Wonkette
GOOD LORD: Here is the most tragic thing you’ll see today, “Foreclosure Alley,” from KCET in Southern California. Thanks to commenter qwerty42 for bumming us out. [KCET via Andrew Sullivan]
THE SADDEST THING
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The reporter needs to work on her delivery/facial expressions/body language. She is half-smiling, as if she were reporting on some quicrky animal news story.
The Inland Empire looked like “the promised land,” the reporter says.
I guess these people don’t watch David Lynch movies.
Doglessliberal: uh, quirky
You could make alot of money on Craigslist selling the stuff in that house. Flat screen TV for $50, 2 computers $10 each…
Phew, I was worried that the story might be about some place that matters.
jinmoom: Oh, it matters, jackass. It’s taking down this entire country. Enjoy!
They should just wait until the Poltergeists reclaim the neighborhoods naturally.
Northan VA and suburban MD are very similar. There are blocks in Prince William, Loudoun, and Fairfax County, VA where 50-75% of the homes are vacant. There was a recent story in the paper about how the yards have gotten so overgrown that the neighbors still living there are contending with snakes and other assorted creatures that are having a literal field day romping around in the new habitat. It has a post-Apocalyptic feel. In Alexandria, where we live, it is mostly condos that are going into foreclosure, so the numbers are not as obvious, but when you look at the stats, it is stunning how many have gone to foreclosure and are bank-owned now.
Doglessliberal: Yes. Val Zavalalalalalalalalala would LOVE to hear from you if your life is sucking bad right about now funks older brother
Ken Layne: The entire country is being taken down by Inland Empire??? Holy shit, how come the NATIONAL LIBRUL MEDIA isn’t reporting more on this threat???
Congratulations President Obama! You’ve become the leader of a Potemkin nation. Oh, you thought there was real value here? Shit, the real money left for Paraguay a year ago.
THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS!
Doglessliberal: We are actually doing a hypothetical in law school that deals with this issue…
YOU PAY RENT NOW.
hey, guess what the Governator said yesterday? The State of California can’t get any short term loans from any banks and unless they get a loan from the Feds they may not be able to pay bills and may have to start laying off employees! Yay!
Ken Layne: Just relax and blame it on the blacks like everyone else.
carerer: I was thinking the exact same thing. There’s gotta be money in having one of those companies but selling what you find. Lots of it…
I watched this video early today (I confess, Wonkette and Andrew Sullivan are my daily must-reads… what the Hell does that say about me?). At any rate, it’s frightening… like a bad horror movie. I just can’t imagine what it would be like for my family to find itself in the position where we’re leaving everything we own behind except for what we can fit in the car. Imagine uprooting the kids, telling them they’ve got to leave everything behind except one favorite toy. The sense of shame and guilt must be overpowering. Makes you want to ship all those bank executives, adjustable-mortgage -crack-dealers, and hedge fund managers off to some Siberian gulag for 30 years hard labor.
mookworthjwilson: who is responsible for the nuisance, you mean? I say, let the snakes run free! Well, slither free.
but hey, the market is up 180.
NoWireHangers: There would be, except no one has a house to put that stuff in. Hard to justify a flat screen when you have no wall to mount it on. Wait–new product idea: flat screen mounts for cardboard boxes! I’ll make a mint. But I only accept Euros or pesos.
NoWireHangers:
When I was in college my roomate and I worked a summer job in the cafeteria (for the summer session). Which meant that we didn’t go home, but rather got to stay in our room year-round. Well, it also meant that we got to go around collecting all the crap that graduating seniors left outside the dorms to be hauled away as trash. The long and the short of it is that the next semester we had about 20 lamps in our dorm room, three couches and a bunch of little side tables and shit. Sher wasn’t room to move around.
I suspect that’s exactly what these guys homes end up looking like after they’ve worked for the company for a few months.
Back when I lived in L.A. we called that area the meth capital of Southern California. I dunno, I think Forclosure Alley might be an upgrade for them.
And by the way, PRAISE JEEBUS I don’t live in California anymore. Now the Governator wants to borrow $7m to pay the bills?
Damn, “trashing out” houses, spray painting lawns, draining pools breeding West Nile virus…
That’s the Can-Do spirit that will always make America great!
That, and continuing to pay the mortgage on a house that’s lost half its value…
harper’s has an article this month about the same work of gutting out foreclosed houses, only centered in florida, and just as fucking depressing. in fact, worse, because the writer managed to find some people who had abandoned their houses and talk about their situation, which is pretty haunting.
Thank God the market is up. Let the country burn - we’re okay as long as the market is up.
mookworthjwilson: Elitist.
Serolf Divad: I must read the Grapes of Wrath.
SuperRounder: Looks like it’s time for this: http://www.nathanielturner.com/images/New_Folder4/tannerpaint.jpg
why is lucy liu doing a news report? isn’t she a big teevee star now?
and am i the only one who thinks the trash-out dude in the white t-shirt is hawt! woof! and he’s sensitive too!
and what’s with the fucking pussy picture at the beginning? is it for sale too? and if so, isn’t that illegal on some level?
jinmoom: Well, since California represents 20% of the US GDP we should worry whether whole regions of the state are going belly up. That can’t be good for anyone.
Doglessliberal: Maybe she should have winked a few times and shaken her butt around. That’s supposed to be very effective on the teevee.
madtowngooner: Leave me alone, I just want to hate California in peace. Is that so much to ask for?
Anybody hear Glenn Hubbard — one of Bush’s genius economic advisors — on NPR suggest the gummint ought to just give anybody who wants one for his/her own house a 5.25% 30-year loan? Does that make more sense than shoveling bond money at Lord/Comrade Paulson to redistribute to his buddies?
Strange. That family wasn’t brown. I thought the republican s said this only happened to brown people?
We are entering a strange new world, folks. Thanks, you stupid, greedy bastards.
jinmoom:
Every man is allowed one state to hate, one state to love, and forty eight states to feel indifferent toward.
V572625694: I did hear that and also that it has bipartisan support. Go for it. It would provide massive stabilization for the markets immediately.
An Achewood quote in the Alt-text? NERD NERD NERD NERD NERD.
(Although, I guess I recognized it… sigh.)
Oh, fuuuuuuuck. This is some truly depressing shit.
Doglessliberal: And, as somebody pointed out, the gummint already owns half those mortgages, thanks to Fanny & Freddie.
/dick joke
magic titty: The Grapes of Wrath is a terrific book. You’ll enjoy it.
Serolf Divad: i’m from texas originally and i have a sort of love/hate relationship with my home state. does that use up both of my choices? or do i get extras since i’m from a really really big state? i really really hate oklahoma (you know why texas doesn’t fall into mexico? because oklahoma sux!) and i’m not too fond of utah. and i love new york and california… TOO. MANY. CHOICES. i need a drink!
There have been foreclosure tours in Detroit since (at least) last winter.
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/02/foreclosure_tour_finds_gains_a.html
No sympathy here. For $350,000 where I live you can get a five bedroom home with 100 acres of land. I bought my 4 bedroom on a town lot for 70k.
Doglessliberal: actually whether a neighbor who has to deal with the snakes can sue under the civil rights act of 1866 in federal court because the mortgage companies targeted minorities for the subprime loans, thus not giving them the same rights as whites to enter into contracts, which eventually led to financial hardship and mental anguish for the surrounding community of people who aren’t foreclosed.
magic titty: and proud of it…hahah…
Doglessliberal: V572625694: I’ve been wondering the same thing — and thinking the reason this hasn’t happened is that investment banks would still be left with their worthless securities, which they rightly deserve.
This was confirmed yesterday when I was listening to Rush (because I wasn’t pissed off enough yet) and a caller put the same idea to him and asked what he thought. “Disaster,” was the pithy answer — he went on to elaborate, and basically proved that he knows nothing about the economy, but he at least knew his investment banker friends would be in the toilet if this happened.
Ugh, the waste is staggering. There has GOT to be a better way than to depend on charity trucks to pass this stuff on to needy families. Could we set up a website for first-time homeowners with the trashing crew’s schedule on it, so they could rent a truck in advance and meet the crew there and furnish their new homes for free? Shit, my husband and I just bought our first home in May and I’d kill for some of those nice lamps and end tables. To think it all just goes in a landfill…WTF, seriously!?!?!
Ken, Ken. Calm down. Seriously dude, the talk now is to start a federal programs to replace the ARMs with 30 fixed at 5 1/2% and a 5% principle reduction. If something like that gets started you won’t have to get kicked out of your house.
And even if you are kicked out, you can always go live in Tony the Tiger’s basement. So it’s all good.
…weyull, weyull, weyull… this iz varr interestin… now, iz one thang happenin here, or iz it two? what ah mean iz, are we jess seein the empire collapse from th’inside out, th’way an ole pine woold rot? or haz th’rapture begun? seemz lak a buncha peeps jess up an’vanished, jess lak them crishtins say iss gonna happen… duzz bible spice know bout this? how coold she not know? ain’t she an her peeps got th’direct line t’jeezuss? doancha think reporters gonna be askin her bout it? how it fits in wit her whirled view an her idees fer relations wit russia an them iran peeps? inqurin mines wantsa know…
Sussemilch: For 70k I think I can carve out space on a cot with dried bumsweat soaked in at the Armory, here in NYC.
V572625694: Havent gotten to much Steinbeck, but I will make it a point to read this. Thanks.
Serolf Divad: Only one state to hate? That’s way too confining. I can hate Utah, but not Alabama as well? I’ll always hate Florida for 2000 and Ohio for 2004 and Texas forever. I can feel ambivalent about South Carolina: it has crapped out Strom Thurmond and Lindsey Graham, but it’s also given us Stephen Colbert, so it’s almost a wash.
And if Walnuts wins, then I hate everyone of the fucking states who voted for him!
This is just sad. Sadder that all this shit is being hauled to the dump. Isn’t waste arguably one of the many things that put us into this mess? I’m still wondering where all these people are going. How soon will we see the shanty towns and I don’t mean Annandale.
Also…if you got yerself a good garden shed; you should be able to mount that TV no problem.
Serolf Divad: Oh, I just can’t make a decision. I hate Texas and Florida equally. And on the love side; I’ve got a native attachment to Washington, but Oregon’s pretty freaking hawt too.
Anybody help me out here?
Wow, the reporter is so excited to be sharing all these sad fucks’ ruined lives with us! They bought shitty houses in a shitty urban enclave in a shitty town in a shitty county using shitty financing. And then! They discovered what the “A” in ARM means, oh noes!
This is Katrina for clueles, greedy white people. A lumbering shitstorm of toxic white criminality flooding over some other pseudo-unsuspecting white people, washing away their Orange County dreams of homemade backyard porn movies, German SUVs and Mexican housekeepers. Meanwhile, the other other white people in guberment are busy hanging their collective asses off the table in order to receive expert taint lickings from the other other OTHER white BANKER people, whose wily criminal taintlickery got the whole white shit tsunami thing started in the first place.
“Hey, asshole,” you say. “Those willfully ignorant homeowners were distracted! By shopping! And Jesus! And Teh Britney! And perpetually gassing up the Hummer! And scheduling and rescheduling massages for their pets! They couldn’t have seen this coming, they were too busy consuming like true patriots!”
And to you I say, yes, I am an asshole. But at least I’m not watching my shitty furniture get destroyed on teevee and dumped into a trash bin by a bunch of tweaking parolees. Ha ha hahaha!
In all seriousness though, the real tragedy is the sad story of countless elderly white people abandoned in Inland Empire “in-law” suites only to be scooped up into green trash bins and hauled away to a landfill*.
These people seem to have no self-preservation instinct. It’s like the chapter in The Secret where they convince you to give them all your money then blame you for not believing in yourself enough to trust your little inside voice when it points out the fact that you’re being fucked out of all your money. Oh wait, my bad, that was the Cliff Notes version of the whole book!
*Anaheim. Or Aliso Viejo.
madtowngooner: It’s fun to look at the maps on fivethirtyeight.com and see the curve of the Stupidity Belt, straight north from Arizona to Montana, back south through Texas, and straight east to South Carolina. If Missouri and Indiana wake up (and with all their auto manufacturing businesses, they should) the Belt will get even narrower by Election Day.
WIDTAP: Hah, you think I was dumb enough to buy in *this* market? I sold my house in 2006! (Not anywhere near the Inland Empire, but another Southwest bubble market.)
Sussemilch: but i don’t want to live on the moon…
Sussemilch: Where, please? I am shopping for LAND, lots of LAND.
Ken Layne: Yes, but then walking down the street to the Vegas strip and betting it all on red was not such a hot idea, was it? So much for that early retirement. Now you are stuck with us.
WIDTAP: Yeah…don’t you listen to Wesley Snipes???
FalconerHK: whoa. in my post-debate hangover, my mind was blown.
smashtheduck:
California, tumbles into the sea, that’ll be the day I go back to Annandale.
…they put uppa buncha ugly boxes, an jeezuss, peeple bought ‘em (thanks, don)…
FalconerHK: FalconerHK for President
Ken Layne: Wisconsin. Deer, cows and wild turkey optional.
That IS very sad. Most of the people living in those areas are hard working recent immigrants or at the very least, two rungs up from poverty on the income ladder. They may never get the chance again to own a home. I’m surprised there isn’t more arson going on. Homeowners insurance will pay and your credit stays intact.
Ken Layne: Still some nice chunks ‘o dirt going relatively cheap in my extreme NW corner of ‘Murica. Depends on how close to civilization you want to be. Great place to live if you don’t mind occasional rain. Sorry, none of your tortoise buddies up here, but its not unusual to spot a cougar or black bear in the back yard. And on my acreage, at least, we’re lousy with deer (protein on the hoof, if times get real bad.)
Here’s one realtor up here who specializes in raw acreage: http://www.jacerealestate.com/Default.aspx
I can’t let this go, I have to speak my mind.
I was not born in Wisconsin, I choose to live here. I understand that there are some careers for which location is essential, but a majority of all trades allow a person to live anywhere in the country and practice their craft.
Yes, California and New York have delightful, large cities. Whee. This does not mean that if you live in Missouri or Nebraska or Iowa that you are not living someplace equally delightful. These are great American places to live also, you just assume they are for other people.
We complain about the high cost of living, the high cost of housing, water shortages, energy shortages, air quality… MOVE YOUR ASS OUT OF CALIFORNIA. You can probably solve 90% of your problems by renting a U-Haul and driving to the midwest.
Jesus, $350,000 is a huge amount of money. Where I live a family can get along just fine on $15/hour.
CivicHoliday: At the risk of sounding profound, this a the perfect example of how we have become prisoners of our possessions.
We don’t own them; they own us.
Simplify.
(Disclaimer: this advice comes from a fellow who owns 40 guitars, give or take, and has 6 motor vehicles in a 2-driver family.)
Sorry, Ken cannot respond to your real estate offers right now. He is hiding in a dark closet listening to his old Malvina Reynolds 45s.
I dunno, sad as this shit is; it’s not solely the fault of the banks. I work for one of the cable companies. I was at a repair call a few months ago. Massive McMansion. Two SUVs in the driveway. Six HD flat panels. While there, the guy asked me how he could save some money on his bill. Slower internet speed…save $20? Nope. Gotta have my fast downloads. Cut down to basic service on all but one of the TVs…$50? Nope. Football’s back soon. Cut out the movie channels….$60? Nope. Drove past the same house last weekend. They were holding a yard sale and there’s a short sale sign on the lawn. Shocking.
Formerly Preferred: I find that wooden pallets from behind the local Home Depot make great flat-screen mounts for my cardboard home. Put two together, and you’ve got a great bedframe as well. Quite comfy with a trashbag mattress!
Lascauxcaveman: We like it up there, too. My wife and I both have a bunch of family in Portland, and some out in eastern Washington.
I will probably end up in Oregon, but on the desert side. Bend is plenty big enough for a city, a few hours away, or Pendleton is all right, or Walla Walla. As long as the last Wal-Mart or John Deere dealer is at least an hour away from my land.
Sussemilch: It is pretty country up there. Too green for my tastes, but I like to visit. And Madison is as big a city as anyone needs, has everything anybody would want and not too much of what nobody needs.
Lascauxcaveman: Stick with regional love/hate. I love the Pacific Northwest (defining the ass-end of it as Mendocino county), am indifferent to New England, and group everything else as the Crapistan Region, which I am free to hate.
Ken Layne: Bend is great. (Deschuttes Ale, anyone?) It’s no secret though, which makes it a bit spendy, so think of locating further east or south if you want cheap land. Eastern Oregon would make you dessert folk feel right at home. It’s redneck country; though prolly no more so than your Mojave nabe.
Couldn’t they get the rights to ‘Brother Can You Spare a Dime” or at least some saucy forties “trumpet with a muffler” depressed walking music?
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
smashtheduck: There was a tent city in Seattle, made completely up of pink tents that were donated by the Girl Scouts on an Indian tribes land named “Nickelsville” after Seattle’s current mayor. The tribe didn’t care about the squatters but the mayor had them kicked off the property anyways. Pic here: http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/2008/09/welcome-to-nick.html
I used to trash out apartments, but in those days it was junkies that used to “shoot the moon” (Victorian slang for stiffing the landlord) instead of ordinary chumps who never dreamt their ARM would strong-arm ‘em.
But today I’m another sucker. Bought our house for $325,000, now it’s worth $280,000, and I doubt we could get $250,000 if we had to move fast.
Serolf Divad:
“The sense of shame and guilt must be overpowering. Makes you want to ship all those bank executives, adjustable-mortgage -crack-dealers, and hedge fund managers off to some Siberian gulag for 30 years hard labor.”
Makes you want to introduce Finance 101 at High School so people aren’t gullible enough to believe they can afford something they can’t afford.
Ken Layne: Well, bully for you!
That dude paying $3000+ a month for his house? Good lord! What does he do for a living that will allow him to pay that much? Oh. Maybe that’s the point. The American Dream meets overpriced housing. Truly depressing. Also depressing is that most of these nitwits will be moving to Texas soon where you can get a 4000 sq ft POS K&B home for under $200k. Yep, there’ll be California plates EVERYWHERE.
I’ve lived in Madison Wisconsin. I’ve lived in Portland Oregon. They are both wonderful places to live. Now I live in that crazy California land with its high cost real estate that only morons would buy. There are lots of reasons why I live in California and making a lot of money isn’t one of them. Employment opportunity is. Just getting a job is.
That said, now that I live here, I don’t want to move away. I like living here. A lot. I like living with fabulous weather next to the ocean and the mountains in a diverse and politically progressive population. (Note: I live in the Bay Area.)
But there are trade-offs: Our house is is the size of most studio apartments. It is a fixer-up house built in the 1950s. We paid even more so that we live in a neighborhood where we can ride our bicycles to work.
Yes, the price of this house would be crazy in any other part of the country. Paying our mortgage has meant that sometimes we’ve had no money available for anything else but basic living expenses. When we first bought the house ten years ago it seemed insane. We had a “super-sized” mortgage. It has since tripled in value. It has been through boom and bust periods but it has never been a bad investment. Plenty of Californians make (relatively rational) choices like these.
That said, plenty of Californians are — like any other state in the country — morons. A lot of the problems with California real estate is that people don’t want to live in smaller houses. Often this is because they move here from places where they had more space and they don’t want to have to change their lifestyle. So they build further and further out. Driving further and further to get to their jobs. Destroying more and more habitat. Then they want to be able to kill the mountain lions that wander into the area the coyotes that kill their cats. They want their homes protected from the forest fires that are part of the ecosystem they live in.
They never should have been allowed to develop that land. These neighborhoods were disasters long before the foreclosures.