Posted on 12/28/2011 8:28:54 PM PST by Nachum
Bank foreclosures and abandonment are causing high home vacancy levels in neighborhoods across the country. Scott Pelley travels to Cleveland, a city that’s fighting back against blight.
Chances are the home you’re in isn’t worth what it used to be. You may not have indulged in the real estate bubble with its liar’s loans and Wall Street greed, but you were stuck with the bill. Home values have dropped so far, so fast, that nearly 25 percent of mortgage holders today owe more than their house is worth.
And with unemployment so high, so long, many face foreclosure. If you thought your home value couldn’t drop any more, have a look up and down the block. You might say, “There goes the neighborhood.” The new threat from the great recession is the sudden surge in the number of abandoned houses. Vacant homes have become so ruinous to some neighborhoods that one city, Cleveland, decided it had to find a solution.
(Excerpt) Read more at ewallstreeter.com ...
I bought my house where I want to live forever! Coming home is like going on vacation to me!
I’m not under water, but the crash destroyed all my fake equity...so what!
I live my dream and I’m surviving.
Yeah, but they sure cashed in that mortgage insurance.
thought your account was closed.
In many parts of Cleveland, that's been true for the last 50 years.
That’s the same situation most are in. My house would be lucky to sell if on the market. But it’s not. It’s sound, not under water, and I’m not using my equity as an ATM. Folks that bought over their head are the ones suffering. Sucks to be them or their lenders
One of my neighbors managed to sell his home and all its headaches for $1.5 million to the grandson of the original owners (an historic landmark and family heirloom) and has purchased a foreclosure a mile away that was previously valued at $1.3 million. He picked it up for $500k.
He’s had to put a lot of money into it to make it habitable — new drainage, new furnace, generator, etc. But it is gorgeous. I’m sure that it will be a good investment as long as he doesn’t go overboard on improvements.
The change of ownership is employing a lot of people — real estate, attorneys, workmen, movers, etc. Good for the economy. And I’m sure they will need new furniture once they get settled. I don’t see anything they already have fitting into the new house.
Really? I don’t remember that being mentioned in the article.
How bizarre, but the logic is sound; the foreclosed/abandoned homes have to come down. We have a lot of “For Sale” signs around, but not enough empty homes for the municipalities to start offering the properties to neighboring owners.
If they think things are bad in Cleveland, they must not remember the 70s.
It was so bad then that Dennis the Menace Kucinich was an improvement
It is, don’t go there.
IF: “ - - - Home values have dropped so far, so fast, that nearly 25 percent of mortgage holders today owe more than their house is worth.” ;
THEN: Have property taxes dropped accordingly?
Just go along with it.
Well, you keep trying to figure it out, bro. Without 20% down or principal paid down to such and a request to cancel same insurance, the mortgager is made whole from the delinquincy. And they own the property. These properties weren’t worth holding. What a shock, bro.
With not a despairing word of Obama, Barny Frank or Chris Dodd..
WHich, of course, is stupendously OUTRAGEOUS.. maybe treasonous.. at least seditious..
I’m not sure how I did it..
Bought my home 2 years ago for 17,000 cash (it’s a mobile home) and like cars, they are NEVER suppose to rise in value.
We’re thinking about upgrading both the park we live in and the home so we talked with a mobile home dealer.
They offered us 22,000 for it.
I’ve done some minor upgrades. Painted it, and replaced the flooring. But that is about it.
Problem is, it seems the value of the homes we want to buy has gone up as well.
(it’s probably just inflation, but let me live in my dream world ok?)
however, as we reach our retirement years, paid off mortgage or not, we still have property tax creep and it would be nice to know you could sell your home and move into a smaller place without losing a fortune...
you must live in some neighborhood..
I gave my son some money for a fixer upper in Miami in 2001. His wife used equity loan to pay off her student loan, but recently it turned out the house was worth less than they owed. They ended up doing a short sale and relocating. At least she doesn’t owe a lot of student loan money.
This is what I hate about these stories:
” And so Waple and his family were evicted from the house that he?d lived in for 23 years. “....did the real estate bubble really destroy 23 years worth of equity? Of course not. This guy used his house as an ATM. I feel bad for him; but he is in no way a ‘victim’ - I wonder how many vacations/boats/SUVs he got with his line of credit.
I also will never understand why being ‘underwater’ means you send the keys to the bank for some people. You’re upside-down - so what, turns out you didn’t hit the lottery. Consider it paying rent. If your income does not change, abandoning ship on an underwater loan is immoral and probably self destructive. Lots of people are ‘upside-down’ on car loans...yet they still make the payments.
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