Foreclosed Homes Lay Vacant and The Homeless Clog The Alleys

[ThomWV]

How can anyone remain homeless in this country if millions of recently built and abandoned dwellings stand vacant?

How can anyone remain hungry in this country in a year when agricultural exports are hitting all time highs?

[Virginia Dare]

1. Good questions..

and why am I sending toothpaste and coffee to the troops in Iraq, when trillions of dollars have gone unaccounted for?

[glowing]

2. The reason is that its not fair.... We have this thing called money

and it can be good and it can be evil. Somehow in our history we have placed value on that money. The hours you work, mean a dollar amount. With that money, you buy things like homes and food and clothes and trivial little things. As we have become more populated and less self-sufficient, we rely on a lot of things to subside. If we give someone with no dollar worth a home that is well above what someone else can afford who has worked for that money, then the whole system is a sham and they feel like fools.. its the reason why middleclass hate welfare. You have to have nothing to get a something, and there are times when an extra 100 dollars or whatever would have really helped out, instead they had to use a c.c. with interest to buy groceries or gas that week. The system is designed to make class wars and its designed to keep our eyes away from the money men in the sky because if we all realized we were being played the fool, we'd change the system and their puny little inbred butts would be gone.

[KharmaTrain]

3. A Season Of Discontent

The other day I drove past a complex of newly compelted and semi-built McMansions...$750k and up...I only saw a couple of the homes occupied...the rest stood vacant or half-built (and looked like work had stopped a while ago). And, yes, recently my wife and I helped at a local homeless shelter and were swamped with the number of people (including several famiiles) that were without homes...good, decent people stuck on the losing side of george booosh's America.

But then we have a massive inbalance in our economy...the haves vs. the have nots. The haves not only ran the henhouse but have a government that will bail them out for their arrogance and excesses. It's an imbalance that can't remain as the middle class...the engine that makes what the haves possible, is sputtering and straining under years of economic downscaling. But the greed, arrogance and ignorance that puts profits ahead of humility and common sense continues to prevail.

This is a painful, but long needed "correction"...for 25 years our economy has been based on one big credit card and we've finally maxed out. The Ponzi scheme has hit the wall and now a lot of long-outstanding debts will come due. 2008 will be an economically brutal year.

[ThomWV]

4. Yours is probably one of the best responses I have ever seen to any post.

Not just about this question but about DU responses in general.

Your response was well considered and well said. It pleased me greatly to read it. It is economical of words but expresses what is clearly a well thought out opnion so that there is no question as to what you mean. Your conclusion is reasonable and logical. Refreshing! Thank you.

[undeterred]

6. I saw that when I was doing lit drops last year

Whole neigborhoods full of McMansions that were mostly uninhabited. Then I realized I might as well skip the whole area because anyone who could afford one of these would probably not be voting for a Democrat.

[KharmaTrain]

7. They're All Over

I saw a lot of empty McMansions in areas of Chicago...areas that either are predominately Democratic or "purple". Many of these properties were bought up by developers when the "getting was good" and the clock ran out on them...didn't get them built fast enough and sold. My cousin was talking about a home in their neighborhood...originally priced at nearly 2 mil...that has sit vacant for nearly two years and the developer lowers the price $25k or more a month and still no bites. The strain of having this property unsold has hurt development on other projects in the area and I suspect will get worse as property taxes in the area have been hiked (making up for the local shortfalls of booosh's tax cuts for the rich) and depress things even further. In short, I suspect, this era of the McMansion is over.

One other problem of those monsters...they are a financial black hole to maintain. Besides the heating and taxes, some builders put those things up quick and cheap. They have shifting foundations, poorly designed drainage and use of inferior materials that can nickle and dime an owner.

I canvass in a "purple" area and the economy is now the number one issue people on both sides want to talk about. They're all fearful of the future and see the booosh regime as a major cause for the problems. The split comes into what they see as the blame...repugnicans see the borrow and spend while democrats see the giveaways to the lobbyists and corruption as the cause.

Cheers...

[knitter4democracy]

9. Spec homes usually are built like crap.

I'm always shocked when I go into those kinds of houses and see how badly they're built. I know I wouldn't buy one.

[KharmaTrain]

12. "Where Are These People Coming From"

When we moved to our area, this was the "edge of civilzation" in the 80's...the place where young, first time buyers came and got a good house at a decent price. Now that belt has moved out 50 miles. I go through areas that were once cornfields and "miles from civilization" and see huge developments that have sprung up in recent years. My wife always asks "where are these people coming from". I have no clue.

Several years ago I was considering "upgrading" my home and looked around and wasn't very impressed with what I saw. I was warned about construction problems in many of the new builds and am glad I stayed put. The silver lining is those who want to do home renovation and can afford it will find a lot of qualified people looking for work.

[knitter4democracy]

15. I wonder that, too.

I have no idea. People moving out from inner ring suburbs?

[undeterred]

13. Personally, if I had that kind of money

I wouldn't spend it on a house that looked exactly like the 15 others next to it. I'd buy a well built older home with some style and fix it up. I grew up in a ranch house in a neighborhood where the houses were all the same and somehow these don't seem all that different.

[knitter4democracy]

14. That's my thinking--put the money into the land.

If I had that kind of money, I would get some land, maybe an old farm. I miss having horses and cattle and pigs, and I would love to have chickens but can't with the zoning laws here. I remember working a ton as a kid, what with the alfalfa field and all the animals, but it was a good way to grow up. I wish I could give that to our kids.

I definitely wouldn't get one of those crappy houses. No land, cut corners everywhere, and super high utility bills. No thanks.

[SoCalDem]

16. Our house was built in 1979, and our lot size and sq. footage

is a LOT more than the ones being built now.. When this house was built, it sold new for $58K and even with the downturn, houses just a mile from us (new ones) with not much more sq footage ( but smaller lots) are selling for 600K..and surprisingly they ARE still selling here.. I don't understand it :shrug:

[KharmaTrain]

17. I'm Definitely Renovating And Remodeling

The "fun" of homeownership...eventually you have to get a new roof, paint it, move stuff around...it's what makes a home a real home.

Our home is 40 years and sits on a nice piece of land. Most of the newer builds are more house than land and are built in close together...it reminds me of lots in the city. I know many who would rather renovate than move and prefer the older homes to the new ones. Even if the property values drop by 50%, I'm still ahead of the game...and upgrading what I have will only help when the market eventually rebounds.

[undeterred]

5. Its the "ownership" era

The rich own everything.

[SoCalDem]

8. because in "our" society and most "modern" societies, you may only

occupy space that you are able to pay for. if you hang around in public spaces, such as stores or restaurants, you will be sent packing if you are not buying something, or are judged to be able to purchase something.

"Loitering" in public spaces is actually illegal, and yet, if one has no money to pay to BE somewhere, what exactly are they supposed to do?...become invisible?

But , playing devil's advocate for a minute, if you had loaned money to someone so they could buy a house you owned, would you allow them to live in it without repaying you the money you loaned them? Wouldn't you prefer that the property at least be "available" to be re-purchased by someone who COULD pay you for it? Allowing people to remain in the house while you tried to re-sell it, might be problematical, since the current occupants would have a vested interest in making that house seem as UN-livable as possible, so they did not get thrown out when someone else bought it...and there could be a fair amount of unjustified anger at YOU, for trying to make them move out of "their" house..even if they were NOT paying you what they promised to pay you...as their eviction date loomed closer, they might be tempted to exact "vengeance" on you, by damaging YOUR asset..

There once was a progression of sorts. Young people , just out on their own, would rent less desirable apartments (often sharing limited space) until they "saved up" and could move to a rented house (again, usually small and not all that appealing)..and then again saved up for their entry into home ownership (small fixer upper), where they would live until their children grew a bit and needed more space..Their move to a roomy house in a nice school district usually came for most people, when they were well into their 30's and in stable jobs...they STAYED in those houses until their nests emptied, and THEN they either downsized, with money in their pockets from the sale of their home or they moved UP to their dream house where they would live out their days..

Property was a ladder ..that you climed one rung at a time..These days, people want to move out of Mom & Dad's home and into a "dream home" on the first go-round.. They are likely to be saddled with education debt and often one or more car loans (and the high insurance debt that goes with them) and they are often in jobs that now change very often.. A few weeks/months "between jobs" can send a budget into default.

[RB TexLa]

11. Everyone wanted to skip steps in that ladder.

It's nice when the market provides equity in your house by rising prices but it's never guaranteed in any housing market. Now back to the old fashioned way of earning equity, pay for it.

[InkAddict]

18. when they were well into their 30's and in stable jobs

ROTL

First problem - stable jobs in a diversity of occupations that bring balance to the community - not if one is 20, 30, or 50...let alone the COL outstripping stagnant wages.

Next problem - higher education unaffordable without long-term debt-loads equal to McMansions.

Third problem - unaffordable healthcare.

[flashl]

10. BEFORE the echo chambers imprinted "housing boom" and "new starts" into the American psyche

there were housing surpluses. The fiscal alchemists simply needed a vehicle to keep the costs of housing and real estate rising for taxation and other “economic growth” purposes. The financial wizards created the subprime tools to draw more people into the real estate shark infested pool. Magically, we create massive homelessness via less affordable homes and increase housing values.