Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

A story in today's Seattle Times caught my eye. It's one of those typical economic downturn anecdote stories that have become popular lately.

In this tale, Ron Henson of Kenmore was laid off from WaMu in April 2007, got a contract position at RealNetworks in June 2007, then bought in February 2008.

Surprise surprise, the contract job ended a mere four months later, and now he's running out of money to make the $2,700 a month mortgage.

Hard to believe that even as recently as February people without "permanent" employment were still jumping headfirst into nearly $400k homes and being approved for the mortgage.

Unbelievable, the first thing I did after being laid-off from Amgen was to sell my condo to save money.

Henson may have done right. Because he's in certifiable financial distress, perhaps he'll get the house loan reduced to $200K, compliments of taxpayers. Then he can take a lower-paying job.

On a human level, I do feel sorry for this family. I'm praying for them. On a professional level, it's another story. I am reminded of how flashy most agents and brokers were as recently as earlier this year and insulted anyone who said that we were in a bubble or that the market was not sustainable. Anyone who used a HELOC as a "lifeline" or emergency savings is no different from someone who uses credit cards as an emergency fund. What is really scary is that someone like this was convincing someone else to make the biggest purchase of their lives. I feel sorry for someone who was convinced to buy last year than someone who made a very nice living doing it. They say their savings was gutted. I say they never had a "savings account" to begin with. It would be the same as if I took my AMEX with the 100K limit and said "here's my savings account!"

I don't think it's wise to comment on this story.

Why do you say that, Uber?

There's nothing to say about the sad story. Move on.

Most cryptic post EVER.

I'll comment.

In fact, I'll comment on a comment made by Ron Henson in the comment section of his article.

"The drop in the economy is nothing new, it happens every few years in October during a presidential election. Everyone gets in a uproar about the stocks, their retirement, etc, however we all recover."

Happens every few years?

'nuf said.

But no one told her the property ladder was an A frame!

That last one is easy. Give the keys back and move in with Mom and/or Aunt away from abusive husband.