Everyone watch this uber-real video and read the excellent Denver Post series on Foreclosures, and the impact it's having on my favorite American city.
Denver had their bubble a few years before the rest of America, complete with mortgage fraud and an out of control and corrupt REIC.
And now they're having their crash.
Watch this video for a glimpse of America 2008 - 2010.
This will end so ugly. So very, very ugly. It already is in Denver.
Get ready.
Special Report: Foreclosing on the American Dream
Colorado leads a national wave of foreclosures that is leaving neighborhoods blighted and forcing many homeowners into financial ruin. In an ongoing series, The Denver Post examines why the state's foreclosure rate leads the nation and how it is affecting Coloradans, their communities and the economy.
Aggressive building and lending practices, lax regulation and a high rate of mortgage fraud, among other factors, are pushing thousands of homeowners into foreclosure.
April 29, 2007
Sobering video from the Denver Post on foreclosures, and the end of the housing bubble, Denver style
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That's a sad tale, but her is a sadder one:
http://tinyurl.com/yw3t92
Tennessee, Texas, and Georgia miss three payments and you are out on the first of the month. Sudden death foreclosure and eviction.
Watched the video this morning, and it brings home the fact that the poor are getting shafted yet again - don't see to many lawyers, doctors, etc. in this meltdown. . .as for the other story about Las Vegas empty houses provided "opportunity" for people to get into the market - right!. . .America has finally found a solution to the homeless problem (which by the way does't seem to be much of a problem in most of Europe). . .move the homeless into all thoe 2.8 million empty homes, and presto!. . .no homeless - there are at least 530 homeless in downtown San Diego who could fill the 530 foreclosed homes every month in SD. . .strange how when people get a living wage (and healthcare) - as is the case here in Switzerland, that there is no homelessness. . .I know, I know - sounds like communism . . but the Swiss are FAR from communists. . .they are about as capitalistic as you can get, but they see social order as very important to maintain capitalism. . .
. .America has finally found a solution to the homeless problem (which by the way does't seem to be much of a problem in most of Europe). . .move the homeless into all thoe 2.8 million empty homes, and presto!. . .no homeless -
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Very sweet, but who's going to pay for that? Not me! I'm priced out of the market, and not happy about it. I'm not paying for some bum to chill in some fancy new crib while I am stuck renting.
the poor are getting shafted yet again.........
well sort of........the fact is that most of these people should not have even been allowed to buy a home....heck, you can tell by looking at them, they aren't the types to keep up house notes...they do not have the disposable income to own a home. the fact is that there is massive fraud involved here just like in the saving and loan scandal........i have to ask at this time, what is money? what exactly is it?
America has finally found a solution to the homeless problem (which by the way does't seem to be much of a problem in most of Europe). . .move the homeless into all thoe 2.8 million empty homes, and presto!. . .no homeless - there are at least 530 homeless in downtown San Diego who could fill the 530 foreclosed homes every month in SD. .
You're out of your freaking mind! Lower the price significantly and require a 10% down payment and you'll get finanically prudent middle class people buy the homes. Why should tax payers be forced to buy a home for some transion who will probably urinate and defacate all over the kitchen walls?
Hey, Mark in Zurich, when is the last time you've been to the U.K.? U.K. has a rampant homeless problem; Oxford and London are way worse than D.C. and New York.
I've never been to Switzerland, but I've always heard that its quite an amazing place, and I have no problem believing that that particular country has gotten a handle on poverty just like it has gotten a handle on everything else (except for the demography; the Swiss are having only 9.71 births per woman, and the country therefore has no future).
It's immoral to let suckers keep their money, and collectivist clowns like mark in zurich need to continue to pay their taxes like good sheep, even though mark doesn't pay very much in CH, due to the lack of immigrants and wasteful gov't programs.
Mr. Bush's ownership society. What a dolt.
I wonder if this man is capable of anaylzing anything right!
This video makes me barf not because I'm sad for the people but the Main Stream Drive-by Media is playing these asshole borrowers as "the victim". They show little pictures of them looking sadly forlornly into the distance at the kitchen table while little children (who will likely starve) play in the background. HOW MANY PICTURES OF PEOPLE CRYING AT THEIR KITCHEN TABLES CAN YOU PUT IN ONE VIDEO? Why don't they show the real pictures of these "victim borrowers" doing what they really did with their HELOC money? Why don't they show them buying spinning rims and above ground pools and flat screens with Playstation 3's. I hate the media.
The time has come where another Alan Greesperm bubble is popping. They should "freeze" the mortgages and stop the run on foreclosures. You cant have a mass of homeless people roaming the cities.
And while these stories are interesting, and I am sure factual. I know that many people did use the housing bubble to steal great sums of money, but that's not the real problem or crime.
The bigger question to be answered is "who made all this money available"?
The Fed Reserve, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the large Wall Street banks and hedge funds are complicit up to their eye balls.
In the mid 1990's when the system was coming down after LTCM crisis, Greensperm engineered the Y2K swindle to keep the bubble going. After the 2000 election they let that "internet/NASDAQ" Y2K bubble collapse.
From there Greensperm opened the spickets one again and created this housing bubble. Now the time has come to clean up this mess.
Put the system through bankruptcy re-organization, freeze the mortgages, and use a FDR styled emergency recovery program to get the country moving again.
I wish I could talk to Mark in Zurich. It seems he has a lot to tell. I'm really interested how Swiss society works, why low crime, etc., etc.
Why is Denver this far advanced in the cycle? I thought Phoenix was ground zero.
Surprised you didn't see the Denver Post series before now, Keith: it's been up since Fall, 2006.
Anyway, the great American housing bubble of 2000-2006 bears some resemblance to the Oklahoma Land Rushes:
http://tinyurl.com/25m348
It's all there: greed, corruption, the "something for nothing" mentality, people who grabbed land with no chances of developing it, etc.
The big difference being that the Land Rush was announced by the gov't before it began! Also, the current boom continued with more people entering the market well past the time that anyone with any common sense would, people taking on suicide loans....
hmmmmm. . .seems like I started something with homeless houses. . .I was kind of thinking out loud about putting homeless in empty houses - agree - sell them with 10% down at decent prices, and middle-class will buy them. . .as for homeless - Swiss government does have lower taxes than most of Europe, but then they don't have a huge government. . .you can really see where the tax dollars go - trains, trams, upkeep - God forbid - even clean public toilets!!!. . .I will admit that they have kept out a lot of immigrant groups - No Nigerians selling knock-off purses and leather items, as is the case in most big Euro cities. . .the borders here seem free and easy if you look middle class, but come looking like a Nigerian refugee, and 12 border guards materialize. . .Swiss have allowed Romanian and a few other Catholic refugees in - someone has to clean houses!!
Denver.
Anyone else see some of the G4 series The Block? About a bunch of snowboarders cleaning toilets at a resort hotel, smokin' dope, partying, and entering competitions in a quest for a pro deal? How many dabbled in real estate on the side with a crazy exotic mortgage product? Could they be like all of the strippers in Vegas buying homes in 2005???
Mark in Zurich this month said... - don't see too many lawyers, doctors, etc. in this meltdown. . .as for the other story about Las Vegas empty houses provided "opportunity" for people to get into the market - right!. . .America has finally found a solution to the homeless problem (which by the way does't seem to be much of a problem in most of Europe). . .move the homeless into all thoe 2.8 million empty homes, and presto!. . .no homeless - there are at least 530 homeless in downtown San Diego who could fill the 530 foreclosed homes every month in SD. . .strange how when people get a living wage (and healthcare) - as is the case here in Switzerland, that there is no homelessness. . .I know, I know - sounds like communism . . but the Swiss are FAR from communists. . .they are about as capitalistic as you can get, but they see social order as very important to maintain capitalism. . .
Hi Mark in Zurich. This would be a very difficult sell here in America. The conservative rightwing libtards in Washington care nothing for people who can't make large donations to their campaign fund. If anyone gets bailed out, it will be the banks that made these loans.
Watched the video this morning, and it brings home the fact that the poor are getting shafted yet again - don't see to[o] many lawyers, doctors, etc. in this meltdown
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If the full statistics could be known, I think many of us might be surprised. I have heard of doctors and lawyers being in financial straights. Just because someone can earn a high income does not mean they are immune to financial difficulty. In the case of people who earn $150k/yr and up, it just takes a larger amount of debt to get them into serious trouble, but they can still get into it.
Natural Eyebrows said...
Why is Denver this far advanced in the cycle? I thought Phoenix was ground zero.
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Maybe someone knows why, I don't. Denver and Phoenix are often compared to each other, and while there are some parallels, each city has a very different feel from the other.
I myself live in Phoenix, and while I haven't seen widespread neighborhood devastation yet, I've seen plenty of neighborhood distress. I think the subprime and Alt-A lender meltdown and the rising foreclosures in Phx will hasten the implosion. The Arizona Republic has been running plenty of stories about the trouble in real estate. Inventory has skyrocketed. The number of people coming out of denial is rising, though my own ex-landlord is a classic case of denial. He is still holding out for a very unrealistic price, though he admitted severe financial difficulty to me. He simply does not understand the concept of cutting a loser early. Maybe he's thinking to let the bank just foreclose on him, something I suggested to him.
I expect to see full-blown devestation this summer. The spring buying fever has not materialized and most of the buyers I know are buying new homes from the builders who can offer deep incentives (I've heard as high as $140k slashed off the list price). No way can the existing home sellers compete with that, especially not those who bought in 2005 as my ex-landlord so foolishly did.
Phoenix will be where Denver is now, soon enough.
Someone mentioned doctors and lawyers...I expect to hear of doctors and lawyers being foreclosed on in Scottsdale. Lots of smarty-pants high-income people got in way over their heads, and can't pay their debts.
move the homeless into all thoe 2.8 million empty homes, and presto!. . .no homeless
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Nice idealism there, but unfortunately the banks holding the bag on the empty homes are not charitable enough to give the homes away to homeless people.
Banks don't work that way, though this news may astonish you.
vegas crash watcher said...
It's immoral to let suckers keep their money...
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I agree wholeheartedly. I've said for a long time that fools should be separated from their money as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
It puzzles me hoe people who claim to subscribe to Darwin's theory of evolution don't see this as nature simply taking its course.
Shrewed people take money away from chumps. It's always been this way and it always will be.
Most homeless are drug abusers, alcoholics, schizophrenics, etc.
Very few are people just "down on their luck"..."need a break"..."couldn't afford health care".
So Switzerland has no drug users? Zurich used to have a park full of them where they give the heroin addicts free needles. Brilliant!
As for "keeping these people in their homes", I don't think the gov't can, unless it pays their mortgage. Let the mortgagees fail...then the mortgage holders are stuck between a rock and hard place. Lower the payments to reasonable levels or take delivery of the house and sell it for 1/2 the remaining loan balance. Either way their screwed.
Keith,
I love your blog and your writing style was great. The only thing I wish you would do is leave the politics out of it and focus on housing.
other than that, KUDOS!
Quote from Anonymous:
Keith,
I love your blog and your writing style was great. The only thing I wish you would do is leave the politics out of it and focus on housing.
other than that, KUDOS!
How can Keith leave out politics writing about housing. It is a huge social and economic problem, and as such, it is also connected to politics.
The US is just proving that politics matter by having politicians ruin a once good country to live in.
Everything is politics in life: how and where you shop, how you eat, how you treat your neighbor and especially your children, your attitude to profit and money in general... It's all about the society, the community, how people interact, in other words - politics. Leaving out politics in life is like driving without bothering about steering, brakes, maintenance and even gas. This is why the US is crashing right in the wall. Bon débarras.
I wish I could talk to Mark in Zurich. It seems he has a lot to tell. I'm really interested how Swiss society works, why low crime, etc., etc.
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Switzerland is home to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) which is the central bank of central banks. If anyone knows who pumped all this money into the real estate bubble it's the nazi bankers at BIS.
Losers!
I have no sympathy with people who are stupid enough to think they are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars for free.
"The Man got me too much money. My civil rights got violated."
These people are not victims. They are gamblers who lost. I'll bet you any amount of money that 80% of them also buy state lottery tickets (if Colorado has such a thing).
Give the "underprivileged" an opportunity, and they promptly screw it up. The reason they are "underprivileged" is because they are stupid.
Unfortunately, Frodo Baggins isn't the president. There are no elves and dwarves magically creating real estate for free. There is no law that says everyone gets a house.
Just wait until the Scottsdale crash hits bottom. Gonna be very, very nasty.
And for the people who say it's only the poor who are getting screwed and not doctors and lawyers, go visit Scottsdale sometime. It's a bunch of doctors and lawyers who make $100,000 a year living in $2 million houses on option-arm liar's loans.
Those kinds of foreclosures are the nastiest of all, and they're coming to an Arizona town near you.
Whether someone is rich or poor, it doesn't matter, if they got in over their heads and signed a mortgage contract that they very well knew they couldn't afford in the long run, they DESERVE foreclosure and need it to teach them a valuable lesson. Stop feeling sorry for them.
www.scottsdale-sucks.com
" I'm really interested how Swiss society works, why low crime, etc., etc.
"
Probably because there are no illegal Mexicans, and no "where's my handout" blacks living there either.
SEATTLE IS NEXT
strange how when people get a living wage (and healthcare) - as is the case here in Switzerland, that there is no homelessness. . .
Are you nuts? Half the joy of having something is being able to look down on and exploit those who don't.
i have to ask. would any of you want to live in these crappy tract homes, next to these scumbags? talk about locking everything up at night and keeping a loaded shotgun by the door....
Denver doesn't suffer from a lack of work ,or lack of strong economy.It suffers from a lack of imagination.What blows me away is how this city has repeated this cycle twice in 27 years.The depression of their economy starts with a depression of their minds after wallowing in their loss.It doesn't have to end that way,but I'm sure most in that city will rush to blame ,government,banks,and mother nature.That is the real trap.
Just chalk it up as a loss,remember the lessons,and go for it all over again.
It is pretty clear that we are facing the end of a very long run of massive mortgage fraud. That seems to be the real news. A few housing bubble bloggers also easily uncovered the extent of the scamming. I have yet to read than many headlines. It seems that most of these white collar criminals will walk away.
Things to do when your debt is in Denver.
"Probably because there are no illegal Mexicans, and no 'where's my handout' blacks living there either. "
Do you have any idea how many white people are living off the govt. tit?
Entire towns in upstate New York. Whites on welfare. Also, do you have any idea the extent of poverty and malnutrition? Could this possibly be caused by something other than laziness? The idea that we can all go from rags to riches - that is a myth. I hate to tell you, but The Greatest Nation on Planet Earth has uncounted poor, malnourished, undereducated people - black AND white! Blacks came out of abject slavery where they were not allowed to learn how to read, only recently got the right to vote - what's the po' white's excuse?
Am i supposed to feel sorry for people who dont read what they are signing?
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