I think these are refis with adjustables.....
Posted on 01/27/2008 5:03:23 PM PST by traumer
The streets are empty. Trash rustles down the road past rusted barbecues, abandoned furniture, sagging homes and gardens turned to weed.
This is Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland and a town ravaged by the subprime mortgage crisis roiling the United States.
Faded "for sale" signs sit in front of deserted houses. The residents are gone, either in search of new jobs after the factories shut down, or in shame after being evicted for missing their mortgage payments.
A red, white and blue American flag flies over windows and doors which have been boarded up to keep the drug dealers away.
Thieves have stripped many homes of the plumbing, the doors, the windows, the aluminum siding.
The police station parking lot is full. The officers, who have seen their numbers triple since 2006, are coming back from their rounds. They speak of installing alarms in some of the homes claimed by squatters.
At 9422 Chagrin Street, a hand-scrawled sign attached to a window indicates someone lives there: "Please Used."
After three rings of the bell, Sarah Evans, 60, opens the door with a mixture of curiosity and alarm.
She says she is one of the last people left on the street. And she is on the verge of losing this two-bedroom house in which she has lived for more than 30 years because she simply cannot afford her monthly payments.
It is a complicated story. She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.
She stopped making payments in 2006 and shows her unpaid bills totaling 24,000 dollars.
Her bank is in the midst of eviction procedures.
"When folks buy a home they expect to die in it, I guess," she said as she stood outside in the cold. "I had my American Dream but it became a nightmare."
Her words are echoed by the angry barks of the guard dogs pacing behind a chain link fence two houses away that was installed by the new owner: a bank.
The massive parking lot of the Eagle Fresh supermarket is empty.
Behind her till, Myra Bibldwit lifts her head when a bell signals the entrance of a customer.
"Not many folks come anymore. We're used to it," said the 24-year-old cashier, one of the few in the neighborhood who managed to hold onto her job.
In the five hours since she started working today she has served just 10 customers. "Maybe you will buy something," she says with a smile.
Then comes customer number 12.
Laura Johnston, 50, says that her street -- about 10 minutes away by car -- was alive two years ago. Today, half the houses are abandoned.
"Folks could not afford their payments. They were asked to pay loans which doubled. They could not afford it, some lost their job. Lenders were greedy. They threw them out of their homes," she told AFP.
"I'm very upset. I missed my friend Helen. She disappeared overnight. She did not even say goodbye."
There are plenty of cases like Helen. They are called the neighbors who disappear in the night.
For county treasurer Jim Rokakis, the greed of the banks is to blame for this man-made disaster.
"All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer's incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless," he said in an interview.
"Shaker Heights was the perfect storm: poor folks, unemployed and a desire to get a piece of the American Dream."
One of my Dad’s stories involves a joint called “Down the Hatch.” Once he was telling the story (about himself and his uncle) to a group of flight-deck seamen in a crummy joint in Singapore, and a big, black lifer said, “YOU been Down the Hatch, Commander? And you made it out alive?!? DAMN!”
We have a ghost town in the New Jersey Pine Barrens called Batsto which is actually pretty cool to visit, if only to see a huge old mansion and “worker’s cottages” (it was a bog iron and moss manufacturing/farming center for over a century) in the middle of nowhere.
I work in Beachwood, Ohio. I often travel through Shaker Heights. I agree that they probably cherry picked a street that bumps up against Cleveland proper.
Parts of Shaker Heights, especially those next to Cleveland, are in distress. The banks are giving the houses away. The good part of Shaker is still very good. Here are some samples.
“Free” houses:
http://realtyone.realliving.com/Property/Details.aspx?PropID=7560816
http://realtyone.realliving.com/Property/Details.aspx?PropID=8678515
Good:
http://realtyone.realliving.com/Property/Details.aspx?PropID=8378781
Right. Shaker is far from a ghost town, except for the streets in the crappy part. This is a BS story.
That's pretty mean-spirited to make a value judgment about geography and lower someone's self esteem. Today's public school geography student need not fear such judgment. If a student believes Cleveland is in Illinois, who are we to judge? Ohio and Illinois are relatively close to each other. Shouldn't there be points for identifying the correct nation or continent?
The only time there should be consequences for such conclusions is if you are actually trying to get to Cleveland. Since few people not already living in Cleveland are trying to get there, there ought to be considerable slack given here. Even if you have to get to Cleveland, you can always ask a law enforcement officer which direction you should drive to arrive in Cleveland.
If you are flying, just rely on your airline to find it.
Also, from the sounds of the article, Cleveland won't be around much longer, anyway. That will greatly simplify the whole matter.
Click here and select Shaker Hts. to see some sheriff sales for failure to pay taxes.
http://sheriff.cuyahogacounty.us/propertysearch.asp
When folks buy a home they expect to die in it, I guess,” she said as she stood outside in the cold. “I had my American Dream but it became a nightmare.”
No worry, they'll be getting their 600 dollar government check soon....This ought to turn things around in Ohio.
Cleaveland, I can believe, is becoming a ghost town.
What happened was the "inner-city" of Cleveland expanded into the "diverse" community.....
Loans were made to avoid "red-lining" lawsuits against lenders, and anyone (especially certain minorities) were given loans freely with no money down, and no background checks. Those that could (and most Shaker residents previously) moved out to more affluent suburbs, leaving the "Democrat voterbase" take the town....
White sign side??
I think these are refis with adjustables.....
Coming to a neighborhood near you. e.g. - Las Vegas.
bttt
155K for a freaking townhome? They’re dreamin’.
ROTFLMAO! (Blight for Blight)
I agree, but assuming that she is not addicted to gambling or drugs, my guess would be that it's not her, but her kids who are the reason she is broke. I have read about some cases where the parents went through their retirement savings bailing out their adult kids.
Sad stories in some cases.
Kids went into debt and were in danger of losing their house, and unable to get another decent paying job so the monthly expenses to bail them out continues until everyone runs of money. Not to mention kids who have alcohol / drug / other legal problems and need to be bailed out to the tune of perhaps tens of thousands of dollars for lawyers and court costs and to get them into alcohol / drug rehab and keep them out of jail, etc.
Here's a link to an MSN.com Money article that touches on parents giving financial aid to their children a bit:
She may have spent the $24,000 making necessary improvements to her house—new roof, furnace, insulation, etc...Can burn through a lot of money just doing that..
Also- kids may have borrowed from her and she gave..Have seen that happen many many times to the elderly...
Phone numbers are in Cleveland Ohio. Mayor Jackson (Cleveland) is sueing the banks for subprime lending which caused his city to go down the tubes.
Ohio Ping!
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