Victims? You want victims? Wait until the value of houses owned by those with good credit ratings start sinking like a stone.
You mean those who know the price of everything and the value of nothing? Or those who bought as much house as they could afford but more than they needed as an "investment?" Or those that bought beachfront second homes. Or those that believed the hype that ou can make a killing in real estate.
The people that live in these homes today still need a place to live.
I suspect things will be rocky for awhile if you are trying to sell a home. However, I think that will followed by a pretty long period of increases in families renting homes. If you have money, buy some of these foreclosures at $.50 on the dollar and rent them back to the same people that tried to buy them.
The increases in residential home value over the last four years were like the increases in value of dot-coms in 1997-99; paper wealth based on greater-fool speculation with no grounding in fundamentals.
Housing appreciation, after it takes this needed haircut, will return to its historic rates. No one who bought a home before 2002, as a place to live, will really suffer.
"Victims? You want victims? Wait until the value of houses owned by those with good credit ratings start sinking like a stone."
No, they're not victims either. Anyone could see this market was overheated, and if you bought in near the top, or blew all the paper increase in the value of your house on toys and stuff, well you weren't too wise. Those who bought before things got out of hand, and who didn't cash in all their increased equity on toys, vacations, paying off credit cards, and so on, will still be OK.
>Victims? You want victims? Wait until the value of houses owned by those with good credit ratings start sinking like a stone.<
In our local area, someone has an eight acre parcel of rural land for sale costing over 100,000.00. Two years ago, such a parcel might be advertised for 40,000.00. Flippers and get-rich-quick scammers have been living real high off the hog recently.
Our real estate taxes are going through the roof. We're in our house for the long run.
It wouldn't bother me if real estate values dropped. I'd get a break on taxes.
>>Victims? You want victims? Wait until the value of houses owned by those with good credit ratings start sinking like a stone.<<
You nailed it.
That's when one of those guys with a good rating hijacks a nearby bulldozer and starts a little urban renewal in the neighborhood.
Failing that ... mystery arson USA.
The current "value" of the houses owned by those with good credit ratings is over-inflated and based on a market generated by these questionable loans as well as other banking scams (i.e. interest only).