California Congresswoman's Home Repo'd

1. bean
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:12 pm

   This is just another example of an already rich person trying to make money by buying a house and reselling it. This woman isn't poor.

2. Miranda
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:23 pm

   Yeah, that house really looks terrible!

3. Jess
   May 22nd, 2008 at 5:24 pm

   Can't be as bad as the housing market in Sydney. For a sh*t hole house in the sticks, that'll take you one hour either way to get to work in the city, it'll set you back at LEAST $600 000, although that's a bargain. An average-sized house in an average suburb about a half-hour drive from the city will usually cost a little less than a million.
   There are so many people in my generation with healthy incomes that have just had to accept they'll never be able to afford a home, and will have to raise their kids in apartments.

4. Retrokatze
   May 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm

   "There are so many people in my generation with healthy incomes that have just had to accept they’ll never be able to afford a home, and will have to raise their kids in apartments."

   What's so bad about that?

5. JJ
   May 22nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm

   "What’s so bad about that?"

   In Sydney, the housing prices are so bad that for the same price of a small 2-bedroom apartment, you could buy a large 5-bedroom house in most capital cities in the US.

   It's bad because even on a dual income where both people are working their asses off and earning a decent amount of money, they would be lucky to own a 2-bedroom apartment by the time they retire. Many young people in Sydney can't even afford to have kids because of the housing prices.

   My partner works 60 hours a week and is on a $70 salary and has a mortgage on a two bedroom apartment an hour from the city. He hasn't bought new clothes in 2 years and I frequently have to buy his groceries for him because he can't afford them himself.

   If people are working their asses off and are earning good money, they should be able to afford a home with enough space to raise kids if they want to - something larger than the 2-bedroom apartment.

6. kef
   May 22nd, 2008 at 6:34 pm

   “There are so many people in my generation with healthy incomes that have just had to accept they’ll never be able to afford a home, and will have to raise their kids in apartments.”

   those poor kids! the absence of a wood burning fireplace, and the lack of private outdoor space will scar them forever!

7. JJ
   May 22nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm

   Kef, I was talking about people with reasonably high incomes. Can you imagine how much more difficult the situation would be for people on low-moderate incomes?
   Or what about how people are having to move further and further from the city (where most people work) so that they have to commute for up to 4 hours a day. Imagine how that affects families.

8. kef
   May 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 pm

   JJ, im certain you are aware that there are people in the world who work harder and earn much much much less than the fine people of australia and still are able to make ends meet. i was merely trying to point out the fact that living in houses is not critical to an infant' s development.

   ps: i commute for at least 3 hours each day, the only effect it has on me is i get to sleep a little less than i used to. granted it is not the ideal situation, but i realize i have to tough it out if i want to work or study in an urban environment. future generations will have graver issues at hand anyways.

9. insrtbrain
   May 22nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm

   I don't think the repossession is a sign of the California market. More than likely, it's a sign of over extension. More than likely, she had three houses in 3 different areas with extremely high housing rates. So Cal/Long Beach; Sacramento - which has surprisingly high cost of living; and DC. not so much a commentary on the housing market in California, but more on the over extension of American credit.

10. Jennifer
    May 23rd, 2008 at 11:39 am

    I'd really like most people to realize that all these stories of people losing their homes are typically due to people buying homes out of their price range and using creative financing to get the mortgages for it. Then, most of these people waited a few months, took out 'equity' and used the money to either make a few meaningless improvements or buy stupid toys like cars, tvs and vacations.

    For a few years during the boom I was working for a broker here in San Diego (NOT as an agent, in fact, I was his graphic designer). I saw the above happen just about daily. People with no stable income were buying homes above $500K on those flexible interest rate short-term mortgages. It was greed and stupidity that's done this to people.

    When my husband and I bought we stayed well below what we could afford, and granted we didn't get the McMansion in the new neighborhood our friends were getting .... but, hey, we've never had a problem making our mortgage payment. We still get to go out and have fun, take vacations, and build our savings for retirement.

11. Christophe
    May 23rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm

    Jennifer : I may add the overuse of uncapped variable rate credits. Not 'creative', you just have to unplug your brain when you sign.

12. Jennifer
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm

    @ Christophe

    There was plenty of unplugged brains signing mortgages where I worked. But there was also creative financing. This was part of what influenced me to quit. Some of the guys working at that company were sleaze. They'd do anything to get a person into a loan, sometimes two or three, arranging it so that they all hit the banks at the same time so none of the banks knew these people were getting loans from other sources for downs and purchase price.

13. ted
    May 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm

    The answer to high housing prices in Sydney? Don't live in Sydney.

14. JJ
    May 24th, 2008 at 12:39 am

    Easier said than done Ted. I'm not particularly willing to uproot my entire life and move to a new city away from all my friends and family. That's why sometimes I think it would have been easier i I had been born in Melbourne where the property prices are far cheaper.
    And Kef, of course I'm going to get critisised for complaining about the housing prices in Sydney when there are people worse off than me, but by that logic I guess none of us have the right to complain about anything.

15. ted
    May 24th, 2008 at 6:52 am

    And that's a bad thing, JJ? Not complaining?

    You have to balance what's important to you in life, JJ. A lot of immigrants and refugees would laugh at your comments right now. People quite often go where the jobs are, in order to survive.

16. JJ
    May 24th, 2008 at 8:32 pm

    Ted, I never said I wasn't complaining, in fact I admitted I was.
    Like I said, by that logic I guess none of us have the right to complain about anything - there will always be people worse off than we are. Can you honestly say you've never complained about the price of petrol? Because there are people out there who could never hope to be able to afford a car.
    Can't I make a statement without being accused in so many words of being a shallow, selfish twat?

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