For Your Reading Pleasure

[haha]

Real estate's happy horror stories - Los Angeles Times

 

[CuppaJoe]

Real estate's happy horror stories - Los Angeles Times

Don't know if that word-of-the-day, debtenfreude, will catch on, spell check doesn't recognize it yet.

 

[freebird5825]

I'm watching a horror story develop right next door.
A young couple, in their 30s (max), bought a single level ranch with full basement about 4 years ago. House is late 1970s vintage.
The house (as listed) was way overpriced for this area. One of their mothers was the RE agent, so maybe they got an OK deal.
Last year they had the derelict in-ground pool filled in and concrete apron removed, and put in a permanent above ground pool. They also got a pure-bred beagle dog.
They just recently fully resided the house, tore out all the carpet, threw out some pretty ratty furniture, replaced all the windows, did some minor landscaping...holy moley! Grass is cut by someone else, not the owners.
Funny thing is the roof is beyond replacement age and furnace chimney is falling apart.
I think they both w*rk, but this is not a high income area.
Windfall? HE loan? They don't socialize with any of us neighbors, so I can't ask. I have to content myself as being the "nosy neighbor" from a distance.

 

[DAYDREAMER]

I'm totally guilty of debtenfreude! It's about time people pay the piper, and seeing forsale signs on all the Cadillac Escalades and the huge bling houses makes me smug and very judgemental. Does that make me a bad person? Probably. Oh well,

 

[CuppaJoe]

I .... Does that make me a bad person? ....

Who am I to judge you? That's one part of religious training that will never go away.

How to work debtenfreude into every conversation? That is the question.

 

[DangerMouse]

Poor Edmund Andrews, is his nightmare ever going to go away? Here he thought he was onto a sure winner by writing a book on how the banks screwed him and was certain to give him lots of sympathy, instead he's held up as being a total twat and a symbol for those who lived way beyond their means.

 

[Texas Proud]

Poor Edmund Andrews, is his nightmare ever going to go away? Here he thought he was onto a sure winner by writing a book on how the banks screwed him and was certain to give him lots of sympathy, instead he's held up as being a total twat and a symbol for those who lived way beyond their means.

Which he is....

But then again, the thinking that got him in his problem is also probably the same thinking that most would be on his side... against those evil bankers...

 

[Nords]

Poor Edmund Andrews, is his nightmare ever going to go away? Here he thought he was onto a sure winner by writing a book on how the banks screwed him and was certain to give him lots of sympathy, instead he's held up as being a total twat and a symbol for those who lived way beyond their means.

I'll bet it hurts so badly that he has to have someone else deposit the royalty checks...

 

[Bestwifeever]

From the article:

But massive price reductions on a house down the street from me have left a lot of us in the neighborhood gloating. A hulking McMonstrosity that's jaw-droppingly out of place among the modest bungalows that surround it, the house was clearly intended by its owner/builder to be a cash cow. But it's been sitting empty for nearly two years since it was finished, and the price just continues to drop.

Are we total jerks for enjoying the show? Well, sort of. But we can't help it: We have debtenfreude. A sub-category of schadenfreude, that ever-useful German word that means taking pleasure in other people's suffering, debtenfreude is among the latest outgrowths of the economic meltdown.

One problem with feeling this gloatatiousness about a house in one's own neighborhood is that one's own property is also affected by a hulking monstrosity that has been on the market for 2 years (with perhaps a lack of maintenance to boot).

 

[DangerMouse]

I'll bet it hurts so badly that he has to have someone else deposit the royalty checks...

Would he be making a lot in royalties? I am seriously curious, so if anyone knows what an author would expect to make on his first book I would be interested. I went to Amazon to check to see how his book is faring and it appears since the early furore those who review are leaving it alone and it's languishing at 19,000+ on the best sellers list.