Actually the Acorn crowd's pushing unqualified buyers into the market & getting Fannie & Freddy to qualify them by guaranteeing their mortages would be backed & purchased dried up the supply ...& less supply, more demand... higher prices & overextended buyers

Reply

My wife and I bought our home 21 years ago when prices were good. We paid it off 10 years ago. Our taxes are not that bad and it is great not to have a mortgage.There is no way I will sell and buy another one.

Reply

I was on to this awhile back, and some shows even show the purchasers losing their home, but all of these people were living the most expensive of lifestyles based on nothing, and most all expected the finest of everything from the start, it was bizarre. It's like, where is this money coming from? Then showing the ca bungalows for a mil and then putting work into it on top of that...and the single woman who purchased it looked about 35, get real. Unfortunately they weren't actors, they were real people. I totally felt the brunt of what society felt women were offering men financially. HGTV can make up the damage to me by awarding me their free home giveaway, it would be maintained, and no I would never marry.

Reply

Too many people are trying to outpace the Joneses...a lot of our friends have these outrageous 3500-4500 sq ft homes and they don't even have kids! Even then, the kids' rooms are SO tiny, I would feel guilty sleeping in the huge master bedroom! We live in a 1400 sq ft house and have been here 16 years. Yeah, it is small for two adults and two kids, but so is our mortgage at nearly one-third of what everyone else is paying. Our property taxes are even 1/4 of our friends that bought big. I guess it is so much "cooler" to have a new house, but personally, I like having less to clean and I can spend my money on a nice place in Hawaii once a year instead of being forced to hang out in my HUGE backyard that costs $200 a month for the landscaper to blow leaves around! Maybe someday they can afford to put that pool in too, but I doubt it!

Reply

We watch HGTV and note that the cost of many of these projects are not discussed. It also amazed us how much variation in cost of homes there was across the country. For the price of our Oregon home, even in this depressed market, we could live like kings elsewhere in the county...assuming there were jobs. etc.
We have remodeled and added onto our home not as an "investment" but to meet a growing families needs. We did the math, and it was cheaper than moving and paying a realtor to sell the house at 6%. A home should return a reasonable return on your investment. A lot of what we saw was the house flippers doing white-wash remodels and expecting a 6-figure return. Real estate is complex since no two properties are exactly alike and the price needs to reflect the condition and quality of work vs. big Box weekend projects that can devalue a home.
I also fail to see on HGTV the permit process, costs for permits or where all this demo material goes. I'd love to see a "green" remodel that tells how to deal with the demo stuff along with the new green finishes.

Reply

A homeless person on the street intersection begging for money could afford a 7 digit home on these bad loans.

Reply

I agree a smaller place with big enough rooms is way better then not owning or having too big of a place for your budget. The mortgage, taxes and insurance is only part of the cost of home ownership. There's plenty of people in large expensive homes who will never have them paid off and will never be able to afford to retire, when one is working to subsidize being forced to work until they die what's the point of being married? There's no security in that. Marriage should be about security not such materialism and debts. And these people are ending up having to take jobs like cleaning other peoples mansions after losing theirs.

Reply

Luckily I was not in the running for such a proposition....I was even told that women paying half a mortgage was "just the way it is", and that "you can't get a good husband without having a good job". Maybe I have less at my disposal because I accrued other benefits which can slam any McMansion owner at any time but not me. Well, now that we see the results of scary and shocking mass hysteria, stupidity, greed and irresponsibility, I have to say, THAT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS.

Reply

Well, with that humungous "Adam's Apple" on "Miss" Coulter, it's obvious what Barbara Walters said about two months ago that "Ann Coulter is the victim of a very bad sex change, but she must have been a very attractive gay man before the surgery."

LOL. I nearly busted a testicle hearing "BAWA" diss Ann on that one. Ann.... you are permanently banned from NBC... don't totally blow it or "you'll never eat lunch in this town again", you hideous excuse for a transexual.

Reply

Rocket scientists don't live like they do....and btw...what makes people think they deserve it...the thoughts they have never even entered my mind, I only considered the show as entertainment; I'm guess I'm capable of putting things into PERSPECTIVE. But I will enter their contest for the free home and car....all the smart people are doing that.

Reply

I used to like HGTV when we first got it on our cable, but seldom watch it anymore. It was making sick!! Who were these young twurps buying these expensive homes that looked fine to me, yet they had to do major renovations to make it satisfactory. Those terrible popcorn ceilings HAD to go!? And, seemed most of them worked at home. WHAT were they doing at home to make that much money??? Selling drugs? Seems most of their shows now are about home ownership, buying a home, redoing a home to sell, etc., etc. I liked it when it was mostly redecorating shows - things that can be done inexpensively, not major renovations that cost a fortune. I do agree with the writer that HGTV did definitely have a role to play in the housing mess.

Reply

the wall street journal? the watchdogs - I mean lapdogs of business pointing fingers? funny how through all of this blame game being played, the people who are most responsible for allowing the overvaluing of these mortgage-backed securities - i"m talking about the credit-rating agencies like Moddy's - barely get mentioned.
Everybody knows (or should know) that mortgage-issuers, bankers and investors are driven by greed; the check and balance provided by the credit-rating agencies is supposed to protect us from that greed.

Reply

Yeah, that's it, Wall Street Journal - blame POOR people for the recession! You guys on Wall Street had nothing to do with it...

Reply

yeah, those damned POOR people trying to get over, that's what caused the recession. of course the friggin Wall Street Journal is gonna blame everyone but their own greedy slimeball crowd...

Reply

"...but Marcus Thomas LLC creative director Jim Sollisch offers an explanation you probably haven't heard yet: Blame HGTV!"

To tell the truth, I did think of this before the bubble burst. Obviously not the sole reason, but part of the grand scheme of things. When they were first mentioning on the news the possibility of the housing bubble bursting, I thought to myself, "the more HGTV 'advertises' small houses with such high prices in large cities, the more the people in smaller towns and rural areas will want to sell their houses for large amounts as well." I noticed it happening in my own rural area.

Reply

I can't believe what I'm reading - an agent of the Wall Street crowd, who bought this sub-prime debt, packaged it, approved it, sold it, and bankrupted our economy, is blaming 2 shows on a minor friggin TV channel for the financial meltdown, and there are people on this message board going "oh, yeah, that's right - I saw that show. That's what did it".
I don't usually call people 'morons', but what else is there to call you? Would you like to buy a bridge to Brooklyn? I can give you a good deal...

Reply

As a former realtor, I can say that the shows were a benefit to homeowners thinking of selling because previously they all thought their houses were just fine and would be insulted if you suggested doing anything to prepare for sale. After HGTV, they saw the differences that staging, decluttering, small improvements made in the salability and no longer took offense. It became so much easier to discuss the need to prepare homes for sale with homesellers. Also, a lot of people I know were more inspired to keep their homes more up-to-date than people used to, and, thus kept their home values higher. All-in-all, I think you can give HGTV credit for helping homeowners think of their homes as an asset, as well as, just their home.

Reply