By Owen Paine on Saturday October 24, 2009 03:45 PM
Update on our nation's scattered fleets of submariner households. According to the Washington Post(*),
"A growing number of underwater borrowers are walking away from their homes even if they can afford the payments.... More than 25 percent of mortgage defaults [are] strategic defaults.... Housing experts say these borrowers are calculating that their homes are no longer a sound investment...."Walkaway gaining mojo! Father S must be pleased.
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(*)Subscription only, it appears. But the whole article has been reproduced here.
Comments (6)
It is satisfying when the victims are middle class professionals--not only did they get what they deserved but they also now may by virtue of circumstance join the lefty cause rather than ridicule it before. However, many of of the victims have been inner city poor in places like Baltimore, who were coned into signing dodgy loans by lenders.
Lesie Cockburn's "American Casino" is an excellent documentary on the topic. These poor suckers started out with a little and now have nothing. And, in one example from Cockburn's film, the victim was a Baptist minister who refinanced a house she owned outright (an inheritance) so she could create an assisted living center. She is now homeless not to mention the fate of those she'd hope to help. Frankly, I think one should be cautious about being smug re: foreclosure. Furthermore, we all get to pay for it, financially and socially.
Posted by Peter Ward | October 24, 2009 8:42 PM
Posted on October 24, 2009 20:42
I feel bad about the Baptist minister. But I'm hoping the silver lining is that if it gets bad enough, people will become gun-shy for a generation or so about speculating in real estate.
The real-estate Ponzi scheme has been for, what? three generations now? an extraordinarily effective instrument of social control. If it stops working, perhaps people will stop thinking they have something to lose.
Posted by MJS | October 24, 2009 9:56 PM
Posted on October 24, 2009 21:56
"I think one should be cautious about being smug re: foreclosure"
peter ...smug ??
read the post
it's celebrating the walk aways
the strategic walk aways
don't be so quick to pull
a parable AND a homily
out of your breviary
it's pharasaical limbo stick stuff
a display of competitive round head sensibility
Posted by op | October 25, 2009 7:58 AM
Posted on October 25, 2009 07:58
Scrap the copper pipes, steal the furnace and take a shit on the floor is what I say- let the toilets freeze and leave some cheese for the rats! Make some work- drive down commodities, increase manufacturing and get those unemployed working before you head to dodge city.
I can only urge those losing their houses not to be hard on them selves. Millions made the same mistake, it could happen to anyone.
Now go to the garage, get a hammer, and take all that anger out on those expensive over priced mexican Travertine tiles and those stupid renewal by Andersen windows before you break the faucets and take the doors off the hinges!
Posted by Son of Uncle Sam | October 26, 2009 1:58 PM
Posted on October 26, 2009 13:58
http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=80846
i like the feel of this
"The most staunch opponents of health care reform turn out to be men, people who earn $75,000 a year or more, white people and seniors age 65 or older, ... The young, poor, women and black people are its biggest supporters.
Women would advise their Congressional representative to vote in favor of health care reform by a 40-33 percent margin (28 percent unsure), whereas men oppose reform 33-44 percent (23 percent unsure). ..
.... Non-white people as a whole favor health care reform 50-20 (29), while whites oppose it 31-45 (23)."
Posted by op | October 26, 2009 2:41 PM
Posted on October 26, 2009 14:41
s of sam
you should have written this post
that was pure poetry
Posted by op | October 26, 2009 2:44 PM
Posted on October 26, 2009 14:44