The American Dream is Leaving the Station

With every new story about the housing crisis, a piece of the American dream fades into dust.

Foreclosed properties sold on the courthouse steps in Atlanta don't attract enough buyers. California homeowners awaiting foreclosure neither pay their mortgage nor any rent; they are squatters in a property they hoped to own but are now stuck in a financial purgatory. Former homeowners with no equity left in their homes in Phoenix and Las Vegas simply walk away. Entire developed blocks in South Florida lie vacant.

Although they represent a small part of the population, the travails of housing victims impact us all. Home prices across the country keep falling in a market without a bottom. One foreclosure depresses values in an entire neighborhood. Buyers stay away because they are waiting for better bargains. The only guarantee is that some opportunistic capitalists will pick up the scraps and continue to make money as we watch our home equity evaporate.


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