From the Associated Press:
Foreclosure aid likely to help 4 states mostAs I reported last September, even though the four Sand States (which have 21% of the country's population) accounted for about half the foreclosures, they must have accounted for an even higher proportion of the defaulted dollars, which is the key variable in setting off the world financial crisis. That's because median home prices in California were almost triple that in the rest of the country at the peak of the bubble.
By Alan Zibel
WASHINGTON — The nation's foreclosure crisis is centered in four states. But taxpayers across the country will feel the pain of bailing them out.
California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona generated about half of all foreclosure filings nationwide last year, according to RealtyTrac, even though residents in those states hold just a quarter of U.S. mortgages. Since mid-2007, skyrocketing foreclosures in those states have been magnifying the national rate.
As lawmakers prepare to spend up to $100 billion in financial bailout money on a sweeping foreclosure prevention plan pushed by President-elect Barack Obama, the discrepancy is adding another layer to a problem already confounding economists, politicians and homeowners....Plus, the Sand States have really, really nice weather this time of the year (e.g., it's been sunny and 75 in LA for the past week), which doesn't decrease resentment, let me tell you. So bailout programs mean that fraudulent Sand State homebuyers can continue to sunbathe this winter in their foreclosed backyards, while taxpayers in the rest of the country huddle indoors and pay for them.
The Sunbelt states now in trouble are the same ones that for decades have taken jobs and residents from states in colder climates. Plus, states like California were also breeding grounds for toxic home loans.
... To be sure, not all foreclosures are in the four states dominating the numbers. And not all borrowers acted irresponsibly. Consumer groups say legions of borrowers were duped into loans that they didn't understand, and deserve assistance.To be sure, importing millions of people with grade school educations into the Sand States didn't boost the local average level of financial literacy.
My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer
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28 comments:
Steve you must be chuffed by now.
Yeah, it's been chilly here waking up to 50 something degree weather here in central Florida! But then it has warmed up quickly so the kids have been able to play outside. On the other hand, for the umpteenth time in the past year, I had to dodge garbage and shattered glass while getting on the interstate; I just got a flat tire two months ago because of this. It's such a shame. The city paid thousands from the huge windfall of tax dollars during the housing boom to beautify the place and did a wonderful job, but the root causes of that boom are what's at work causing the ugliness and road hazards. We have gorgeous medians of weeping willows, palm trees, and roses with garbage strewn amongst them.
Steve, from everything I've read, and I live in the heart of the Florida invasion, it's still far worse in southern California.
P.S. We are moving, we just don't know where. How is Ohio? We never seriously considered New England because its so liberal which is annoying at best when you're single, but really not great when you have a family you homeschool, but we're so desperate to get out of here and this recent weather has given us great pause about the northern midwest.
Time for a Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the other 46?
“Financial burden of homeownership spread unequally”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090118/ap_on_bi_ge/housing_thirty_eight_percent
Here’s a prime example of equivocation, which says everything you’ve been saying about the housing crisis (and backed up by many of the same statistics) but manages to say it in just such a way that the blame is turned completely around.
To be sure, importing millions of people with grade school educations into the Sand States didn't boost the local average level of financial literacy.
This is a disgusting and bigoted attitude. But it's not a new attitude. The same old, cranky, bitter, white face has been shown to all immigrants since the founding of America.
But it's all moot now anyway. We won the demographic fight. It's over, and there's no turning back. You anti-immigrant types were backing the wrong horse all along. National borders are the detritus of archaic nation states, and that entire age is coming to an end. We are seeing to it. The borders are being rendered irrelevant because racial-national identity is repugnant to moral people.
But it's not just racial divides that have poisoned our world. The truth is that ethnicity itself is an illegitimate form of self-identification, and in the future our laws will reflect that fact. Reality will reflect that.
We will have a North American Union to go along with the EU. We will have an Asian Union and an African Union. Eventually we will have a Global Union...whether the bigots want it or not.
We are going to heal this world. Whether bitter reactionaries like Steve Sailer want to join us is really not very important. On Tuesday the New American Age begins. And it's not a four year or eight year experiment. This is not a token presidency. This is a complete break from the past. We will see to that.
The crowd on this website will just have to get used to an even more diminished role in the new society. And you'll want to behave yourselves in the future, boys. There will be no place for the sort of hate displayed on this website when we roll out internet 2.0.
Yeah. It's super cold up here in the upper Midwest. Almost unbearable. You wouldn't want to live here. You are much better off where you are.
Red Wine - Your comment is a brilliant piece of satire!
Yep, it was us, I admit it. In fact, two years ago I was working for one of the home builders making the stupid mistakes -- like building scores of inventory homes for all those buyers with magic money that never materialized. Just before my company laid just about all of us off, they had been desperately offering more and more free upgrades to get people to buy their homes. But there is something about the air here, or maybe it's all the salt or sand, that causes brain cells to short out in people from other states. They come here and think they've found the Promised Land because it doesn't snow. But I'll tell you, when it rains it pours. And we have a lot of deadbeats who fled other states that have stricter financial laws.
Like Anonymous, I'm in Central Florida, and like Anon, I'm planning to move up north, probably to St. Louis. I know, but I'm from Miami, so city life doesn't faze me (in fact, I can't live in a small town, I just can't see it), and I'll get my four seasons at last if nothing else. Also, I rent.
Red Wine declared: "We are going to heal this world." You go right ahead. And could you sign me up for one of those tame unicorns while you're at it?
Signed,
Cranky, Bitter, Whiteface
"And you'll want to behave yourselves in the future, boys. There will be no place for the sort of hate displayed on this website when we roll out internet 2.0."
So you are going to see to it we're finally rid of that pesky, old, outdated notion of the Constitutional right to free speech, eh? Well, thank goodness. It's about time!! I'm so glad you came along.
Remember all that talk about enlightened Blue States seceding from Jesusland after the last election that Bush won? Well the Blue States of America just went bankrupt and their Red neighbors are sending tanks.
Well the Blue States of America just went bankrupt and their Red neighbors are sending tanks.
No, the Blue States of America went banrupt and is sending armored cars.
We will have a North American Union to go along with the EU.
Hmm. I thought the left was now opposed to NAFTA and globalization. I haven't heard this old leftwing chestnut for decades.
red wine is simply kidding around. nobody seriously thinks that way. well, maybe some white liberals.
the more effort white liberals put into forcing multi-racialism to "work", the more advantage the east asians nations get.
at this point i don't understand how politicians in white nations can avoid this cold, hard reality. they have to really delude themselves, truly censor their own thoughts, to not notice that ethnically homogenous east asian nations are the ones now producing economically succesful industry and technology.
it's as if modern american politicians actually think that turning the US into brazil will not only keep it competitive, but improve it. they refuse, positively refuse, to even glance at the evidence here. add some mexicans, add some muslims, affirmative action for africans! this is how japan is winning! this is how china is beating us! open the borders! do like the asians do and turn your nations into random jumbles of people from everywhere!
diversity is the reason toyota surpassed GM! better hire more muslims at GM! get more mexicans working for GM! let the africans design all the cars. that's how toyota does it! if intel doesn't start letting more africans design CPUs, we'll sue them! make a "rooney rule" for intel! not enough black head scientists at intel!
I never thought that the dissolution of the US was possible in my lifetime. Would of considered the idea absurd even ten years ago. Now, I'm not so sure.
It's clear to me that the country is going through another "Great Awakening." The piety, the sanctimony, the social activism, the blood thirst of the most religious all qualify the movement as a rider on much older, deeper currents.
The messianic imagery conferred on politicians, the calls for penitence directed towards unbelievers by believers, the anti-science, anti-rationality positions of the believers' spiritual leaders, the myths and power distortions, and on and on and on. Progressives have always been the generators of these wild-eyed movements and almost always, a given "awakening" has ended in warfare or social destruction, with a new order rising from the ashes of physical violence.
I believe that's where we're headed. The intellectual seeds were harvested from the holocaust, were planted in the sixties, were fertilized with wave after wave of low IQ immigration during the last three decades and now are grown tall with the media's outright manipulation of the public, a manipulation in service to the calling: a deeply felt duty of the pious. The forest and the trees are now unified in perception.
I'm a nearly life long resident of Los Angeles. I love the climate. I like urban life and live in its center. I fondly remember when CA functioned and I remember the series of events that have led to our current state of absolute dysfunction. I see nothing on the horizon to stop this train from rolling, let alone something to slow it down. Red Wine should hope he doesn't get what he's wishing for, not that there's a ghost of chance of converting a believer. The actual on-the-ground reality of widespread urban violence is unimaginable to most Americans.
I, on the other hand, have seen such chaos up close, want no part of it and am considering my options to avoid it this time around as the scale will be several orders of magnitude beyond anything seen before. Ohio may look good from that vantage point.
What's with the CPU usage on this site? I'll tell you, it makes me less inclined to open up the site itself and more just to read the content in the RSS feed, meaning fewer ad views for you. But perhaps it's the ads that make the site slow.
"Ohio may look good from that vantage point."
Leave soon. I'm serious. You too Steve...
"legions of borrowers were duped into loans that they didn't understand, and deserve assistance."
Yes, we should assist them to move back into the rental market, which they never should have left in the first place.
-ed
Why have places like California, Arizona, New Mexico not collapsed completely? how long do they have to exist as part of America before Mexico stakes its new claim?
Those Midwest Cold States that are paying for the Mexicans' homes somehow don't understand the destruction to their way of life from liberalism. Every state in the Big Ten voted for Obama. I like to think when Republicans rise again, it will be in the heartland, but how are they so stupid now? I mean you - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana.
John said...
" Why have places like California, Arizona, New Mexico not collapsed completely? how long do they have to exist as part of America before Mexico stakes its new claim?"
There is a hidden irony in liberalism. As libs get what they so desperately want, they balk at the result and move out. You won't believe how many liberals moved out of South Africa once that place went ANC, which they helped engineer. So now liberals in Calif can become citizens of drug-gang plagued Mexico. Ain't it sweet.
" I mean you - Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana."
I live in Ohio, and I know that this state won't be voting Republican for a long time to come. No Southern Senator complained last week when Bank of America was quietly bailed out for $20 billion, but they raised a giant stink the entire month of December when the auto industry was asking for $16 billion in loans.
I actually did vote for McCain, but this debacle makes me glad the GOP lost.
As far as weather goes, I live in Toledo and zero degree weather (let alone minus Fahrenheit) is relatively uncommon. In fact before this year, I don't remember having been out and about in that kind of weather. More typically the daytime temps in January are in the 20's, which is manageable if you put a coat on.
If you want slightly warmer, go to Cincinnati which has a very strong economy, daytime temps above freezing, and not a whole lot of snow.
I'm not sure if 'Red Wine' is a genuine open borders enthusiast, a troll out to wind people up or a WN in disguise trying to illicit some passion.
I plump for the latter option.
Red Wine-
Bravo! lol!
'Oh lord, please don't let me be...'
I set the line on whether Red Wine's screed was serious or trolling/parody as even. If it's the latter that line makes it A+ whether as troll or parody. The last line inclines me toward T/P. There aren't that many folks that would actually like to ban sites from the Internet in the United States. I think. I hope. Most of the folks who think like that have emigrated up here to Canada and are working for our human rights commissions.
red wine is simply kidding around. nobody seriously thinks that way. well, maybe some white liberals.
"Heal the world" was the clincher.
Toral,
living in Germany, where there are stringent laws against incitement and racial issues, usually levelled at native Germans, I got nervous reading Red Wine's screed.
Good one, Red Wine. The best part was the nod to the Permanent Revolution.
I assumed Red Wine was a parody, superb job.
Its a shame it wasnt Red Whine, then we could be 100% sure.
If the weather is an issue, then you can likely find a still amenable home in Texas somewhere (certainly parts that are still cheap and conservative and relatively warm). If culture is issue, then parts of Ohio make sense. Perhaps if you are a writer like John Scalzi and can work anywhere...
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