B-Rant

- submitted by Linda Keenan on 01/29/2008

Housing Meltdown: "Smart" People Do The Stupidest Things

Contributing Writer: Linda Keenan*

Think all the folks out there saddled with toxic mortgages are vulnerable, uneducated, and deserving of empathy, emergency bailouts, and a belated holiday gift of lower interest rates from the Fed? Here’s a random collection of notable quotes from people in suburbia I know, along with their educational provenance, and/or current profession**:

1. “My mortgage broker totally screwed me over. How did I find him? Oh, he was this really cute guy who worked on the corner.” (Cornell University, interior designer.)

2. “We did the deal. FINALLY. How much? 700K.” Neither spouse had a full-time job, trust fund, or significant savings for a down-payment. (Harvard University, financial reporter.)

3. “We don’t have any debt. Just car and mortgage payments.” Cars: matching SUV’s. House: 5800 square feet. (Barnard College, well-known blogger who often counsels women on independence and identity.)

4. “Just do it. Everyone does it. House prices never go down. You have a new baby. Just do it.” Advice to me not taken, thankfully, to buy a house back in 2004. (Columbia University, software engineer, whose own house is down, oh, 12 percent in value since advising us to buy, buy now!)

5. “I guess 5 bedrooms maybe was too much. It’s not like we have kids or anything.”
(Bowdoin College, producer of a real estate television program.)

Do you have any notable quotables from the over-educated and under-financed? Or any other tales of financial stupidity? I'd love hearing them in the comment section!

* Linda Keenan worked 7 years as a head writer/senior producer for various programs on CNN. Before that, she worked as a writer/producer for Bloomberg TV. She now writes satire, primarily about parenting culture, at www.thoroughlymodernmommy.blogspot.com

[**Editor's Note: This piece is a companion to Linda's recent Burbia column on the plummeting housing market & economy and who's to blame. Hint: Look in the mirror. Check it out here.] ...read more rants

• Get it off your chest

A friend told me her family

- submitted by Anonymous on 01/29/2008

A friend told me her family could afford a new house because, "my sister just got one and, if she can so can we." Her sister's husband inherited $5 million not so long ago. i don't know what's wrong her orr what she's thinking.

don't want to sound like a

- submitted by finclplanner on 01/29/2008

don't want to sound like a snob but 700K isn't so outrageous. you take out a mortgage, do some down payment. a harvard graduate financial reporter could get a full-time job if she needed it.

Funny stuff especially in

- submitted by Anonymous on 01/29/2008

Funny stuff especially in sad way.

“We don’t have any debt.

- submitted by alwayslooking on 01/29/2008

“We don’t have any debt. Just car and mortgage payments.” Wow. Which Barnard did she go to, barnard community college?

housing crunch

- submitted by jusmcmv on 01/30/2008

I do inspections on late and foreclosed mortgages in se mass. The impact is across the board in the area. Well off to not well off are getting hit. It is sad what we have allowed as a society to go unpunished in the mortgage market. These lenders were just greedy and in no way helping those who needed it the most. Jail them all and this wont happen nearly as much in the future. Oh put them in tents in the desert in Arizone.

Under educated , BUT smart

- submitted by Anonymous on 01/30/2008

I barely graduated high school, (I seem to have a minor learning problem). But I bought a nice house, AND had it paid for in 4 and a half years. I might not have been handed the intellectual gifts may people were, but nobody ever called ME stupid!

Educated Idiots

- submitted by Jim B on 01/30/2008

The majority of the baby boomers are college graduates. They have no excuse for the trouble they are in. They wanted a big house, 3 cars all the toys. I have been buying and selling houses for over 35 years. I had to pay 20% down and never took out a loan longer than 15 years. I never graduated from HS. At one time I had 35 rentals, bought cheap, remodeled, rented and sold for a profit after the renters paid for it. If I could read a contract and understand it what was wrong with the college grads. As an example of whats wrong: Star, Idaho, 10acres, 2500 sq ft house, 3B, 2B. $30 Million. Hell, if I was going to pay that I would buy a 10,000 acre ranch and have something that would pay for itself. Figure it out, when a baby is born we hand it a $300,000 debt. God help our grandkids.

Not entitled

- submitted by LJ on 01/30/2008

The dirty secret is that, in spite of what liberals want you to believe, everybody does NOT deserve to own a home. The truth is, many simply cannot afford the mortgage, upkeep, taxes and other bills. There are rentals for a reason. Telling people otherwise is a lie. The government needs to put in lending rules and the bankers who keep pushing these half assed mortgages should be sent to jail. It affects everyone who owns a home by depressing prices, not just the people with a bad credit rating. Everyone should be forced to put 20% down, and it will then take the speculators right out of the market. Thats also much of what has caused this destabilization. Builders doing construction for speculators.

Simple answer..... GREED!

- submitted by Anonymous on 01/31/2008

Simple answer..... GREED!

700K IS outrageous indeed...

- submitted by Wolfster on 01/31/2008

It's outrageous when you don't even have a job. You don't sound like a snob; you sound like a fool. For the truly stupid: Job first - THEN mortgage. Job first - THEN mortgage. How do you know what you can afford when you don't even know what your friggin' income is? Sheesh. All I know is I don't want to pay more taxes to support a program that bails out some idiot who bought a ridiculously oversized, overpriced house so he could play snob.