[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by Armyvet1

Let Armyvet1 chime in here for a moment. First off your decision can't be any worse then my original interest in Torrington, apparently thats not desirable either, it's not a sheltered NYC bedroom community, whatever.

Secondly you're young and explorative are you not? Are you viewing this home as a home or something to get rich quick on cause if it's the latter don't do it cause it will never happen. A home should not be purchased unless you love the area and plan to stay for a very long time. View the house as a home to build memories and raise your children, not cash in on, we need some old fashion beliefs back in the country.

Personally I would never buy a foreclosure, a family lost that home so someone else could have it and I can almost guarantee that the family who lost the home was a victim of predatory lending, which is a crime and fraudulent. I would let the bank sit on it and hope they lose money everyday for kicking a family out.

Agree on Torrington. It has potential and is affordable. The Warner Theater has a good reputation, and you have all the amenities - shopping, pharmacy, a hospital, restaurants, etc - you need in town.

Norwich has a lot of decent residential areas, as I said above. The downtown has potential, but it has seen better days. The tax rate is very high in town, though, so one might want to look at Groton as well.

[Tetto]

There are many beautiful areas of Norwich with beautiful, old victorian style houses. There are many rundown, crappy areas as well, as others have said you have to be extremely careful where you buy. You MUST visit and scrutinize the area and gain a full understanding of the neighborhoods. Here's my .02, sometimes my wife and I will stop by Norwich marina in the center of town, it seems to always be filled with sketchy people. Cars parked, doors open, music blasting just not a good vibe. Other times, it can be just OK when imo it should be policed and always be a welcoming spot; its generally not. Be careful and do your homework!

[BPt111]

Greenville section/franklin st in Norwich that ghetto ?

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by Armyvet1

Personally I would never buy a foreclosure, a family lost that home so someone else could have it and I can almost guarantee that the family who lost the home was a victim of predatory lending, which is a crime and fraudulent. I would let the bank sit on it and hope they lose money everyday for kicking a family out.

"A Family" was too lazy/ignorant/stupid to do simple math calculations of what they could truly afford, and created a domino effect whereby responsible people who did do the math, were priced out of the market.

Yes, we're off-topic, but seriously, i dislike when people scream "predatory", "big banks bad", etc.

If you graduated 7th grade, you(borrower) are fully capable of doing the math calculations.

[willow wind]

Franklin St. is in not Greenville , it's downtown Norwich center and a block over from city hall. Yes, it is dreadful.

Parts of Greenville are OK.

[Armyvet1]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

"A Family" was too lazy/ignorant/stupid to do simple math calculations of what they could truly afford, and created a domino effect whereby responsible people who did do the math, were priced out of the market.

Yes, we're off-topic, but seriously, i dislike when people scream "predatory", "big banks bad", etc.

If you graduated 7th grade, you(borrower) are fully capable of doing the math calculations.

The truth often hurts and I graduated well above 7th grade but let's analyze shall we. Homes were artificially inflated because the demand was high due to the fact that credit was too easy to come by. Since the politicians are in bed with the big banks and every other sell out campaign donor, the American dream was set up as a work of fiction with a gurantee to fail.

Packaging bad loans, credit default swaps, robo signing, flat out fraud and greed pretty much took away the American Dream from honest hardworking people. Then the real kick in the pants was after Wall Street damned near killed America our government turns around and bails em out. Lucky I wasn't president cause I would have let them fall right on their face.

[NewJeffCT]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

"A Family" was too lazy/ignorant/stupid to do simple math calculations of what they could truly afford, and created a domino effect whereby responsible people who did do the math, were priced out of the market.

Yes, we're off-topic, but seriously, i dislike when people scream "predatory", "big banks bad", etc.

If you graduated 7th grade, you(borrower) are fully capable of doing the math calculations.

There are a lot of intelligent people out there who believed the hype - if a fast talking banker said you could afford a $500,000 home, and showed you calculations where it looked like you could, why wouldn't they believe it? Especially when Alan Greenspan was saying they could do it, the Wall Street Journal was saying it, CNBC was saying it, IBD was saying it, etc. Just about every expert was lined up saying they could do it. Heck, I know a guy that has his PhD in actuarial science and he bought into it. And, it seemed like everybody knew somebody who just bought a similar home a year or two back with even less income, and then sold it for a 30% or 40% profit.

And yes, there were people who engaged in defrauding the banks, but it's been shown that many of the big banks systematically screwed over a ton of people.

[Tetto]

Originally Posted by NewJeffCT

There are a lot of intelligent people out there who believed the hype - if a fast talking banker said you could afford a $500,000 home, and showed you calculations where it looked like you could, why wouldn't they believe it? Especially when Alan Greenspan was saying they could do it, the Wall Street Journal was saying it, CNBC was saying it, IBD was saying it, etc. Just about every expert was lined up saying they could do it. Heck, I know a guy that has his PhD in actuarial science and he bought into it. And, it seemed like everybody knew somebody who just bought a similar home a year or two back with even less income, and then sold it for a 30% or 40% profit.

And yes, there were people who engaged in defrauding the banks, but it's been shown that many of the big banks systematically screwed over a ton of people.

Its not the American dream that did these folks in, it was basic stupidity and trying to keep up with the Jones'. If you make x and something costs y, you don't need a PhD to calculate that one...

[mikelizard860]

Originally Posted by Stratford, Ct. Resident

"A Family" was too lazy/ignorant/stupid to do simple math calculations of what they could truly afford, and created a domino effect whereby responsible people who did do the math, were priced out of the market.

Yes, we're off-topic, but seriously, i dislike when people scream "predatory", "big banks bad", etc.

If you graduated 7th grade, you(borrower) are fully capable of doing the math calculations.

lol...Well then the bank shouldn't have made the loan. Can the bank also not do 7th grade math? They basically stopped doing tried and trued methods on determining if a borrower could pay them back. They were giving loans to anyone.

You loan to people that can pay you back. They didn't care. Because it was being guaranteed by companies like bear sterns. This is what collapsed them.
It's quite simple. Investment banks(wall street) guaranteed loans to regular banks and then went and packaged a bunch of them as securities to sell and make a killing on until it inevitably collapses. It's a ponzi pyramid scheme. It's not sustainable. All these new people in the housing market suddenly had a lot of "fake cash"(borrowed money they could never pay back"). This drove housing prices through the roof as all this fake/non existent loaned money flooded the housing market. Then of course the **** hit the fan once the defaulting started to occur.

[Armyvet1]

Quality of life isn't Mcmansions and European sedans. It may look impressive on the outside but when you take a look inside you see how much debt and how close those types of folks are to losing it all.

There is a 30 minute documentary I found on foreclosure and in the series of documentaries one of them showed an enviction of a family in Greenwhich Connecticut, the supposed high income earner area. Apparently some of their incomes aren't high enough.

There was also a documentary called Lost on Long Island and there's been forclosures in Northern Virginia, showed a guy in Arlington.

Then there are down to earth guys and girls like myself, still have a job, still have my truck, still have my little house, because I never tried to impress the neighbors or buy beyond my means, imagine that.