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Homes: American Dream Becomes American Nightmare
 Capitol Hill Blue
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February 03, 2010
Not that long ago, owning a home topped the list for the American Dream.
Now home ownership is the American Nightmare as more and more find they owe far more than their home is worth and the only way to recapture that dream is to walk away.
Some 4.9 million homeowners now live in homes with values below 75 percent of their mortgage value and that fiture is expected to rise to 5.1 million by June of this year.
The best solution? Give it back to the bank and take a hike.
That's the advice of people who claim to know about such things.
Reports The New York Times:
| The number of Americans who owed more than their homes were worth was virtually nil when the real estate collapse began in mid-2006, but by the third quarter of 2009, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners had reached the critical threshold, with their home’s value dropping below 75 percent of the mortgage balance.
They are stretched, aggrieved and restless. With figures released last week showing that the real estate market was stalling again, their numbers are now projected to climb to a peak of 5.1 million by June — about 10 percent of all Americans with mortgages.
“We’re now at the point of maximum vulnerability,” said Sam Khater, a senior economist with First American CoreLogic, the firm that conducted the recent research. “People’s emotional attachment to their property is melting into the air.”
Suggestions that people would be wise to renege on their home loans are at least a couple of years old, but they are turning into a full-throated barrage. Bloggers were quick to note recently that landlords of an 11,000-unit residential complex in Manhattan showed no hesitation, or shame, in walking away from their deeply underwater investment.
“Since the beginning of December, I’ve advised 60 people to walk away,” said Steve Walsh, a mortgage broker in Scottsdale, Ariz. “Everyone has lost hope. They don’t qualify for modifications, and being on the hamster wheel of paying for a property that is not worth it gets so old.”
Mr. Walsh is taking his own advice, recently defaulting on a rental property he owns. “The sun will come up tomorrow,” he said. |
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