US home prices rise 12.2 percent, best in 6 years

[Divernan]

10. Excellent charts. Home equity is the final target of the Ravenously Greedy too-big-to-fail banks.

The One Percenters and their agents/corporate lackeys have stripped the American work force of fairly paid, full-time employment with traditional benefits (sick time, health insurance, vacation days); continue to layoff workers every year to keep increasing their profit margins, by forcing the remaining employees to work longer hours with no overtime. What's left to legally embezzle? Home equity!

Home ownership, building up of equity, and the gradual rise in the value of said homes, formed the bedrock of financial security for Americans as they reached retirement age. To the bankers/hedge fund traders It's like waving a red flag at a bull - how can WE (bankers/traders) be the ones to enjoy the equity of residential properties/single family homes? Just foreclose and purchase on the cheap, rent on the high side.

In Florida, for example, homeowners driven into bankruptcy, learned that their homes could be purchased at sheriff's sales for only $100. This compares to a state like Ohio, where homes to be sold at sheriff's sales had to be appraised by 3 different appraisers, and could be sold for no less than 60% of the average appraised value. My daughter bought her first home, in Ft. Myers, FL, at the height of the bubble - paid 20% down, on a $140,000 condo. A year later, just as the bubble burst, her Florida office was closed down & she had to move to another state to find employment. She carried the mortgage on her Florida house for a year as the market continued to plunge downwards, basically throwing money down the toilet, and finally consulted with a bankruptcy attorney and decided to go that route. (Her mortgage holder refused to write off any part of the mortgage so she could sell it.) Whatever banker/realtor snapped up this beautiful new condo for $100, turned around and sold it within a month for about $50,000. She lost her life savings (the down payment) plus paying mortgage/taxes/insurance for a year before finally admitting defeat.

Did y'all get that? A nearly new, $140,000 condo for ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS! And THAT, boys and girls is how wealth is transferred upward in the good ole U S of A!