The Straight Story (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 06:04 PM
Original message
Was reading today about how some million+ dollar homes in Vegas are being foreclosed on - not because the owners cannot afford it but because the value of the home is less than what was originally paid. It noted that about 70% of homes in Vegas are 'underwater'.
I am linking to a video I made of my mom a few months after she died - it shows glimpses of the home she lived in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGOq-M1dFHw
Grandma and Grandpa paid $3000 for it. They raised their kids there. Had wonderful Sunday dinners. Saw grand kids and great grand kids in that home. Weddings, funerals (back in the day they showed the body at home. Mom's real dad died when she was 7 and he was shown in the living room, she always remembered him laying there in the coffin with two coins on his eyes - she was 7 at the time).
Blah, blah, blah, Grandpa, Grandma, endless blah.
I grew up with that sort of American dream. Have a place to call home, raise a family, etc. Now homes have become houses, where the cash value means more than personal value. We keep replacing one thing for another always trying to trade up and make more money and have more and more.
Grandma had the same dishes as long as I could remember, and the same furniture. She would buy some new clothes here and there, a car if need be, etc. Throw away things like cell phones and such were just not around back then - when you bought something you expected it to last for years. From furniture to radios and TV's.
Now it almost seems that 'homes' have become something we feel the need to replace and upgrade every few years, and thus we tie a lot to the financial worth of said places.
Personally I think many, somewhere inside at least, want that old simple dream. A home. A place to call their own where they can watch their kids grow up and make memories in.
A house is made of brick and stone, but a home is made of love alone. A plaque that says that still hangs here in the kitchen.
Maybe the American dream has changed over the years, maybe now it is about getting a house and trading it every few years for a bigger and better one.
For me, bigger and better is something I am glad I did not grow up around - I grew up around family, love, and a place we knew we could always go to and be around family and friends. And bigger and better meant that this Sunday dinner had a bigger Turkey and better dessert than last week.
http://www.conservativecave.com/index.php?action=post;board=10.0 This proves that coming from a decent and civilized background isn't a guarantee that you're not a worthless deadbeat like The Straight Story. Wonder if he's still taking donations for that skydiving trip, while waiting for his SSDI approval?
ixion (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 06:11 PM
Response to Original message
2. Yeah, I've never found McMansions 'homey'
They're cold, poorly built pieces of crap, really.
Spoken exactly like one who could never afford the utilities for a nice home.
virgogal (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 06:34 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Your grandparents had a 2 story brick colonial,mine rented a flat
in a 3 decker.
That makes DUmmy virgogal a better democrat than you'll ever be.
Curmudgeoness (1000+ posts) Sun May-15-11 06:37 PM
Response to Original message
4. I'm home now. I live in the home my parents first bought.
I came back here when my father was sick and mom couldn't take care of him alone. I stayed after he passed away and bought my sister's[sic] out when mom passed away. And it is home and it is all I need.
I am glad, though, that banks did not foreclose years ago just because the house was underwater (I am not even sure I believe this). I bought a house in Houston in 1980. The economy cratered shortly after that. At one point, my house was worth less than half of what I owed. But I never thought that they would take the house from me for that reason as long as I still paid the mortgage. And they would have been stupid to do that---half the houses on my block were foreclosed because people lost their jobs and they couldn't sell or maintain what they already had. But who knows, the bankers do not appear to be the brightest bulbs on the tree.
DUmmy Curmudgeoness, in addition to using an apostrophe for a plural, thinks mortgages are being foreclosed because they're underwater. She gave a clue that she's stupid, then proved it.
And how did anyone get 50% underwater in the 1980 slump? In addition to being stupid, she lies.
