60 Minutes: House of Cards

[Coronita]

 FLU, with that experience, why did you buy a personal residence Carmel Valley at the peak? I was around in the 90s too and I knew better. (Although I did buy some investment properties which I sold)

 

Honestly. None of the reasons were rationale decision in nature. If there was any  "rationale", it would be

1) We didn't stretch too much for our current place of resident. It's not elaborate, but it "will do for now". We live within our means, fairly modestly, and if you saw me on the street, you would think I was a homeless bum and wonder what the heck is that woman doing hanging around him.

2) We sold one of our homes at peak, so it will cushion the sting for a bit, though we essential paid more for this "upgrade"…Property taxes bite in the trade up. If things get really bad, we'll ask for a  reassessment, big deal. 

3) The remaining balance on our mortgage can be covered, and most of it is in a low-no thrill interest account, which btw is depreciating fast as we speak. Plus being a d.i.n.c for a few years helped, though our status is now d.i.w.c.

4) If it makes Mrs. FLU happy, it makes me happy. Plus I like tinkering around a bit when our stucco box fall apart. Or the occasional mishaps I have when I close a garage door on a car.

5) I love hanging up Christmas lights and being the most annoying neighbor that has the most lights starting the day after thanksgiving until 1 week after new years. 

6) Trying to capture gophers is always entertaining, especially ripping apart your lawn doing so. I love those gas charges you light up and stick in the ground. They're sooooo cool.

7) If i didn't take the loss on the home, I'd probably find a more creative way to loose our money. I find that while some people are good at saving for the next, I probably could also save a bit, but my efficiency wouldn't be that great.  One needs to figure out how much savings "leakage" one has when one actually has money on hand. I find that among many people sometimes it's worse to have cash on hand rather to spend part of it on something that actually have value. Losing 20-25% in a year is easy to do in the stock market. Losing the same amount in RE year  is a lot more difficult, unless you're a complete idiot. I'm probably an idiot, just not trying to be a complete idiot.

8) You only live once. Save for another 15-20 years, and finally get hit by a bus. Uh, ok that would kinda suck..You're kids won't even be able to enjoy it with huge estate taxes (at least a living trust can help somewhat)..On the flip side, spend above your means, and have a miserable life being a slave to money, that would also suck. I believe if you can comfortably afford what you want, get what you want and be done with it. Again, probably not the most financially sound thing to do. 

9) While i saw the carnage in areas like Lancaster, etc, the place my parents raised me (though also corrected), didn't see the 40%+ decline that some people here are convinced will happen. I would equate where my parents raised me equivalent to the areas like CV. Considering their purchase price was $200k and subsequently fell 25% after they purchased and probably could sell 8-9times of that right now 28 years later, I don't this a big deal in the long run.  Don't think I have the skill to spot the bottom, so I'd probably miss out anyway.

10)I remember the people that got burned the most were the people that  were speculators who overleveraged and oversimplified RE. Teachers at my school were foreclosed left and right because they too thought they could make money in RE speculation. one teacher actually talked about his experience, and it was sort of sad. That taught me to be careful with leverage, and risk and reward go hand in hand.

11) I'm asian and really can't resist the urge to put in that god-awful dark cherry wood flooring,  heavy furniture complete with plastic covers, and  "Forbidden City" red colored fencing, complete with asian characters on  iron dark red iron fence of which  I haven't the faintest idea what it means.

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

Was anyone else blown away by the woman (who talked about foreclosing because they were underwater in their mortgage) responded to the commentators question about being in a contract and honoring that contract with, "Yea but only if the home is going up in value."

Un-freaking-believable.

Edit. Here is the actually conversation:

Matt: The value of the house keeps going down and the payments keep going up. Where's the logic in that?

Stephanie: Why make a $3200 a month payment on a 1200 square foot home? It makes no sense.

Steve Kroft: But that's what you agreed to do when you bought the house.

Stephanie: Fine if the value was going up. The value is going down.

Steve Kroft: You are saying essentially you are going to stop making payments.

Stephanie: The only advice we've gotten so far is to walk away.

What I find interesting is how some people can make those $3200+/month payments. That's a lot of money. I doubt those folk make that much to support this. Seriously, how do people come up with this.

 

I can't believe some of the stuff I get in the mail. I get spammed alot with new car flyers. Some of the outrageous "deals" I get are things like "lease a BMW 750il for the incredible lease of $800/month"…. $800/month to LEASE A CAR? That's just nuts.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

Was anyone else blown away by the woman (who talked about foreclosing because they were underwater in their mortgage) responded to the commentators question about being in a contract and honoring that contract with, "Yea but only if the home is going up in value."

Un-freaking-believable.

Edit. Here is the actually conversation:

Matt: The value of the house keeps going down and the payments keep going up. Where's the logic in that?

Stephanie: Why make a $3200 a month payment on a 1200 square foot home? It makes no sense.

Steve Kroft: But that's what you agreed to do when you bought the house.

Stephanie: Fine if the value was going up. The value is going down.

Steve Kroft: You are saying essentially you are going to stop making payments.

Stephanie: The only advice we've gotten so far is to walk away.

What I find interesting is how some people can make those $3200+/month payments. That's a lot of money. I doubt those folk make that much to support this. Seriously, how do people come up with this.

 

I can't believe some of the stuff I get in the mail. I get spammed alot with new car flyers. Some of the outrageous "deals" I get are things like "lease a BMW 750il for the incredible lease of $800/month"…. $800/month to LEASE A CAR? That's just nuts.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

Was anyone else blown away by the woman (who talked about foreclosing because they were underwater in their mortgage) responded to the commentators question about being in a contract and honoring that contract with, "Yea but only if the home is going up in value."

Un-freaking-believable.

Edit. Here is the actually conversation:

Matt: The value of the house keeps going down and the payments keep going up. Where's the logic in that?

Stephanie: Why make a $3200 a month payment on a 1200 square foot home? It makes no sense.

Steve Kroft: But that's what you agreed to do when you bought the house.

Stephanie: Fine if the value was going up. The value is going down.

Steve Kroft: You are saying essentially you are going to stop making payments.

Stephanie: The only advice we've gotten so far is to walk away.

What I find interesting is how some people can make those $3200+/month payments. That's a lot of money. I doubt those folk make that much to support this. Seriously, how do people come up with this.

 

I can't believe some of the stuff I get in the mail. I get spammed alot with new car flyers. Some of the outrageous "deals" I get are things like "lease a BMW 750il for the incredible lease of $800/month"…. $800/month to LEASE A CAR? That's just nuts.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

Was anyone else blown away by the woman (who talked about foreclosing because they were underwater in their mortgage) responded to the commentators question about being in a contract and honoring that contract with, "Yea but only if the home is going up in value."

Un-freaking-believable.

Edit. Here is the actually conversation:

Matt: The value of the house keeps going down and the payments keep going up. Where's the logic in that?

Stephanie: Why make a $3200 a month payment on a 1200 square foot home? It makes no sense.

Steve Kroft: But that's what you agreed to do when you bought the house.

Stephanie: Fine if the value was going up. The value is going down.

Steve Kroft: You are saying essentially you are going to stop making payments.

Stephanie: The only advice we've gotten so far is to walk away.

What I find interesting is how some people can make those $3200+/month payments. That's a lot of money. I doubt those folk make that much to support this. Seriously, how do people come up with this.

 

I can't believe some of the stuff I get in the mail. I get spammed alot with new car flyers. Some of the outrageous "deals" I get are things like "lease a BMW 750il for the incredible lease of $800/month"…. $800/month to LEASE A CAR? That's just nuts.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[Coronita]

Was anyone else blown away by the woman (who talked about foreclosing because they were underwater in their mortgage) responded to the commentators question about being in a contract and honoring that contract with, "Yea but only if the home is going up in value."

Un-freaking-believable.

Edit. Here is the actually conversation:

Matt: The value of the house keeps going down and the payments keep going up. Where's the logic in that?

Stephanie: Why make a $3200 a month payment on a 1200 square foot home? It makes no sense.

Steve Kroft: But that's what you agreed to do when you bought the house.

Stephanie: Fine if the value was going up. The value is going down.

Steve Kroft: You are saying essentially you are going to stop making payments.

Stephanie: The only advice we've gotten so far is to walk away.

What I find interesting is how some people can make those $3200+/month payments. That's a lot of money. I doubt those folk make that much to support this. Seriously, how do people come up with this.

 

I can't believe some of the stuff I get in the mail. I get spammed alot with new car flyers. Some of the outrageous "deals" I get are things like "lease a BMW 750il for the incredible lease of $800/month"…. $800/month to LEASE A CAR? That's just nuts.

 

[img_assist|nid=5962|title=selfportrait|desc=|link=node|align=left|width=100|height=80]

—– Sour grapes for everyone!

[TheBreeze]

It continues to amaze me that people get all worked up when people make the very logical, very legal choice to walk away from houses they’re upside down of. They made no agreement not to do that and to act like they have some kind of moral obligation to the bank to make a stupid financial decision is just silly.

I wouldn’t get worked up if it were just private parties involved. But, in this case, the Federal Reserve loaned money (taxpayer funds) to the banks who in turn gave that money to borrowers through 100% no-doc no-income-needed loans. These loans were then packaged up and sold to government pension funds. Thus, it now looks like we are on the brink of a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.

If this were just some hedge fund giving money to home buyers with no income and the resultant mortgage were securitized and sold to some other hedge fund … well it’s likely no one would care. As it is, people tend to get a little PO’d when they think about their tax dollars going to fund some couple’s speculative home buying.

I’m actually on the fence about this. I know that walking away is the correct business decision for borrowers, but it steams me a bit to think that I will have to pay for it.

[TheBreeze]

It continues to amaze me that people get all worked up when people make the very logical, very legal choice to walk away from houses they’re upside down of. They made no agreement not to do that and to act like they have some kind of moral obligation to the bank to make a stupid financial decision is just silly.

I wouldn’t get worked up if it were just private parties involved. But, in this case, the Federal Reserve loaned money (taxpayer funds) to the banks who in turn gave that money to borrowers through 100% no-doc no-income-needed loans. These loans were then packaged up and sold to government pension funds. Thus, it now looks like we are on the brink of a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.

If this were just some hedge fund giving money to home buyers with no income and the resultant mortgage were securitized and sold to some other hedge fund … well it’s likely no one would care. As it is, people tend to get a little PO’d when they think about their tax dollars going to fund some couple’s speculative home buying.

I’m actually on the fence about this. I know that walking away is the correct business decision for borrowers, but it steams me a bit to think that I will have to pay for it.

[TheBreeze]

It continues to amaze me that people get all worked up when people make the very logical, very legal choice to walk away from houses they’re upside down of. They made no agreement not to do that and to act like they have some kind of moral obligation to the bank to make a stupid financial decision is just silly.

I wouldn’t get worked up if it were just private parties involved. But, in this case, the Federal Reserve loaned money (taxpayer funds) to the banks who in turn gave that money to borrowers through 100% no-doc no-income-needed loans. These loans were then packaged up and sold to government pension funds. Thus, it now looks like we are on the brink of a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.

If this were just some hedge fund giving money to home buyers with no income and the resultant mortgage were securitized and sold to some other hedge fund … well it’s likely no one would care. As it is, people tend to get a little PO’d when they think about their tax dollars going to fund some couple’s speculative home buying.

I’m actually on the fence about this. I know that walking away is the correct business decision for borrowers, but it steams me a bit to think that I will have to pay for it.

[TheBreeze]

It continues to amaze me that people get all worked up when people make the very logical, very legal choice to walk away from houses they’re upside down of. They made no agreement not to do that and to act like they have some kind of moral obligation to the bank to make a stupid financial decision is just silly.

I wouldn’t get worked up if it were just private parties involved. But, in this case, the Federal Reserve loaned money (taxpayer funds) to the banks who in turn gave that money to borrowers through 100% no-doc no-income-needed loans. These loans were then packaged up and sold to government pension funds. Thus, it now looks like we are on the brink of a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.

If this were just some hedge fund giving money to home buyers with no income and the resultant mortgage were securitized and sold to some other hedge fund … well it’s likely no one would care. As it is, people tend to get a little PO’d when they think about their tax dollars going to fund some couple’s speculative home buying.

I’m actually on the fence about this. I know that walking away is the correct business decision for borrowers, but it steams me a bit to think that I will have to pay for it.

[TheBreeze]

It continues to amaze me that people get all worked up when people make the very logical, very legal choice to walk away from houses they’re upside down of. They made no agreement not to do that and to act like they have some kind of moral obligation to the bank to make a stupid financial decision is just silly.

I wouldn’t get worked up if it were just private parties involved. But, in this case, the Federal Reserve loaned money (taxpayer funds) to the banks who in turn gave that money to borrowers through 100% no-doc no-income-needed loans. These loans were then packaged up and sold to government pension funds. Thus, it now looks like we are on the brink of a massive taxpayer-funded bailout.

If this were just some hedge fund giving money to home buyers with no income and the resultant mortgage were securitized and sold to some other hedge fund … well it’s likely no one would care. As it is, people tend to get a little PO’d when they think about their tax dollars going to fund some couple’s speculative home buying.

I’m actually on the fence about this. I know that walking away is the correct business decision for borrowers, but it steams me a bit to think that I will have to pay for it.

[Raybyrnes]

Steams me a bit that I didn’t have the balls to roll the dice back in 2000 ans realize that theere was very little downside risk. Worst case scenario was that I walk away with a blemish ion my credit.

[Raybyrnes]

Steams me a bit that I didn’t have the balls to roll the dice back in 2000 ans realize that theere was very little downside risk. Worst case scenario was that I walk away with a blemish ion my credit.

[Raybyrnes]

Steams me a bit that I didn’t have the balls to roll the dice back in 2000 ans realize that theere was very little downside risk. Worst case scenario was that I walk away with a blemish ion my credit.

[Raybyrnes]

Steams me a bit that I didn’t have the balls to roll the dice back in 2000 ans realize that theere was very little downside risk. Worst case scenario was that I walk away with a blemish ion my credit.

[Author]

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