US mortgage crisis creates ghost town (near Cleveland, Ohio)

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080127183107.ahcwfxrz&show_article=1&image=large ^

[Texas Eagle]

Holy Frijoles. I did a zillow.com search for Chagrin St. in Shaker Heights, OH and they show an 8br, 2ba home for 186,000 dollars.

Who can't afford that?

[kalee]

Was it a fair trade? I’ve been to Shaker Heights but have never been to East St Louis. ;)

[kidd]

Oh good grief.

Are we led to believe that an entire town took on loans they couldn’t afford?

Th truth is that the town has been in decline for decades, as has most of the Cleveland area.

What’s next? A picture essay on how the “mortgage crisis” has destroyed Detroit?

[Graybeard58]

Was it a fair trade? I’ve been to Shaker Heights but have never been to East St Louis. ;)

I think we s****** them royally.

[abishai]

Absolutely!! Just never go there to find out why.

[Hot Tabasco]

She stopped making payments in 2006 and shows her unpaid bills totaling 24,000 dollars.

Sounds like she stopped making payments not only on her mortgage but also her electricity, her water, her swerage, her phone, her credit cards, and every other bill that was coming in........

30 years living in the same house and she re-mortgages? Wonder what she did with the cash............

There certainly is a heck of a lot more to this story than is being reported.......

[the invisib1e hand]

I know Clevelend is in Ohio, and I'm pretty sure shaker heights is one of the more affluent suburbs, and I don't think anyone has really relied on the steel industry for a long time...

maybe this ought to be posted under fiction.

[Tax-chick]

an 8br, 2ba home for 186,000 dollars

I want at least one more bathroom.

And I understand their property taxes are astronomical. Shaker Heights is where John Ogbu did the cross-racial education analysis that showed that black students didn't achieve at the same level as white students because of cultural formation.

[NoCountryForLiberals]

A friend sent me the URL for this article from BBC News that does seem to me to do a real good job of explaining the whole sub-prime mess and how it affects other investments and the broader economy. I'm no expert on this stuff and it helped me to get a better handle on this stuff. The US sub-prime crisis in graphics

[Larry Lucido]

Actually, ghost towns are tourist attractions (just ask anyone in Arizona or New Mexico). But then, if they were brain-dead enough to borrow beyond their means, they’re probably too stupid to recognize an economic opportunity.

[Joan Kerrey]

“All you needed was a pulse to buy a house. Some loans were written with no money down, no proof of buyer’s incomes. They did not even check what people were saying. Most of those folks were jobless,” he said in an interview.

---

The lenders were careless and greedy but how does one expect to own a home with bad credit and no job? If many of these people paid nothing down then just what did they lose but a place to stay. You can rent a place to stay which is what they did before they bought and will have to do now. I’d say these people are in a sad state not because of greedy lenders but because of their own financial situation which would exist with or without the greedy lenders. Let’s not turn this situation into a civil rights issue when it isn’t.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

We know that you have never been to East Saint Louis. Had you been there, you would be typing from the Great Beyond.

[D-fendr]

She refinanced in 2003, but did not realize the document she signed included provisions to radically increase the interest rate.

Sounds like she fell for a line by a real scum bag.

[Kozak]

Sounds like a great deal. You buy a house for no down, live in it, don’t pay and get to walk away.

[Larry Lucido]

She’s also been living rent-free for at least 13 months.

[bvw]

Google maps shows that the address 9422 Chagrin Street, Shaker Heights, Ohio directly neighbors two golf courses and the Shaker Heights Country Club.

[JasonC]

Completely unemployed people on welfare or slacking criminals with no get up and go? lol.

I just love trying to blame the banks for taking all their money to overpay for houses then defaulting to them and running the whole thing into the ground. Of course they were supposed to just give the whole neighborhood to the newcomers gratis, along with some fat checks.

Cry me a river...

[nmh]

Next time BUY what you can afford!

When you’re positon runs out - join the rest of us and find another one!

Few have a job for life!

Get used to it!

[JasonC]

Hardly, she just got an ARM when the rates were like 3% and probably cash out refinancing that gave her plenty of dough. She says she has lived there for 30 years, remember? How do you live in a house for 30 years without paying it off? Answer - you take as much money out as you put in, or more. Otherwise it simply isn't possible.

[Hot Tabasco]

what else can you call a company that would write mortgages with no money down, with no proof of income, and without even confirming employment except 'greedy'? M

According to the article the lady had been in that house for almost 30 years.........sounds to me like she re-mortgaged for the cash then blew the cash........