either way, it seems like less than i would expect from this debacle. i'd imagine there's plenty of the other 97% that are just as irresponsible, but will just get lucky.

amightywind

humphrmi

No thanks. But I will take your house for 50% of what you paid for it.

mobbo

ageshin

I feel bad for people who are in a situation to lose their homes, but this is an advantageous time for people looking to buy a new home like us. I read somewhere that national home sales increased 3% in the last month, so it looks like others recognize the opportunity too.

WraithSama

privatejoker75

Eyebrows McGee

@xboxishuge: the impact of these bad decisions if just impacting them would be ok. But since it can drive down the rest of the neightborhood, Bear Sterns, etc., that is a pretty ignorant statement. Especially since lenders did nothing to validate incomes. Additionally, people who qualified for the 30 year fixed rate loans were sold a bill of goods to get the adjustable rate loans instead. This has probably happened way more than people realize given the FBI's investigation into it. People that are not qualified for loans should have never received them and people qualified for better loans should have gotten those. Perhaps you don't mind what could be the worse economic downturn since the great depression, but I sure as hell do. At least we know that this means McCain has no chance.

mikelotus

redheadedstepchild

But, some are not so lucky. Or smart to sign up for a variable APR...

verucalise

That being said, the following is troubling:

"Today, the foreclosure rate stands at between 1.4 and 1.5 percent (about 1.5 and 1.6 million mortgages in foreclosure); even the most pessimistic estimates do not show it rising about 2 percent."

...well, 3% is a lot higher than that.

iMe2

[cei.org]

Thorny

johnnyboi1016

/love the state, hate the economy

CumaeanSibyl

GearheadGeek

GearheadGeek

iMe2

ViperBorg

iMe2

@iMe2: So, you're telling me at CA is at 5%. Still doesn't seem like a big number to me. CA is 2% over the national average.

My point was that the X in X notation made the number seem higher than when listed as a percentage.

Elvisisdead

I hope the government doesn't bail out these shitheads. You made a horrible decision, morons, now enjoy bankruptcy and foreclosure.

xboxishuge

Juggernaut

coraspartan

Juggernaut

You will be affected by this also... look into 'great depression'.

hi

Invisobel

valarmorghulis

What's this about you putting a robe on me?

I put on my robe and wizard hat....

TinyBug

Mr. Gunn

Quite a few companies, state and local budgets, and investors are taking a serious hit. I only wish your tax money was bailing people out, maybe my IRA would quit spiraling around the drain.

Mr. Gunn

You'll thank us for it. We eat right and our donuts don't taste like shit. And we're polite as all hell.

You'll thank us.

Pope John Peeps II

GearheadGeek

Mom2Talavera

failurate

privatejoker75

friendlynerd

laserjobs

Me

nequam

backbroken

Anyways, point still is. Outside Pew Stating their study finds 1 in 33 homes will be foreclosed... where in that 51 page pdf do they actually spend time explaining that.

opfreak

not 33%. cant edit it. Once I started using 33%, I just kept going. Should have read it before I posted.

Still, though, anyone come up with how then really figured 1 in 33 homes will be foreclosesed on?

opfreak

RagingBoehner

GearheadGeek

GearheadGeek

nequam

Snakeophelia

nequam

FAIL! Where did you go to school???

flyingphotog

GearheadGeek

- Tax revenue and school funding issues

- Slum-ization

I'm not so worried about a short-term downturn in values, since I don't plan to sell any time soon. I certainly understand the pain some are feeling if they thought they'd be able to sell and can't now. I guess I've insulated myself against most of that risk (having decided to settle down and raise a family in our house, then when I'm old and can't climb the stairs anymore, I'll think about selling :)

Thanks to all, good comments.

humphrmi

Applekid

ratnerstar

/Your situation may vary.

CRNewsom

adamcz

Me

Other then they like to state 33% in the article as justification for everything.

I would have hoped they would have explained that in more detail. Rather then stating it, then using that statement as a fact for all other ranting.

Its like, stating I'm the smartest person in the world, And know everything I do is right.

Then Using that as a justification for say robing you.

Well I said earlier everything I do is right, Therefore, me robing you is right.

opfreak

Let's get realistic, joe6pack buys a house with no skin in the game on a teaser rate good for 2 years and can't afford the reset. Joe6pack walks and blames everyone else for getting foreclosed on. Banks cry to mommy Bernanke because they don't want to take the loss.

laserjobs

Some neighborhoods simply won't recover from the foreclosures and housing-price slump, and some folks like yourself who intended to be there for the long term will find themselves wanting to bail if crime rates rise and school quality falls and so forth, which is of course a self-reinforcing cycle.

Also tax bailout, property tax base erosion, and contracting credit generally.

Like you, I'm not *TOO* worried -- we're in a good place with our mortgage, our local job market hasn't suffered too much (hooray local manufacturing base taking advantage of the weak dollar), and our city hasn't been able to afford itself in 20 years, so further property tax base erosion can only make things so much worse.

(And I'm sort-of resigned to a tax-funded bailout, and prefer that to a total economic meltdown.)

But I am keeping a weather eye on neighborhood conditions. We're in a very stable urban neighborhood that's something of an island of "good" in a "not-so-good" part of town. (The bad part of town is somewhere else entirely.) I'd like my neighborhood to stay "good" and not fall into "not-so-good" -- or have the not-so-good places around us start turning bad. The other "good" parts of town are all McMansiony, and I'd rather stay here in my older neighborhood.

Eyebrows McGee

Example: You purchase a house for $200k with $50k down (you owe $150k). Forclosure rates in the area make your property now valued at $130k (noone wants to live in a neighborhood/area where there are a bunch of forclosures). You now owe $150k on a property worth $130k. Not a problem on its own, but you also lost your $50k down payment.

Summary: In the short term, bad news for everyone. Long term, prices may rebound, but maybe not to what they were when you purchased the place.

CRNewsom

That-Dude

LorneReams

But in the midterm, foreclosures = the double-whammy of fewer people paying property taxes and lower property values across the board. You can expect a reduction in your local school's budget, for example.

iMe2

They have a state chart where you can see some of that variation state-to-state. When you consider that in the entirety of California the rate is 1 out of 20 homes, you can tell that market is really suffering.

iMe2

Aside from the chicken littles driving my 401(k) value down, what downside risk do I (and probably the majority of people like me) have?

humphrmi

AngrySicilian

Grump, grump, grump.

Pasketti

Elvisisdead

Now that is what I call off the grid livin'

laserjobs

elf6c

President Beeblebrox

Me