[UIUCstudent01]

Are these houses just going to be empty then? Strange that. (Unless there are willing buyers at lower prices?)

[MD]

It's just a silly construct. Reality will be much different. At some level, evictions become nearly pointless, probably when the mortgage holders go into default themselves, adding another layer (or two, or three) between the occupant and the lein holder. Right now it takes six to nine months from default to eviction in my town. i can see that easily increasing to several years just from processing time alone.

[tivoli]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MD', 'I')t's just a silly construct. Reality will be much different. At some level, evictions become nearly pointless, probably when the mortgage holders go into default themselves, adding another layer (or two, or three) between the occupant and the lein holder. Right now it takes six to nine months from default to eviction in my town. i can see that easily increasing to several years just from processing time alone.

[cat]

I just read this article and found it very interesting. Fallows outlines a collapse of the US economy not necessairly based upon the peaking of oil, but the collapse of our scheme with China where they provide us with the money to buy products that they manufacture. Add in the housing bubble and oil shocks and wa la - economic meltdown. I've been following with great interest the recent thread by Ibon on this forum about the US not collapsing under peak oil. I find it interesting that some are predicting an economic collapse with oil as only one component, and am wondering what others on this site are thinking of this. If you add in the factors in Fallows article on top of peak oil, it is difficult to see a way out, at least in the short term.

[I_Like_Plants]

Very good article, the Atlantic's a good mag.

I think the auto industries are going to collapse sooner than forcast in it, their profit on SUVs is already showing signs of going away.

I think the average foreclosed homeowner is either going to (a) take off if they have somewhere better to go, or (b) stay there and greet the banker's rep with a shotgun - and probably the support of the rest of the neighborhood. And what are the banks going to do with houses they'll now own if no one's buying? Houses quickly deteriorate when no one's living in them, so while officially forclosed they may well unofficially let the foreclosed people squat in 'em unitil a buyer is found. Some decade.

[Barbara]

4 years ago, when Argentina went bankrupt, there were thousands of empty houses in Buenos Aires and thousands of middle class families thrown to live in the streets.
Scary thought.

[Claudia]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')4 years ago, when Argentina went bankrupt, there were thousands of empty houses in Buenos Aires and thousands of middle class families thrown to live in the streets.

[Chocky]

Yep, I hardly think the bank is going to start giving people houses for free.

[Barbara]

Think this way: when policemen and public officers will begin to lose their homes, do you think they'll be so glad to help banks to pull you out of your home?