US mortgage crisis creates ghost town (near Cleveland, Ohio)

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080127183107.ahcwfxrz&show_article=1&image=large ^

[Tax-chick]

My father was a truck driver in Missouri in the 1950’s. He has some great stories about East St. Louis! I make him tell them every time he visits. (He remembers the 50’s better than yesterday.)

[Vigilanteman]

Back when I was in grade school, Shaker Heights was held out as a model city of encouraged integration and relative prosperity. What happened?

[narses]

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[NY.SS-Bar9]

OK, who has the B.S. meter gif?

[TruthShallSetYouFree]

I am old enough to remember Allan Sherman's "Sir Greenbaum's Madrigal." It contained:

And so he said to the other knights,
You may have my possessions and my goods
For I am moving to Shaker Heights
Where I've got some connections in dry goods

Link here

The tune is Greensleeves.

[kinoxi]

I used to know where it was at but the big bad people who gave me money took it...

[ditto h]

Wow. It’s so bad there that Cleveland had to move to Illinois.

[editor-surveyor]

Doesn’t anybody ever read a contract before signing anymore?

[whitedog57]

Wow, slow down.

Shaker Heights used to be an affluent neighborhood. As the economy in Ohio deteriorated and “white flight” increased (note: Shaker Heights is near Hough, a notorious ghetto in Cleveland), housing values fell. Much of Hough, Cleveland Heights and now Shaker Heights is populated by poor credit score households (which is correlated with minorities).

This is the downside of the Fed’s “Affordable Housing” goals where ownership by everyone was pushed. Well, push something too far and this is what happens.

[ladyjane]

The other day here on FR there was a story about a home invasion in Shaker Heights. Surprised me.

[I see my hands]

Exactly. That's why I give the article zero credibility.

[elpadre]

“but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.”

I thought there was a federally mandated requirement for mortgage bankers closing loans to explain the details of the loan and have the borrower sign a document that they understand.

[kinoxi]

OK, who has the B.S. meter gif?

I had to take out a 2 million dollar loan on my truck for this, so I hope it's worth it...

[FreedomPoster]

Here’s the best subprime explanation yet:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SJ_qK4g6ntM

“Somehow this package of dodgy debts stops being a package of dodgy debts and starts being a Structured Investment Vehicle!”

[snowsislander]

Chagrin Street? That’s certainly an ironic name for a street filled with failed mortgages.

[ditto h]

She must have paid her electric bill because she answered the door bell.

[TheMightyQuinn]

I’m having a hard time feeling sorry for these people. It wasn’t just the banks that were greedy.

[kalee]

Blush
I suddenly remembered the Arch. So on second thought and after consulting a map, I have been there...twice. Last Sept. I drove through on I64 on my way out west and back with a friend.
Sorry to say, it didn’t make an impression. Of course we were traveling with a toddler and an infant, so not much of the trip did make an impression.

[Emmett McCarthy]

That’s pretty much what I thought Shaker Heights was like, too.

[RGSpincich]

"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.

This is rubbish. New buyers were vetted and had to show reliable income. The no doc loans were given to existing homeowners with adequate equity, they pulled money out, blew it and could not make the adjusted payments.