On Mon, 8 Mar 2010 05:51:03 -0800 (PST), enough wrote:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009...operty-fallout

UN meets homeless victims of American property dream


A home advertised for sale at a foreclosure auction in Pasadena,
California. Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP

There were not many people packed in to the Los Angeles "town hall"
meeting who had heard of the foreign woman with the unfamiliar title
who had come to listen to their tales of plight. But many took it as a
good sign that she had worried the last American government enough for
it to keep her out of the country.

Deanne Weakly was among the first to the microphone. The 51-year-old
estate agent told how a couple of years ago she was pulling in $80,000
(£48,000) a year from commissions selling homes in LA's booming
property market.

When the bottom fell out of the business with the foreclosure crisis,
she lost her own house and ended up living on the streets in a city
with more homeless than any other in America. She was sexually
assaulted, harassed by the police and in despair.

She turned to the city and California state governments for help. "No
one wanted to listen. They blame you for being homeless in the first
place," she said.snip


Welcome to housing in America. Let's build these rigid structures,
price them to hundreds or thousands of times what they are worth, and
fleece the populous, If you try to live anyway else, or we feel your
home is not up to our codes, we are going to get you. Sieg Hei...I
mean Good day.


\=.\ /.=/ '-,

I am one of the idiots that paid $350,000 for a basic ranch with a full finished basement in 2004 on
Long Island. The house sold 2 years before that for $175. But, it was the cheapest house in the best
condition that I could buy.

Houses do not cost much. I know builders that could make a beautiful 3000 sq ft house for under
$200000. The problem is the location. Here on Long Island, you arent going to be able to by a 60x100
lot for less to $250,000. That is without the house. The majority of the price of the house is the
school district. The better the district, the more you pay. Have no kids? Doesnt matter. The school
district adds the value to your home. When I bought my house, there were plenty of houses in less
desirable neighborhoods with schools that have metal detectors that were selling for $175,000 and
they were bigger and on bigger properties. Didnt matter to me. Location, Location, Location. I dont
have to live here but I want to because I grew up here. I suppose I could move upstate NY or far
away to somewhere like Nebraska and buy a new home in a great area for $150 or so but I am not going
to. Are there jobs there? How are the doctors, etc? I'll stay right here even though it kills me to
pay $3000/mo for a small 1200 sq ft house. People set the prices. If some idiot like me pays the
$350,000 asking price for a ranch, then when someone else sells there house, they look at the comps
and they say that they want the same or more.

Houses are a luxury and not a right (as the Clintons wanted to make it).