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Yeah, is the Tiger Woods place the one over in Fairview, over that way? I mean, when will these people stop? Tearing up mountainsides, defacing the entire area for personal gain, it's absolutely disgusting. A few luxury communities for rich people is one thing, but it's like these people think everyone and their cousin wants to live in some snooty-tooty country club community on a torn-up mountainside. You know, that way when their friends come to town in their Learjet to visit them they can point at the mountain from the highway as they're driving home (or being driven home) in their Rolls-Royce and go, "See that big-ass house there on the side of the mountain? Yeah, the big ugly one that's ruining an otherwise beautiful view? (Proudly says) That's mine!" Ugh.
Unfortunately most of the people getting swept up in that concept could not afford a LearJet or Rolls Royce. They were generally people whose net worth skyrocketed because of highly inflated and unsustainable real estate values for their primary homes. Many were borrowing against those homes and in debt up to their eyeballs. The entire house of cards was based on cheap and available credit and people continuing to participate without asking what would happen when the economy turned down, even in a moderate recession. As we know, the house of cards collapsed because it was based on a fundamentally flawed set of assumptions, none the least of which was people seeing their homes as investment vehicles.
Places like the Cliffs serve to prove PT Barnum was right (actually, one of his assistants) but he was an optimist!
Unfortunately most of the people getting swept up in that concept could not afford a LearJet or Rolls Royce. They were generally people whose net worth skyrocketed because of highly inflated and unsustainable real estate values for their primary homes. Many were borrowing against those homes and in debt up to their eyeballs. The entire house of cards was based on cheap and available credit and people continuing to participate without asking what would happen when the economy turned down, even in a moderate recession. As we know, the house of cards collapsed because it was based on a fundamentally flawed set of assumptions, none the least of which was people seeing their homes as investment vehicles.
Places like the Cliffs serve to prove PT Barnum was right (actually, one of his assistants) but he was an optimist!
Good points. Truthfully, none of that makes me feel the least bit sorry for any of these people though. Regardless of how in debt they are, they still came here and permanently destroyed mountainsides, and they're plain stupid for borrowing against homes like that. Especially when it was so obvious that the whole thing was hanging on by a thread. I guess they wanted to get it while they could!
All I have to say is thank god the state stepped in and took land from anthony to make dupont state forest. Now dubbed one of the top state parks in the nation. Anyone remember how he bought it with the agreement that it was to be a private residence and he of course lied and started to try and sell individual lots in it. Can you imagine that being yet another cliff's development?! It is disgusting that he made millons of dollars on it though. He clearly thinks he is above the law and can do what he wants. ksdjf;kasljf;ds. Its even more disgusting to know that he will never be personally affected by any of his developments failures because I'm sure its all protected under llc's and such.
DuPont State Forest (http://www.dupontforest.com/history.asp - broken link)
Last edited by saucystargazer; 10-04-2011 at 03:00 PM..
Saw the newspaper articles the last few days--looks like it will be on hold for quite a while. Some lots sold for over $1million. Maybe if it ends in foreclosure settlement the new owners will have to seriously downscale the amount of homes and overall development due to the economic outlook.
Yeah, is the Tiger Woods place the one over in Fairview, over that way? I mean, when will these people stop? Tearing up mountainsides, defacing the entire area for personal gain, it's absolutely disgusting. A few luxury communities for rich people is one thing, but it's like these people think everyone and their cousin wants to live in some snooty-tooty country club community on a torn-up mountainside. You know, that way when their friends come to town in their Learjet to visit them they can point at the mountain from the highway as they're driving home (or being driven home) in their Rolls-Royce and go, "See that big-ass house there on the side of the mountain? Yeah, the big ugly one that's ruining an otherwise beautiful view? (Proudly says) That's mine!" Ugh.
Good points. Truthfully, none of that makes me feel the least bit sorry for any of these people though. Regardless of how in debt they are, they still came here and permanently destroyed mountainsides, and they're plain stupid for borrowing against homes like that. Especially when it was so obvious that the whole thing was hanging on by a thread. I guess they wanted to get it while they could!
I agree, I don't feel sorry for people that basically pushed all the chips to the center of the table for something like this. There are time tested rules about how much house one can afford based on price of the house vs. annual income. The fact people made the decision to ignore those is their own problem.
It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out you can't afford a $500k home on $60k of annual income forever (unless you had amassed a huge down payment) or a $800k house on $150k of annual income, but a lot of real estate developments were built and many sold on that very concept.
Worse, there was once a goal, actually more like an assumption that when someone hits retirement age, their home would be paid off. I heard of many, many people who should have been eying retirement and instead were taking on more debt.
Personally, my life will be a easier and I will have a lot more options once Casa Mule is paid off.
People made emotional decisions or used inductive reasoning (using the term reasoning loosely) about the biggest expense, debt load and risk they would face. With that era over these types of developments are faced with selling only to people who can genuinely afford them, and many of those people do not see it as a wise use of their money.
There is blame enough to go around to everybody involved, starting with the buyer.
Sorry, but I think some of you are missing the point about The Cliffs. The developer overextended himself; most of those who purchased properties and homes from him will survive just fine, especially since many paid cash (and when they loaned the developer $64 million, they received the amenities as collateral). For a comprehensive overview of the situation, try Cliffs notes come due; big changes ahead for once high-flying Carolina golf group.
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Cliffs didn't bust because its residents did
