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« Previous Entry | Main | Next Entry » How deeply has the home foreclosure problem affected retirees? Name:
Marian Elliott
Question/Comment: How deeply has the home foreclosure problem affected retirees? Paul Solman: Wasilla? THE Wasilla? (Indeed, there IS a Marian Elliott in Wasilla, according to Zaba Search, so I suppose so.) Welcome. Small town; short question. So I'm tempted to give a short answer: I don't know. And it's true, I don't. Moreover, I can't find any data to enlighten me. But, as the kid's food joke goes, lettuce raisin together. It would figure that retirees bought their houses longer ago than the average homeowner. Therefore, they would be stuck with fewer of these new-fangled adjustable-rate mortgages, and be in less danger of falling behind in their payments, and thus of foreclosure. I spent part of the other day at a senior center in East Haven, CT., and hadn't realized one problem retirees face with housing costs. As prices have risen, so have their property taxes, which are now incommensurate with what they originally paid and, in many cases, what they can afford. In addition, heating, air conditioning and electricity represent a bigger-than-average proportion of the elderly's incomes. So my "raisining" may have not have been worth the grapes it was based on. -- Posted September 18, 2008 | Comments (1) | Permalink
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Some other impacts I've seen are
- People whose savings were depleted because of the low interest rates during the Greenspan era. There was nowhere to get a decent return on investment. (One of these days I'm going to figure out how we were concerned about deflation during as the nousing bubble inflated. Knowingly or unknowingly people on fixed incomes from conservative investments were sacrificed during this time period.)
- People who bought retirement houses expecting to pay for them by selling their previous residence.
- People unable to sell their homes and move to retirement communities when they need extended care or homes abandoned as they move in with their children.
- Communities who grew into their new tax base and now are cutting services (elderly and poor are easy targets).
- Lower amounts for reverse mortgages. Here I'm guessing. But I mention it because I understand there are significant abuses in the industry and maybe we can get government to act against immoral (but probably not illegal) behavior instead of reacting to the tragedies of its aftermath.