Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner - The Mariner, withthe albatross around his neck, watches the dead
crew hoist the sails and pilot the ship.
Do we know anyone else who in their hubris find themselves with an albatross around their neck? For those of us who haven't revisited the entire poem the moral was that ultimately the the mariner was forgiven after suffering the consequenses and learning to accept his fate, not before. Feel free to add similes about a dead crew still toiling to sell houses... err sail a doomed ship and such.
22 comments:
Who will be the FIRST to submit a rhyme? :)
There once was a boy with a murst
Who bought before the bubble burst
... no, wait, that's about to be a limerick, not a simile ...
Albatross..... albatross..
Stormy petrel on a stick.....
NR
Oh, the tangled webs we weave....
Wow! I love this poem, it's always a delight to see that other people appreciate it.
It was an ancient mariner
Who stoppeth one of three
. . . OK, that's all I can remember from memory of how it starts. But I love this line:
Alone, alone, all, all, alone
Alone on a wide wide sea!
And never a saint took pity on
My soul in agony
Which rather reminds me of how mortgage brokers might be feeling right now. And then this line:
Water, water, everywhere
And not a drop to drink.
Which rather reminds me of how hedge funds might be feeling about liquidity right about now. And the following would have been the perfect ending quote for IAFF:
The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand slimy things
Lived on; and so did I.
Isn't the Ancient Mariner a bit too chearful for what's going on in the real estate / financial world today?
I mean, he found salvation at the end. I doubt prayer is going to do much for the fools with the nice, 3/2, no lot, "fresh paint", investment albatroses around their necks.
The albatros will fall off eventually (REO), but that does not spell salvation for the schmuck who was holding the bag.
What's really sad are the morons who refinanced to get cash out on their equity. To them it was like a payday, they didn't realize that it was more borrowed money and not real cash. As the noose tightened they were left with no options but foreclosure; they couldn't refinance because they didn't have enough equity or were upside down on the house, they can't afford the monthly payments, and they are having to sell off all their toys at a discount.
The worst suckers in this whole scheme are the real estate agents and mortgage brokers who thought that they would be making 15K a month for the rest of their lives and are now down to 10% of that..if THAT. I'm sure 99% of em didn't save a dime.
Legion -
Oh, they did save some money... they invested in real estate! They have all that equity. ah... they have some equity... ah... want to buy a house?
There are several Realtors® who didn't drink the kool-aid mostly because they didn't deal the kool-aid. Sac RE a frequent visitor here and Jim the Realtor are a few examples.
Unfortunately they are a minority. The last house I divested was purchased by my own Realtor. They thought they were taking advantage of my "git 'er done" attitude by offering a few thou and lower fees. This in April 2006 in San Bernardino County. Tweren't 6 months later they acknowledged I got the deal not them despite thier 1031 status.
There's extremes like David Crisp well covered by BakersfieldBubble who looks possible to end up NINE digits in default. The whole "insider trading" bit has me increasingly concerned.
Best albatross song ever....you can even interpret it for current events. Pretty scary how items about albatrosses (albatrossi?)relate to the current realestate markets.
Overhead the albatross hangs motionless upon the air
And deep beneath the rolling waves
In labyrinths of coral caves
The echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand
And everything is green and submarine
And no-one showed us to the land
And no-one knows the where or whys
But something stirs and something tries
And starts to climb towards the light
Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand the best I can
And no-one calls us to move on
And no-one forces down our eyes
And no-one speaks and no-one tries
And no-one flies around the sun
Cloudless everyday you fall upon my waking eyes
Inviting and inciting me to rise
And through the window in the wall
Come streaming in on sunlight wings
A million bright ambassadors of morning
And no-one sings me lullabies
And no-one makes me close my eyes
And so I throw the windows wide
And call to you across the sky
Echos by Mr. Pink Floyd
I think the people being foreclosed on would be the dead crew of the ship. It's Mozilo who would be the Mariner with the albatross around his neck.
"I fear thee, ancient mariner!
I fear thy skinny hand!
And thou art long, and lank, and brown . . . "
Yep, definitely Mozilo.
Schumer wants to end prepayment penalties. Combine this with 20% down, and it will be a long time before the lower end sales recover. Great for we once and future landlords but screw the first time buyer, they are my rent slaves for another decade.
Getting rid of prepayment penalties is a good thing. It may slow the market a little, but with no prepayment penalties, the CFCs of the world will have to be much more careful about not setting up deals that screw people down the road.
@PV
"And thou art long, and lank, and orange..."
would more accurately represent Mozilo.
@Rob: "Great for we once and future landlords but screw the first time buyer, they are my rent slaves for another decade."
Not so fast, Mr. Aspiring Slum Lord. First time buyers may have had the door slammed in their (our) face, but there's still a window open: buying direct from the builders. While the banks may not be making loans without a 20% down payment, the builders will be doing what they have to in order to move inventory.
In addition, there's a lot of inventory coming onto the rental market. I was despairing that there would be an sickening inventory of housing sitting empty while it's "for sale" at ridiculous prices, and that rents would be staying high for some time. Well, there's a sickening amount of empty housing, but what's also happening is that all the gigantic new condominium developments are getting turned into apartment complexes.
Downtown D.C. and NoVa are full of what used to be giant condo developments, but they've taken the "For Sale" banners down and put "For Rent" banners up, and the rental market is about to get a healthy set of new units coming on line. That's good news for renters; even if they're competing for rents at the high end, it'll keep a lid on prices.
And all that's bad news for specu-vestors who are desperately trying to rent out their failed flip, but we already knew they were in trouble.
PV,
Good time to reitterate my current position. I was a landlord for half my life. I only got all the way out last Apr '06. I will be a landlord again, I'm very good at it or else lucky enough that I imagine I'm good. I leave it to the reader to determine if selling at 273x rent in Apr '06 was luck or judgement. I foresaw/foresee a temporary dip in rent prices and the subsequent secondary collapse in rental properties after we go through the current general real estate retraction. I'll buy back in just in time to ride the predictable inflation effects on rents.
I'm in it for the dividends and tax breaks. Pity the fool who is relying upon appreciation. Ultimately I think by 2013 I'll be back in 3-4 SFRs and a couple 2-4plexes with a full time resident manager all in 1 or two nodal locations. Depending upon my damn kids and their constant whining about needing a place to stay while attending college, those SFRs might be further flung than is wise for a long term strategy.
Insiders reason for today's bounce
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYmu27w3_3aM&refer=home
My Take
Lets spread some rumors to sucker people into buying the stock we need to dump.
@Rob Dawg
Great for we once and future landlords but screw the first time buyer, they are my rent slaves for another decade.
Not this first time homebuyer.. I have enough cash to buy outright.. I am starting to see the scenario where, after purchasing, I would still have a significant amount of equity remaining in investments.. and I like it!! I am more worried about keeping my present equity together through the current market turmoil.
@serinitis
Insiders reason for today's bounce
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aYmu27w3_3aM&refer=home
My Take
Lets spread some rumors to sucker people into buying the stock we need to dump.
Looks like a scheme to separate the morons from the money. The Fed will have problem dropping it all the way to 4. The other question is what Bernanke will be doing with the discount window vs Treasury Rate. The discount window can't go below the Treasury Rate (banks would start using carry trade on discount window vs Treasury - sweet arbitrage™) because banks will stop loaning and resort to arbitrage. Treasury rate can't go too low because Congress is running a deficit and needs to finance it by selling treasuries with high enough yields for foreign investors to pick up.
The landlords are getting screwed bigtime in many areas of so-cali.
Let's see, do I pay $1900+/month in mortgage, property tax, hoa, insurance, and assorted fees to own a 2bd condo whose value has dropped 25% in the past year and still falling?
Or do I rent the same exact condo for $1200/month?
Hmmm....
tracking Casey Serin beyond the control of Casey Serin.
Time to change that line on your sidebar.
Sweet deals Sweet deals everywhere
And not a dime to spare.
-CS
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