Two more homes just went into foreclosure this week in our little neighborhood...

[Dappleganger]

and I feel absolutely nauseated. :(

That's 5 total, not including those which have been on the market for over a year. No doubt there are others which are 90-days past due, too.

I hate hate hate hate HATE what's happening to real people.


:banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[n2doc]

1. It's nerve wracking

The house on one side of us went into foreclosure, the people just vanished, leaving their outside furniture. The house on our other side is for sale, the one across the street has also been for sale for over a year. It's too quiet.

[Warpy]

2. There are three abandoned houses in my area

Two were owned by people who died and the heirs didn't know what to do with them and let them go for taxes. One was by an owner who moved to a fancier house and who uses the yard as a parking lot for his campers. Multiple. The city has fixed one and one is on the list. The one still nominally owned will continue to deteriorate.

There was one foreclosure in this area just before the crisis hit and no one was particularly sad to see them go. The property was hillbilly heaven complete with the washer in the front yard while they lived there.

This is the poor side of town, though, solidly working class, people knowing what homelessness looks like and who will go without food or medicine to pay that mortgage first. To see the areas decimated by foreclosure, one has to visit the more prestigious addresses in town, areas where either the houses were snapped up by speculators during the height of the bubble or where the owners thought they were cutting their losses by walking away.

The more prestigious areas are looking pretty desperate these days, with the retail areas as decimated as the housing as the population they were to serve dried up as paper losses convinced the prosperous they were now poor. Those are the people I really feel sorry for, the ones who started their businesses full of hope and who have lost everything by now.

This is what happens when a small group of men are allowed to loot an entire country. This is why we need to prevent them from being able to do it, ever again, no matter what slick snake oil salesman they dig out of Hollywood to sell their poison.

[SoCalDem]

3. At one time there were SEVEN on our block, alone

and two were seriously vandalized..

They are occupied now, but probably by renters, so our neighborhood (built in 1978-79) will go through another cycle of "down".

We have been "upside down" many times during the many years we have lived in this house, but this one is the dangerous one, since we "were" planning on selling & downsizing with the "profit", so we would have no housing expense (other than upkeep & taxes/ insurance) in our retirement.

So now we are remodeling, since it looks like we will be here forever now..

[lib2DaBone]

5. There are four nice houses sitting empty on my street...

.. ..I want to move.... but I cannt sell. Even if I could sell.. my house is now worth half of what I paid for it... I'll be here forever...

The media, the bankers, the politicians.. no one seems to acknowledge what is going on? They act as if everything is 'just fine'.

Watch Brian Williams on Nightly News or Katie Couric. Virtually zero coverage on pressing issues.... a few stories about Tiger Woods and Kate Goslin... a few comments on elections (like they are covering a horse race).... and they call it 'news'.

[county worker]

6. "They act as if everything is 'just fine'" That's exactly what is going on.

Many of the houses that are underwater are involved in a short sale attempt. The owner is trying to sell the house back to the lender for what they own on it. So many of these are going on that the lenders are keeping half of them off the market. If they are not in foreclosure yet the lender will keep refusing buyer's offers on the short sale until the owner is forced into foreclosure, that is also an attempt to keep the house off the market. Once it is in foreclosure it is taken off the market. It comes back on the market as a REO meaning the lender is selling it and they only want market value or better for it.

I have been in the house buying market off and on and am learning about the things going on to keep it looking like a normal housing market with stable or increasing values.

[dana_b]

4. I know and I'm sorry that this is happening to

people you know.

My sister and her husband are small business owners. they had opened up a second shop a couple of years ago and within 11 months, they had to close it. Now they are in very real danger of being foreclosed upon. It's killing my sister inside and i feel so helpless. Of course they can come live in our rented place but we're nowhere near where they live now.

[SoCalDem]

7. The sooner they leave, the better for their mental health

My friend agonized and agonized & re-fied & re-fied, and in the end, nothing could help.

She wanted to "save her house".. I kept telling her that all the money she was throwing into the scheming to save it, was money wasted, because in the end, she would never live long enough to EVER "pay it off" and she could not even afford to sell it.. She was in essence, a prisoner" in that house.

They declared bankruptcy to try & save the house, but in the end they split up and neither one could afford to stay.

Letting go of "her' house was the best thing she ever did (except for splitting from HIM). She's comfortable with renting again, and has a very nice place to live.

The only thing she hates is the fact that she does not have that tax deduction anymore...but i remind her that she also does not have to pay out all the money every year for the upkeep of that place.

If your sis & her husband used equity from their house to help their businesses, they will probably not be able to save their house, so the sooner they leave it, the better..

They should do what any good business-person would do..cut their losses and go on.

They could stay for many months before they actually have to leave, and during that time , if they quit paying, they could stash that money away.. They will need it to start over..

Once they make a decision, they will sleep better. It;s the anxiety of not knowing what's going to happen, that drives people nuts..

[OhioChick]

8. Same thing's going on here....

Sad situation with no end in sight. :(