Struggling Family in Economy

[AnnaRaven]

You can't buy a trailer home hereabouts for $175k. OTOH - the house in the article was at least a 5 BR (all 4 kids had their own room)- not exactly what I think of as modest digs for a family of 6.

Still, what struck me was that the woman seemed to have had money managemnet problems even when she was single (remember the "rent due" notice when they met) and never improved.

I know the terror of being in foreclosure - we managed to avoid it by the skin of our teeth - and I know what it's like to lose your job, and be on foodstamps while working 80 hour weeks, what it means to not have any job at all, what it means to really be poor.

I fear this woman and her family are going to end up homeless before they figure out the changes they need to make. I fear a lot of people are going to end up that way.

 

[Boogity]

While I agree with most of the responses to the Yahoo article I tend to look at this thread topic a little differently. The only real reaction to the article was "why would Yahoo News pick this family for an article of this type?"

This is a poor example of a family in distress. To me they have shown a lack of self discipline, a lack of family planning, and a strong effort to keep up a false front by hanging onto a house that they clearly can no longer afford. Burbank and her husband do not seem to try to re-train themselves for other means of income. I did not read that either one has gone to another state where the job opportunities are better.

Come on Yahoo, there are many, many more heart-wrenching stories out there in these down times. There are families who deserve our attention much more than these folks.

 

[Boogity]

You can't buy a trailer home hereabouts for $175k . . .

Holy smokes!!! - where do you live? We have some great homes here in beautiful rural Indiana, both modular and stick-built that are on 1, 2, and 3 acres for $60k to $100k.

 

[Wannabefree]

The way I see this is here is the bottom line...we live off of $18K a year and are raising a growing teenager who we have had to replace wardrobe for THREE times this year!!! If we can do it, so can others. OR they can sit back and sulk and make excuses while waiting for the government to make their lives a happy place again. No I do not feel sorry for them in their situation, I feel sorry that they can't see the forrest for that big ole house they bought. It was dumb!!! We bought our home, and are not behind on payments right now, have been, but we found odd jobs to make the bill, and we PRAYED for guidance and found it in some very odd places actually The point is, American's are such pansy quitters in this generation. Since when do we just lay down and pee on ourselves when the bill collectors come knocking?!?! It really makes me ill. Yeah, I like my home and my small bit of land, but uh...if my kid needs something...it can go. Priorities get hidden behind feelings of entitlement these days. I just really really feel like smacking some of these folks to wake them up and show them that if you wake up in America in a cardboard box with a cracker in your pocket you are STILL AMONG THE RICHEST IN THE WORLD! Be thankful for crying out loud!!

 

[ORChick]

You can't buy a trailer home hereabouts for $175k . . .

Holy smokes!!! - where do you live? We have some great homes here in beautiful rural Indiana, both modular and stick-built that are on 1, 2, and 3 acres for $60k to $100k.

Anna lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having lived there myself for more than 25 years I can say that it is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. I've been away from there for 9 years, so can't say what the prices are currently. Big reason we moved away: we had a choice of retiring early, and no longer living there, or staying , and working till or beyond retirement age. Couldn't have stayed and retired.

 

[Dunkopf]

Why did they pick this family? Go find a family that used to live in a nice home and are now living in their 20 year old mini van. That send their kids out every day to scour trash cans for redeemable cans or to beg on corners. They should have shown a family in real need. A family that has run out of unemployment and has no safety net at all.

I wonder how many people that are now in dire need because they weren't prepared at all will learn anything from the experience after the economy comes back. I'm not putting them down. Bad money management plagues a lot of people and it's real easy for people with better habits to look down their noses at them. I think this kind of stuff might change those bad habits for some people.

 

[rebecca100]

We have never made $38,000 in a year and we are a family of four. Neither do we take any handouts. We are buying 2 vehicles(not the best choice in my opinion but we do own one older truck that is paid off -just in case - ), own one property that my dad left me, and have almost paid off our own land. We have worked hard and done without to get where we are and I can honestly say we are doing pretty darn good. I feel bad for that family. It seems like people are set to believe one way and that is how it should be or the world is ending. They never even consider that maybe they should change something or "think outside the box". Of course I don't live in Nevada and am not in their situation, but I'll just about bet that they could turn what they have into something good.

 

[Dunkopf]

You can't buy a trailer home hereabouts for $175k . . .

Holy smokes!!! - where do you live? We have some great homes here in beautiful rural Indiana, both modular and stick-built that are on 1, 2, and 3 acres for $60k to $100k.

Anna lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Having lived there myself for more than 25 years I can say that it is one of the most expensive places in the US to live. I've been away from there for 9 years, so can't say what the prices are currently. Big reason we moved away: we had a choice of retiring early, and no longer living there, or staying , and working till or beyond retirement age. Couldn't have stayed and retired.

No kidding. I lived in San Jose for 5 years. When we went to the bay area for vacation in 2001 a 3 bdrm, 2bath, 2 car garage on a concrete foundation and stucco walls was going in the 900k range. I hear they got up over a million before the housing crash and are now down in the 600k range. Up in SF the prices are even worse.

It's amazing the difference in housing prices across the country. I know Oregon has gone up a lot too. People in LA selling for a million and then coming up there to buy for a lot cheaper. Just like the big migration of New Yorkers that bough their houses in the 40's for 25k and sold in the 90's for 900k then moved to Florida and bought really nice places for 250k and drove the housing prices way up.

Unfortunately those places that have the 60k houses usually don't have any jobs. Once a major job provider comes to town the housing prices go way up.

 

[me&thegals]

We're out in the country, but in-laws are still renting their really old farmhouse (but nice condition) for $1200/month. So, it's pretty hard to compare salaries much when we have no idea what each other's cost of living is.

 

[Marianne]

Wow. I sure don't have anything to add that hasn't already been said. The median income in our area is $36,000 with median housing at $110,600.
In Henderson, where that family lives, median income is $56,000 and median housing $252 - 297,000, depending on which website you're looking at.

So they feel pretty broke, whereas so many people here would get by just fine on that amount of unemployment. I pity her because she either doesn't know that she has options OR doesn't have the gumption to change her situation.

I guess we all know that it's what you do with what you got. And those of us here know how to have a lot on what other people would consider very little.