Check out your local OTB - especially on a weekday.
When they lose, they barrel outside for a butt and a some profanity.
When they win, they just parlay the proceeds onto a future loser.
I know somebody who bought a terrible house, in a terrible state (Massachusetts), in a terrible 'hood, at a terrible price (the top).
Amazingly, to the immense astonishment of my wife and I, they just sold their house.
Who the bleep could have possibly bought it, for any price, never mind for a price that didn't make them *bring substantial money to the table*.
For the past four years they lamented how they were *stuck* in what turned out to be far from their dream home.
They, as far as we know, certainly do not have the means to go into their pockets and take what just had to be a decent-sized loss.
Maybe they just got really lucky. Someone happened to really want their property - perhaps to expand an adjacent lot or whatnot. Who knows?
Whatever it was, it was a miraculous thing for them to be rid of that house.
So, what did they do with that good fortune?
THEY JUST BOUGHT ANOTHER HOUSE, in what I think is also a terrible area.
Why not just rent for a year and probably save $50,000-$75,000 when this economy spirals down the toilet? THERE IS ZERO RISK IN RENTING IN THIS MARKET.
Another thing, the breadwinner in that family is 50 years old. Would you give them a 30 year mortgage? What's their income going to be like for the second half of the note?
[For those of you unaware, right now, the middle tier of the housing market around Boston is only down, maybe, 10-15% from its 2005-2006 peak. Yet incomes, bonuses, stock portfolios, and prospects are down substantially more. Note that Florida houses are currently trading 60-70% down from their apex.]
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