Nov 25, 2007
Sunday
Today was a birthday celebration for Son Sneed. His actual birthday isn't until next Saturday, but his sister and her significant other, Mr. Peterson, will be visiting his folks next weekend, so today was the day.
All the Sneeds, even Cletus Sneed, were here for the festivities. The morning was not without the usual drama. Mr. Peterson received a call from one of his daughters reporting that when she went to get in her car this morning, there was an empty spot where the car should have been. Car theft is a big deal here. Our proximity to the border makes car theft a lucrative business. The government can't keep illegals out, or stolen cars in, it would seem.
The headline on the front page of our local paper this morning was, Foreclosure surge hits every corner of Tucson. I guess this is supposed to remind us that there are financially ignorant people in all income categories or something. I was pretty sure about that already. Actually, our paper did a pretty good job of not portraying these folks as victims of anything but their own enthusiastic idiocy.
One poor fellow bought a house with a $3000 monthly payment and freely admits that he had no plan to deal with financial setbacks like, I don't know, losing his job. Here's a clue, if every dollar that comes in, goes out, you're are a disaster waiting to happen.
The second hapless soul bought her house with an adjustable mortgage and was taken by surprise when it adjusted upward. Who saw that coming? Apparently not her. In an effort to compound her misery, she filed for bankruptcy. Now she says she is looking for a rent-to-own scheme to keep her house. Apparently foreclosure and bankruptcy weren't enough financial calamity to teach her a lesson.
Rich people, regular people and poor people all get into financial trouble for the more or less the same reasons. They buy crap they can't afford, with money they don't have. Simple. Rich people have the capacity to create bigger messes, but beyond that it the principle is the same.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Even Cletus? Wow.
Although the home-buyers are certainly responsible for the mess in the end, a lot of the blame goes to the realtors, appraisers, mortgage brokers and banks that make it all possible. If any of the players along the line had been acting with reasonable caution no one would be in these situations, faced with loans they can't pay with income that is grossly inadequate. But greed outweighs all common sense, even among bankers.
House buying seems like a big scam to me even under ordinary circumstances. I mean, that annoying lady in the pant suit gets 6% just for being obsequious?
Kurt is right about the annoying lady in the pants suit! I had to deal her. and the bank tried their best to get us to buy a much more expensive home--they are in cahoots. I agree with Steve's assessment. No one really cares what mess the hapless homeowners may be left to deal with-- a friend just bought a property she can barely afford--with a huge balloon payment due in 3 yrs... think ahead? why bother?
Post a Comment