Posted on 02/03/2010 7:05:10 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
February 3, 2010
No Help in Sight, More Homeowners Walk Away
By DAVID STREITFELD
In 2006, Benjamin Koellmann bought a condominium in Miami Beach. By his calculation, it will be about the year 2025 before he can sell his modest home for what he paid. Or maybe 2040.
“People like me are beginning to feel like suckers,” Mr. Koellmann said. “Why not let it go in default and rent a better place for less?”
After three years of plunging real estate values, after the bailouts of the bankers and the revival of their million-dollar bonuses, after the Obama administration’s loan modification plan raised the expectations of many but satisfied only a few, a large group of distressed homeowners is wondering the same thing.
New research suggests that when a home’s value falls below 75 percent of the amount owed on the mortgage, the owner starts to think hard about walking away, even if he or she has the money to keep paying.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
RE :”I’m sorry.”
For which part? I have good credit! LOL it’s called not buying things on credit (short a real emergency.)
Some people get sick and run up debts because of that unfortunately. I dont want to pick on everyone.
I personally agree with you. However my point was that most people in this country are far less reluctant to walk away from an underwater mortgage if they see large companies allowed to do the same to the tune of billions of dollars. Trillion dollar bailouts to millionaires and billionaires don’t help either, and since we are the government, we are allowing this. (Granted half of that “WE” are idiot socialists)
Correct. Either way income, or collection from the bank these people think they’re just walking away but that may not be possible.
You said your Grandmother couldn’t get a job or credit.
Sorry to hear that.
There is, in the law, a principal known as fraudulent inducement. If you sucker someone into signing a contract based on false information, then the contract is not a valid contract.
In the present instance, the system conspired to tell individuals that a. prices will never be this cheap again b. real estate always go up c. If you want a place to live and raise a family you have to buy d. You cannot lose money and e. Here is the loan to buy the house.
I lived in California and DC for a long time and resisted these pressures, until DC prices collapsed under Marion Barry. a. It almost cost me my marriage. b. It was miserable sticking it out for a decade waiting for an opportunity and c. The other 99% of the population did not understand what a mess everything was.
Hell a lot of freepers today won't admit what a mess it was. Perhaps you are among them.
The whole system was a fraud from Greenspan, Milken, and a number of heads of investment banks and mortgage lenders all the way down. You cannot really blame the poor sucker at that bottom who never stood a chance.
RE :”You said your Grandmother couldn’t get a job or credit. Sorry to hear that.”
LOL, she got SS for over 35 years. What is our chances?
Granny was on Social Security at the time and in those days you had to have a job to get a CC, SS didnt fly. Yet her house was fully paid off and owned and she had no debts (or credit history apparently) . .
Those where the days before we created the consumer debt consumption economy and government bailouts. So forclosures were rare and divorces were considered bad too. The Chinese (PRC) have those lost morals ironically , saving and married parents.
OK, Mr. Obama. ("Those who disagree with me are stupid!")
actually if these people file bankruptcy, the founders included enabling language in the body of the constitution before the bill of rights.
actually the first round of cards are the “sucker cards” (the new laws going into effect this month address those)
I am talking about regular cards that come through with normal limits.
this is because the filers have an 8 year preclusion from filing a ch 7 and a 2 year preclusion from filing a ch 13.
You do realise there is a specific federal statute precluding someone from being fired because they have filed bankruptcy.
that law was changed.
Never heard of that, sounds typical. (The exception would be security clearances.)
But it is NOT illegal to discriminate when hiring or renting based on credit rating. MD state did outlaw giving discounts for home owners insurance for good credit history, that ended up like another tax on the responsible as our premiums went up to pay for it. It is illegal in MD to discriminate on housing or employment for that mysterious 'sexual orientation'
You mean crappy credit cards for bad risks? I pointed that out in a later reply.
RE :” this is because the filers have an 8 year preclusion from filing a ch 7 and a 2 year preclusion from filing a ch 13. ”
Please explain.
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