NY Times: Economic Tide is Rising for the Repo Man

[marmar]

By DAVID STREITFELD
Published: May 20, 2008


HARRISON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — So many people have so many things they can no longer afford. This is an excellent time to be a repo man.

When a boat owner defaults on his loan, the bank hires Jeff Henderson to seize its property. The former Army detective tracks the boat down in a backyard or a marina or a garage and hauls it to his storage area and later auctions it off. After nearly 20 years in the repossession business, Mr. Henderson has never been busier.

“I used to take the weak ones,” he said. “Now I’m taking the whole herd.”

Boating was traditionally the pastime of the well-off, but the long housing boom and its gusher of easy credit changed that. People refinanced their homes and used the cash for down payments on a cruiser, miniyacht or sailboat. From 2000 to 2006, retail sales for the recreational boating industry rose by more than 40 percent, to $39.5 billion, while the average loan amount more than tripled to $141,000.

Last year, as real estate faltered, the gears went into reverse. The number of boats sold fell 8 percent. Many boats are fuel hogs, and rising gasoline and diesel prices meant a weekend jaunt could cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Owners found they could not sell a boat for what they owed and could not refinance either. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/business/20repo.html?ref=business

[Warpy]

1. It's going to be fat city for people who got out of debt

and saved everything they could. Auctioned luxury items are going to start going far down in price.

Funny that these people would lose the boat instead of the high priced condo. You can live quite well on a lot of boats. Been there, done that.

[Romulox]

2. Factual inaccuracy, NYTimes: Boating has long been a favorite of blue collar UAW workers...

Boating's popularity in Michigan is not tied to HELOCs and the real estate bubble. :eyes:

[Javaman]

3. Repo man

I was riding on a concrete slab,
Down a river of useless flab
It was such a beautiful day
I heard a witchdoctor say,
Ill turn you into a toadstool
Im looking for the joke with a microscope
My muscles twitching on your words
If youre on the streets you lose your nerves
Divinity throws you a curve
Sticks you and then you go beserk
Abhoaring no inspiration.
Im looking for the joke with a microscope
Page out of a comic book
A chicken hanging on a hook
A river and a babbling brook
A sermon and a teenage hook
Shaking my hand at your fake face
A suicide a certain look
A microphone a loose guitar
People feeling near and far
Stupidity a mental scar
Put cruel into cruelty
As life goes by you in a blurr
An achoholic has gone far
Everything just goes to far
I was pissing on the desert sands,
When the desert whispered to me,
Damn! isnt this a shame?
Things will never be the same...
I run this gas and oasis
Now Im looking for the joke with a microscope
I was a teenage dinosaur, stoned and obsolete
I didnt get fucked and I didnt get kissed
I got so fucking dense
Using my head for an ashtray
Now Ill tell you who I am
Im the repo-man
And Im looking for the joke
Looking for the joke
Im looking for the joke with a microscope

[madaboutharry]

4. I live in a "boating" town.

It looks just beautiful in the summer when all the boats are docked at the marina.

When I was a kid my parents were good friends with a couple who lived in San Pedro, CA. They had a boat back then. My dad once told me his friend one day said to him "If you ever want to know what it feels like flushing hundreds of bucks down the toilet all the time, just buy a boat."

[Mountainman]

5. Now here is a group of folks I can't feel sorry for.

"He removed a wooden wine rack, life preservers, a case of Absopure water, paper plates, swizzle sticks and yachting shoes. His S.U.V. was soon full."

That sentence says it all. He was living a lifestyle he couldn't afford. Many people did that because rather than having the material means to live like that they borrowed and had a facade that made it look like the could afford to own all that luxury.

We have a weird concept of what success is. It's measured by what material things you can show off.

I was that way back in the late 70's. I had a nice house, a new car and a job with a CPA firm. I thought that would prove to my relatives that I had made it. Several bouts with homelessness and clinical depression later I don't live like that anymore.

[avenger64]

6. Could signal an Emilio Estevez comeback ...

... maybe 'Repo Man 2008'.