House For Sale- Cheap!

I crawled out of bed bleary eyed at what would be lunchtime for most people and put the kettle on. The mail arrives around one in the afternoon and as a concession to my wife, the money manager, I like to get the mail and sort it all out for her. Well today I got this piece of chum from some idiot who apparently is under employed and anxious:

I am freaked out, I admit it, by the credit crunch and repossessions that so far have impacted mostly the very weakest borrowers (racial minorities in large measure who rarely get headline coverage). If you believe we are almost out of the worst of it I will have to respectfully disagree and meanwhile I am left to wonder, alone, just how my generation will cope with the coming melt down. Boomers have never had to Dig for Victory.

Then I flipped the card and felt like I could breathe again:

2500 square feet (240 square meters) is a big home, though I suspect "living space" will include some pleasant though not weather proof covered deck areas. Nevertheless by North American suburban standards its a respectable home and Key Haven is at Mile Marker 5, close to Key West and though it is an upper class address it is plagued by Navy jet noise. The sound of jets appeals to some as the sound of freedom and to others it resembles the four horsemen of the Apocalypse just dropping by for a visit. Take your pick.

It just strikes me as being part of the Keys real estate madness when cards drop in your mailbox advertising multi million dollar homes Reduced! as though anyone might be tempted into spending more than a million (be they ever so feeble) dollars on an impulse purchase... But there again anyone who can be induced to drop that kind of money on a postcard whim won't need to borrow from main street banks which is lucky as loans aren't forthcoming.

Which leads us in circular fashion back to the beginning- Realtors are bored and desperate and Keys homeowners haven't yet realised that the prices of two years ago are far, far beyond values today. It will be time for us to hunker down for a different kind of storm when these second-home owners are hurting so badly that houses in Paradise are truly reduced to feed credit flames stoked Up North . Good luck to all.