Hard Times: Travis Fox crosses the country to see how Americans are coping with the economic downturn.

Go, ACORN! Smash the republibamas and their Federalist and Fox News syncophants!

I'd use my 401K, before I'd lose my house.

The big banks are being bailed out with billions of dollars of government money yet those same banks have not been required to bring back to America the thousands of data processing jobs they outsource to India. Without jobs the economy will slow down no matter what the government does. It would be the patriotic thing to do in the best interest of America.

I'd lose my house before I'd lose my 401k.

(House is a debt, 401k is an asset. Lose the debt and keep the asset).

Okay here is a guy who drained the equity out of his house to buy a new truck big screen tv or some other piece of junk.
So now I feel bad for this guy who is living in a house he cannot afford because he has no savings in his home.

Why as a taxpayer do I reward his poor choices?
Why does he deserve to own the home instead of renting it from the bank?

He sold the house when he took the equity out of it. He is now a renter and obviously the guy cannot accept the responsibility of owning a home. It is this idiotic thinking that you get something for nothing that has turned my 401 k into mush. I resent having to bailout people who have nothing on the line. Rent a house sell the truck and when you have 20% down to put on the homes that are now 25% lower own a home. Until then too bad so sad. Grow up you made your bed.

We pissed away our wealth instead of using our o money wisely for the social good like building public transportation or an upgraded grid, bridges, or excellent public school systems.

American jobs are the casualty of free trade and free markets. Thanks to conservative financial ideology and policies, the American Dream can never be achieved. Heckuva job, Repukes, heckuva job.

"he’s not alone in this neighborhood of stucco track houses."

what's a "track" house? is it like a tract house except on rails?

Steve, the house is also an asset. Just because there's a debt tied to it, doesn't mean it's right or wrong, on its face, to tap the 401k.

It only makes sense to save the house if your alternatives are worse (ie, rent really expensive or bad neighborhood for kids or whatever) or you think the house value is about to go back up.

SOCIAL SECURITY should send the " numbers no match " letters now and watch millions of AMERICANS get thier jobs back now !!!

The guy is playing Sony video games on what appear to be a fairly new large TV in a not so badly furnished living room. I believe people should stop buying anything that comes within their reach and live within their means. I understand that someone has to buy goods if we are to lift developing countries out of poverty but it has become clear that this cannot be done on cheap credit anymore. The infrastructure and the education in the US has become so broken that people are not able anymore to produce the necessary wealth to reimburse their debts.

The Fascists are bailing out the rich businessmen and bankers - Yet, the customer gets nothing except the IOU giveaway to the rich and privileged who are shouting 'inflation' to raise prices on us who get nothing - FASCISM - George Bush is a Fascist

Bail me out, Uncle Sam. After all, it's your fault that I don't have work right now.

Please tell those mean banks not to demand what I agreed to pay. Don't let those bad people touch the money I have saved - let somebody else pay for it.

I work at a bank. We don't do subprime loans so we're not as bad off as those that did.

A lot of people want to blame the people who received the loans, I would say this mess is squarely the lenders' fault. The average American really doesn't understand finances. If you tell your lender how much you make and they tell you that you can afford more than you thought, are you really going to argue with them? It's like going to the doctor and having them tell you that you don't eat too much fast food and your weight is fine. You would like to believe that it's true!

If the expert tells you something most Americans are not in a position to know better. Low interest rates could be the cause, maybe you've been selling yourself short, other reasons creep into your thinking as to why you really should be able to afford more.

The bankers who wrote bad loan after bad loan used their customers' deposits with unethical carelessness. I would even call it grossly negligient. The commissions for hybrid, interest-only or whatever, mortgages were higher so guess what, that's what the mortgage people steered everyone into. Wall Street created the desire for these mortgages, the banks created the commissions and the mortgage writers on the ground gorged.

| It's like going to the doctor and
| having them tell you that you don't eat
| too much fast food and your weight is
| fine. You
| would like to believe that it's true!

Exactly the point! Doctors are usually point man for the pharmaceutical industry. After 16 years in this country I have still to find a good doctor. I suppose it's the same for the bankers. Quick profit is trumping education over here and we are on our own. Which is why one should make the maximum efforts to live within ones means and educate oneself on everything, from medicine to finance, ...

"he can’t easily pay all the money back before the deadline in December".

Well, boo hoo. Not supposed to be easy, chump.

By the way it's not "track" house. It's tract house.

Somehow I doubt that he "would never be in this situation if [he] had a job.”

Rather than hope for guarantees that he will always have a job, how about if he just puts some (more) money aside for a rainy day and accepts that using a house like an ATM is never a good idea? And what's up with wanting to spread 4 payments out over the life of the loan? Why not just man up and pay it off over some shorter period? It would save quite a bit of interest, even if he gets that beggar loan rate (no doubt subsidized by the rest of us).

Let's learn from our mistakes, people, not just whine to ACORN about them.

So he *can* pay his delinquent mortgage, it's just "inconvenient" for him to do so, so he wants a handout. Why am I soooo not surprised he's an Obama supporter?

farkdawg, I have a higher opinion of the wisdom of the average American than you do. I think that opinion is supported by the fact that only a small percentage of people fell for this financial hemlock. Enough to do serious damage the way those CDOs or whatever spread the risk around, but still a small percentage. Most mortgage holders are not in default, or even close to it, from what I read.

If this is the epicenter of foreclosures, where's the actual center?

"epicenter" does not mean "most extreme center" or something. It is a point removed from the actual center: the actual center of the earthquake is underground, and the epicenter is the corresponding point on the surface.

I used to expect journalists to know English, but at this point I suppose I should be thankful articles aren't written in text message speak.

lennybeachboy999 wrote:

'SOCIAL SECURITY should send the " numbers no match " letters now and watch millions of AMERICANS get thier jobs back now !!!'

Has the fact that the jobs (I'll assume that you are referring to construction work) no longer exist occured to you? New construction starts have dropped severely, ergo no jobs for anyone, legal SS# or no.

Just so you know, illegal immigration has slowed by 35% over the past two economic quarters.

Why should this jerk get a lower interest rate? Is it because he is irresponsible? I am not surprise he is an Obama supporter. The Democrat like to blame everything on the Republicans, but I wonder gave away all the jobs to overseas....could it have been the Clintons. You got that right.... I am a responsiable homeowner. Why don't you give me a lower interest rate. Your home is like your 401K. It is a saving that you can cash in when you downside in your old age. It is not to buy a nicer car or a bigger TV. It is people like you who are screwing up our country along with the government.

Here's how I write this article:

1. Guy buys $xxx,xxx home by putting $xx,xxx down and takes a mortgage.

2. He refinanced and took out $xx,xxx

3. His monthly income prior to losing job was $x,xxx.

4. His gambling losses over the last year were $xx,xxx.

5. The amount in his 401K is $xx,xxx. The tax penalty he would incur if he took out the money to bring his mortgage current is $x,xxx

6. He contributed $x,xxx to Obama and Reid.

Fill in those numbers, Travis Fox, and then let's have a discussion. Not one doubt in my mind that instead of a pity party, we see the true Democrat principal of "Help! Give me someone else's money!"

Here's a krazy krazy thought for krazy krazy Americans: don't buy anything you can't afford. However, Obama will see to it it's business-as-usual by taking from the rich and giving to the lazy & stupid.

They won't be bringing back construction jobs. The construction boom, fired by low interest rates looped together to inflate our current situation. Both candidates would be fools to artificially encourage the construction industry. We may see an upturn in the economy in the next two years, but we won't see demand for residential construction et al for years and years afterward, outside of a few pockets of urban renewal. There's simply too many houses on the market, too many empty houses, and a glut that will go on the market as soon as prices creep up slightly. Nobody in my neighborhood is selling. Every single sign is "For Rent" because they can't sell, but aren't staying. All those homes will have to be sold before they'll be big demand for new construction that's further out in the boondox, further from work, and more expensive to commute from.

Leoleo1 - If you're going to take the writer to task for use of English, the least you could do is bother to look up the definition. Epicenter has a precise, scientific meeting. It also has a more common usage.

epicenter n.

1. The point of the earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.
2. A focal point: stood at the epicenter of the international crisis.

Egg, meet face. Face, meet egg.

BB

This union construction worker should get tossed out of his house.

Obama's plan does NOT have the taxpayers bailing the guy out.

In fact, it is McCain who would have the taxpayers eating the loss on this, obviously self-entitled moron's, bad decision to refinance his house and blow the cash on a sony PS3, flat screen TV etc.

I have a PS2 and an 'old' CRT type TV. They work just fine.

If the bank tosses his butt out in the desert, as it should, then the bank gets the house, resells it and takes the writedown (if any) on their loan portfolio.

I don't really see the point of losing your home when you have an option of paying the shortages out of your 401K. Many don't have this option...and they are one's that need help.

I refi'ed myself 2+ years ago...when my insurance doubled...and my employer moved from bi-weekly to monthly pay. I didn't have any savings...still fighting to get back to a decent salary after being laid off from a corporation (13 years working there). I would have found a way to get by two years ago if I would have had good advice and could have foreseen this coming. The broker of course was very eager and found an appraiser that valued my home from what I found out really too high. Long story short...couldn't refinace my loan...Credit Union would have but the value came back under the mortgage amount. Countrywide didn't care...they raised my rate from 7 to 10%...and now I am falling behind every month too. They believe I can pay...don't have to eat or buy gas...they don't care.

I am hoping a group called NACA can help...but if they don't I will be renting again in a month or two.

All the government had to do was to freeze rate resets and maybe freeze foreclosures while this gets straightened out...if ever.

This guy should pay....is asking for a free ride when he has money in his 401k...

Hey -- sometimes you have no choice but to just accept the inevitable. I lost my house before it was "fashionable" to be the victim of a preditory lender. I, my realtor, a hired negotiator and my attorney tried for 7 months to work with my bank (thanks for nothing Chase) but in the end it was all for not. They would have rather taken a $70,000.00 loss on the house than to take a $15,000.00 loss.

And this is what we are paying 700 trillion dollars to bail out? I would have just as soon let them all sink and they could join me on the other side of what was my life.

So this guy *does* actually have money to pay his mortgage! It's sheltered in his 401k and he refuses to take it out.

So, basically, the bank is going to take a major loss on this mortgage, but not to worry, the taxpayers will cover that loss. Meanwhile, this guy will walk away with all of his 401k money intact.

I think they should change the law so that 401k's are no longer considered some sort of sacred shelter.

All these oh so sanctimonious and self-righteous comments.

YOu don't know where the money went from the refi. Given his age it could have been for college costs for child, medical bill that were not covered by insurance, helping an elderly family member....

BTW the TV and game thing could be purchased on Ebay for 33% of retail.

He was out of work for nearly a year and made it with the payments for nearly 8 months. Sounds like there were savings.

ALl the self-righteous will be the first to scream if he goes through the 401K and needs help in retirement and will be shrieking 'he shouldn't have sed the money for the house, he should have saved it.'

The whiff of blame-the-victim is very strong on this thread - and most people play blame-the-victim so they can find reasons for what happened to someone else that they can think won't happen to them because they are oh-so-perfect and could never lose job or get sick or anything else.

From the sounds of it, he was living within his means until the job loss and did have more than 6 months of living expenses in reserve. What about all of you, eh?