Is Virginia-Highland my Utopia?

[lorilove]

Originally Posted by stellar

I am not sure I agree with the thought that the average person should not have purchased a home they couldn't afford; the market was what it was, there were no "cheap" homes to buy...

I don't agree. There were plenty of $200K homes available when some people choose to buy $300-$400K homes. I personally witnessed neighbors taking equity for their home for vacations and other depreciable expenses - this is personal finance 101 as what not to do.

I am not saying to blame the victim because there are MANY people, institutions, businesses etc that need to share in the blame. But there are lessons to be learned from the average man as far as not keeping up with the Joneses and learning to live within their means etc etc

[stellar]

I agree that there were lessons to be learned and it appears it is only the average citizens that have learned them. We, the small guys, at least those with jobs, are saving more money, turning away from credit cards, in fact, we are not buying diddly including houses large or small. We are hunkered down hoping to survive the chaos of our broken economy and non-functional government. I can't say the same for the aforementioned government and the banking and Wall Street crowd: a hateful, paralyzed congress, egregious Wall Street bonuses, corporate profits soaring but hiring frozen, banks raking in the money, compliments of our bail out money, but nothing forthcoming for small business loans. Yeah, there are lessons to be learned all right, it is time to become active citizens in this democracy called the United States of America, and we need to demand that OUR interests be represented, not the interests of corporations and the rich who have our "politicians" by the proverbial, well you know, and make sure something like this never happens again. After the first of the year, local, state and federal election campaigns will start in full for Nov. 2012. Pick a campaign that supports your worldview, which hopefully has the small guy and business interests at heart, and work on it. Ignor the garbage that will be on the TV paid for in the millions by corporations, compliments of the Supreme Court's Citizen United rule, and let's try and fix this country from the bottom up. That's the lesson I learned at least...

[ATLTJL]

Owning a home is an American value that runs deep, like 200 years deep. And I also do not blame the average American who does not understand a financial system that has become so complex not even money savvy business people can follow it.

Maybe that value shouldn't run so deep. You might say that two weeks every summer at the beach is an American value that runs deep. Truth be told, not everybody can afford to do that. The same is true of buying a home. Some people should just be renters. It doesn't make them bad people, but owning a home is not a right. There are people who just should not do it.

There may have been some shady lending going on, but it's only because the American people were anxious to believe the promises. People abandoned the conventional wisdom, which stated that you should not purchase anything that you do not have 20% to put down on and that you can not easily afford the monthly payments on. It's pretty straightforward.

There will always be people who lose their jobs and fall upon hard times and get foreclosed on. That has always been and will never change, it could happen to anybody. But if you got screwed because your interest rate adjusted up, or you took an interest only loan, or you thought your house would appreciate and you would flip it and then it didn't.....well, you've got nobody but yourself to blame. Sure, there were banks out there who were dumb enough to make risky loans. But they could ever only loan to people who were dumb enough to ask them to.

I remember arguing with people during the height of the real estate boom. "You can't lose!" lots of people said. I distinctly recall telling people, "You most certainly can lose" but very few listened. Many of the others indeed lost.

[stellar]

I personally didn't do any of the things you mentioned. I bought my home twenty years ago, a home I could afford on my salary alone and room to raise my child. I have no debt and I will not "lose money" when I sell my house, but I do not consider 20 years of loan payments and the cost of upkeep for an appreciation of 40K a "gain" either. I worry though about those who are so ready to blame average Americans for their supposed greed, or foolhardiness in the real estate bubble, or for many things at this point in our national history for that matter. Stop looking down at your countrymen for the fault, try looking up, way up, and you will realize that it is precisely those in power and the rich who stand to gain by that. You want greed and foolhardiness, take a look at the mortgage lenders and the banks; they took the risk and lost it all, and we bailed them out. Who exactly is bailing our countrymen out right now? As I write this, our congress is d*%$ing around in DC, and we all may have another 1k taken from our budgets in 2 weeks. Millions of families have lost their jobs and homes. We have the far right essentially calling our countrymen lazy parasites for needing the unemployment insurance they paid for, or foodstamps after losing those jobs through no fault of their own. There were laws proposed, and many passed, all across the country this last legislative session, mandating drug testing of public employees and anyone needing to apply for the aforementioned safety nets, as if being a firefighter or park ranger, or losing your job makes you suspect for moral decrepitude. In fact, the real data is that drug use of those on public assistance is essentially the same as the general public, but Rick Scott of FL will spend 180 million of my tax dollars just the same. A full 50% of our countrymen are either living in poverty or near to it, that alone is mind boggling. And don't even get me going about our soldiers coming home to this economy. Yeah, those little guys who got foreclosed on too while overseas in Iraq fighting for, what was it again? Nevermind. Don't be so quick to point your finger at your fellow Americans, things here in the USA are not nearly that simplistic, and frankly, you are simply perpetuating the myths generated by the powerful. Divide and conquer, it has been going on since the days of hunters and gathers, and hell, it still works. Well, at least if you let it.