House Prices Force Americans To Sleep In Cars

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 5-22-2008 | Catherine Elsworth

[hoppity]

This is 90 miles northwest of L.A. where the Ivory Tower liberals live. They'll throw $5 to the bums playing guitar on State St. and feel better about themselves. My wife and I looked at a couple of houses there in '98 while house hunting. 1100 square feet, two bedrooms were for sale at $475,000. I'm sure the price has more than doubled now. Here's a property in a not-prime part of town: Under $900 per square foot

We ended up in a cheaper area.

[thulldud]

Gotcha. Not LA, but within the 100-mile “moderate damage” circle for major liberal infestations.

[newnhdad]

Tell me about it. We were just told our credit and income was too much to receive a low-interest loan (under 7%) because they were set aside for people with “needs”.. Like we don't need a home because we have an income of almost $100k yr.
I replied that it's been the people of “needs” that are not able to pay their mortgages that created this mess to begin with. We lost 75k on our current house due to the sour market and the fact that four neighbors either abandoned their places or went bankrupt because they couldn’t afford them when their rates adjusted. Then why the heck were they able to get financing to begin with??
Now they're still giving money to people with no means to pay it back in the long term, yet we can't get as favorable terms because our income and credit is too good.

Welcome to the world of Bizzaro Finance.

[Malesherbes]

An economy peopled with “loan processors” and “car park coordinators.”

[SayNoToDems]

Here's a property in a not-prime part of town: Under $900 per square foot.

A couple of years ago I considered buying some investment property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.Back then it was hard to find a condo or co-op for less than $1000/sq ft.A couple of places I looked at were about the size of a large closet and the asking price was $500K.....plus!

[maine-iac7]

my house was more than 30 miles north of Santa Barbara - not near the ocean, but still in Santa Barbara County...as I said, my little house I sold for $30,000 in 1975 now sells for over $500,000...ludicrous.

Peoples incomes did not rise anywhere close to that ratio.

I have friends in real estate there as well as family - it's pure insanity. The greed of the lenders and realtors in 'qualifying' people and in the crooked "pay only interest" loans, coupled with people being gullible and blind - has brought this about...inflating the prices of houses far beyond their worth - and making rents and homes all but impossible for many, many people = people who played by the rules but are getting squeezed in the middle - or on the bottom.