Jean Joh

The Human Cost of the Troubled Economy
October 5, 2008 ·  

Last week, I was “on the floor” answering phone calls for our company, when I received a call from someone who was interested in one of the rentals we had available.  We arranged to meet the following day to look at the house of interest during his lunch hour.  When we met, I was surprised to learn that this gentleman actually lived right down the street from the house we were viewing.  He shared with me that he currently owned his home but that his mortgage payments had become unaffordable and that he was already several months behind.  He said he had no choice but to put it on the market as a short sale, rent for a little while and hopefully try to buy a home again after a few years.  He also told me about his large family and how difficult it was to be going through this process right now.

This meeting stuck with me for the rest of the day and even now.  He’s not the first person I’ve met who was in the process of losing their home, nor do I believe (no matter how much I would hope for it) that he will be the last.  With all the talk of the economy, the election, etc, it’s times like these that actually bring the news home to me in a poignant way.  And it’s such a mixed bag of emotions for me as a real estate agent.  I have some clients who will finally be able to afford their first home because of the decline in prices.  I have others who are telling me that they will be putting their home-finding process on hold because they are not sure if they’ll have jobs in a few months.  And I also meet people like the gentleman mentioned above – very nice people who, for some reason or another, have found that their “dream home” may not be theirs for much longer.  I’m sure other agents have had similar encounters and that all of us can’t wait until things improve.

Here’s to hoping that the “bailout” will be a good step toward getting this economy back on its feet.

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Comments

One Response to “The Human Cost of the Troubled Economy”

  1. Michael Monozon on October 5th, 2008 4:54 pm

    I suspect we all understand your concerns, I imagine that at any given time there are families that are doing well and families that are not. The reasons are not always transparent. Is it possible that the world of real estate is not the only cause for the difficult economy?
    We, those of us in the business, owe it to the family that now has affordabilty on their side, to help them secure their future, and to do what we can to secure a brighter future for those suffering from whatever got them in trouble, maybe they cannot be helped, maybe it will be their children that benefit. I believe all that has happened this past week or so will at some point secure a better opportunity for a recovery

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