Speaking Japanese Without Knowing It
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Not even Supreme Court justices are immune from the economy. Justice Sonia Sotomayor plans to keep her apartment in New York for the time being. Sotomayor’s condominium in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan was worth about $1 million, according to the financial disclosure she gave the Senate in May. She owed about $380,000 on a mortgage. It’s hard to say what she could get for the apartment at the moment.”
“‘Right now I — like many other Americans, it would not be wise for me to sell my home in New York because the market is so low,’ Sotomayor said in an interview.”
“Maryann Salvas and dozens of other homeowners filed complaints against ventura attorney Daniel Fox with the state attorney general or Florida Bar. Fox was disbarred on Sept. 3 after pleading guilty to disciplinary charges that he abandoned the ‘representation of clients’ seeking real estate loan modifications. Almost a year passed without the loan on her Rhode Island house being modified, said Salvas who hired Fox based on a phone solicitation. In order to pay Fox’s fee, Salvas said she missed a mortgage payment, never caught up on the late payment, and is now four months behind on the mortgage.”
“‘It’s very unfair for a lawyer to take advantage of people who are trying hard to get by,’ she said. ‘He put me in a situation that I’m having a hard time to get out of.’ When Salvas sent $1,795 to Fox to arrange a modification of her mortgage and reduce her monthly payments, she didn’t hesitate because she thought ‘people were supposed to trust lawyers.’”
“Oregon homeowners facing foreclosure have one more line of defense thanks to a law that went into effect Monday requiring lenders to discuss loan modifications with troubled borrowers. However, in testimony last week before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Gene Dodaro, the acting comptroller general of the United States, said the federal Government Accountability Office believes the Treasury Department’s estimate of 3 million to 4 million homeowners who would likely be helped under the federal loan modification program ‘may have been overstated.’”
“Through Monday, 2,648 notices of default have been filed in 2009 in Deschutes County, an increase of more than 103 percent through the same day last year, according to county records. ‘It’s true, the foreclosure option is usually the last resort, and when inevitable, this (law) is not going to stop it,’ said Linda Navarro, the executive director of the Oregon Bankers Association.”
“O’Ryan Goring and his fiancée fell in love with a castle-like Pennsylvania estate called Cairnwood as the perfect setting for their marriage. But they also fell in love with a condo in Ewing that would be the perfect starter home for the first-time homebuyers. Using traditional mortgage products, they wouldn’t be able to have both, because they would have had to put $40,000 down to buy the condo. Lucky for them, the condo development had just received approval from the Federal Housing Administration. The FHA program asked for just 3.5 percent down — or $7,000. ‘All the money we saved, we’ve just transferred it over to the wedding,’ Goring said.”
“The increase in FHA financing for condos is particularly worrisome because condos historically are riskier than single-family homes, experts said. ‘They have higher defaults, they suffer price depreciation much faster and much deeper than a single-family house,’ said Guy Cecala, publisher and CEO of the publication Inside Mortgage Finance.”
“In a housing market plagued by one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, finding and buying a home would seem to be an easy hunt, especially if you’re armed with federal funding assistance. The sheer mass of real estate available at a record-low price combined with a no-interest loan from the government and an $8,000 income tax credit for first-time buyers quickly persuaded 30-year-old Lisa Locascio to make the leap into home ownership.”
“Phoenix received more than $39 million. However, after rolling out the home ownership assistance portion of the program six months ago, program funding has been used in the purchase of just three homes.”
“Locascio endured almost 30 rejected bids placed on homes throughout northwest Phoenix before a bank finally accepted a $140,000 offer on a 1,100 square-foot home. She admits to tears of frustration and said she almost considered giving up on the program in favor of moving in with family and saving toward a conventional loan.”
“She eventually decided on optimism instead. Speculating in retrospect on why banks rejected so many of her offers, she said, ‘I think it’s because the program hasn’t been out there enough.’”
“The federal government’s $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit, which expires Nov. 30, is the best-known stimulative giveaway. Washington asks only that buyers ante up the requisite 31/2 percent down payment. But that apparently was too cruel a demand for Gov. Charlie Crist and Co. in Tallahassee. Starting in August, Florida legislators decided to provide home buyers a cash advance on that $8,000.”
“In other words, home buyers who take the Florida freebie have no chips on the gaming table. They’re playing with someone else’s money. Remember how well 100 percent financing worked in 2005?”
“Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas…opined this week that ‘life support’ for the housing market has to end. ‘The market for housing will not become truly robust until market forces replace the prostheses of government support,’ Fisher proclaimed.”
“For a nation whose citizens pride themselves on self-reliance, the U.S. doles out an awful lot of welfare. No other interest group makes out quite the way homeowners do. Even with all this aid, though, U.S. homeowners haven’t been doing so well. The value of their real estate holdings has fallen by $4 trillion since 2006, according to the Federal Reserve.”
“Rising prices are always good news, though, for real estate agents, mortgage lenders and homebuilders. These groups are powers in Washington. The National Association of Realtors gave more money than any other group to candidates in the last elections ($4 million), according to the Center for Responsive Politics, and its 1.1 million members can do a lot of lobbying. Hence the subsidies for homeownership that never go away.”
“In 1961 departing President Dwight Eisenhower warned of ‘the acquisition of unwarranted influence’ by what he dubbed the military-industrial complex. Maybe it’s time to call out the real estate — industrial complex.”
“Portland’s housing market showed solid improvement in July as prices climbed for the second straight month, reversing what had been a 17-month run of record declines. University of Oregon economist Tim Duy said the housing market is seeing a ’speculative frenzy fueled by the government.’ ‘The government is doing everything it can to re-create a housing bubble,’ Duy said.”
“In the longer term, Duy said Portland-area home prices have to get back in line with incomes. Compared to July 2008, Portland-area home values are down 13.9 percent. Since 2000, Portland home values are up 48 percent.”
“Over the years I covered so many government-made messes, each one a near-carbon copy of an earlier mess, that I started using the term ‘flat learning curve’ to describe all things Washington D.C. Now, one might take that to mean that politicians never learn from the past. But no, it’s quite the opposite. They’ve learned all too well. But the lesson they learned is not the one we’d hope for. What they’ve learned is this: If they refuse to pass laws that tighten regulations and prevent abuses like the kind that created the dot.com bubble, the housing bubble and looted America’s 401ks, they are rewarded by tons of campaign cash. Then, when their legislative malfeasance results in entirely predictable fiscal calamity, they are again rewarded with tons of cash by simply not doing anything real that might prevent such abuses in the future.”
“Victoria McGrane and Lisa Lerer, Politico.com: ‘Wall Street has showered nearly $11 million on the Senate since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to a single senator: Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. Schumer’s $1.65 million take from the financial services industry is nearly twice that of any other senator’s. While the industry has scaled back its political spending in the wake of last year’s economic collapse, data from the Center for Responsive Politics show that it’s still investing heavily in the Senate, where it’s likely to have its best shot at stopping - or at least shaping - the crackdown on Wall Street that President Barack Obama has proposed.”
“And it’s clearly looking to Democrats to do it. Of the $10.6 million the industry has given to sitting senators this year, more than $7.7 million has gone to Democrats. ‘Democrats are holding the reins in Washington now with a Democratic-run White House and Congress,’ said one financial services lobbyist. ‘It only makes sense that donors want to put their money into the coffers of those who are driving the agenda.’”
“Americans have always assumed that financial crises happen in basket-case countries, not here. So how then did the U.S. follow the lead of Argentina, Mexico and Thailand by plunging into this one? Economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff answer that question in a provocative new book, ‘This Time Is Different.’”
“‘If there is one common theme to the vast range of crises we consider in this book, it is that excessive debt accumulation, whether it be by the government, banks, corporations, or consumers, often poses greater systemic risks than it seems during a boom,’ they wrote. ‘Infusions of cash can make a government look like it is providing greater growth to its economy than it really is. Private-sector borrowing binges can inflate housing and stock prices far beyond their long-run sustainable levels, and make banks seem more stable and profitable than they really are.’”
“Q. How bad is this crisis? A. Reinhart: Let us not lose sight of the fact that we are past the two-year mark already since the onset of this crisis. So that’s beyond the resolution time in most of the other postwar crises. Japan and Spain are the two exceptions, because the 1977 Spanish crisis also took forever to mop up.”
“Q. Any parallel with Japan’s elusive recovery in the ’90s? A. Reinhart: We’re speaking Japanese without knowing it. When you look at the combination of forbearance and zero (percent) interest rates, doesn’t that sound Japanese? And let’s pretend that all these bad loans, all these zombie loans don’t exist. That sounds real Japanese to me.”
“There is renewed speculation that Taylor Wimpey will sell its North American housing division, according to the Daily Mail. The company may use any proceeds from the sale of the Taylor Morrison business to cut its £1bn debt pile.”
“During its complex refinancing discussions the company is understood to have sounded out private equity companies about the possibility of a sale but sources said the firms were ‘too greedy’ in what they were prepared to pay.”
“Las Vegas homebuilder Jim Rhodes has agreed to turn over most of his Southern Nevada residential development operations to lenders to close his companies’ bankruptcy cases, court records show. In 2005, when money was easy to come by, the majority of the Rhodes Homes assets were used as collateral for a $500 million credit facility arranged by Credit Suisse — also a big lender to the bankrupt Lake Las Vegas and Park Highlands planned communities. It was that loan that Rhodes defaulted on, pushing the company into bankruptcy.”
“Now, court records show, the value of the Rhodes collateral has declined so dramatically during the recession that the first-lien lenders project recovering only about 24 percent of the $325 million owed to them.”
“Woodfield Crossing, the housing development in southeast Ocala that was put on foreclosure notice in June when The Ransome Group defaulted on its loan documents, has been sold to the local Cope Properties Inc. The $2.6 million purchase from mortgage holder Regions Bank was finalized Wednesday, but David Cope and his attorney, Timothy Haines, were on hand Thursday at the Marion County Courthouse in the event competing bidders showed up.”
“There were none.”
“Woodfield Crossing, a 40-acre, 137-lot subdivision was imagined as a standard of ‘The New Urbanism’ model with pedestrian-friendly walkways and two-story homes. Cope expressed cautious optimism Thursday over his new acquisition. ‘We hope that we’re buying low and selling high,’ he said.”
“In late 2007, while the real estate market in Florida was busy falling apart, one developer rolled the dice. John Ryan’s Metro Development Group started buying up land all over Florida - much of it on the Suncoast. By early 2008, Metro controlled 30,000 home sites in Florida. Now, 9,000 of Ryan’s home sites are tangled up in foreclosure and in the hands of a court-appointed receiver.”
“Ryan said he could not speculate on the future of any of the communities now in receivership, but he vowed that Metro would survive ‘this unprecedented downturn.’ ‘This market has crushed seemingly impenetrable companies nationwide and recently brought down icons of real estate in the Tampa Bay area,’ he wrote. ‘It’s a humbling experience.’”
“The number of foreclosure lawsuits filed in Lee County in September fell slightly but bit more deeply into the middle class as people started to lose more expensive homes. A third of the foreclosures were houses with pools, said Jeff Tumbarello, director of the association.”
“That’s a big change from past months when foreclosures were largely inexpensive homes and lots let go by investors who bought during the real estate boom and then simply let the properties go after prices started falling in 2006, he said.”
“‘What’s coming in residential real estate is very much the cream,’ he said.”
“The bungalow with peeling red paint in the Liberty Park area of Salt Lake City has all the classic signs of foreclosure. It’s vacant, the lawn is dead and no one has bothered to fix a busted window. Gary Rigler, housing and zoning officer for Salt Lake City…(is) quick to point out that the vacant house problem is evident in every area and every price range. ‘It’s not a west side problem, it’s not an east side problem — it’s a problem all over.’”
“To prove his point, he drives over to a home just a short walk from the Salt Lake Country Club near Sugar House. The assessed value of the property he stops at is nearly $650,000. But it has all the signs of a distressed property or a foreclosure — it’s empty and much of the landscaping on this nearly two-thirds of an acre lot is dead or overgrown.”
“Many of today’s vacant homes tell a story of a housing boom along the Wasatch Front that came to an end so quickly, many people left financially devastated almost overnight. There are the properties that were bought at the height of the market, some with adjustable-rate loans or exotic mortgages. They are properties that were destined to be ‘flipped’ by investors for great profit after some amount of renovation. But when the market turned, there were few buyers willing to pay an amount that would cover those investments.”
“Back in central Salt Lake City, Rigler stops in an area some call ‘Sugar Hood.’ There are three empty homes in a row that Rigler and his team are tracking. Local real estate agents say the properties were purchased by a single investor in 2006. All three are foreclosures by Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a large national lender that filed for bankruptcy in recent weeks after a crackdown by regulators made it nearly impossible for the company to continue to make new loans.”
“Wichita is the 10th-most affordable housing market in the United States according to a national study. Coldwell Banker’s 2009 Home Price Comparison Index says a 2,200-square-foot, four-bedroom home can be purchased in Wichita for an average of $144,625.”
“The cumulative average sales price of the four-bedroom homes surveyed in the 310 U.S. markets, including one in Puerto Rico, covered in the Coldwell Banker HPCI is $363,460. ‘The four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home is one we deem ‘aspirational’ and usually purchased by move-up buyers experiencing lifestyle changes,’ Jim Gillespie, CEO of Coldwell Banker, said in a statement. ‘Thirty percent of the markets show this type of home to be below $200,000, illustrating the opportunity to take advantage of price declines, interest rate levels and increased selection of homes. Encouraging these move-up buyers back into the market is a crucial next step toward helping to rejuvenate the housing industry and the overall U.S. economy.’”
“Couple the study with an aggressive buyer’s market in Wichita, and local homes may be a bigger value than Coldwell Banker thinks, a local real estate agent said. ‘The thing I’ve seen change is the expected sale price for the seller and what the house actually sells for,’ said Evin Alcindor of J.P. Weigand & Sons.”
“‘Buyers are very aware of this economy, and they’re being opportunistic in a buyer’s market. They’re asking for a lot of things from the seller and they’re getting them. Sellers aren’t getting nearly for their homes what they should in some instances, because buyers just won’t give it to them.”
‘Q. How bad is this crisis? A. Reinhart: Let us not lose sight of the fact that we are past the two-year mark already since the onset of this crisis. So that’s beyond the resolution time in most of the other postwar crises. Japan and Spain are the two exceptions, because the 1977 Spanish crisis also took forever to mop up.’
A crisis isn’t necessarily a bubble, and this was the biggest bubble in history. We do have choices here:
‘The market for housing will not become truly robust until market forces replace the prostheses of government support,’ Fisher proclaimed’
What’s it gonna be Washington?
‘Wall Street has showered nearly $11 million on the Senate since the beginning of the year, and more than 15 percent of it has gone to a single senator: Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York. Schumer’s $1.65 million take from the financial services industry is nearly twice that of any other senator’s.
this just shows how corrupt our system is.The NAR is still trying to get the the 8000 credit extended.That 8000 is costing taxpayers about 40000/ house once you figure in administrative costs.
I wonder if other countries allow lobbyists to have so much power/ Its actually quite frightening.
Yes, except when it happens in another country, we refer to it as “bribery”. Here, it’s lobbying.
Chuck
“…until market forces replace the prostheses of government support,’ Fisher proclaimed”
When and how is that supposed to happen?
Only when the rubes - you know who you are - stop voting for Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee establishment Republicrat politicos, and start putting their time, money, and effort into electing principled alternatives to the status quo.
How, may I ask, do you propose these new “principled alternatives” compete against the deepest pockets in the country which produce this current crop of politicians? Without campaign finance reform, it’s impossible.
Justsixdollars DOT org
Grizzly,
First, never say “It’s impossible.” That’s a convenient excuse for passivity, which is an inexcusable cop-out in our current situation.
Dr. Rand Paul (Ron Paul’s son) is a case in point. He’s running for the US Senate in his home state of Kentucky. While his Republicrat opponent for the GOP nomination was attending a $500 a plate dinner from fat cats and major donors looking for a political marionette to do their bidding, Rand Paul staged a “money bomb” and grass-roots fundraiser that pulled in more than $1,000,000 for the quarter from 13,000 small donors - including yours truly. Win or lose, I’m going to continue supporting candidates of either party who put principle ahead of party affiliation or campaign contributions.
http://www.randpaul2010.com/
I used to campaign with Dr Paul, and did so with Rand and other members of the family. I can say they are top notch folk and Rand is a man in his fathers mold.
Lets all get together on this one. Next vote..in Congress and the Senate, if one is in, vote for the other, all the way down the line and we shall see what happens. Don’t be saying “oh he/she doesn’t have any experience” PFFT Lots of them didn’t have one iota of experience and look what it has gotten us so far.
Vote em all out by putting X in the Opposite box of current congressliar/senate person.
That is my story and I am sticking to it.
When government support goes, so will the sales. Just look at car sales.
Yeah, I was listening to some interviews on the car deal yesterday. One big dealer said all it did was push sales up. only to leave the market just as dead as ever. Plus (and get this) most of the sales were for Toyotas, etc, whose buyers rarely go back to US makes. Unintended consequences rear their ugly head once again.
This person was a bubble denier until the last, but can see the writing on the wall:
‘We’re still missing the new financial architecture,” Susan M. Wachter, a professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, told about 150 VCU students, faculty and alumni.’
‘Wachter said housing prices likely have bottomed out. But foreclosures will continue to rise and come in waves.’
‘She said private equity is needed to unlock the credit markets and more financial standards are needed. She also said the government’s injection of capital is unsustainable.’
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/CRISGAT01_20091001-144802/296760/
Wait, a business school professor said that housing prices have bottomed out even though private capital is largely missing from the market, government capital has to get out of the market, financial standards have to rise and foreclosures will continue? Am I missing something here?
Since when do business schools hire people who are essentially innumerate?
Wow, I didn’t find her email address quickly. I was going to email her and let her know what’s up.
Here’s her creds from the Wharton website:
Susan M. Wachter
Richard B. Worley Professor of Financial Management; Professor of Real Estate, Finance and City and Regional Planning
PhD, Boston College, 1974; BA, Harvard College, 1965
Research Areas
Real estate economics; urban economics; housing finance
Recent Consulting
Real Estate Markets - Jones Lang LaSalle, 2007–present; Mortgage Insurance Markets - GE Financial, 2005-present; Housing Markets - Prudential REALTORS, 2005-2007
Current Projects
Modeling default and delinquency; tenure choice and homeownership affordability; real estate price index methodologies; modeling neighborhood change
I think I see where she went wrong.
Bought and paid for by the REIC, it looks like.
“Since when do business schools hire people who are essentially innumerate?”
My all-time favorite remark about business school professors (from a former professor of mine):
If you come across a business school professor in a debate with a philosophy professor, you know two things for sure:
1) The philosophy professor is kicking the b-school professor’s behind in the debate.
2) The b-school professor takes home twice as much pay.
I’ve never seen a comprehensible argument as to how house prices can stop falling while foreclosures are increasing. It defies logic. Factor in the job losses, which only compounds the situation, and the assertion is laughable. I have a hard time believing, and am actually somewhat frightened by the fact, that the people in charge are looking at housing to lead a recovery. Nobody is looking at how we create jobs- they’re looking into how to get broke people to take on more debt.
“…they’re looking into how to get broke people to take on more debt.”
Don’t tell me those who read and post here are the only ones sufficiently perceptive to recognize the sheer stupidity of this plan?
Trust me professor we are the only people or else i would have multiple job offers and be socking away tons of green.
We were sold on Toyota after my husband Had one as a company car in 1983. It was the first foreign car he had driven and he loved it.
I can vouch for this. I saw the city wide numbers for september auto sales in phoenix (all brands new sales reported) just yesterday (I manage at a big store here). Worst month i’ve ever seen in this area. And not by small margins, we’re talking 50 - 80% off year over year for even the “good” brands (honda/toyota). Domestics are also way off, but their sales were already in the toilet last year so it doesn’t look so bad (until you go back a few years and see dealers that are running 1/20th their glory day numbers.
3 people on our total sales force broke minimum wage, barely, and that’s the story all over town. I’ve never seen anything like it. Hmm, maybe I take that back, this reminds me of GM employee price for everyone early in the 2000’s. We sold lots of cars in a big hurry (making no money in the process as every deal was employee price below cost), then we starved for the next year because we had pulled so many future deals in early. Everyone who wanted a chevy already had a new one. Funny enough, chevy was probably was “saved” by the housing bubble back then, as sales picked up when people started up the home-atm……. Without housing GM would have went belly up right there.
Down here in Tucson, I’m noticing that the bicycle shops are doing quite the business. And I seem to recall reading that, during the last few years, bicycles have outsold cars in the United States.
Tucson is second on my list after SLO for best places to live.
“Without housing GM would have went belly up right there.”
May the best car win
No car purchase is as local as a Toyota Camry for me. They build them about 15 miles from where I live. Many ‘domestic’ makes are actually made in Mexico, etc. Buying American often means buying foreign, nowadays, and vice versa.
Well, the cars are _assembled_ in the US, but most of the high-value-add is done elsewhere, like the R&D engineering. And the profits go outside the US.
Incidentally, Honda’s built the Gold Wing in the US for about 30 years or so, and IIRC all GW production is in the US… Now if only they’d put a proper Hossack fork on it…
“Woodfield Crossing, a 40-acre, 137-lot subdivision was imagined as a standard of ‘The New Urbanism’ model with pedestrian-friendly walkways and two-story homes. Cope expressed cautious optimism Thursday over his new acquisition. ‘We hope that we’re buying low and selling high,’ he said.”
Well, I hope I can ride a magic pink pony to the moon and be anointed Empress of the Sparkly Moon Pixies. Oh, yeah, and there’ll be a Chinese buffet there that’s at least two miles long, is what I hope.
Ahhhh…I really crave heaping mounds of cashew chicken with almonds on fried noodles. And it’s only 10 am. Dangit!
Anyway, back to the subject: hope?! Hope?!!! ‘Hope’ is his investment strategy?!
Yeah, this is gonna end just <i<great.
Try a Vietnamese cafe; they open at 8 or 9 AM here in Phoenix.
Stay away from the ones within walking distance of your home. Otherwise, you may ingest your own cat.
Always order vegetable or shrimp Chinese food. That way, you know you’re getting what you asked for.
Keep your kitty indoors and they’ll never become the main course at the chinese buffet and your neighbors won’t hate you because your cat pooed in their garden. I keep Moomer’s fat asthmatic feline butt inside to protect the world from him, seriously.
Ocala? Ocala and “New Urbanism?”
What a laugh. That’s like deciding to finance a multimillion-dollar “New Urban” development in Wray, CO. Nice place, but not an urban place. Me- I’d rather put my money in the pets.com sock puppet circa 1999.
Ocala is a great place for local people to buy homes with money they get from a “job”. That implies median prices less than six figures for a nice 3/2 ranch (not multistory- there is a very good common sense reason people don’t build multistory in Florida.) There is nobody, save for a Rich Dad disciple or MLM-prone idiot, who would pay six figures for a place around the great Florida Barge Canal.
“..Phoenix before a bank finally accepted a $140,000 offer on a 1,100 square-foot home.”
Sheer genius. $140K for an 1100 sq. ft. home in Phoenix. You gotta be kidding me.
That entire story reeked of desperation.
Here’s a bulletin…….. That ain’t gonna be me.
Keep on laughing: one of my clients was trying to sell something about that size, consisting of a 400 s.f. MOBILE home with a 600 s.f. (or so) “Arizona room” — for even more than $140K. I’m thinking $160K. So now they’re renting it out. (I’m owed $48K, it actually IS worth at least $75K in the present market.)
“In 1961 departing President Dwight Eisenhower warned of ‘the acquisition of unwarranted influence’ by what he dubbed the military-industrial complex. Maybe it’s time to call out the real estate — industrial complex.”
Day late and a dollar short bub. That phrase was coined here 3 years ago. Reporters are dopes.
I’d prefer “real estate - Chinese imports complex”.
Just a smooth way of saying that they are a regular poster here.
I’m only paying tribute to the visionaries who have visited here.
I was actually delighted to see the REIC phrase in a Time article.
“Sotomayor’s condominium in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan was worth about $1 million”
Where oh where does she live? Give the address. I will stop over at Sonia’s to say “hello” and laugh in her face. Bwahahaha. Look around Sottie at all of the empty businesses around you. Then check out all of the new stuff that has come online. Do you really think prices are just going to shoot back up? She is this dumb AND she is on the Supreme Court. It must not be so supreme. I guess we know that common sense isn’t required for the high court.
holy crap, City, I was certain you would be first bidder on her condo. I know you’re the type that’s dying to impress your friends by your habitation in a SCOTUS residence.
You could go to town and paint all the walls burgundy, or red even.
So much of what passes for intelligence is just specialized knowledge.
I have Harvard-educated friends who 25 years after graduation are experts in their fields but don’t have any better grasp of economics, culture or politics then they did as undergraduate teenagers. They live in small circles of association where the same assumptions on these subjects are re-circulated, unquestioned.
“small circles of association where assumptions are re-circulated”
HBB would be one such circle. But I don’t mind, because our assumptions are RIGHT!!! …at least, they mostly have been, so far.
This is very true!
She owed about $380,000 on a mortgage
I think she can probably sell, she just doesn’t want to give it away in case the new job doesn’t work out.
LMAO! Now that was funny
surely she could rent it out for 10k/mo or so, yes?
Bwahahaha. A “million dollar condo” in my neighborhood right now would be lucky to rent out for $4,000. Rents are plummeting. I would love to rent from her. I could see me calling her at 2 in the morning some weekend and starting out by saying, “hi, Sonia. I have a problem here. The bathtub won’t flush.”
Some stories just write themselves:
“There is renewed speculation that Taylor Wimpey will sell its North American housing division”, because the division’s finanical performance was, er, shall we say, …
“Wimpey”
I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.
LOL. Hadn’t thought of that connection, but (for those of us who remember) it really does describe the whole housing bubble mess in a phrase, doesn’t it?
TEE HEE!!
‘All the money we saved, we’ve just transferred it over to the wedding,’ Goring said.
“Saved?” Oh man.. Ben, you threw us a bone with some meat still on it. Actually, LOTS of meat. I don’t know where to start.
Ben, you threw us a bone with some meat still on it. Actually, LOTS of meat. I don’t know where to start.
I too am bewildered by the sheer size of the meaty bone. Like confronting a freakin’ mastodon leg, figuratively speaking. I just wish there were some photos available of the happy couple on their wonderful wedding day. I’d find such joy in knowing what colors were tastefully chosen, and how big the cake was… important details like that.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I knew someone who really wanted to have a grand wedding. So they did. Spent TONS on it, and she was Radiant Princess for a day…two years later part of the divorce settlement was dividing up who had to keep paying the bills from the wedding.
With superhuman effort I did not laugh my a*s*s off when I heard that. Normally I would have, but something prevented me this time…maybe I was in a meeting or something? Da*mm*it!
I too am bewildered by the sheer size of the meaty bone.
If I only I had a nickel……….
You would still be broke…lol
I think the rest of the sentence is “for everytime I’ve heard that from a woman”
LOL
this is great I like weenie jokes on a Friday afternoon.
Ziiiiiing!
yes Oly, sad to say I must sign off for the weekend, my parting words to you are these:
Always remember to keep City’s sizable meaty bone in your dreams and visions.
Ciao babies
My wedding was a lot of fun. First of all, no family. When his youngest sister was planning her wedding, my father looked at me and said “just elope.” Basically we did even if my mother made my street length wedding dress that weekend. We got married in town where our college was located. My husband drove us to the courthouse with Hair playing. Our English professor followed on his morotcycle. Another friend went with us. The professor took pictures. Then we went to his house for champaign. It was cheap and fun.
damm and i never got a chance to upsell you on my Wedding dj skills. And get all that money out of your hands and into my pocket.
Now that sounds like a very cool wedding, wolfgirl.
O’Ryan Goring and his fiancée fell in love with a castle-like Pennsylvania estate called Cairnwood as the perfect setting for their marriage.
If these two don’t know the difference between “marriage” and “wedding”….they shouldn’t attempt either.
And apparently they don’t know what “saved” means either. They “saved” $33K on their down payment. Little do they know that they will be paying upwards of $75K(?) over the next 30 years for it. Probably more.
I predict that within 3 years they will be singing jingle mail for Christmas.
This whole “Speaking Japanese” article is full of red meat. I had a brain freeze wondering where to begin. So many fools, so little time.
They’re spending $33,000 on their wedding? What a special couple.
In a strange way, I think I understand them. If you’re determined to throw your savings away, why not have a once-in-a-lifetime party with all your friends and family, instead of watching it unceremoniously vanish down an RE sinkhole?
I don’t agree at all with their decision to throw their savings away, but if that decision’s already been made… Hey the ship’s going down regardless, might as well enjoy while we can!
I could live for 3 years on that..
In a strange way, I think I understand them. If you’re determined to throw your savings away, why not have a once-in-a-lifetime party with all your friends and family, instead of watching it unceremoniously vanish down an RE sinkhole?
‘A potlatch is a festival ceremony practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast in North America. This includes Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Tsimshian,[4] Nuu-chah-nulth,[5] Kwakwaka’wakw,[3] and Coast Salish[6] cultures. The word comes from the Chinook Jargon, meaning “to give away” or “a gift”.
At these gatherings a family or hereditary leader hosts guests in their family’s house and hold a feast for their guests. The main purpose of the potlatch is the re-distribution and reciprocity of wealth.
The status of any given family is raised not by who has the most resources, but by who distributes the most resources. The hosts demonstrate their wealth and prominence through giving away goods.’
‘Kwakwaka’wakw’? I refuse to believe that’s really their name. I think the kwakwaka’wakw’s are pulling our leg.
Hey! Long time no see. Welcome back!
Umm, just went to one in Napa that cost $80,000 — couple going to Bahamas for honeymoon when they receive all their monetary wedding gifts. Now that’s special!
Was the groom’s name Alden? Just curious…
Now you see why i still like to dj….some people have mo money then brains, and I’ll be happy to overcharge them, because they are not going to have their “precious wedding” in a church basement or a wedding mill, nope it has to be at finest country club in the area and in JUNE no less..
I can see the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
A couple of very dear friends had their reception in the church fellowship hall. It was a wonderfully moving event, as both of them hadn’t had the best of times in their previous marriages.
I’ll never forget Randy (the groom) climbing up on a pew in the corner of the hall. From there, he shouted for everyone’s attention. Then he proceeded to thank everyone for their friendship and support over the years.
Randy’s now deceased, and oh, do I miss him. He and his wife were absolutely wonderful when it came to including everyone in their circle. Didn’t matter if you were married, single, young, old, straight, gay, whatever.
Slim that is both a heart-warming and sad story. They sound like they were a fantastic couple, who learned from life experiences.
I don’t think they had the $40k to begin with anyhow…
Just got married last weekend in vegas. Spent a total of about $500 bucks and we all had a great time! Only about 14 of us. I just could not see throwing away $10,000, when we could have just a good of time with a few hundred!
fecaltime!
Congrats on the wedding! (Why weren’t we invited?
)
True….YOU cant …but heck the parents can and usually spend even more.
———————————
I just could not see throwing away $10,000
Congratulations on your marriage, fecaltime!
Too bad a pretentious overpriced wedding can’t guarentee a successful marriage.
‘All the money we saved (using the FHA program), we’ve just transferred it over to the wedding,’ Goring said.”
What a great idea! Wouldn’t want to spend some of that money on equity in your probably wrongheaded condo purchase.
Here we go, watch your money go…poof
I hope they kept a little something back for a vasectomy.
Correction: I hope the kept a little something back for divorce court because that is exactly where these two morons are headed…. sooner or later.
I’ll wager on it.
From the examples I’m personally familiar with, there does seem to be an inverse relationship between the cost of the wedding and the duration and quality of the marriage.
Sammy,
I’ve noticed that too. When they hit a bump, they’re out of there. “and they lived happily ever after…” (sh*t happens)
Comment by Sammy Schadenfreude
2009-10-02 15:18:06
From the examples I’m personally familiar with, there does seem to be an inverse relationship between the cost of the wedding and the duration and quality of the marriage.
(Comments wont nest below this level)
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Absolutely agree with this, 100%.
Cash for clunkers was a gimmie to auto dealerships. While it irritates many struggling Americans to hear of Joe Blow UAW raking in 50K+ a year on an assembly line job, it’s just as frustrating being one of the GM shareholders who got fleeced by the “void and reopen anew” GM. Look around and see where most of the fed gimme money has been going. I’m not so warm and fuzzy feeling these days for banks, rating agencies, appraisers, loan bundlers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, golden parachute emigres, Harvard business school to Wall Street voyeurs, or an auto industry that has little foresight with a business plan that seemed to be about high markup/fast buck vehicles to the detriment of the nation and the nations working class. Can we survive another decade of politicians and CNBC blowhards cooing over the Dick “185 million” Grasso’s, the Robert “appoint me to another board of director job” Reich’s, and Alan “that’s not what I meant” Greenspan’s? That’s rhetorical of course.
“While it irritates many struggling Americans to hear of Joe Blow UAW raking in 50K+ a year on an assembly line job, it’s just as frustrating being one of the GM shareholders who got fleeced by the “void and reopen anew” GM.”
I never understood why Joe Blow would be irritated by a UAW worker making 50K+. What should a UAW worker make? 25K+? 5K+? How much should Joe Blow make? Maybe Joe Blow should join the UAW and get a real job instead of “trying to make ends meet” doing whatever lame real estate/retail job he has. That UAW guy’s forebears had the balls to stand up, form a union, and sacrifice his income during strikes. Joe Blow sits around and whines because his employer got rid of his pension and jacked his health care up to $500/month. Well, that’s what happens to wussies. Not everyone’s a loser like old Joe.
I don’t know any Joe Blows irritated by a UAW worker making 50k+. Maybe jealous or envious, but not irritated.
Those UAW stalwarts and their union featherbedding and extortionate demands over the years made it impossible to fire useless workers, so people stopped buying poorly designed, shoddily-built US cars. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.
I agree Sammy…
Whatever the deal, it’s managements job to insist on good cars, and quality manufacturing. But GM is riddled with nepotism and accountants. The management is to blame for GM’s, et al, problems. They are the ones who are “responsible”, right? They run the zoo!
How about ACORN getting $7 billion from the porkulous bill ? The UAW getting $10 billion for their pension plan , if, they would promote the commie health care bill for the libs? Don’t stop me –John P. Holdren.
ACORN? UAW? <<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>
The horror of it all!!!
How bad:
GM and Chrysler were out of business then came Uncle Sam to the rescue and guess what, in about 9 months or a year Fiat will fold Chrysler most likely and 14 billion down the drain.
Only houses that sell are foreclosure and short sales:
Jobs are so scary that you were worried that your company would take away the morning coffee, now you arrive at work waiting for the dreaded “the boss wants to see you, and doesn’t want to talk about the morning coffee:
You see your neighbor home three days in a row, then you see the spouse home three days in a row, you know the rest of the story:
The President goes to Denmark and his beloved home town finishes last in the Olympic bid:
You go to your bank, very few customers every desk is empty and a 19 year old teller wants photo ID to cash a $25.00 check:
Look kids why go on, this country is in one dire straits no matter who says the recession is over, Gen Custer said the same thing at the “Little Big Horn”, men it is all but over once we get over this ridge and into the valley?
“‘Right now I — like many other Americans, it would not be wise for me to sell my home in New York because the market is so low,’ Sotomayor said in an interview.”
I guess all the people in high leadership positions who got stucco with homes whose values have dropped creates a very strong imperative for the financial engineering brigade to do whatever is necessary to reflate housing?
Sonia should meet me at the White Horse Tavern and I will give her an education. She will need the whiskey.
How is Turbo Tax Timmy doing selling his house? Help me here HBBers.
Pull yourself up by your boot straps you rugged individualist and help yourself.
Exactly. You’re not talking to your illegal alien servants here.
Remember the hot water Sotomayor got into for her “wise Latina” comment? So much for her self-attributed wisdom. Yes, your Honor, you just go on waiting for the Spring Miracle Revival promised every year by the NAR.
Here I am, trapped in the Vancouver airport due to mysterious “air traffic control constraints” and wasting time on the Internets. I was at a dinner party last night in downtown Vancouver. The discussion sounded almost exactly like that you’d find in the states a few years ago. Intelligent, well-paid people talking about how they simply could not afford a reasonable house in the area. Yet at the same time they were watching friends and acquaintances who make far less jumping into the market.
Apparently, Canada has introduced some new mortgage products in the last year. Whereas before you couldn’t get a mortgage for more than 15 years or with a fixed rate, now they have introduced fixed rates for the first 5 years of a 30-year mortgage… suckering in a whole new string of buyers with what are effectively teaser rates.
I tried to console them by telling them how we had the same discussions many years ago. I’m not so sure they believed me.
Yes, but remember, unlike all the wannabes who now claimed to have “known this was going to happen all along,” we have an archive of our collective wisdom showing our predictions. So they just come here, look at post 507 and read our history and their future!
Hope you had a safe and uneventful flight back bink!
My sister and I had the same kind of discussion. “How come all our friends can afford houses and we can’t?”
turns out they couldn’t.
To prove his point, he drives over to a home just a short walk from the Salt Lake Country Club near Sugar House. The assessed value of the property he stops at is nearly $650,000. But it has all the signs of a distressed property or a foreclosure — it’s empty and much of the landscaping on this nearly two-thirds of an acre lot is dead or overgrown.”
…people left financially devastated almost overnight. There are the properties that were bought at the height of the market, some with adjustable-rate loans or exotic mortgages…
My brother Dave and his giant beautiful Amazon wife live in the Sugar House area. I visited them last Christmas and saw signs of the bust already. I wonder what it’ll look like at this years visit? I shall let you all know.
Sugar House has some really nice areas and also has some Sugar Hoods, definitely. And I betcha the ‘Hood’ section is expanding.
Too bad, because there are some really neat, old, historic houses there that I would love to see preserved and appreciated with love and respect. My brother lives in one. It’s 108 years old, I think? Over a 100 years, I know. Fabulous old walnut wood trim, and a stained glass window, and beautiful bricks. There’s a wonderful old arbor in back, simply covered with huge grape vines and in most yards along that street there are one or two ancient apple trees, remnants of a large orchard that was planted in pioneer times.
My brother Dave and his giant beautiful Amazon wife live in the Sugar House area. I visited them last Christmas and saw signs of the bust already.
Let us know how her bust looks this year. Is it a bigger bust or smaller bust? I’m guessing bigger.
Probably bigger. In addition, it’s usually nicely clad in tasteful leopard-skin.
Perving on your brother’s wife’s ta-tas, are ya, Oly? You just peel back more layers with every post in here….
Well, I don’t MEAN to, but they’re hard to miss, dadgummit, being at my eye-level and all and also so….so pneumatic.
“My brother Dave and his giant beautiful Amazon wife…”
Oly, what would THAT look like, and isn’t it contradictory? I guess not if you’re from Congo or somewhere…
She’s just a really pretty woman who happens to be 6′1″. Dave is a large specimen himself. That’s probably why she consented to marry him. He made her feel dainty. I cant think of any other reason.
Sugarhouse is our “home” when we’re away from Torrey and working in Salt Lake. It is a really nice area - just a typical “old fashioned” suburban neighborhood, designed for a mix of walking and driving, not exclusively driving, with lots of useful small retail in ready walking distance. Not just the botique-y stuff.
Prices have been dropping this year, although there is still plenty of fantasy pricing. People renovate an old bungalow and suddenly it’s worth $4-500K, when others are selling $250-$300K? Don’t think so. It’s holding up OK, but there are plenty of foreclosures spread around.
We’ve thought about buying at some point, but the typical houses there were built in the 1920’s and a lot of them really have issues. The basements are small and cramped and not very useful. Insulation for winter is a problem. So the neighborhoods are really cool, the houses,… not so much maybe.
Lots of panhandlers. Haven’t seen any Amazonian busts, though, but I’ll make sure to look next time.
Hey Oly, if you’re in the area this winter, let me know, we’re up there a lot, although we’ll probably head back home on Christmas week. Mrs. Shoe & I could meet you for beer and a garlic burger at Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta on 21st. It’s da bomb.
I looked up the Sugarhouse area’s housing, and some of those old homes are eye candy. There is something about artistic architecture that makes me feel relaxed and happy, vs. starkitecture (Jim Kunstler’s word), the mass produced fugly stuff.
The real walkable downtown retail area was charming too. It beats those fancy stripmalls with lots of frontage landscape. It just isn’t the same as a real urban walkable shopping area.
You’re absolutely right about the architecture. The maturity of the landscaping (big shady tree-lined streets, etc.) adds to it. And the old houses can really be fun, but as I said, they come with lots of issues, and like most all real estate in this country, they’re still significantly overpriced.
There’s a big hole right in the center of downtown Sugarhouse where they tore down a lot of old storefronts to put in - guess what - edgy, urban condos! The hole remains (they did fence it and spread mulch to keep the dust down) and a fancy re-furbished condo tower sits empty nearby. Another tower project just broke ground this season. Of course they all want $300/sq ft, few if any takers. Downtown Sugarhouse really would be a great place for condos, because of the great retail district, and ready access to public transportation. Driving and parking is a mess, but you can walk to everything you need. The condos need to be priced in the $150/sq ft range, though.
Hey Oly, if you’re in the area this winter, let me know, we’re up there a lot, although we’ll probably head back home on Christmas week. Mrs. Shoe & I could meet you for beer and a garlic burger at Salt Lake Pizza & Pasta on 21st. It’s da bomb.
Super! I’ll make a note of it. That’d be fun.
The last two lines sum up the plain ignorance involved, far and wide.
“‘Buyers are very aware of this economy, and they’re being opportunistic in a buyer’s market. They’re asking for a lot of things from the seller and they’re getting them.
“Sellers aren’t getting nearly for their homes what they should in some instances, because buyers just won’t give it to them.”
I don’t know. Some people will drive across town to save 10 cents for a gallon of gas. And then they overpay for a house while prices are plunging. Maybe do an ARM for good measure.
“Locascio endured almost 30 rejected bids placed on homes throughout northwest Phoenix before a bank finally accepted a $140,000 offer on a 1,100 square-foot home. She admits to tears of frustration and said she almost considered giving up on the program in favor of moving in with family and saving toward a conventional loan.”
The knifecatcher encouragement program seems to be working very well. Hence it should be extended and expanded.
If my children said they were giving up and thinking of moving in with me , no way. I would break the HBBers oath and ‘make’ them buy a house, even if over priced, bad area, old, bad financing ect, knife catching. I like to see them once a year or less with their snot nosed loud bad mannered kids.There is something for child abuse.
Oh….SNAP! Are you saying your grandchildren have bad manners?
Giving kids unrealistic expectations IS a form of child abuse. So, if what you are saying is the little ones are spoiled, just imagine when they get older and realize how hard it is to come by all the crap they took for granted (iPods, cell phones, X-Boxes, etc.).
Jonathon Pond (common sense finance advisor) has a mantra that “the more bedrooms you have in your house, the more likely your children will come back to live with you.”
He also advises that empty nesters downsize ASAP after the kids move out. Too many couples keep their homes “for when the grandchildren visit.” With the money they save, they could put the kids up at the Ritz.
[However, there is the danger that the kids would enjoy the Ritz more than the grandparents.]
Just had this discussion with someone this weekend…all the kids are moving back in because they’ve lost their jobs and can’t find new ones.
An open house this weekend is featuring a “Starbucks brunch.” I like the house (family might like it more than me but we do these things). Two problemos: The house is overpriced by a third or more. And I never acquired a Starbucks taste.
Went to one “viewing” last weekend and the agent was chirping about a 3-yr. roof cert and how the owner just paid $20,000 “to take care of the dry rot, which is now tidied up.”
News flash: Buyers expect a roof, and don’t want to hear about how the home was turning to dust but has been saved due to the generosity of the owner.
“Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas…opined this week that ‘life support’ for the housing market has to end. ‘The market for housing will not become truly robust until market forces replace the prostheses of government support,’ Fisher proclaimed.”
I hereby declare my desire to give Mr. Fisher a hearty handshake when he comes to Tucson next year. He’ll be part of the University of Arizona business school’s 2009-2010 Distinguished Speaker Series. I’m quite a fan of this series, and hope to see other HBB-ers there.
BTW, you’ll never guess who’s coming to town after Richard Fisher speaks: Lawrence Summers. Yes, that Mr. Summers. I can’t wait to ask him a question or two ;_)…
In the room the CEOs go, talking of Michaelangelo
Nice!
….The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,…
This is a good description of my evening, tonight.
Through Monday, 2,648 notices of default have been filed in 2009 in Deschutes County…
Good place for beer.
Speaking of defaults (i.e. foreclosures), Re*lty Tr*c’s 7 day free trial has a caveat. Evidently, you think you’re signing up for a free trial, and low and behold your cc is being charged (even if you formally cancel by the end of the offer). Now, why you’d give that information out for a freebie is beyond me.
Apparently, when you hit the continued button, you are actually agreeing to a contract with R E Pr*m*ters. OMG, the consumer alert webites are full of complaints and the continuous billing issues are wide spread. The officers of these firms belong behind bars.
I didn’t give my full name, and I certainly didn’t share my CC#. They emailed me to finish the registration. Ahhh- No thanks. I should have done my due diligence, but who knew it was a scam! (At least I caught it.)
I’m from Long Island. Never fully trust ANYONE. You will be better off in the long run.
Hey waiting….!
“‘It’s very unfair for a lawyer to take advantage of people who are trying hard to get by,’ she said. ‘He put me in a situation that I’m having a hard time to get out of.’ When Salvas sent $1,795 to Fox to arrange a modification of her mortgage and reduce her monthly payments, she didn’t hesitate because she thought ‘people were supposed to trust lawyers.’”
Ah, yes. It would take a heart of stone to read this FB’s tale of woe without laughing. Where do I even start?
Oh yeah. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA!
“He” put you in that situation? Refresh us on who’s name appears on the mortgage application YOU signed, you dumb broad.
And then you sent $1,795 BASED ON A TELEPHONE SOLICITATION to a lawyer, because “people were supposed to trust lawyers”?!!1
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAA!
No, sweetheart, it’s the USED CAR SALESMEN and TELEVANGELISTS and POLITICIANS who you can trust, not the LAWYERS! And of course guys in bars who swear up and down that they’ve had a vascectomy and that they’ll respect you afterwards.
And the sad thing is, this moron is allowed to vote, drive, and breed. IDIOCRACY, here we come.
“Ah, yes. It would take a heart of stone to read this FB’s tale of woe without laughing. Where do I even start?
Oh yeah. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAAA!”
Just curious- do you laugh when someone is losing their house due to job loss? Is it always funny when people are in dire financial straits? When children are uprooted because their parents can’t pay the bills? Where does it stop?
‘Where does it stop’
For me, it’s usually when I can’t cry anymore for laughing. This woman is a fool. Trust lawyers? That’s good enough for a Marx Brothers movie.
I’m not talking about this woman, per se, but there is a lot of laughing at others hardship on this blog, and I don’t agree with it. People are certainly welcome to express their opinions, I’m just expressing mine. A lot of people are losing their houses now because they lost their jobs. That’s not funny, to me.
Business Week did a bit on this blog called schadenfreude something or other, in 2005. Other media wrote similar things.
When I reflect on those days, I remember all the a**holes that came on here day after day, telling us we were not just wrong, but INSANE to suggested their precious houses would ever decline in “value.”
Here’s one 2005 troll recurrence you should consider from that time; there was this one guy who would post every 1st of the month and remind us bitter folk to pay our rent, and that we were idiots and he looked forward to cashing our checks, and spending it on wine and song. We stood our ground and leaned against the housing bubble wind.
So pardon us if we have a little chuckle at these people. And remember; many of these FB’s were looking to make some bank at the expense of us land-less poor all along.
You don’t need to pardon yourself, heck it’s your blog. I just think there’s a difference between laughing at greedy, rude FB’s vs. laughing at someone who got ripped off by an attorney. I didn’t see anything specific about this woman’s situation in the story- only that she was having trouble making her house payments. Rhode Island has horrific unemployment rates, and she could’ve been laid off from a long time job and had to accept a lower paying on- nobody knows. She’s struggling, that’s for sure.
there was this one guy who would post every 1st of the month and remind us bitter folk to pay our rent, and that we were idiots and he looked forward to cashing our checks, and spending it on wine and song.
Really?! Who was it!? OoooooooOOOOOOHHHHH! I hope SO BAD that he’s out behind a dumpster on his knees right this very minute, making the money for his OWN rent.
Ewww, icky.
Perhaps I need to re-read the article in case I missed something, because from what I gathered this woman paid an attorney, albeit naively, nearly $2k for help he advertised. He ripped her off. I don’t find that funny. I find it disgusting. Regardless if she’s as dumb as a box of rocks, which is likely, it’s not funny.
Big agree, here. I thought we were supposed to trust professionals. At least somewhat.
I bet you think that politicians want to be good public servants, too.
The only people I trust are those who have shown themselves to be deserving of my trust.
Same here Grizzly. I’d probably be more careful about picking a laywer. However, unless you expect all of us to go to law school and specialize in all aspects of law, we are all going to have to trust a lawyer at some point.
What if this lady had gone to a doctor and he made her sick by gypping her with a cheaper drug? Would you all be laughing and calling her a “fool” then too?
>What if this lady had gone to a doctor and he made her sick by gypping her with a cheaper drug? Would you all be laughing and calling her a “fool” then too?
In my opinion, I think if the lady did not have a mortgage issue or been identified as a FB in the first place, then there will be no laughing about her medical problems. But if she have been identified as a FB in some way, then I think there would be some laughter about that.
I agree with you, Grizzlybear, on this one. The article didn’t say if this woman is a flipper or someone who just HELOC-ed the hell out of her house thus requiring the mortgage modification now, or because it was due to a job loss or illness or something else. In such a case we should provide her with some benefit of the doubt. Now it may have been a little naive for her to hire an attorney based on phone solicitation alone but she got victimized by a bad lawyer, which has happened to someone in my family before too, even though that lawyer was supposedly recommended to them by a friend.
Now if she was a flipper or someone who HELOC-ed the hell out of her house for wasteful personal spending, then I have no sympathy for her. But like I said if I do not know that for sure I wouldn’t be delighting in her misfortunes.
Now it may have been a little naive for her to hire an attorney based on phone solicitation alone but she got victimized by a bad lawyer, which has happened to someone in my family before too, even though that lawyer was supposedly recommended to them by a friend.
“A little naive?” She’s an idiot. One of the main reasons this country is in its current mess is the pathological victimization of people who make bad choices, then refuse to accept any responsibility for the unfortunate outcomes. For once, let them suffer the consequences of their own foolishness. That’s the only way they’ll ever learn.
Thank you big time from here.
>“A little naive?” She’s an idiot.
So you telling me you never fell for any scam or been cheated by anyone before in your entire life? I doubt that. Most of us have been duped one way or another by someone somewhere, and someone else could have said “oh you are such an idiot for falling for that”. I know I have been cheated by someone else, but I do not consider myself to be an idiot, only a lesson learned and a dollar wiser.
>victimization of people who make bad choices, then refuse to accept any responsibility for the unfortunate outcomes.
I think you are equating being cheated by a lawyer to being a FB. If a guy gets into a car accident, hires an attorney and the attorney takes off with his money, I wonder if you would feel as strongly about it as you do this woman. I doubt it. It’s because this woman’s original issue stemmed from a mortgage issue and this is the HBB and we all like to make fun of FBs with unaffordable mortgages on the HBB and thus the two go hand in hand in your mind.
Grizzly,
I never laugh at people who are experiencing misfortunes that for the most part are not of their own making. I don’t put most FBs in that category, and from all indications this lady is one of them. She’s a classic fool. My assumption is she got into a mortgage she really couldn’t afford - whose fault is that? People like her drove up housing prices to ridiculous and unsustainable levels by being financially irresponsible. Their behavior was condoned and enabled by lenders who should’ve known better. Then when they get in over their heads they try to change the terms of their loans and wiggle out of their obligations. This genius hires a shyster lawyer based on childlike faith - how stupid is that? I’m supposed to feel sorry for her? Sorry, but I’ve got tired of all the idiots in our society who wail about what victims they are, when most of them are reaping what they sowed, pure and simple. Not all, but most. My best hope for her is that she WISES UP and starts accepting responsibility for her own stupidity. Until she does, I reserve the right to laugh at her and her moronic choices.
I won’t lose my house because of job loss. Neither would many of the other folks here. It’s paid up and I have enough in savings to cover the property tax (basically rent to the local school board) and basic living expenses should I live to be 100. A minimum wage job would bring in enough extra living expenses for me to live modestly but reasonably.
I did this without winning the lottery, getting special help from Uncle Sam, or inheriting money.
So while *I* wouldn’t laugh at someone who “lost” “his” “home” (lie quotes required around all three of those words), I won’t cry either. It’s simply a necessary financial transaction for someone who bought into a lifestyle he was unprepared to support.
“Portland’s housing market showed solid improvement in July as prices climbed for the second straight month, reversing what had been a 17-month run of record declines. University of Oregon economist Tim Duy said the housing market is seeing a ’speculative frenzy fueled by the government.’ ‘The government is doing everything it can to re-create a housing bubble,’ Duy said.”
Does the journalist even recognize the dissonance between talking about ’showing solid improvement’ due to rising home prices, then quoting an economist’s lament over the ’speculative frenzy’ due to the government’s all-out effort to ‘re-create a housing bubble’ in the same paragraph? My head is about to explode…
That means the market is showing resistance and it’s probably a good time to buy, but you never know.
“That means the market is showing resistance…”
‘The government is doing everything it can to re-create a housing bubble,’
Oh, I get it — you are saying that since the government now is the market, if the market is showing resistance, it is because the government is trying its durndest to reflate the bubble?
Or did I somehow miss your point?