How bad is the housing market in California? How about it's so bad that one California Congresswoman couldn't make her house payments and got her home repossessed:
She helps make laws, but one California Congresswoman couldn't make her house payments. County records show that Congresswoman Laura Richardson defaulted on her Sacramento home.
Some neighbors were upset, arguing that she abandoned her home and didn't maintain it for several months. "It was pretty disheveled," said neighbor Rafael Burgos.
The Long Beach Democrat bought the three-bedroom home shortly after she was elected to the California State Assembly in November 2006. The following spring, she ran for Congress in a special election and ended up in Washington D.C. Documents show she took out a $535,000 home loan and did not have a down payment.
"We finally [saw] a notice on the front door about two and a half months ago," Burgos said. "It was a bank repossession notice."
Like I said, by that logic I guess none of us have the right to complain about anything - there will always be people worse off than we are. Can you honestly say you've never complained about the price of petrol? Because there are people out there who could never hope to be able to afford a car.
Can't I make a statement without being accused in so many words of being a shallow, selfish twat?
You have to balance what's important to you in life, JJ. A lot of immigrants and refugees would laugh at your comments right now. People quite often go where the jobs are, in order to survive.
And Kef, of course I'm going to get critisised for complaining about the housing prices in Sydney when there are people worse off than me, but by that logic I guess none of us have the right to complain about anything.
There was plenty of unplugged brains signing mortgages where I worked. But there was also creative financing. This was part of what influenced me to quit. Some of the guys working at that company were sleaze. They'd do anything to get a person into a loan, sometimes two or three, arranging it so that they all hit the banks at the same time so none of the banks knew these people were getting loans from other sources for downs and purchase price.