stupidity is not a class thing

[acroyear]

Foreclosures come to McMansion country - Yahoo! News:

LEESBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - Million-dollar fixer-upper for sale: five bedrooms, four baths, three-car garage, cavernous living room. Big holes above fireplace where flat-screen TV used to hang.

The U.S. housing crisis has come to McMansion country.

Just as the foreclosure crisis has hollowed out poorer neighborhoods, "for sale" signs are sprouting in upscale developments so new they don't show up on GPS navigation screens.

Poor people weren't the only ones who took out risky, high-interest loans during the housing boom. The sharp increase in housing costs -- and the desire to live in brand-new, spacious houses with modern features -- led many affluent buyers to take out loans they couldn't afford.

The *real* aggravating thing in all of this is the fact that in spite of having a TON of houses up for sale (and no buyers, to the point that in the last tax year we've already lost $100,000 from our house's peak assessment), the local government is still about to give a major handout to developers to building 15,000 more unnecessary and unneeded houses out on the south side of Dulles Airport, putting the traffic strain on the 50-28 intersection to a breaking point...if there's anybody to move in, that is.

So we've got already decreasing housing values (from the bubble burst), that are going to get lower 'cause tons of for sale signs drop property values in general, and then have them go lower by dramatically increasing the supply for a demand that obviously isn't there.

Comments

[stori-lundi.livejournal.com]

Oh tell me about it. There are several million dollar homes slated to go up in my neighborhood that i doubt anyone will buy. I'd like to see smaller, affordable houses going up so that single chicks like me have a chance of owning something that hasn't been condemed.

[thelongshot.livejournal.com]

Just curious, but where are these houses being built? I work at the south end of Dulles, and I haven't seen much new construction, other than office buildings. I'll ask my boss, but I don't think they were building new houses out his way when I visited for a holiday party. He was able to get a good deal on a new house, which was originally on the market for about $900k, but he picked it up for slightly more than $600k.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

it might be that development actually got put on hold. I'm not sure exactly where they were supposed to go up, only that the area zoned was "just south/west of Dulles" and still in Loudoun county.

i do recall the "developer handout" of that zone was a major bone of contention that did affect the last local election.