Real Estate Collapse

[Parts]

So what does everyone think of the recent real estate collapse.  I am curious since there are members all over is it everywhere?  With the proliferation on sup prime and other shady deals more and more houses are going into foreclosure and many even in my neighborhood are standing vacant.  Way too many people extendended themselves to far and it's coming back to bite them in the ass.  This is not only true in poor neighborhoods but middle class ones as well like mine where the banks took advantage of people wanting to keep up with he Jones.  The house across the street from me has to be sold at $305,000 to break even they could get $230,000 the power and water have been off in it for the last eight months. Around the corner there is one with all the rear windows broken in. A builder I know has $450,000 into a house he could get maybe 428,000 for it.  So where will it end.  I saw a bit on the TV about squatters moving into some of these houses and even turning on the power in some.

Thoughts...

[Callaway]

I live in a high foreclosure area here.  I think that maybe it has happened partly because of the adjustable rate loans whose rates sharply increased and partly because so many people have been laid off from their jobs.  A lot of the "keeping up with the Jones" types were able to keep up only because they relied on both people's paychecks and bought homes with those shady loans at the limit of their ability to pay and when one of them is laid off, it hits them hard.

[Peter]

My mum was one of the people who queued up outside Northern Rock to get her money out when it collapsed.  It had a lot of exposure to the US property market, and didn't survive the crisis.

[Johnny]

I think the people who signed on the dotted line and can't pay should be out in work camps, given a cot and 2 meals a day and have to work their way out of debt. Everything should be taken from them, they get two sets of cloths and the rest of what they own sold to pay their debts.

[Parts]

Yhough that doesn't help us with the vacant houses waiting to be broken into and trashed in the neighborhood.. I would hate to see the inside of the one across the street after the power and heat where off for the season

[Tesla]

It's part of the reason I'm out of work right now.  KB Homes went to another surveyor because they weren't selling shit and had to cut costs.  We were underbid, there was very little other work and they fired my ass.  We're very lucky that we bought the house we did... we were offered the ability to get a loan for a LOT more than we did.  If we had been less careful we would have lost our house when the bastards laid both of us off on the same morning.  We were able to make our mortgage payment this month with $10 to spare.

[DirtDawg]

I don't want to sound like some kind of delusional preacher or anything, but things will get better for you. Finding work that you can tolerate is a real bitch, though! I'm sure you know.

You are both to be congratulated for managing to keep your house through the initial shock of being dumped.

Hope things get back on track soon for you guys.

[Phlexor]

So do you think that this has anything to do with the amount of deregulation around the world in so many areas in finance, investment, federal and local government around the world? Pretty much pushed through by WTO and IMF and other such organisations?

Or am I just spouting crazy talk.

To me it seems that EVERYBODY reguardless of intelligence has got in on the greedy game and its killed the market in every direction, like a fast paced market evolution to the point where things are very polarised. As in whats working is raking in cash had over fist and what isnt working is dying big time to the point where large communities and even some countries are suffering so much that their future looks very bleak indeed. I'm talking about where they are relying on luck to save them 'cos they have no idea what is gonna work.

[DirtDawg]

Locally, I believe it has quite a bit to do with the opposite. Specifically, the Federal Reserve propping up the economy artificially by controlling interest rates and hopefully inflation as a result of low interest rates. They have simply gone to that well too often. The entire "free" economy is upside down and no longer on its own, due to their tinkering.

Also, the increase of middle men, like credit reporting agencies by the thousands. They have no interest in whether the economy goes well or not. They get paid to get people "credit", regardless of whether the people actually can pay back what the people can borrow with their "excellent credit."

Another bite is taken by the builders who plant these prefab, poorly built cookie cutter houses, which have begun to sprawl all over suburbia for enormous prices. This trend is old enough now that many owners have tried to sell these semi-worthless houses and found that, after a true assessment of their value, they already owe more than the house is worth. Add in the tendency to re-finance and combine huge credit card debts with their house payments and they never can develop any real equity in the properties.

Again, this is a local problem, but it may be wider spread than I know, since I am a gentile to the faith of money.

[Christopher McCandless]

So do you think that this has anything to do with the amount of deregulation around the world in so many areas in finance, investment, federal and local government around the world? Pretty much pushed through by WTO and IMF and other such organisations?

Or am I just spouting crazy talk.

To me it seems that EVERYBODY reguardless of intelligence has got in on the greedy game and its killed the market in every direction, like a fast paced market evolution to the point where things are very polarised. As in whats working is raking in cash had over fist and what isnt working is dying big time to the point where large communities and even some countries are suffering so much that their future looks very bleak indeed. I'm talking about where they are relying on luck to save them 'cos they have no idea what is gonna work.

There are always people somewhere coming up with the next clever financial instrument or game. The next thing that will screw up the economy is being planned in a back room somewhere. Remember this money is going somewhere...

[Parts]

Locally, I believe it has quite a bit to do with the opposite. Specifically, the Federal Reserve propping up the economy artificially by controlling interest rates and hopefully inflation as a result of low interest rates. They have simply gone to that well too often. The entire "free" economy is upside down and no longer on its own, due to their tinkering.

Also, the increase of middle men, like credit reporting agencies by the thousands. They have no interest in whether the economy goes well or not. They get paid to get people "credit", regardless of whether the people actually can pay back what the people can borrow with their "excellent credit."

Another bite is taken by the builders who plant these prefab, poorly built cookie cutter houses, which have begun to sprawl all over suburbia for enormous prices. This trend is old enough now that many owners have tried to sell these semi-worthless houses and found that, after a true assessment of their value, they already owe more than the house is worth. Add in the tendency to re-finance and combine huge credit card debts with their house payments and they never can develop any real equity in the properties.

Again, this is a local problem, but it may be wider spread than I know, since I am a gentile to the faith of money.

It's not just local to you it's here in full force too.  And when you say poorly built cookie cutter houses you have no idea just how bad they really are built

[DirtDawg]

Locally, I believe it has quite a bit to do with the opposite. Specifically, the Federal Reserve propping up the economy artificially by controlling interest rates and hopefully inflation as a result of low interest rates. They have simply gone to that well too often. The entire "free" economy is upside down and no longer on its own, due to their tinkering.

Also, the increase of middle men, like credit reporting agencies by the thousands. They have no interest in whether the economy goes well or not. They get paid to get people "credit", regardless of whether the people actually can pay back what the people can borrow with their "excellent credit."

Another bite is taken by the builders who plant these prefab, poorly built cookie cutter houses, which have begun to sprawl all over suburbia for enormous prices. This trend is old enough now that many owners have tried to sell these semi-worthless houses and found that, after a true assessment of their value, they already owe more than the house is worth. Add in the tendency to re-finance and combine huge credit card debts with their house payments and they never can develop any real equity in the properties.

Again, this is a local problem, but it may be wider spread than I know, since I am a gentile to the faith of money.

It's not just local to you it's here in full force too.  And when you say poorly built cookie cutter houses you have no idea just how bad they really are built

Actually, I do, at least somewhat. I know a couple of people who bit the bait and bought into those shitty houses. It's amazing - shit like twenty four inch centers for exterior walls, 2x3 studded inner walls, rafters cut too short and scabbed up, brick veneer one inch thick (!) and ONLY on one side of the house, fake fireplaces and cheap plastic plumbing inside that is nearly impossible to connect to without replacing the whole run.

I'm not telling you anything new, I know. Not sure how these chickenshacks with fancy decorator faux interiors even passed the city inspectors. (maybe a few payoffs?)

I know it has to do with this instant gratification mindset that so many people in the USA have embraced. When I said "local,"  I was referring to the USA in general, as opposed to the rest of the world.

[DirtDawg]

I'm actually a pretty good drywall man and when I first lost my last job I did that for a while to make ends meet. I also helped one of my old co-workers to finish an addition he had done.

There was nothing on the back side of his house that I would need more than a half-inch box cutter to get past. Vinyl siding, half inch of Celotex and some insulation was all that there was. What breaking and entering? A burglar could get into his house with a pocket knife without making a sound.

[Lucifer]

So do you think that this has anything to do with the amount of deregulation around the world in so many areas in finance, investment, federal and local government around the world? Pretty much pushed through by WTO and IMF and other such organisations?

Or am I just spouting crazy talk.

To me it seems that EVERYBODY reguardless of intelligence has got in on the greedy game and its killed the market in every direction, like a fast paced market evolution to the point where things are very polarised. As in whats working is raking in cash had over fist and what isnt working is dying big time to the point where large communities and even some countries are suffering so much that their future looks very bleak indeed. I'm talking about where they are relying on luck to save them 'cos they have no idea what is gonna work.

 

[Lucifer]

I'm actually a pretty good drywall man and when I first lost my last job I did that for a while to make ends meet. I also helped one of my old co-workers to finish an addition he had done.

i've always wanted to learn how to build dry stone walls, she said, wistfully.