I found my wife sitting on the floor in the shower crying last night.

[county worker]

We are not having the problems many of people here are having. We are not unemployed. We both make good salaries. We are about to buy a house.

So why was she crying. She told me later. We are moving into a new development. The house we are buying was built in 2005 and so were the other houses on the block. We walked down the street and there are practically new houses looking like hell. The grass is gone, lots of junk around the sides and front of the houses.

What's happened is that the people are losing their homes for one reason or the other. To a large extent it not their fault. They were laid off or their payments rose to an amount that they could not pay them.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Your wife is a compassionate woman...

For you both: :hug:

[fascisthunter]

2. it's good to see compassion from those doing well

it gives me hope in healing the divide that is widening by the day.

[HockeyMom]

3. I was very lucky to know self made millionaires

One family paid $500,000 in taxes. As the man said, "I have enough money". "If my taxes can help somebody else to survive, so be it." Needless to say, this family were Democrats. These people do exist, but they are few and far between. I have met far, far more people who just THINK they are rich, and could give a crap about anybody else.

Personally, I would rather be dirt poor, than be rich and live like that.

[fascisthunter]

6. I Know They Exist... it's why there is hope

I have been pretty poor my whole life... there is nothing worse than living as so many do, who are much much worse off than me. I'm lucky in comparison... the stresses of being poor have a devastating effect on people's morale. So many things culminate themselves from poverty itself... and it doesn't have to be this way. All i ask is that the rich pay their fair share and join us closer to the bottom of the economic ladder. This country would be stronger as a whole. Marines understand this... you are as strong as your weakest link... as a country, we have many weak links, and we are adding more everyday.

[laughingliberal]

13. As weird as it seems, we know a couple of self made millionaires who are Republicans who...

have the same attitude. I think they became Republicans back in the 70's and haven't noticed it's not the same party, now. Kind of weird, though, to see more compassion out of them than I do out of many here.

[myrna minx]

4. Your wife sounds like a wonderful and compassionate person.

:hug: to you both.

[laughingliberal]

5. Thank you. We stay on the verge of losing our house. Everything else is already gone.

It helps to see some who have not been destroyed still care about those who have been. The smugness of some here who have avoided the wringer, so far, has been most demoralizing.

[Donnachaidh]

19. {{{Llib}}}}

I hear ya! :hug:

[laughingliberal]

22. ....

:hug:

[county worker]

7. I found my wife sitting on the floor in the shower crying last night.

We are not having the problems many of the people here are having. We are not unemployed. We both make good salaries. We are about to buy a house.

So why was she crying. She told me later. We are moving into a new development. The house we are buying was built in 2005 and so were the other houses on the block. We walked down the street and there are practically new houses looking like hell. The grass is gone, lots of junk around the sides and front of the houses.

What's happened is that the people are losing their homes for one reason or the other. To a large extent it's not their fault. They were laid off or their payments rose to an amount that they could not pay.
We are not moving into a very happy neighborhood. She was crying for those people.

[JuniperLea]

8. Empathy is a dying art...

Hug your wife for me... she's a good one.

[chrisa]

23. +1

:hug:

[hedgehog]

9. People are accused of "buying more house than they can afford",

but how many people are in trouble because they bought a modest house that was well within their means with a 6% mortgage, but which got them into trouble because of a 10% mortgage? I think the righteous tend to forget that if you live in a hot real estate market, you don't escape by renting instead of buying. The cost of renting tracks the cost of buying. People were balancing buying an overpriced house and at least getting a foothold against continuing to rent and finding they couldn't afford to live within 60 miles of their job.

[laughingliberal]

14. That's exactly what happened to us. We were doing well but rent was equaling mortgage payments

Predictions, in 2005, were that the market here was not going to slow for, at least, five more years. By then, we would never have been able to afford anything. As it was, we had to buy 40 miles from town to find anything we could afford. Our alternative was to continue to see our rent go up every year and have no equity to show for it. Given the facts, at the time, it made sense to buy. Three years later, we realized we we'd been had. But too late.

[bobbolink]

20. That is really the pits. Thank you for telling your story! Given the hostility here, it is a

risk.

I wish I could do a lot more than keep my fingers crossed for you! :pals:

[laughingliberal]

21. Oh, the crossed fingers mean more than I can say. The compassion of others is a big help.

:pals:

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Your neighbors will be lucky to have you as friends.

,

[Bluebear]

11. You're a lucky guy :)

[pitohui]

12. well i can understand why she's crying, similar to us in the s&l implosion years

there's nothing quite like the feeling of finally you can buy a house, but it's because the neighborhood and the city and, nay, even the country have collapsed financially

it's scary to be buying a foreclosed home, even w. gov't assistance, as we got, it's still the most expensive purchase we've ever made and we didn'r KNOW at the time if the free-fall would continue or if the gov't assistance, etc. will be enough to put people in houses and save the neighborhood

we were fleeing crack hell and we needed this house and we needed it to be safe, not a place that kept falling down

i understand every bit of those tears and fears and it isn't all abt the other guy, it's also abt what will happen in yr future if the neighborhood doesn't turn around

if it helps any, putting people in houses SAVED my neighborhood, even with bush 1's shitty attempt at a resolution to the foreclosure crisis of the early 1990s, and it's a safe crime-free place today, altho some of us still aren't the fastest with the mostest when it comes to keep the grass cut, i have my little joke, don't water the lawn, it only encourages it

yr neighborhood CAN turn around, and by buying a house and putting your money and sweat into it, YOU are helping to save that neighborhood -- that is a worthy act, my friend, you're doing a good thing and i hope you will be rewarded either by a home/neighborhood that grows in value or by a home that you will be happy to live in a long time

congratulations on buying your own home, yes, it's scary, yes, there will prob. be some tears, but it's SOOO worth it in the end

once you're settled in, you can find out if there's a way to force banks etc. that own some of the foreclosed houses to keep the lawns mowed, etc. -- you can probably bring some type of action that will force them to either sell the foreclosed homes at a reasonable price or at least keep up appearances

[county worker]

15. I found my wife sitting on the floor in the shower crying last night.

We are not having the problems many of people here are having. We are not unemployed. We both make good salaries. We are about to buy a house.

So why was she crying. She told me later. We are moving into a new development. The house we are buying was built in 2005 and so were the other houses on the block. We walked down the street and there are practically new houses looking like hell. The grass is gone, lots of junk around the sides and front of the houses.

What's happened is that the people are losing their homes for one reason or the other. To a large extent it not their fault. They were laid off or their payments rose to an amount that they could not pay them.

[lpbk2713]

16. BushCo changed everything about the way we live forever.

Damn those evil assholes all to hell.

[bdamomma]

26. I will second that.

[11 Bravo]

17. K&R Because it's a wonderful thread (also, I've never seen the same thread show up three times ...

on the Greatest Page.)

[county worker]

25. Somehow I made a mistake and posted it 3 times. I don't know how!

[1776Forever]

18. This is exactly what the Repub's want - No home ownership & if you do get one God help you!

I wish you and your wife much happiness but if the Repub's get their way we will all be 3rd Class citizens in rentals except for them of course! They will live in gated communities looking down on us!

[RB TexLa]

24. The street you walked down is the street you are buying on?

If so you might want to think twice about buying that house.