Quote from PocketChange:
You guys are missing the point of my post. Doesn't matter if the house and associated bills are $1K, $2k, $3k or $10k a month.
It's the domino effect.
There is an entire supply chain reliant on the monthly residual income generated from each property. Just like insurance actuarial tables and bundled mortgage risk assessments they have a finite amount of write offs they can absorb ie. < 5%.
Once this limit has been breached they either have to raise their rates or rob peter to pay paul.
One abandoned/foreclosed house in a subdivision of 500 houses is ordinary in the normal course of life. 10 raises eye brows but still shouldn't significantly impact prpoerty values and operations.
50 foreclosures and all bets are off... Everyone gets that nice everlasting sting. There are entire buildings in Miami and entire subdivisions in Vegas that have been raped and pillaged.
Dollar deflation is in progress no denying. While I'm not a socialist per se without the monthly transactions derived from a property its only a matter of time before the local economy deflates.
Stimulus funds paid to banks so they can pay lawyers to foreclose doesn't solve a thing. Sweeps the underlying problem under the rug. Stimulus funds paid to preserve the supply chain may buy time but this snowball has some momentum.
You've touched on the structural underpinnings of this fraudulent economy, no matter what the propoganda machine would like to sweep underneath the rug.
The middle class, the small business owners, the recent college grads, the senior citizens on fixed incomes are just some of the victims of ZIRP gone wild. The fact of the matter is that once mainstream America saw that the guy next door was doing the whole "legal squatting" routine of stopping payments on their mortgage and just saying "f you, come get me", it went viral and now, even seemingly well adjusted, lawful citizens will or currently are joining in.
Just what do these central planners expect when wages are trending downward (outside the public sector of course), housing values are stagnant to lower, property taxes are up, food prices are up, insurance costs are up, etc, etc...
So when given the option of a). Pay an obscene mortgage based on bubble housing valuations or b). Gas up the car and feed the family, it's something of a no-brainer what wins out.
And that is why this is a generational event, the housing market can be painted with pig lipstick, but beneath the surface it will continue to be a different picture. At some point, when these municipalities declare all out war on the homeowner, people will rue the day they were stuck in their McMansion with the banks and taxing agencies holding them hostage for their monthly and annual "cut".