# Me to Economy and America:  Fornicate Yourself

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-to-economy-and-america-fornicate-yourself/465232>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [September 25, 2008, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-to-economy-and-america-fornicate-yourself/465232 "2008-09-25T22:03:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-to-economy-and-america-fornicate-yourself/465232/41 "2008-10-03T19:10:54Z")

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> [@Cisco](#):
>
> If I had a nickel for everytime I heard “real estate never goes down” before I bought my house, I’d be out of debt and sitting on an island somewhere right now.
> 
> Other bullshit I heard every day from professionals, experts, and armchair investors:
> 
> “Real estate is always a safe bet”  
> “Renting is throwing your money away”  
> “This trend is not reversing; if you don’t buy a house now, you will not own property in your lifetime”

I was hearing a lot of that sort of talk last year when we were looking for a house, too. I was reading books on buying real estate that encouraged being willing to spend more money to get more house, and that discouraged buying a house solely as a place to live in and not as an investment. One of those books also discouraged new homebuyers from getting a fixed-rate mortgage to avoid the risk of an adjustable-rate mortgage. I’m glad I didn’t listen to that advice.

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**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/me-to-economy-and-america-fornicate-yourself/465232/42 "2008-10-03T20:10:30Z")

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My sister told me that her co-worker had met with an attorney to file for bankruptcy after finding that they couldn’t really afford their $350k house, which is way above the average house price in our area and more expensive than either of our homes. (We live in a hell hole, weather speaking, but our houses are cheap.)

Anywho, a few weeks later, she got a call from her attorney. Her bank had written the lawyer and said that if they forewent filing for protection, the bank would forgive $100,000 off their loan.

$100,000.

The attorney said that in 25 years doing bankruptcy, he’d never seen that before.

I feel the same anger the OP does. Like the proverbial ant, we’ve done everything right. We went to college to get degrees so that we could make a decent living. We have a 401k, two 529 accounts for our kids’ college funds, we live in a house that is far less than we were approved for, we buy used cars, and we pay our taxes on time. In short, we’ve lived within our means.

_I_ want my bank to forgive $100,000 off OUR loan. And Congress had damn well better offer blanket relief to ALL homeowners instead of just those people who fucked up and couldn’t use a calculator or read a loan document and figure out that when their ARM re-set in 3 years, they’d be up a creek without a paddle.

My only consolation is that with the fire sale that’s been going on lately, my husband the stock broker is snatching up what I hope will prove to be bargains.

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