"Recession! Recession!"
My opinion? Too much house-flipping in this country's worst brainless "pyramid scheme" since... EVER.
The people's favorite get-rich-quick scheme, driving real estate prices to completely unrealistic and unlivable amounts.
Flip this house, indeed.
Flip "THIS" instead, now, baby, because all you "flippers" are the reason the housing market is crashing around our ears. The prices are three times (yes THREE times) the value of what they should be for people to actually live in them. Not just paint them a new color and sell them off to some other poor sucker until (as with all pyramid schemes) someone is left holding the bag. Or in this case, the empty house. The house that no one can really afford to live in.
And I love the banks who encouraged the whole thing, and loaned out gobs of money that NOBODY could realistically pay back. Nice one! Buy now, triple the mortgage in 18 months and foreclose later!
And I love the media analysts saying that prices are already falling as much as 30 percent! Really? Wow! Because they need to fall TWO HUNDRED percent until they're back where they should be. Yep. Two. Hundred. Percent. That's how messed up our economy is right now.
And then there's that pesky WAR we keep paying for. You remember that, right?
Yep, babies. Recession.
It's here, and it's now. We're in it.
Discuss!
Let's hear it for sub-prime!
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/2/05
I'm just happy we live without debt, and have secure investments - mostly international.
I've been watching and waiting for this to explode.
Now, let's see how people react when they figure out they can't just get another credit card.
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
Hillary Clinton will go to any lengths to get elected. Manufacturing a recession is her greatest triumph to date.
oh please.
Like she manufactured the real estate market for the past 3 years.
Gothampc --- You must not have ANY investments of any kind, because if you did you would know it's not "manufactured."
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
You only have a paper loss unless your cashing out this moment. Investment values go up and they go down.
I only keep my money in a potato sack under my bed, so I never have a paper loss!
Not true. What about the middle-class families who spent their home equity, only to find that the value of their homes has now plummeted and they have to pay interest on loans that outvalue the current market price of their homes.
These are the people whose lives are being shattered by the subprime crisis. You can say they were stupid to spend the money, but in Bush's America, they thought that money was THEIRS.
My partner and I used to stare at other peoles homes and say, "How in the world can they afford THAT?!"
Now we know. Living out of thier means.
If the government is getting involved in it, it's already a much bigger problem than anyone is willing to admit to.
...and down, and down, and down...
The market's dropped over 300 points SIX TIMES in the past 12 days.
Paper losses, paper houses, paper dolls, paper politics, paper wars...
Bush to outline principles of economy plan Friday
Thu Jan 17, 2008 3:26pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Friday will offer the principles of his proposal to give the fragile U.S. economy a boost and wants a measure that will be quick and temporary, a White House spokesman said on Thursday.
"He'll talk about the kinds of policies that he thinks will provide temporary, effective measures to increase growth over the short term," White House Spokesman Tony Fratto said.
I'm going to be even more pissed at Bush if he bails these folks out.
They signed the papers, it's their responsibility.
They made their beds...
And everyone said I was crazy for spending all my money at Tiffany's!
(D2, this one's for you!)
God love you, Miss Penny.
"They made their beds..."
Diva, they "flipped" their beds.
Now, live in it.
Very true.
That's all I need now, papa, is Clay Aikin singing "the sun'll come out tomorrow."
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/13/04
Unfortunately, in some places it's not sub-prime loans and the collapse of the housing market that's causing the problems. The hands-off foreign trade attitude of this administration has undercut the fundamentals of the national economy.
A quickie economic stimulus package is just going to make the situation worse. Any money pumped into the broad economy will almost immediately flow out of the country.
Updated On: 1/17/08 at 06:53 PM
I couldn't agree more with your original post, best12...I live here in SF and we are suffering the housing effects of what we out here term "Guppies" (Greedy Urban Profesionals).
Just in my neighborhood alone, over the last 7-8 years, I've seen these Guppies come in and purchase beautiful 1920's and 1930's single family, one story homes (you know, the ones first time home buyers USED to be able to buy?) and tear them down. Then they build a McMansion in it's place, the price goes up about $300 grand, and there it sits.
How am I supoosed to feel sorry for these people when they suddenly can't recoup? Boo flippin Hoo. Stop tearing down the single family starter homes. Stop building McMansions that nobody can buy. Did they really think that after home prices hit above 1 million that it would continue to rise in price?? Seriously?
Greed is not always good. Greed does not always work!
(sorry for the rant)
but there a lot of couples who purchased expensive houses on a subprime loan. They can't pay the mortgage and they can't sell b/c the value of the house has depreciated so steeply.
It's shameful that banks steered these people (the couples I deal with in my practice are mostly young and just starting out) into a well of debt that they can't climb out from.
ok, so people purchase a 900k- 1m home on a subprime loan, ASSURING THEMSELVES that of course...the property value will go up some more. WHAT??? How much more did they think prices of homes could possibly go? The bubble burst and they, sitting on top of it, were the cause of the burst.
My own sister was a "victim" of this... she bought a home, subprime...SURPRISE....the value doesn't change...now they sold to bank and are renting again. Lesson learned. DO NOT BUY WHAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD.
well of course, the lesson is learned. But in the meantime all those people who can't pay their mortgages and keep borrowing are causing us to slide into a recession, which is the point of this thread.
Exactly! And now we all must pay for the greed of some.
Videos