Foreclosures Rising In Housing Market's Top Tiers

Wall Street Journal:

About 30% of foreclosures in June involved homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16% when the foreclosure crisis began three years ago, according to new data from real-estate Web site Zillow.com.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[tonycartman]

Rising rising... and never fall... when we'll stop?

Regards,
tony
http://www.foreclosurelistings.com/

[tuberider]

As a realtor, broker, mortgage guy and all around Property Professional, I resent these inferences. I make money going up, I make money going down, I make money on your children, I make money all over town. I sell to the rich, I sell to the poor, I sell to the virtuous, I sell to the wh (uh) girl next door..."Waste Redundant Profiteer " is my name, and the churning and the burning is the name of the game.

[Titus Pullo]

I can't wait till Bubba gets a chance to bit*hslap Jonathan the 3rd in the soup kitchen

[ReesieKitty]

I am not surprised to see this. On our way home, we have to drive through a neighboring area that is MUCH wealthier than our little neighborhood. Houses are bigger, more expensive cars, more of everything. Just recently we have noticed a huge growth in the FOR SALE signs. Previously we had been seeing them around on new-construction McMansions which had obviously been built without a buyer ahead of time and which the contractors were trying to unload. We had also seen smaller starter-family homes in our neighborhood that were for sale.

But now, we are seeing really nice, good sized family homes usually priced starting in the $500,000s or more and we are convinced it must be due to foreclosure. It just does not seem feasible that all of these families are upsizing out of very sizable houses right now to move into vacated McMansions. Meanwhile, sales of smaller, more modest homes like ours do seem to be coming back a little bit. So I think some of the wealthier residents in our area are having to drop the second car and downsize to a more reasonable house.

[GravitonX]

I think it was Robert Kiyosaki that coined the term "income affluent" (as opposed to wealth affluent, which I was actually referring to in another post, completely different class). Most income affluent have no better spending habits than those who make a quarter or tenth of their income, so it's not surprising that when the general employment situation gets tight, they fall as well. From my experience, with certain friends, these individual tend to be the most status conscience, and I think it's that character which can be the most offputting, even for those who are wealthier then them.

[GravitonX]

Most of the rich ($2 million in assets or more) own well more than one house. I know several who own DOZENS! Trust me; they'll probably suck the life out of every one of those properties before they'll ever end up on the street. And, if they do happen to collapse and lose their home, it's not like the rest who would end up in the soup line. They'll hide the money in numerous ways both legal and alegal, fold up operations and resurface a shortwhile later. Don't expect them to downsize and become your neighbor anytime soon. I know it's a thrilling prospect. But, I think most people have no idea of the options this tier of society has. Sorry, it's just the truth.

[jsgaetano]

All hail the Bush Boom!

Harvest ye the bitter fruits of "fiscally conservative" economic ideology!

[the truth box7]

Anyone who can help! google wcnc house of horrors and you'll see a story worse than any. a family cant even sell their house because they never recieved a Cert. of Occupancy. it is shamful if anyone want to spread word of this story please reply.

http://www.wcnc.com/6newsextra/investigators/stories/wcnc-041009-sjf-houseofhorrors.c16af1aa.html

[the truth box7]

shameful*

[Joethepauper]

When enough rich people lose their homes, something will be done about it. It's hilarious that people who make ungodly sums of money can't afford their mortgages. Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps! Quit buying houses that you can't afford! I'll bet that if enough of the rich lose their homes, they will get a direct bailout (The kind of bailout that should have been done instead of TARP.....a bailout for the people.)

[KDog76A]

yawn, get over your ego

[Durango]

So they mean that all those Trophy Homes and Starter Castles which waste tremendous resources and are much bigger than any mortal human being could ever use are going bust?

Good.

We are over run with starter castels out this way. Home over built by retirees ie: couples, who have so many bedrooms they never get used.

I have come to believe they are built primarily to impress their friends back home. With each person trying to out do the next. Extremely conspicuous consumption. That only show the locals how poor they really are.

Stop building those monstrosities and get back to homes that are reasonably sized. And priced.

I know exactly what my Mother would have said if she had seen those behemoths.

Who is going to clean them?

[GravitonX]

If you were any more envious, your head might explode.

[ReesieKitty]

I don't think he's envious, I think he's disgusted. What amazes me about so many of these new tear-down McMansions is not just their size, but a lot of them are just really tacky looking! In Hinsdale, near us, there are some huge houses. Most of the older ones are really lovely and graceful. But the newer ones just look tacky and sort of faux-castle. I don't envy people living in those eyesores, no matter how many garage spaces they have or how many rooms and I doubt if Durango does either, lol!

A kid from my son's school once came to our house and standing in front of it said " Wow, your house is really small" I replied, "It's just the right size for us!" And it is. :)

[Durango]

Envious? I don't think so.

I don't begrudge anyone from wanting to livie in the most beautiful place in America. But why do they have to ruin it?

If I had the money to build one of those starter castles I would buy land, lots of it and turn it into an elk preserve. Not waste it on a house with rooms i couldn't even use.

What ever happened to those American values of thrift and good sense?

P.S. through a very strange set of circumstances I am presently living in a (old) house with rooms we don't go into and certainly don't need. I am just as happy living in an 800 square foot trailer.

No envy here. just disgust.

[MadHeart]

Most of the foreclosures in this area are lakefront McMansions, bought by crooked banksters and their cohorts from Charlotte Lowe's executives, and wealthy NASCAR types. I was amazed to see how few houses of those who live more modestly, like we do, in foreclosure. The housing "boom" around here was basically $500K to several million, and they dominate the sales advertising in this area. Nothing going on for the working class, except a few resales miles from the lake. This lake is a draw for the haves, and the hangers-on who think they have. Lakefront deepwater lots sell for half a million, on average, and then they put 10K+ sq ft houses on them. A small island was privately connected with a bridge which is reported to have cost $1M, it's surveyed for 6 lots, but there are only 2 houses on it, one owned by a Bank of America VP. This is a manmade lake which was flooded by Duke Energy some 45 yrs ago and they rented the lots initially for $250/yr, most people putting small trailers on them, and Duke later selling sold them in the mid-70s for $25K+, still out of reach for most working people as a second home. The vultures own most of the lake now, most of this phenomenon happening in the last 20 years.

[MNTom]

I guess Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are to balme for this too.

[Agent420]

It's breaking my heart, hehehehehhehehehehe!

[KDog76A]

laugh it up fuzzball,

those houses are built by average construction workers who need jobs to take care of their blue-collar families. you are laughing at plumbers, carpenters, painters, electricians, landscapers, roofers, workers at appliance factories, lumberjacks, masons... and on and on.

obviously you are not a big picture guy

[GravitonX]

It is rather shortsighted on his part. Trust me, in a Capitalist economy, you want lots of rich people with extreme conspicuous consumption; it keeps the rest of us employed, directly or indriectly. The alternative is more Socialism, of which I favor, but which is so opposed to the basic cultural DNA of Americans that it will never happen.

[Agent420]

Ok, Dawg. Cry me a river.

[mdn]

McMansions of today are apartment buildings of tomorrow.

[KDog76A]

but they aren't built to last, so no not actually

[LHoney]

Is this called trickle up?

[FloridaMich]

well, i guess we can finally stop blaming ACORN for the crisis now......