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House Poor: Pumped Up Prices, Rising Rates, and Mortgages on Steroids: How to Survive the Coming Housing Crisis
Skyrocketing home values, cheap money, and enticing home equity offers in recent years ... millions of us took on bigger mortgages, bigger houses, and bigger debt. But disturbing signs point to the end of the housing This indispensable survival guide will address questions that Today's real estate developments could make you house poor, but this is the book to keep you house proud.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 22, 2024
IN 2005, WAS IT TIME TO MOVE FROM A "SPECULATIVE ATTITUDE" TOWARD OUR HOMES?
June Fletcher has been the "Home Front" feature reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and was formerly an editor of several monthly magazines about homes.
She wrote in the Preface to this 2005 book, "Although rumblings of a housing bubble have been heard since the tech bubble exploded in 2000, it all seemed like distant thunder until the spring and summer of 2005. That's when numerous industry insiders began to express serious concerns about double-digit home price increases, the proliferation of risky loans, and the explosion of real estate speculators... Nearly every media outlet in the country jumped on the story, with a similar message: The hot market is about to turn cold---beware... That's what I took as the starting point of this book... It's time to move from a speculative to a more sober attitude about our homes."
She quotes former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan, who warned that "Risky lending practices... could create a reprise of the early '90s, when lenders suddenly found themselves flooded with foreclosed homes." (Pg. 7)
She notes that "homeownership is one of the few issues that truly enjoys bipartisan support," and that under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, "the idea of renting has been given short shrift." (Pg. 22)
Eerily, she concluded on the note, "Homes, the government and the real estate industry have decided, are places we should own, not rent, no matter how shaky our credit or how big a financial risk we must take to get them... if we listen to these voices, when the cycle turns, as it inevitably will, we'll feel our disappointment in more than our wallets. We'll feel like fools for encasing our hopes and financial futures in bricks and sticks. We'll feel trapped by the physical embodiment of dashed dreams. We'll feel house poor." (Pg. 191-192)
Fletcher certainly wasn't the only one predicting the ultimate collapse of the housing market, but the events of 2007-2008 give this book more than marginal interest.
June Fletcher has been the "Home Front" feature reporter for the Wall Street Journal, and was formerly an editor of several monthly magazines about homes.
She wrote in the Preface to this 2005 book, "Although rumblings of a housing bubble have been heard since the tech bubble exploded in 2000, it all seemed like distant thunder until the spring and summer of 2005. That's when numerous industry insiders began to express serious concerns about double-digit home price increases, the proliferation of risky loans, and the explosion of real estate speculators... Nearly every media outlet in the country jumped on the story, with a similar message: The hot market is about to turn cold---beware... That's what I took as the starting point of this book... It's time to move from a speculative to a more sober attitude about our homes."
She quotes former Federal Reserve chair Alan Greenspan, who warned that "Risky lending practices... could create a reprise of the early '90s, when lenders suddenly found themselves flooded with foreclosed homes." (Pg. 7)
She notes that "homeownership is one of the few issues that truly enjoys bipartisan support," and that under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, "the idea of renting has been given short shrift." (Pg. 22)
Eerily, she concluded on the note, "Homes, the government and the real estate industry have decided, are places we should own, not rent, no matter how shaky our credit or how big a financial risk we must take to get them... if we listen to these voices, when the cycle turns, as it inevitably will, we'll feel our disappointment in more than our wallets. We'll feel like fools for encasing our hopes and financial futures in bricks and sticks. We'll feel trapped by the physical embodiment of dashed dreams. We'll feel house poor." (Pg. 191-192)
Fletcher certainly wasn't the only one predicting the ultimate collapse of the housing market, but the events of 2007-2008 give this book more than marginal interest.
March 17, 2016
This book couldn't seem to make up its mind about its message.
I picked up House Poor in 2016, about nine years after the housing crash in 2007 or so. I was curious to see how well the predictions of the author stacked up against the reality of the mortgage crisis, and curious about whether her advice would have helped those who got swept up into the bubble (note: House Poor was published in 2005).
At first, House Poor seemed on track. It talked about how all signs pointed to a housing bubble, how prices would likely decline at some point. However, immediately after talking about how home equity prices were about to take a steep dive, the book went into all sorts of tips on how home owners and buyers could stretch themselves even thinner! It talked in glowing terms about flipping, investing in second homes, buying up vacation properties, becoming a landlord, and more.
"Hey, there's this big crisis coming. Now, here's a bunch of advice to make you EVEN MORE EXPOSED to that crash that we're claiming is imminent!" This is the overall message of House Poor. At a time when Americans should have been devoting their energy to getting out of being "house poor" - that is, putting their money into any other investment aside from the home they owned - this book seems to be encouraging them to sink even more of their wealth back into their home.
House Poor started with a good message, but quickly became befuddled and ended up preaching for the very same trap it set out to avoid.
I picked up House Poor in 2016, about nine years after the housing crash in 2007 or so. I was curious to see how well the predictions of the author stacked up against the reality of the mortgage crisis, and curious about whether her advice would have helped those who got swept up into the bubble (note: House Poor was published in 2005).
At first, House Poor seemed on track. It talked about how all signs pointed to a housing bubble, how prices would likely decline at some point. However, immediately after talking about how home equity prices were about to take a steep dive, the book went into all sorts of tips on how home owners and buyers could stretch themselves even thinner! It talked in glowing terms about flipping, investing in second homes, buying up vacation properties, becoming a landlord, and more.
"Hey, there's this big crisis coming. Now, here's a bunch of advice to make you EVEN MORE EXPOSED to that crash that we're claiming is imminent!" This is the overall message of House Poor. At a time when Americans should have been devoting their energy to getting out of being "house poor" - that is, putting their money into any other investment aside from the home they owned - this book seems to be encouraging them to sink even more of their wealth back into their home.
House Poor started with a good message, but quickly became befuddled and ended up preaching for the very same trap it set out to avoid.
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