As homes foreclose in U.S., squatters move in

[spinbaby]

BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - They enter through a broken first-floor window each night to sleep on a moldy bed in the abandoned four-family house at 827 Main Street, part of a new generation of squatters emboldened by America's housing foreclosure crisis.

"For squatters, foreclosed homes like this are like a camp-ground with free camping," says real-estate broker Marc Charney, a foreclosure specialist, as he enters the home in Brockton, Massachusetts, and shines a flash-light at a mattress where homeless people have been sleeping each night.

Squatting is on the rise across the United States as foreclosures surge, eviction notices mount and homes go unsold for months, complicating the worst U.S. housing slump in a quarter century and forcing real-estate brokers to enlist the help of law enforcement and courts to sell empty houses.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080519/us_nm/usa_housing_squatters_dc;_ylt=Am_yo_bTK1MN74ttnA8SUvkDW7oF

[no_hypocrisy]

1. McHoovervilles.

[spinbaby]

2. Bushtowns

[skooooo]

7. in $200,000 houses?

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. yeah, in 200,.000 houses

Is this a great country or what?

Only in America can homeless people sleep in such expensive luxury.

I am only sorry my Irish grandparents got here after all the gold lined streets had been dug up and sold...

[Virginia Dare]

3. This is the shrub's legacy...

foreclosed homes and squatters in our neighborhoods. How far we've fallen in just seven years.

[Rosemary2205]

4. The most insane stupidass part of this whole thing

is that if the mortgage holder would simply reset the loan with the owner in foreclosure at the new reduced fair market value at a decend fixed rate (which they will have to do when the house finally does sell anyway) then all of this could be avoided. The banks would save themselves the cost of foreclosure and repairing the house after all the break ins and the borrower would keep the property.

Win/win seems to be too simple I guess.

[flvegan]

5. Resetting at a lower rate, rather than value is the way to go.

It also doesn't change the priority of the mortgage as an encuberance.

[Ian_rd]

9. But who is the "mortgage holder?"

These mortgages and have been bought and sold and bundled and rebundled into securities so many times that it's hard as hell for anyone to even know who holds it. This American Life did a dynamite show on this whole problem and this exact issue came up.

[Rosemary2205]

13. The homeowner pays the bill to SOMEONE?!

I've had my mortgage sold more than once, but I always know who my lender is. (even if it IS a "shell" company)

[Ian_rd]

14. You can call a number on your bill, but getting someone who

might actually know how to help you is not guaranteed. Many of these mortgages are owned by holding companies who don't know jack about mortgages. They only bought them up because they thought it was easy money for their investors.

[truedelphi]

10. Brilliant idea. Sobrilliant that it will not come to pass.

I hate hearing the banking industry complain about this - first the housing market was so overheated that housing prices went through the roof. Homes were sold for so much more than they were worth.
And the financial instruments sold to the buyer were ridiculous. Your suggestions make so much sense.

But when do the Powers that Be in this country of ours ever make sense??

[marmar]

6. Bushburgs.....

n/t

[Faux pas]

8. Hmmm, wonder how they're gonna fix this 'problem'? Guess they

could tear down all the foreclosed homes, that'll show 'em!

:sarcasm: of course, but doesn't anyone else see the irony of the homeless finding actual homes to live in? I don't begrudge them finding shelter. Too bad the original owners didn't just stay and 'squat' themselves.

[indepat]

12. Just reaping the joys of what repig policies and actions have wrought

upon a nation and its people. :D

[squawk7700]

15. It's impossible to criticize squatters without sounding like an insensitive shit.

How fucked up is that?
edit to remove an adverb