patrick.net

Boo freaking hoo, our houses wont be retirement plan "A".

We're still along ways off from droves of emigrating former middle class folk traversing the US looking for work in their "Beverly Hill Billies" mobile, in ragged tattered dirty clothes.

I'm loadin' the family into the car and headin' out to Californie, heard there was work out there.

Like it was unexpected, huh? Emotions= everything is behind us,Reality(natural law economics)=home price correction where it belongs.

I don't think you can compare the two.

Great Depression - people living on the streets, standing in bread lines.

Housing Crash - banks got bailed out and squatters living rent free for 5 years straight.

It's nowhere near as bad.

StoutFiles says

I’m loadin’ the family into the car and headin’ out to Californie, heard there was work out there.

RE rush, not Gold rush. Yeah, let go to CA there are plenty of RE investment opportunities.

ChrisLA says

I don’t think you can compare the two.
Great Depression - people living on the streets, standing in bread lines.
Housing Crash - banks got bailed out and squatters living rent free for 5 years straight.
It’s nowhere near as bad.

It would be if we had the same free market policies in place right now as we did during the Depression.

ChrisLA says

I don’t think you can compare the two.
Great Depression - people living on the streets, standing in bread lines.
Housing Crash - banks got bailed out and squatters living rent free for 5 years straight.

Hmmm, I dunno, Hoovervilles are with us now the just look different. I think what you lack is an ability to SEE the homeless and people begging for food or picking it up at community pantries. Our media excels in bombarding us with imagery of everything EXCEPT the poverty in our midst.

Tenouncetrout says

Boo freaking hoo, our houses wont be retirement plan “A”.
We’re still along ways off from droves of emigrating former middle class folk traversing the US looking for work in their “Beverly Hill Billies” mobile, in ragged tattered dirty clothes.

I thought I was harsh!

Vicente says

Hmmm, I dunno, Hoovervilles are with us now the just look different. I think what you lack is an ability to SEE the homeless and people begging for food or picking it up at community pantries. Our media excels in bombarding us with imagery of everything EXCEPT the poverty in our midst.

The homelessness rate now is nowhere compared to what it was in the GD. Your typical family in foreclosure enjoys over 500 days of rent-free living, more than enough time to build savings since even unemployment assistance will cover all living costs beyond the mortgage (which isn't being paid). The narrative of "the evil bank puts innocent victims on the street to rot and die" has been dispelled for quite a while.

klarek says

our typical family in foreclosure enjoys over 500 days of rent-free living, more than enough time to build savings since even unemployment assistance will cover all living costs beyond the mortgage (which isn’t being paid).

Clearly these people are not squatting in their foreclosure:

I dunno, I think the more things change the more they stay the same. People in the 1930's went to glitzy musical movies to escape their desperate lives. But in their newspapers they sometimes looked into the face of poverty. We actively avoid it in all forums these days.

Vicente says

Hoovervilles are with us now the just look different

Oh come on, that's just a Phish festival

Vicente says

klarek says

our typical family in foreclosure enjoys over 500 days of rent-free living, more than enough time to build savings since even unemployment assistance will cover all living costs beyond the mortgage (which isn’t being paid).

Clearly these people are not squatting in their foreclosure:

I dunno, I think the more things change the more they stay the same. People in the 1930’s went to glitzy musical movies to escape their desperate lives. But in their newspapers they sometimes looked into the face of poverty. We actively avoid it in all forums these days.
“Eagles are dandified vultures” - Teddy Roosevelt

I wasn't meaning to belittle people who are living in tents. It really sucks. I just don't think it's comparable to the great depression. The article is using housing prices as the measuring stick for how "depression-like" we are these days. Better to take a look at how those without a college education are coping with their ~20% unemployment. THAT is the real tragedy, and our only solution to date is they need to have college loans crammed down their throats.

klarek says

I just don’t think it’s comparable to the great depression. The article is using housing prices as the measuring stick for how “depression-like” we are these days.

Then as now, people put a lot of valued on their "slice of the American Dream". So when you lost your house or farm and found yourself doubling up with parents, or renting, or in worst case just moving around looking for bits of work, it was a huge blow to the American ego. I don't think has changed really all that much. If anything it's worse this time around, because we didn't even get the gratification of seeing the bankers brought low for their perfidy. There are fewer people standing in soup lines but some of that is structural, when we offer food aid to people we do it through food stamps and small local pantry efforts which do not beget stirring photos like the factory-style operations they ran back then.