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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Brett_in_Sacto, post: 2628671, member: 71510&quot;]I disagree.&nbsp; Everyone in the US got hit pretty badly.&nbsp; The ones that got slammed the hardest were the ones that saw &quot;easy money&quot; and no downside, and followed bad advice on the &quot;get rich quick&quot; equity roller coaster.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Everyone was affected from the richest to the poorest.&nbsp; There are many that changed from &quot;well off&quot; to relatively poor and even broke, but they were the ones chasing the quick buck.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was in Nevada at the time, and saw all my neighbors with new boats, RV&#039;s and taking fancy vacations - and no equity left.&nbsp; And then they panicked and walked out on their mortgages to lose it all.</p><p><br /></p><p>The other side was people that had recently bought at inflated prices without chasing a quick flip, and then sold out / sold short - because of their own short-sightedness and lost it all.&nbsp; Selling in 2009/2010 and not realizing that by 2015 the market would have recovered and instead of owning their problem and just sticking with it - decided to bail out.&nbsp; They lost a lot too, but I look at these as &quot;flakes&quot; that walked out on their mortgages.</p><p><br /></p><p>Instead, I took the opportunity to refi to a 15yr and no cash out.&nbsp; My house has recovered about 90% and is back on track, and my equity is well recovered, and while not at the peak &quot;bubble&quot; levels, it has certainly recovered to a reasonable appreciation level.</p><p><br /></p><p>I also took the opportunity to buy a second home in 2010 that someone had fixed up and bailed on.&nbsp; It&#039;s at about 90% of the peak &quot;bubble&quot; value right now.</p><p><br /></p><p>Had most of the families that sold short in panic and accepted foreclosure because they were underwater just held on and owned their responsibility - they&#039;d have all been better off.&nbsp; By the time they add up the money spent on rent, the loss on paper, the penalties, the destruction of their credit record and upheaval of their families, I think most are worse off for bailing - and they should be.&nbsp; They screwed everyone else up that was doing things correctly.</p><p><br /></p><p>I call all of this &quot;ready, FIRE.....aim&quot; syndrome.&nbsp; Nobody bothers to aim anymore, and shoots from the hip in reactive panic.&nbsp; It works in Hollywood Westerns, not usually in real life.</p><p><br /></p><p>In short, most people suffered from self-induced problems making it worse.</p><p><br /></p><p>Those of us that took the conservative investment approach, had a rainy day fund, and were cautiously opportunistic did quite well.</p><p><br /></p><p>For the last 3 years, I&#039;ve had my old neighbor paying my mortgage in my first home.&nbsp; He panicked, sold short after taking out a huge equity loan, and lost everything.&nbsp; Ruined his credit, his nest egg, and had to find a place to rent.&nbsp; I had no idea he had lived 6 doors down from me until my rental management company told me where he had moved from.&nbsp; He still has his boat though, sitting in the driveway of my home.&nbsp; <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />&nbsp; Do I feel sorry for him?&nbsp; A bit, but not too much.&nbsp; He made his decisions just like I did, and chose to over-extend.</p><p><br /></p><p>Moral of the story...&nbsp; Sheep will follow the herd, right to the slaughter house.&nbsp; Look beyond the herd and find your own path to freedom.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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