Cheaprealty.net

This piece shows what happens to the uninhabited shells after foreclosures move families out. Basically, everything gets trashed, and even when it looks nice on the outside, it can get pretty nasty when people are staying somewhere with the power turned off and none of the facilities working.

Some enterprising squatters are even cleaning places up, changing the locks and renting them out. By the time the banks find out, months could have gone by. And what do banks do about it? Maybe nothing.

Anyone who thinks overbuilding isn't a problem should watch this video. Do city planners make choices that could avoid these kinds of problems?

Courtesy Angy Renter. From the site introduction:

All we hear these days is whining from reckless home borrowers and their banks.

But did you know that renters are 32 percent of American households? And that homes in foreclosure are less than 2 percent?

So why is Congress rushing to bailout high-flying borrowers and their lenders with our tax dollars?

Unfortunately, renters aren't as good at politics as the small
minority of homeowners (and their bankers) who are in trouble. We don't
have lobbyists in Washington, DC. We don't get a tax deduction for our
rent and we don't get sweetheart government loans.

Quite simply, we are just Angry Renters. And now it is our time to be heard: no government bailouts!

This video includes an explanation from a Vancouver realtor (Stephen Bailey) of the US housing crisis that, while simplistic, catches some of the main points. However, the realtor goes on to say that there will not be a housing crisis spilling over into Canada because mortgage lending standards here are much higher, and teaser rates and liar loans are not common here.

I find these assertions debatable at best.

I have to disagree with the conclusion about the impervious nature of the Canadian real estate market - it will be supply and demand that determines what happens with this market, and though the factors mentioned have played a big part in what is happening south of the border, that doesn't mean other factors like forty year amortizations, zero down, buyer exhaustion or simple unaffordability relative to incomes can't accomplish the same thing in Canada, albeit in a different way.

But then, this is a realtor, it's spring, and there is a certain intrinsic optimism no matter what.

On another note, in this bouyant market, how many condos have "investors" placed on the table as poker chips?

Thanks for the video montage on the current housing situation, obsidian2012.

Video montage of mortgage crisis.