their temporary windfall, and most of the rich would have re-acquired their wealth.
“poverty usually is a consequence of poor choices by basic low-life”
Do you really believe that? My guess is that the vast majority of poor Americans were born to poor parents. Many rich people get rich because their parents use their money, connections and knowledge to work the system to get their kids a good education or a good job or help set them up in business. Of course, in some cases the very rich just give their kids money directly. I’ve read statistcs that show that class mobility in this country is at an all-time low. In other words, the income level that person achieves as an adult depends more than ever on his or her parents income. Do you think that Paris Hilton or Geroge W. Bush or rich because they’re so smart and hard working?
I think genetics and basic intelligence play the primary roles in determining who ends up where. The idea that America is a “meritocracy” is fast becoming a myth, given the rampant favoritism and cronyism in government and corporate America.
Agree that the vast majority of poor Americans were born to poor parents - the issue becomes, are they poor because they’re basically dimwits who never really applied themselves and who spawn like-minded cretins [visit your nearest Wal-Mart and observe], or do they take no responsibility for their own lives or well-being and turn to criminality [visit the nearest 'hood], or are they just decent, reasonably bright people who had a run of bad luck and a lack of opportunities? The latter deserve help, and would probably use it to better their situation.
Well, if people are poor because of “genetics”, don’t you have any sympathy for them?
Also, try to imagine the predicament of kid born into a poor family in a poor community with bad schools and lots of crime. If he wants to get out of poverty by “applying himself”, his first challenge will be to find out what to apply himself to. He may not know anybody who has managed to get out of poverty because any such people immediately out of the neighborhood. He may have some notion that a college education can lead to a good job, but have no idea what to major in. The result, as you mention, is that many poor people “apply themselves” by getting a crappy Wal-Mart job and working their butts off. Of course, Wal-Mart being what it is, they get no reward for all of their hard work.
On the other hand, let me tell you about a company that I used to work for. There were a number of well-paid managers who hardly applied themselves at all. Some were lazy, others were downright incompetent. They owed their jobs to the fact that other managers higher up liked them. In other words, they had connections. I was hired there at a very low salary and only after 6 years of doing very good work was I getting a salary that matched my contributions. I bet that many of our fellow HBBers could share similar stories about places that they have worked.
These are the facts of life in the economy of 21st century America. Millions of poor people work like dogs and never manage to climb out of poverty. Many other people glide through comfortable lives because they know the right people or are just plain lucky. There are even studies that show that tall people have higher incomes than short people and that good-looking job applicants are favored over the ugly.
Please, everybody, think about these things and use a little imagination before you look down on people with low incomes. Also, we really need to question our values as a society when we repsect and admire people just because they have managed to accumulate a lot of wealth.
Good exchange by both of you.
OK, I’m used to my comments disappearing into the ether when I post from work, but not from home!? Once again…
‘Extreme Makeover’ house faces foreclosure
Mon Jul 28, 11:32 AM PDT
More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” team demolish a family’s decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.
Three years later, the reality TV show’s most ambitious project at the time has become the latest victim of the foreclosure crisis.
After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it’s set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.
[snip]
Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family’s financial decisions.
“It’s aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it,” Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper’s living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
http://tinyurl.com/62kpzj
Lots of people have looked into the Housing Bailout Bill and come to the conclusion that it won’t help prop up the still inflated housing prices. Here is something most have not considered:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/camile-house-mortgage-2104411-fargo-wells?ref=patrick.net
The stumbling block for banks in the Bill is that the modified loan works off a current market value appraisal. The banks still have no problem buying a favorable appraisal, so they sprinkle towns with bogus non-foreclosure sales, then they call the lower (real) comp sales “distressed” (to ignore the lower comps) and ram an inflated loan thru Fannie via the bailout bill. Presto! Banks cut losses, prices stay inflated, banks win, government wins, we tax payers, savers and those hoping for affordable housing prices lose (again).
This needs to be uncovered and the scam exposed. If the government knows we are aware of this scam hopefully they will not support it.
Contact your lawmakers right now, or we will see another massive fraud steal our hopes.
http://capwiz.com/ascd/dbq/officials/
Brian,
I DO hear ya’ but I tend to think of this as “healing by a thousand bandages” ( as I hear it put by the bond desk )
Donald “Pucker Lips” Stump:
‘Look, I could have just taken the 20 percent deposits and moved on…”
Of course, he wasn’t aware of this sit-u-ation….until AFTER he took the deposits right,…RIGHT!
Roughly 1,003 condo units at the Trump International Hotel & Tower were ‘impacted by changes in their schedules’ ….being that they won’t close escrow for say …the next 8 years!
Any SoCal folks here feel that quake? Everyone OK? I heard it wasn’t that big of a deal, but strong enuf to shake things up a bit. Hope SoCal Hbbers are OK.
5.4 .. only thing that got hurt was the phone system from all the panic calls.. but it’s expected to recover.
It was only a 5.8, nothing to get alarmed about…if you’re a native you barely noticed…I never got off the phone or looked up for that matter…
oh please.. i know natives are used to it but they give everyone the heebie jeebies for at least a moment or two. Look up .. look around.. first thought is where’s the door, and how many seconds will it take me to get to the middle of the street.. and do i have a clear path.
Nope…my kids never stopped horsing around in the yard and like I said I never looked up…you must be a transplant…
Hell, I don’t think my mailman ever looked around or stopped walking…
I wuz out in Santa Monica some years ago visiting some relatives (who moved to Washington state later on) and was rudely awakened in the middle of the night by a tremblor. I must say, it made me awfully uncomfortable. Between the fires, quake threat, water shortages, gang problems, etc., Cali really seems to be taking it in the shorts right now.
I can’t believe the reports of people flooding the 911 call centers ‘looking’ for information…
Something about that really irks me… is it the stupidity or is it the selfishness, or a combination of both…
Probably a combination of both…there’s no reason to call 911…if it was something of the magnitude of the Northridge quake then maybe yes I could see calling…
A 5.4 is not really a big quake, when you get to the mid 6’s and above then become concerned…when I was a kid we had quakes that would toss stuff off the shelves and leave cracks in the plaster, and cause a loss of power and phone service…
This was quake was nothing…
“‘In the beginning you feel like you are a wretched loser that’s not smart, wise or frugal,’ Sibio said. ‘You start beating yourself up emotionally. But thousands of people in the country and hundreds in the town are going through the very same thing.’”
So to summarize, the existence of thousands of other people in the same predicament precludes you from being a loser. OR, you don’t care that you are a loser as long as you are not the ONLY loser.
I’m leaning towards the idea that it’s possible to have thousands of losers, but that’s just me.
Maybe if she won some sort of Commemorative Financial Darwinism Plaque it would help her through that loser stigma. Maybe it would help if it matched the one above her former front door…
Also I may add;
A pack of lemmings off a cliff fits your scenario as well…
Rest assured, Sibio, you’re no less of a loser because you’ve got lots of company.
“‘I go home crying. I don’t have control that’s the worst thing not having control,’ she said.”
LOL, suspicions confirmed: Women always have to be in control!!
“‘The biggest struggle is the stereotype put on mortgage brokers,’ he said.”
Cry me a river, Broker Boy. Your industry - meaning all of you, individually and collectively - did this to yourselves. How many times have we heard some self-described “honest” mortgage broker bleat that “I knew that they (FBs sitting across from them) were headed for disaster with the mortgage I was peddling, but if I didn’t give it to them, someone else would.” True, but it doesn’t diminish your culpability in the least. You, and your industry, deserve every bit of the contempt and distrust that people have for you. As they say, what goes around, comes around. Embrace the karma, weasels.
“If the daily civil penalties don’t force the property owners to clean up sites, city officials are counting on the fines adding up to such large amounts that the owners would sign over the homes to the city.”
I’d love to see such measures implemented and ruthlessly enforced in every city and municipality in the nation. Communities have every right to defend themselves from speculators who wash their hands of their “investments” to the detriment of entire neighborhoods, and to force banks to accept responsibility and accountability for enabling such rampant, ill-advised speculation in the first place. Fines of $500 a day will get their attention a lot faster than toothless liens, and will give them a compelling reason to get those properties off the books and into the hands of more responsible owner-occupants.
We all know how drastic housing market out there. One of things I have been observing for past few years especially in Phoenix Arizona where it clearly show that they are experiencing housing market crisis, what I do not understand why their retirement community such as Del Webb and DR Horton’s housing price remain high. Are those retired people knowing what they are into it? What are your take on that?
“‘This is the worst I have seen it here in 20 years,’ says John Restrepo, an economist and principal of Restrepo Consulting. ‘People are in shock because they are used to the economy bouncing right back, but I don’t think we are going to have that quick of a recovery.’”
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I also sense that many people are ‘waiting for things to get better’ - and fully expect them to. There’s a bit of a “suspension of perception” going on.
Gradually some will ask, ‘What if it doesn’t return to the way it was before?’ Those raising this question before the many, and acting toward some type of personal solution, hopefully will find themselves in a better position down the road.