I don't think anyone realizes the severity of the foreclosure crisis.
My three bedroom condo was purchased for 230,000.00 in Las Vegas. After foreclosure, it is selling for 62,000. How can that happen?
I started looking at the listings in my old neighborhood-on the east side of Las Vegas .
I discovered many foreclosed homes which once belonged to my friends, many neighbors, friends from daughter's elementary school-and they all have a story.
Neighboring homes I watched go up-bold and big-foreclosed. . Many jobs have been lost in Las Vegas -this story is all about how close we are to the edge when the jobs are gone. It is recommended we save at least six months expenses in case of emergency. How many of you can afford to save six months income?
While so many point fingers and claim buyers should have been more responsible, the culture of Las Vegas does not encourage responsibility-in fact it's predicated on taking people's money for no other reason than "that's entertainment". Home ownership in a community touting taking chances seemed like a lifeline to so many people. A real stake in a community. A sense of belonging in a town that offers more to outsiders than to resident families.
One of the houses up for sale belonged to a man who recently passed away. He left a young wife who worked in a casino and was laid off shortly after he died. His daughter and son , both very very bright students, on the verge of attending college. He literally built his house, over time, adding a pool, (which he put in with help from friends), did all the landscaping over a period of five years, completely redid the outside of his home and added rooms. He was an amazing man.
His wife and children lost everything.
Another one belonged to a builder who went in bankruptcy.
Two, in the neighborhood of my daughter's former elementary school belonged to families we saw every day .
Another belonged to a another family . Not only did they lose the house- they lost the family business.
One luxury home took years to build. It has never been lived in. Someone bought it, lost their job and the home went back to the bank.
I had four neighbors next to me in the town home I lived in and all homes are now in foreclosure and up for sale.
One neighbor on one side of me cared for his elderly mother -, another owned by a man who worked out of town frequently (his mother lived in it until she was laid off from the casino) and another a rental unit owned by an investor.
It is so easy to see these homes impersonally and make judgements.
The press keeps trying to get a line on real stories, with real people, with real foreclosures-
If you ask people who have lost homes, they don't crow about how they "got over" on the system.
Most had a dream. The dream of buying a house isn't about value or making money. Most people will tell you it is about roots and stability. Home ownership is about belonging to a community.
There is still a fair amount of shame connected to foreclosure.
Where is the shame of a government-on all levels-so disengaged it refuses to provide a basic level of services to citizens?
Where budget planning is decided on the backs of the teachers and the state workers?
Where small businesses go belly up but large corporations pay no taxes?
If Nevada is the future it is frightening. I rip it to shreds for the level of anger and disgust the libertarians lash out with in response to suggestions for making the state a citizen friendly place to live-but
what I am discovering is a similar disassociation in other cities-large and small.
We don't seem to see ourselves connected to one another anymore.
As big a nation as we are-our personal sense of community and civic identity is shrinking, behind closed, locked doors, walled in communities and barred windows.
What is happening?
