Wealthy in a crunch, should we be buying them lunch?

posted by Bill Arnett @ 1:52 PM Permalink

From an article in Reuters titled, "Wealthy may be next in line in U.S. home crisis," comes this interesting tidbit:

A house in this wealthy Chicago suburb is far beyond the reach of most Americans.

Unfortunately, Hinsdale may also now be too expensive for some of the people who already live here.

“There is a section of the population here that over-extended themselves to buy here and then keep up the facade of wealth,” said Sharon Sodikoff, a broker associate at the local real estate agency Prudential Home Life. “In the next year so they’ll be forced out in dribs and drabs.”[…]

But even here, far from the housing crisis’ epicenter, high earners with good credit may be heading for trouble as their adjustable rate mortgages (ARMS) adjust beyond their means, local real estate agents and others say. In a normal housing market they’d be able to sell, but now they are stuck.[…]

Real estate agents warn that some high-income borrowers have already been forced to sell or leave their homes and more will follow. Especially those who used their homes as ATMs, withdrawing cash via home equity loans.

“For those who utilized home equity loans for five to ten years to finance their lifestyle, the chickens are coming home to roost,” said Chicago-based real estate agent Mark Lemons.

I had no idea America's wealthy were losing their asses in this subprime crisis!

Maybe we can take up a collection at all homeless shelters, unemployment, and welfare offices to help them out in this, their time of need.

For in America, when the rich suffer, we all suffer. Let's pray they will get their taxes lowered again so they can support the lifestyle that every rich person deserves. After all, they are better people than we peons are and so much more deserving of the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.

Pardon me while I wipe the tears from my eyes at just the thought of them losing their well-over million dollar second homes. However will Buffy and Skip make do playing tennis with second-hand rackets at Daddy's country club?

I feel their pain, don't you?

Labels: capitalism, consumerism, Economy, foreclosures, subprime loans