Update (2/9/08): The New York Times ran a big front-page story on Sunday about Florida’s housing collapse, focused on Lehigh Acres. The piece notes that President Obama is scheduled to visit Fort Myers on Tuesday to promote the stimulus plan.
We’ve had lots of calls and comments from Florida listeners during today’s second hour with George Packer. Some are right in the thick of the foreclosure crisis, like Yves Tony from Lehigh Acres, near Fort Myers:
I live in foreclosure ground zero, Lehigh Acres. I got caught right in the middle of the mess, having bought a house in mid-2006. I am fighting really hard to keep my house, but I am several months late on my mortgage yet.
If the bank does not negotiate with me, I am just gonna have to let it go. I have no hard feelings against anybody, because nobody is really winning in this situation. Everybody is partly to blame; I accept my responsability and will move on. The banks, the developers and any other party to this mess need to do the same.
Others got out when they saw it coming. Check out their comments and join the conversation.
I listened to a portion of the show on Florida real estate. Many of the guest’s and caller’s conclusions are that greed is at the root of the current Florida situation. I’m a “snow bird” from Upstate NY, so I’m and observer here in Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
I can’t help but compare what’s happening here to what’s happening in the urban centers of the north. Here’s a link to a Buffalo News site http://www.buffalonews.com/433 that has a few articles about the real estate disaster there. The reasons for Buffalo’s demise are also rooted in greed–moving jobs– and benign neglect of business leaders who have lost their sense of community as one of the key stakeholders of their business. A community is a faberic that unravels subtly.
Is this America or a war-torn county?
BobNRochester
Posted by Bob Volpe, on February 6th, 2009 at 9:35 am ESTThe podcast for Friday’s “week in the news” has not been made available. Can someone fix this?
thanks.
Posted by Molly, on February 7th, 2009 at 3:25 pm ESTMolly: that was fixed on Saturday. So sorry for the inconvenience.
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Posted by rreqtn, on March 5th, 2009 at 10:25 pm ESTMy family and I lost our house 7 months ago. We moved into a house with rent that we can afford. I was just served with papers that the house we are renting is going into forclosure. We have no idea of our rights and how to save for another place and hope this does not happen again. please any advice would be grateful.
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