The Housing Bubble

Reviewing some real estate listings recently, I was surprised at just how many were short sale or lender owned properties. Then again, I usually had a hunch that they were when looking through the pictures you see pictures of a fully-furnished home, often with little chairs, toys and obvious miscellania showing that young children live(d) there.

We are a country of hard workers, there can be no doubt about that. The American work ethic is legendary. Most of us don't want handouts, we work for what we get.

When the stock market went crazy back in 2000 and then finally collapsed, some investors lost money. When Greenspan and the US government brought interest rates down near zero and spurred the housing bubble to inflate, they planted the seed for much chaos and suffering down the road.

Without so much as even giving an eye to the consequences, for who among us did not realize that prices were way out of hand? Does anyone actually smoke enough dope to think that prices can be maintained at a level 2-3 times more than average monthly incomes? Guess what, when the rate resets from the teaser rate, people get screwed every time.

The list goes on and on. Stated income loans.

What has been allowed to happen - the huge rise and fall in housing prices, has dealt a serious blow to many American households. As far as I know, there has been no scrambling efforts by the government to take care of the citizens who have been disenfranchised by this debacle. The scrambling efforts to save companies, Bear Sterns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, continues.

The sheer stupidity, I mean, to even think that the US government and regulators did not see this coming...well that sheer stupidity has caused some people to think the government has let this happen on purpose for some secret reason.

My point is, they have fouled the American Dream, have dealt an unwelcome blow, a slap in the face to the middle class. People who do nothing but go to work every day and try to scratch out a living and a better life for themselves and their children. Now they're taking away their homes. Disrupting lives. Causing divorces, suicides, murders, abuse, mental breakdowns.