Posted 11/29/2008 05:48:00 PM by Douglas

No one is going to rejoice in the misfortunes of others, but these stories don't make me have a lot of sympathy. Idiots like this caused this problem:

Together and separately, the couple bought a five-bedroom house in Smyrna, a condominium in Smyrna for his mother and another condo at an intown development that was creating a lot of buzz at the time — Atlantic Station.

Atlantic Station was so popular in 2005 and 2006 that a lottery was used to sell homes. Adam got lucky, she thought, and purchased a two-bedroom condo at Twelve for $387,700.

The couple’s gung-ho approach to real estate turned out to be an enormous mistake.

Adam, a real estate agent, now collects unemployment because home sales have nose-dived. Valles, a chiropractor, couldn’t make a go of it locally, so he travels to Florida to work.

Buried under three mortgages, two education loans and private school bills for their two children, “we don’t sleep at night,” Adam said, sitting with her husband outside a Starbucks at Atlantic Station.

Their struggles typify what’s happened in many locales, with the result being a crippled housing market that has led to the economic downturn.

You got in over your head in debt under the assumption the value of your property is always going to go up. It didn't. Deal with it, oh thanks for ruining the economy, jerks.

The couple’s Smyrna house, which cost $419,000, is probably worth $100,000 less today, Adam said. The condo at Twelve? Similar ones are now priced $150,000 lower. The couple won’t consider selling at such losses.

Adam said she won’t ruin her cousin’s credit rating. Instead, she and Valles have decided to quit making payments on their Smyrna house after failing to convince the lender to adjust the mortgage.

You took out the loans, jerk. How is simply NOT paying at this point going to help anyone? Just going to accelerate the foreclosure. Then there's this:

More homeowners are simply walking away from properties. Curtis Bratton abandoned two condos at Twelve he bought as investments.

“I don’t like to give up on anything that I have,” said Bratton, who is self-employed. “At the same time, it’s easy in the sense of I’m not going to keep spending money there. I don’t care about my credit rating. I’m just a cash person.”

First off, you don't know anything: the bank does. And what do you mean you're a 'cash' person? You are now, because you have no credit, but if you were a cash person, buying things you could afford, what's the problem?