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Once upon a time, when Peon was a little younger, she wrote a long blog for tenants in foreclosed properties. She would occasionally receive emails and comments that were abusive and unpleasant from landlords and realtors. She deleted them, believing that someone who called her a "communist bitch" did not deserve a reasoned response. The Emails From The Stupid trickled off after awhile, but Peon must admit that a little corner of her life had been enriched by having people who couldn't construct simple English sentences denounce her.
But this morning she discovered that these people have just gone elsewhere. They've moved to a place where they will find more congenial co-dependents. After all, would you really want to commune with those who suggest that your behavior is reprehensible, that your sense of entitlement makes a mockery of the "personal responsibility" you expect of others and that, in a rationally ordered world, you would be sued for a large sum of money to make whole the people you have harmed? Of course not. You would want to hang with those who feel your pain, and understand that you, as the landlord, should make all the money you can until the day the bank takes YOUR property. And if you stomp some of the ant-people in the process, well, that's why we have ant-people.
Now wrecking up tenants' lives is not new. Our local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, once suggested that homeowners in trouble rent the place out prior to the foreclosure to eke out every penny they could from their property before the bank took it. That they'd be making a hash of the lives of people who just needed a place to live didn't enter into their deliberations.
But I did find one good idea in the Place of Congenial Co-Dependents. Tenants should consider writing into their leases a provision that the landlord states that he is not in default on any mortgage taken on the property or using the property as collateral, and that if this turns out not to be true, the tenant may sue for twice the move-in costs, including first month's rent, the amount of all deposits, reasonable moving costs, and so on. When a landlord realizes that sum often exceeds $5K, he may think twice about renting his soon-to-be-foreclosed property.
We saw Endeavour twice--once when it was flying toward Mather and then again when it came along I-5 for its run over the Capitol.
the map of poverty in the US by state is remarkably similar to the map of population not paying federal taxes. And as quite a number of people have noted, the states with the most non-payers are those most likely to vote for Romney.
Everyone, go there and read.
Will they never end? No. So here is a new scam, intended to part you from your meager income. I haven't been the victim of this one, but found it on Credit Slips, and thought I should pass it along. This one works because, somehow, the scammer already has your credit card number--scary, in itself. What they're looking for is the three-digit security code on the back, you know, the one that changes every time you get a new card and sends you scrambling for your wallet when you want to make an Internet purchase that asks for it. When you give them the number, you've given them the information they need to charge your card. And they do.
I'm sure that I don't need to tell my readers that you don't pass out personal information of any kind over the phone unless you initiate the call. Not ever. And if this scam comes to the West, cancel your card immediately and get a new number. Then file a police report with the local Gendarmerie. If the police get enough reports in your community, they'll issue an alert that will get much more attention that I do.
I generally don't like AARP. They operate more like an insurance company than anything else, and their commitment seems to be mostly to the richer old, who can take the tours and buy the products they offer. As a very young woman, I decided that I'd never give them a sou when they accepted the increase in the retirement age for Social Security recipients. But that was consistent with their attitude, as poor elderly aren't really their constituency.
But I will recommend this. What surprised me was the extent of distress for population sectors that should be relatively stable. But then I thought about it, and realized that the current distress in the over-50 crowd is the result of the stresses we've faced since we were young. For instance, in 1989, 37% of the 55-64 age band households had mortgage debt. In 2010, 53% were still carrying mortgage debt. Thinking back, that's because most of us didn't buy houses in our 20s, but in our 30s, because housing prices had increased, especially after the early 1970s, while wages had decreased. Our generation was always more stretched than our parents.
But that doesn't explain everything, as households in the 65-74 age band also have more mortgage debt. This group may well have purchased in the period before the great inflation, which would mean that they'd be paying off at least some mortgage debt in very cheap dollars. But if they bought second and third houses, at least some of that benefit was lost.
More thinking later.
But first, today's is J's second to last day of work. After tomorrow, it's all over, and he can devote himself to taking care of me and the cats. I will have instant HTML help when I need it. I will eat fancy dinners. I will be taken out more often. Joy! Joy!
But moving right along to foreclosures. The numbers in California are falling. One should hope so, given how many houses that have already been foreclosed. However, my Sitemeter is up a bit on the Tenants & Foreclosure blog. Now, it's too early to note a trend, and it's nothing like the substantial increase in traffic after the robo-signing scandal last year. (My hits doubled in a month.) In addition, the "cash-for-keys" page is the most popular, both as entry and exit page. This always indicates homeowners, as they aren't interested in tenants' rights or "just cause" eviction. What I suspect is happening is that the lenders seek to beat the new homeowner protections that will take effect in January, and are pushing through as many foreclosures as possible. The number to watch is not the Notice of Default (the first step), but the Notice of Trustee Sale (the beginning of the end), as lenders will move to oust homeowners who've been "dual-tracked" and have emptied out their savings accounts, retirement accounts and the like, and are out of cash. This may give tenants a bit of a reprieve, as investor-owned properties aren't covered under the new legislation.
