Short sales soar... - Posted by Dave(WA)

Posted by ben (oh) on October 08, 2003 at 13:16:02:

I have to agree with your thoughts. the bubble will occur in the hot markets–AZ, NEV, Jersey and other hot retail markets. our company has been doing short sales for three years and we can’t keep up. there is plenty of pain to go around.

Short sales soar… - Posted by Dave(WA)

Posted by Dave(WA) on October 07, 2003 at 15:48:21:

This interesting article appears in today’s Seattle Times. For quite some time, it’s been a very hot market in Seattle, and it seems that now the market is starting to cool off somewhat.
I found the increase of 50% to be astounding.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2001760336_shortsales07.html

Re: Short sales soar… - Posted by eric-fl

Posted by eric-fl on October 07, 2003 at 17:08:17:

I found this part to be most telling:

"The woman, who didn’t want her name used because she’s embarrassed, said she and her husband earned more than $200,000 a year, lived in a 3,200-square-foot custom-built home on an acre, and bought a new car every year.

Then her husband took a pay cut to save his job, and they couldn’t keep up with the bills. The couple divorced, and he filed for bankruptcy, leaving her with three kids and two mortgages."

Take a picture of this scenario, and cement it in your head folks. Because you’re going to see it repeated many times over, in some variation or another, over these next few years. I’m not crying “bubble”, because that would mean EVERYONE would have to have troubles, all at the same time - but I think, unfortunately, there will be many families that endure just this same level of hardship, due to a profound lack of planning. Hopefully, as investors, we’ll all be able to help ease the pain somewhat. (And yes, profit too, but I’m not relishing their misfortune- kind of like Family Law attorneys doing well - usually good for them, bad for society…)