However, to add insult to injury, "love thy neighbor" has basically gone to hell in a handbasket as well as consumer spending. People are losing their homes; property values are declining. I understand how this is awful for their neighbors. These seemingly "responsible" people are still paying their mortgages, yet due to the new found glut of unoccupied homes now in the area, their property values diminish, resulting in a net loss of equity. In some cases, home values have plummeted below the value of a mortgage. This is counter to the trend that a home is an ever-increasing investment. Understandably, this causes quite an air of resentment toward the neighbors who walked away from their homes, or were foreclosed on. The extant homeowner develops a mentality of "I was responsible; I was still penalized." Look, the person may have spent beyond their means. Maybe they were a little too gullible; maybe they fell for a persuasive realtor's pitch. Maybe the unprecedented availability of credit plus the mob mentality of 3-car garage ultra-luxe home ownership within the reach of the middle class' purchasing power let them think they could do it. After all, the American dream represents nothing if it doesn't represent the triumph of the underdog with some hard work, hope, elbow grease and a little visit from lady luck. What the American dream didn't factor in is predatory lenders who didn't disclose the full terms of the loans they were peddling on the hopeful middle class.
After the great depression, people changed their ways. People viewed at spending, saving and work in entirely different paradigms. Let's look at this economic downtown as a wake-up call. First - if we lose some equity in our homes for a period, this isn't the end of the world. A home isn't a quick way to play catch up with the upper middle class; it's not a way to make a few hundred thousand dollars in a couple of years. I personally don't agree with "speculators" a.k.a flippers. When you buy a car, you willingly spend tens of thousands of dollars knowing full well the second you drive off that lot, almost half its value is slashed. You're still going to hang on to it for a few years. If your home loses some money and temporarily devalues past the cost of your home loan - don't fret. As long as people keep having babies, the value will go back up - eventually earning you money and equity. Be patient. Change your paradigm. Secondly - don't be hostile to your neighbor who just lost everything. Part of being American (a part we have sadly forgotten due to decades of unimpeded prosperity causing an almost Roman Empire-esque sense of security and superiority) is our ability to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, get a little dirty and bounce back from a set back. Our resilience got us through two World Wars, a Depression, the 70s...just kidding. Lend a helping hand. Even if you're mad, at least step back for a few minutes, take a few deep breaths, and try to put yourself in their shoes. Try to see life as they are. Try to understand how helpless, hopeless and depressed and overwhelmed they must feel. They just lost their home. Their family life is in turmoil. They don't know what they're going to do. Don't just be a neighbor - be an American neighbor. Stop over, say "sorry, best of luck in the future, god bless," etc. Swallow your pride, swallow your anger. Yeah, your home equity isn't doubling every 3 years anymore. So what? Money comes from hard work. go back to that mentality. Stop counting on credit and instant gratification with postponement of reality. Use this as an opportunity to reevaluate the type of person you want to be by how you handle this crisis. The times that try us are the times that show our true character - and if what you're seeing is what you want, use this time to forge a new character. We can make it through this crisis unscathed and even better. It just depends on if we let it.
. Upon graduating, I realized my passion was (and always has been) teaching - which is perhaps the reason behind creating this blog. After 11 years teaching at Mother of Sorrows in Blue Island, Il, and after the birth of my second child - my son, R.J. - I decided to pursue law school. I graduated with my J.D. from Kent Law School.