"Mortgage trouble is creating some of the biggest bargains this side of eBay, allowing buyers to snap up homes for tens of thousands of dollars less than what they might have paid just a few months ago."
One person's loss is another one's gain.
Prices are up by hundreds of thousands over the past few years (for that area), so how does "tens of thousands of dollars less than months ago" become a screaming bargain?
Tens of thousands of dollars doesn't amount to much on the million dollar homes they have in these areas. A lot of it is just hype by the real estate industry to get people looking at houses. Even a 34% increase in foreclosures isn't that big of a deal, particularly since they were at a very low level to begin with.
We are living in our third house. It is paid for. We swapped houses about every ten years with good interest rates and now we own our home free and clear, and I'm 50. I see my foolish friends taking out incredible mortgages at old ages and I just shake my head. Case in point: a good friend just spent $150,000 on a lot that wasn't even on the lake (it came with a "dock") and 500,000 on a house. He's 55 and she is 54 and just about every penny they have is going to the house payment which is something like close to 3,000 a month.
Let one job be lost and they are totally screwed. You couldn't PAY me to take on another mortgage at my age.
Darn straight! Time to buy some property!