April 10, 2007

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day


What's the stupidest thing you saw someone do during the Late Great Housing Mania?

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Start a blog -- Just kidding Keith!!

blogger said...

Oh, by the way, the picture is of a Primark store opening here in London last week. Out of control consumerism leading to panic.

Sound familar? Beenie babies, condos, cheap purses, there's something in human behavior that causes us to panic buy, not just panic sell

My answer to my own question - stupidest thing I saw during the mania - people camping out in the farthest-flung (maricopa) horse-crap-smelling area of Phoenix to be the lucky buyer of a new stucco crap box.

Those same people who camped out to buy will now be camping out again, after getting foreclosed on just a few months later, and the homes resold for a fraction of the original purchase price

Anonymous said...

I saw the Washington post today finally admit:

Bubble Fueled by Sham Loans
Looser standards may have led to a boom of another kind -- an expansion of mortgage fraud.

David Cho

The stupidist thing is the mass media avoiding treating with this issue untill the horse left the barn. Imagine just today the Washington Post is now doing a story on mortgage fraud. Think about the stupidity. Post is a fine paper as far as these things go, think of the smoke and denial and bs the papers in Tampa, Phoenix, Miami, OC have been spewing and what the have NOT been saying--now that is not only stupid but irresponsible.......

Anonymous said...

Bush / Cheney / Greenspan

Anonymous said...

>> The stupidist thing is the mass media avoiding treating with this issue untill the horse left the barn. Imagine just today the Washington Post is now doing a story on mortgage fraud. Think about the stupidity.

I believe you're confusing stupidity with intentional lying.

Anonymous said...

Using the home ATM to purchase automobiles. Imagine that - using a depreciating asset to buy another depreciating asset. If that's not stupid, I don't know what is - besides George W. Bush, and calling homes and cars "assets."

Anonymous said...

Stupidest thing I did was get addicted to blogs run by paranoid wingnuts who think hyperinflation and a 50% depreciation in assets are possible at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Greg Swann

Anonymous said...

"Stupidest thing I did was get addicted to blogs run by paranoid wingnuts who think hyperinflation and a 50% depreciation in assets are possible at the same time."

Actually it is possible to have both at the same time.
What you'll be seeing in the future is inflation in the price of food and energy, and depreciation in the price of houses and cars.

Hyperinflation depends on whether the government decides to default on its obligations or to pay for them by printing money.

Anonymous said...

Move to the DC Metro region in 2005 where I now have to spend 1/2 my monthly take home pay to rent a POS townhouse- I will not even consider buying.

Anonymous said...

The best thing I saw was people paying up to $10,000 to buy a spot in line to buy a pre construction condo in FL. It made me want to go camp out at condo sites...

Anonymous said...

Stand in a line for days to be one of the first to put a down payment on a cracker box!

Anonymous said...

Watch some idiots get into a bid war!

Price was 750k, offers made, counter offers, 750k to 760 to almost 825k!

Anonymous said...

All because of the uptopian libtard belief that everybody deserves a home, which Bush bought, hook line & sinker, thinking the libtards would go easier on him, for making nice and just going along.

Damn retarded libtards are always screwing up things.

Anonymous said...

My favorite line was / is "It's different this time..."

To me that line is almost as funny as "Susan researched this..."

Anonymous said...

"All because of the uptopian libtard belief that everybody deserves a home, which Bush bought, hook line & sinker, thinking the libtards would go easier on him, for making nice and just going along.

Damn retarded libtards are always screwing up things."

Now, THIS has to be one of the stupidest things I've seen in the housing bubble: "liberals made Bush do it!" GMAFB.

Lemme guess, in 4 years we'll be hearing how it was LIBERALS FAULT that we both went into and lost Iraq.

If a liberal said to Bush "bon appetit" at dinner, he'd choke on a pretzel in spite.

Liberals think that lots of people should be EARNING enough money to have a decent living.

It's the free-market talibanites who think that poor people BORROWING is just as good as rich people EARNING, and that loan-sharking (making Goldman's Gold) is a legitimate substitute.

Check out the national account too. Seem to think that USA "borrowing" and "outsourcing" is just as good as USA earning and manufacturing.

Anonymous said...

not believing that over the last 30 years a house has made half of the amount spent on ownership, as price, every year, every year, and may do the same for the next 30 years, just as soon as the prices fall 90%, or the eages and costs of everything else catches up, or the gov. starts taxing, to build "units" at 1970s prices, of equal value and ability.

Anonymous said...

those are average, average numbers basis by todays prices, for example spend 70 get 35 every year for 30 years

Anonymous said...

Girl I work with got into a bidding war with 4 other buyers for a run down Seattle house she "just had to have" last summer.
She had just broken up with her longterm boyfriend and said redoing the interior of the house would be good therapy.
She ended up paying 40K above asking price. Has probably sunk another 40K or more so far into the interior and the place still is a dump in a dumpy neighborhood.

Anonymous said...

Don't forget the Cabbage Patch mania.

Stupidest thing I saw during the boom was a single person buying a four and five bedroom house, then just sitting in the house alone until it forclosed.

Anonymous said...

By far the most stupid thing I have witnessed during this Boom and now Bust - Friends and Family arguing or otherwise letting their interpersonal relationships suffer because of something like disagreements about housing.

Such a polarizing topic - but it ain't all that!!!

Anonymous said...

Not bubble-related, but stooopid:
know someone who sold small old island vacation cottage for $1 to build bigger. Then learned zoning requires same-sized footprint.

Have never seen original house, but typical structures in area are Victorians with charming bric-a-brac. Smallness a feature! That's rich people for ya.

Anonymous said...

Two Hummers, two Fat Boys (Harley-Davidsons), two jet skis and get this two houses both on Long Island, NY - this person works for a living - Yikes!

Unknown said...

My parents helped my brother and I get a new home in Phoenix back in the year 2000. I was a freshman in college, my brother was a Senior. It's a 4 bedroom, 1800sq feet house - 126k. We could easily pay the mortgage. It was a standard deposit eith a 30 year fix. No toxic loans here!

Fast forward, I am still in that house, my brother is in Medical school in Boston, and i am in my second year of law. The house was recentyl appraised at $330,000 dollars. We had some neighbors from California move in at the absolute peak - a quick Zillow shows they paid 360 for their house.

I now actually have a job, and still pay a 124k dollar mortgage on a house that is appraised at 330k. Luckily my dad has ipeccable money sense and never HELOCed - he knows the value of equity. He was telling me when he married my mom in 1977, they had to come up wioth 20% down for a mortgage with 17% interest - and this was on a teacher's salary (11,000 a year).

Amazing. Thanks mom and dad.

Anonymous said...

I'll second Greg Swann. What an idiot

Anonymous said...

People who could afford to buy a home at pre bubble prices in say 2003? having a chance buy with no money down and getting a fixed 30 year rate procrastinating and now bitching up a storm.

Anonymous said...

Most stupid thing? A family member. He bought a McMansion at the peak, soon after took out the HELOC, bought new furniture, a time-share, 2 new cars, a vacation to the Bahamas, blah blah blah. His occupation? drumroll please...... Loan officer for a sub-prime lender in Orange County California. DOH!

Anonymous said...

Stupidest thing was done by me...In 2000, I didn't buy the two-story 1924 Spanish duplex next door with a view of downtown Los Angeles for $320,000. Somebody else did. They sold it two years later for $540,000. Same duplex would have fetched $1.1 million before the bubble collapse, and probably would still command that much today...

The second stupidest thing was the couple who in 2003 purchased a craftsman house in Pasadena (Madison Heights), Calif. at $400,000 over asking price. List price was $1.15m and house sold for $1.55m after bidding war. Of course, maybe they weren't so stupid--conceivably, they might have flipped the house the following year for a profit.

Anonymous said...

jeffrey,

so in 7 years you paid off $2K of a $126K mortgage? What the hell is your interest rate?

Anonymous said...

Renters,

Who is the smarter of these two?

1. Homeowner who wnet $0 down, HELOCED gain in equity, went to Fiji, bought hummer, bought 70" plasma and had a blast for 5 years then foreclosed and walked away with nohing but fond memories.

2. Renters like you who lived for 5 years in 1 bedroom ghetto apartment and also have nothing at the end of the 5 years.

Kind of pathetic that you missed out on the fun.

Anonymous said...

"Stupidest thing I did was get addicted to blogs run by paranoid wingnuts who think hyperinflation and a 50% depreciation in assets are possible at the same time."

Well here's a little snippet of info, In Weimar Germany, a city block in central Berlin would sell for $500US. A loaf of bread in local currency sold for about 37 trillion marks.

Anonymous said...

The second stupidest thing was the couple who in 2003 purchased a craftsman house in Pasadena (Madison Heights), Calif. at $400,000 over asking price. List price was $1.15m and house sold for $1.55m

$400K over asking price would make it $1.9 million Einstein. No wonder you clowns think prices have fallen 30%, you can't do basic math.

Anonymous said...

"Who is the smarter of these two?

1. Homeowner who wnet $0 down, HELOCED gain in equity, went to Fiji, bought hummer, bought 70" plasma and had a blast for 5 years then foreclosed and walked away with nohing but fond memories.

2. Renters like you who lived for 5 years in 1 bedroom ghetto apartment and also have nothing at the end of the 5 years."

Douchebag, please add DOOR #3:

3) Buyers who got in at pre-bubble prices with ZERO DOWN and a 30 year fixed BELOW 6%, NEVER DID cash out Refi or HELOC-COCK. House appreciated 3 times what I paid.

In other words...got in while the getting was good!

Anonymous said...

"$400K over asking price would make it $1.9 million Einstein. No wonder you clowns think prices have fallen 30%, you can't do basic math."

Hmm, I wasn't a math major, but it seems to me that $1.15 million plus $400k is $1.55 million. Basic math, no?

Anonymous said...

People here in California were buying houses without even going inside them. Peer in the windows and make an offer to outbid the other fools.

Anonymous said...

I use to love watching the A-holes standing in line for a bid war!

Now, you can go to the steps of the court house, listen to the number of foreclosures and you'll be the only one there!