This was posted on HousingPanic today. It is directed at all of America but it especially describes housing-bubble Scottsdale to a tee. In 2005 Scottsdale was full of bling, Rolexes, big houses, Bentleys, etc. (Granted in Scottsdale they drive the entry-level Bentley GT, made by Volkswagen in the Volkswagen factory, but hey, they only care about status and name recognition in Scottsdale.) Restaurants were always packed and you didn't even try going out on a weekend without an advance reservation.
Now?
Everything is dead. The Housing ATM is shut off, and the restaurants are shuttering too. All those blingy cars are being repossessed by the banks. The steak dinners at Mastro's are being replaced by 10-cent top ramen.
A house should never have been an open wallet. A house should never have been an ATM or a no-limit credit card. A house should never have been a retirement account. A house should never have been a lottery ticket. A house should not have been a replacement for a job.
A house should have been, and should always be, a home.
Everyone thought they were rich (or getting rich) these past few years. They ignored what was happening to America (manufacturing? who needs manufacturing? habeus corpus? ah, that's silly!) because the price of their home was going up and they could suck out the 'equity' and go blow it however they saw fit.
No more.
Now, people are behind on their payments on that mortgage they can't really afford. Millions have lost their jobs. The housing ATM is out of order. And money really doesn't grow on trees.
Nice post!
Really, the whole housing fiasco is symbolic of America's decay and mad rush, like the Gaderene swine, over a cliff to self-destruction.
I think the author of this site caught Scottsdale in the good old days, before the $30K millionaire fraudsters and gold-digging botox beautfies with fake, silicone racks took over.
And they thought the party would never end: the drinks would just keep flowing, the bosoms bouncing, and the housing ATM Kaching'ing! Well, about the only thing still bouncing in Scottsdale these days are personal checks.
Perhaps, mercifully, reality will exert itself and sanity will prevail once again in the Valley of the Sun.
Who knows, maybe even Frank R. will forgive Scottsdale of it's excesses and narcissism, notwithstanding the communist bureaucracy that's running the place like a Soviet Gulag...
Posted by: Joe Jacari | December 19, 2007 at 07:34 PM
I feel like big brother is watching me with all these speed cameras tied onto lamp posts.
Posted by: T | December 20, 2007 at 08:37 AM