Foreclosures Hitting Even Connecticut's Wealthy

This wooded town of roughly 60,000 on Long Island Sound -- home to dozens of hedge funds, many millionaires and more than a few billionaires -- is one of the wealthiest enclaves in the country. But even Greenwich is not immune to the wave of home foreclosures sweeping the nation.

On Hettiefred Road, for example, the owner of a 2,720-square-foot, four-bedroom colonial featuring a luxury kitchen, swimming pool and tennis court, has been threatened with foreclosure for months. On Stanwich Road, another house worth $2.6 million is close to going on the block. Several dozen others have received foreclosure notices this year.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Troubledwawa]

Try paying your bills.

[Melodyl]

Try paying your bills. Troubledwawa so right, I'll go one better, try earning your money instead of waiting for a handout.

[SonofKong]

With the price of food going up, maybe we can turn these McMansions back into farmland.

[loki]

But in the end, they wont owe another dime on the property, and the same bank will probably give them another multi million dollar loan for another McMansion , if they have not already.

[wm1066]

Ya know, I can hear this great big sucking sound!

[Tom95134]

Too bad. I guess they'll just have to move to their summer home in the Hamptons.

[FreedomCorpse]

The 'real' wealthy don't have mortgages, these millionaires are just wannabees.

[Tom95134]

You got that right.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Ironicly these are likely the people who sent Joe Lieberman back to the Senate. Now the professional class is voting against thier own best interest.

[NotGuilty]

Hey, then can live in their Cadillac Escapades under the overpass.

[ENK727]

The house in the photo looks very small for Greenwich, CT. Most of the homes in Greenwich are huge. I've seen many houses being built recently that are 10,000-20,000 sq. ft. I figured one day this bubble would burst.

[Wilbur]

Let us know when this hits the family (m)Ann Coulter so that I can start laughing myself silly!

Wilbur

[Truthmeter]

I can tell you, it used to be that Greenwich was old money. Old money people who wore faded clothes, beat up shoes, and you would never guess that they had money. Greenwich is now full of people who are new money, that overextend themselves to give the appearance they have money, but they don't. They bought their homes when the market was crazy high, mortgaged most of it, those that already owned homes, took out equity lines on the increased value. Then when the market goes south, guess what, the bank calls and says Mr. and Mrs. Overextended your house is only worth 2/3 of your mortgage, we have to adjust the assets on our books so you have to pay the difference back. They don't have it. Oops, foreclosure here they come.

Most of the people in trouble are people that overextended themselves during the boom. Didn't get fixed rates and certainly bought more than they truly could afford. They are to blame..no one else.

[Melodyl]

Total BS,

Stiff the bank AKA the small investor Yes.
Most likely these house were bought on speculation, they could not lease them. Let them have the house. What a crock

[BigBagel]

Suburbs.....the ghettos of the future.

[PieInTheSky]

Poor poor rich people. It sucks being them.

[vandegrasse]

Yay!!!!!

[WesSmith]

Oh, please. If they are losing their homes they are not wealthy and likely never were wealthy.

They might have been temporarily comfortable, but they were not wealthy.

Wealthy people are not losing their homes. Wealthy people are BUYING homes at significant discounts.

[KOisGod]

Its just fucking TRAGIC!

Downsizing to a condo hurts, but at least they kept the Jag!

[fignozzle]

ok, that was the most sarcastic thing i think i have ever posted.......

[fignozzle]

OH NO!!!!!!!
could even the wealthy feel the crunch of bush's ecomony!
may it never be!
NOT the wealthy!

[coolrepublica]

There is a difference with wealthy and wannabe wealthy. A wealthy person would have bought the house in cash. 2.5 million is like a you buying a latte at Starbucks. Wannabe wealthy wanted to keep up with the Joneses and got a mortgage he clearly could not afford. Believe me, the wealthy are NOT having their houses foreclosed on them. Not in this lifetime.

[rektruax]

True cool. There's a lot of this going around here too. Especially in Park Slope. The good part being even if you did over-extend, there's still a good chance some cash stricken real-rich person has the bank enough to buy your brownstone out right. No quibbling or mortgage asswipes to deal with. Just don't be greedy, sell your house to cover the inflated note and you'll be OK. Some are even making out to the good. Take what you make and buy something reasonable in Fort Greene or something.

[sparkandy]

It's still a feel good headline. Just imagining it makes the whole day better. Don't be a buzz kill by injecting the truth.

[jvarga]

haha

[tubette]

but what about all the tax cuts Bush gave them????

[vandegrasse]

And what about the government Bush gave them. Everything's tumbling down. Oh, Buffy what a cruel world that has such poor people in it!

[Rog49Thomas]

While I am not an ordained minister, I have watched the 700 Club long enough to know that this must be God's punishment.

In looking about for a sin, the most egregious thing I can associate with Connecticut is the election of Smokin' Joe.

They should be grateful that it wasn't a hurricane.

[Stevelagain]

Foreclosures for the most part are hitting the IRRESPONSIBLE and the IGNORANT who acted IRRESPONSIBLY out of IGNORANCE.

My wife and I saved for years before we bought. We paid 20% CASH down. We got a FIXED rate. We refinanced when rates dropped to a LOWER FIXED RATE. We took no cash out. We also shortened the term of the loan at the refinance..... so by dropping the rates we didn't end up with a lower payment, but we wind up owning the house much sooner. Just a few years away now. And we have enough cash in the bank to pay the house off now if we have to.

No, the majority are NOT losing their homes. The Majority are NOT irresponsible. The majority are not even in financial trouble. The majority do not want their taxes raised. The majority do NOT want their employers PUNISHED. The majority do NOT want wide open boarders. The majority are tired of hearing how they are losing their home, when they are not losing their home.

[rwe2late]

Stevelagain,
Do you also believe the Great Depression was not so bad, after all, the unemployment
rate was less than 50%, so the majority of people had jobs?

And the majority of people did not drown during Katrina, and the majority of our youth
are not killed or wounded in Iraq.
Even though we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care, the
majority has some health insurance.
Even though we incarcerate a larger percentage of our population than any other country,
the majority is not in jail.
Even though one-third of our youth do not finish high school, the majority do finish.
The majority won"t be hurt by the massive shift of wealth and power to the EXXONs and
Halliburtons, by runaway inflation, endless wars, the shredding of the Constitution, or the
destruction of the environment. The majority aren"t losing their homes, only their country,
only their morality.

[sandiegoconservative]

You are both correct on some points, but Stevelagain is simply pointing out what is pretty obvious.

As a young married couple, my wife and I KNEW of the risks of an adjustable mortgage, but did it anyway to get in the market. On the 366th day of our mortgage, we re-financed to a fixed rate, which was slightly lower, and we avoided major home repairs, Plasma TV's and new cars to continue to save.

We did not buy a huge house we really could not afford and we bought a house we knew we could afford if one of us had to cut back to part time.

We READ the mortgage documents and had our questions answered so we would be aware of all the risks.

We do not live extravagant lives, just comfortable ones and we save(d) money for a rainy day.

We chose to get an education and to continue to receive additional education to accomplish all of the above.

He is just pointing out that there is a serious lack of accountability in the minds of many people.

[wheaties]

Thank you rwe2late, I could not of said it better.

[maddie0001]

That's all fine and good but when six houses on your block are abandoned what does that do to your property values? When you try to sell your house when you're competing against a bank foreclosures, then what?

[UnbiasView]

Are they really that wealthy if they can't afford to pay their mortgage? No, looks to me like they were posing to be rich people the same way people that should have been renting were buying house.