Sold at gunpoint, Baghdad homes fall to ethnic cleansing

[unhappycamper]

Sold at gunpoint, Baghdad homes fall to ethnic cleansing
By Megan Greenwell, Washington Post | September 23, 2007

BAGHDAD - Esad Ismael broke the most important promise he ever made.

As his father lay on his deathbed two years ago, Ismael, 43, vowed never to sell his family's home. His father and grandfather had spent all their savings to build the sprawling two-story house in Baghdad's wealthy Mansour district 70 years ago. Family memories were tucked between every tile on the floor.

But Ismael, a Sunni clothing merchant, was living in an area that was falling under the control of the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest Shi'ite militia. Mindful of his promise to his dying father, he refused to move even after he began finding death threats pasted to his front door. After his brother was murdered, he gave up.

"It's bad that I sold our home, but what is worse is that I sold it for only 145 million dinars," Ismael said, naming a price equivalent to about $118,000 - less than half the house's appraised value in late 2003. "It's an insult to my father to sell it so low. But what choice did I have? They would have killed us."

~snip~

Immediately after the US-led invasion in 2003, home prices in Baghdad skyrocketed, fueled by widespread expectations that the war would end quickly and foreign corporations would pour money into Iraq's economy.

But as the war dragged on and insurgent groups gained power, property values began a free fall that real estate agents say has not yet hit bottom.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/09/23/sold_at_gunpoint_baghdad_homes_fall_to_ethnic_cleansing/