Wow. The housing market is really crazy now. People have stopped eating to pay mortgage

Hey hey that's the LA I know!

 Why get rid of the cell phone, cable, internet, spinners and the sclade when you can go to the food bank.

Maybe I am just a little cynical but I think for every one person that is truly on hard times there are five more just scamming the system.

How many of them have 2nd/3rd jobs?

Too busy waiting in line at the food bank to get a second job.

They are also too busy writing to CNNMONEY.COM with their Sob story. "Oh god, times are tough, we had to get rid of our second car...the horror. Now we eat out only once a week instead of everyday. I don't know how we are going to make it and afford our $1 million house."

Shrug.

Hopefully they take off their designer duds and play down their look to blend in with the folks who really need assistance. 

MY trip to McDs was so great the other day: the drive thru guy spoke perfect English, the guy who took my money was courtesy and thanked us and the guy who gave us our food was too, spoke clearly, and was obviously bent on doing a job well done.    The two men at the windows were WASPy looking guys, yes times are a changing. 

National Public Radio (NPR) played an "interest story" over the weekend about a family in Altadena that was making over $100k per year last year, but he was a loan officer and she was in a mortgage office, and neither has had any income since January.  He is looking for a new job, they stopped paying their mortgage in January, they have a newborn child that she is now staying at home to take care of.  They have already gone through all $20k of their savings.  They are trying to learn the ways of the foodbank and how to stretch things out through the month, using parishables first.  She states she had never used canned goods before and used to buy all organic at Trader Joes and Whole Foods.  Now they are just greatful to have something.

The foodbank people mentioned hundreds of new customers each month.  Economic times here for many people is much worse than it looks.

Perhaps, if the family from Altadena sold their house and downsized to a small apartment, they wouldn't be in this jam?

Whatever happened to saving for a rainy day and living below your means?

i heard a financial planner's opinion the other day, keep in mind this man gets paid to plan out people's finances... his thoughts went something like this:

save enough that should you fall on hard times, you can survive untill you are back on your feet(6months, 8 during recession), max out iras and get full employer match if avail, then blow your money for fear of the dreaded inflation... if you are saving every month and you dont need to, you are wasting your money... where was this, oh yes now i remember, my bank was holding a webinar with some of their on-staff CFAs who offer free financial advice to all the bank's clients... i was rolling my eyes for the solid 2 hrs

>The two men at the windows were WASPy looking guys, yes times are a changing. <

In the long run, college educated people working McDs is a bad thing.

Hey, when the tech bubble burst I was down to delivering pizza for a living.  Even then, I took my normal approach and was netting 42K a year post tax.  I now am back to making 6 figures with a single job, but you do what you have to....... no wait, you don't.  People like this anoy the living c*** out of me.

It's not just the property values that are affecting most americans.  When you combine it with gas @ over $4.00 per gallon and the heating bills are coming this winter.

Unless someone comes up with a realistic way to stabilize energy prices the future american landscape is likley to look more like our european friends across the pond. Homes closer to public transportation are likely to have higher values.  Homes will be smaller to keep energy prices down. 

Kinda sounds like what many empty nesters already want for their retired years.  Who is going to buy all the big homes that go for sale as the bulk of baby boomers retire & downsize?

Financeme,  it is everything about our SuperSized society.  Have 2-3 kids. surely you need an SUV that seats 12.  Want that extra 800 sq feet, add 30 minutes to your commute, no one cares.  I see all the "crisis" as payback for the majority of people that thumbed their nose at conservative values.  Forget religion and morality, I am talking fiscal conservatism.  You reap what you sow.

Who is going to buy all the big homes that go for sale as the bulk of baby boomers retire & downsize?

Good point.  McMansions have somewhat become "functionally obsolescent".  To tell you the truth, I don't know if that trend will ever come back.  I mean, how many of these type of homes were built, and bought out of pure speculation?  And how long will it take for speculation to return to the market?  I don't know if the rampant speculation that we saw during the boom years will ever return.  I don't see an issue with the way homes are valued over the pond.  It's how it used to be here.  This is why when giving advice for someone who is buying now to look at what the area has to offer.  The overdeveloped, under serviced areas that popped up in 04-06 will be less likely to have their value ever return.

Not to mention the 3-500 dollar a month energy bills for these crapshacks will turn off any long term buyers

Is this the FDA's new 'Fractional Reserve Food system'?  Designed to help save the housing market, right?

"You reap what you sow."

If not in this life, certainly in the next.

The Altadena family WAS living within their means up through November of last year.  But the bottom fell out of their professions, the bottom fell out of the housing market so they couldn't sell for what they owed, and their savings was not enough to meet expenses.  They already stopped paying the mortgage, so "renting" would have been more expensive.

It takes a while to readjust a budget if the income goes from $8.3k per month to $0.  And likely they kept thinking some loans would be written and commissions would come in.

Even without a house payment, there are other manditory expenses, and many of these are hard to get at lower rates, such as healthcare, especially for a newborn.

Try it sometime.  Whatever your monthly expenses are now, cut them to zero by next month.  It is not as simple as it looks.

So what?  I had a thriving business and the bottom fell out of the Tech market.  My profession was flooded with people willing to work for pennies on the dollar.  As I said, I delievered pizza to get by and still consulted on the side.  6-8 hours a day, 6 days a week closing as a driver netted me about 42K a year AFTER TAX in 2001 dollars.  I "invested" in an old beater for $700 bucks that got almost 30 MPG, no AC, marginal heat, but it made my work so much mroe profitable.

America is the land of oportunity, suck it up and get humping.  You do what you have to, there is work out there.

What is this quote from...I've heard it before:

"Our grandparents had a different word for flipping burgers...it was called OPPORTUNITY"

Exactly!

Not everyone qualifies for pizza delivery, there is a glut of applicants for the same positions, and if one is skilled in a profession, one usually assumes the workload will pick up if one just does some outreach.  You can't be spending time doing outreach in your profession if you are spending all day applying for jobs at every Pizza joint.

I also know people that lost more money than they made by delivering Pizzas.

Just because you were successful with that outlook the last time, does not mean it will be a solution for you the next time.

Who said day? 

1. No one wants to work 6 PM to 2 AM

2.  You offer to do kitchen work as well.

3.  People that lose money delivering Pizza are doing something wrong.  At that point it becomes social Darwinism.

4.  You look for work and/or consult.

5.  It isnt just pizza.  You find a way.

Darn it, I wish you could edit posts.

I saw 4-5 buck a gallon fuel coming years ago.  Only a blithering idiot would not see it ( ie. most Americans).  I took a pay cut to work from home 80% of the time.  I then transitioned into 100% as I proved my position could be done from home.  It is also about planning.  Once you get the wind knocked out of you by life, you get up and make sure it doen't happen again.

>6-8 hours a day, 6 days a week closing as a driver netted me about 42K a year AFTER TAX in 2001 dollars. I "invested" in an old beater for $700 bucks that got almost 30 MPG, no AC, marginal heat, but it made my work so much mroe profitable.<

7 hours x 6 days = 42 hours x 52 weeks = 2184 hours.

tax

Im making you a Florida resident for no state sales tax and Im making you married with 2 kids so you wont have income tax.  You still have Social Security and Medicare.  8.65%

42000 / .9165 = 45826

45826 / 2184 = $20.98

You made 21 dollars an hour delivering pizzas?  (And I didnt figure gas and your 700 econobeater)

Where you live?  People are insanely nice to pizza drivers there.

Average was 20 an hour with spikes topping 25 an hour, NET.

It was Dallas at the time, no state income tax.  I picked a specific Pappa Johns due to location and demographic.  Delivery area was a sectioned grid with lots of alleys and small streets.  I was making about 10 deliveries an hour.  I ran an inverter for the plug in bags and would load up with 5 deliveries every 30 minutes (max 3 bags).  When people would burn their hand on the box they tend to tip 2 bucks or more.  Specially when they saw the beater out front and the sweat on my brow.

I was stating net after fuel as well.  I would give my personal cell phone out (prepaid) to frat houses and what not.  People would call the store and request me.  I then would get a call for other items to be picked up.  5 pizzas to a frat house along with a case of "refreshment" would net a profit of 10-15 bucks.

Work your *** off, think outside the box, network, and save money.  I used to get 2 pies a day to make for myself.  I would trade them to other restaurants in the area for their food and 4 pies at a time to the manager of Jiffy lube for a free oil change.  There was a bar across the street and the manager and I would go over there after hours with a few pies and get a pitcher of beer.

Move your A** America!

Great.  The new mortgage diet.  That and walking to work will probably be good for us long term but the new reality bites.

I'm all for renewing the entreprenurial spirit that made America.  Hard work won't hurt us.

I lost my IT career during the dot com bust. I tried applying at a local Walmart of electronics (Fry's) and i was told I was over qualified. As soon as i pool together enough money, one day i plan to leave the IT sector to buy a franchise or something. Working for the man making 6 figures is a gravy train that wont last forever.

I was laid off during the crazy bank mergers back in 1998 and ended up having to work as a temp. worker sorting auto parts.  Thank god I was laid off or I would have been stuck at that bank in the same position for the next 30 years like the other fools. 

People today have no idea what to do when they face adversity. Instead of looking at the laid off as an opportunity to find a new career, they whine and moan about losing their jobs to the Chinese and Indians(meanwhile, they go off to shop at Wal-Mart to buy Chinese product...oh the irony!)