When Matt Bai, a Times reporter and Yankees fan in his early 40s with two children, wanted to buy a new house, the mortgage brokers laughed at him! But he had perfect credit, and had only bought his last home six years ago! (It was a "center-hall colonial on a corner lot three blocks from the subway and American University.") Then he found out that his nanny had a very bad mortgage on her house, the payments of which were 75% of her income. And so he bought a new house, a "spacious, if deteriorated split-level," even though the counter tops were ugly, with a nice, 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage. And then he wrote about all of this at work.
Friday, March 19, 2010
11
As an American University alum, I can testify to the fact that it is impossible to be both three blocks from campus and three blocks from the metro.
I was going to comment this exact thing. I'm assuming they mean the "tenley campus," which is the one or two building complex across the street from the metro?
Matt Bai will update us next week about why he will not be attending the wedding of his wife's grandson from an earlier marriage.
His nanny forgot to put it on the calendar!
Should I feel fortunate that I had no access to or awareness of the supposed economic boom taking place five or six years ago? Would my brains have turned to goo?
How fucking awful. He was limited to buying a house he could actually afford using a "no-frills relic." Go to Home Depot and buy a new counter top and replace it yourself, jackass.
I am no econ expert but here's what I don;t get about these kinds of "reporter's personal real estate experiences/woes" pieces (I feel like I've seen a couple now).
Bai writes "I didn't spend five minutes thinking about the larger implications of any of this. Like so many other relatively comfortable Americans who were just coming of ownership age, I had nothing against which to judge the situation..." etc etc.
Bai writes "about national politics for the magazine." My god, aren't people in a position to be shaping the national discussion about BIG THINGS (like NYT writers) expected to maybe be a little more... I don;t know... not "like so many other Americans?" I know that's not really true. But it seems to admit that you are a dunderhead when it comes to spotting FUCKING OBVIOUS THINGS LIKE HOW FUCKED THE HOUSING MARKET WAS maybe might impact how readers trust your analysis on other issues, no?
Agreed. That first story still has me shaking my head--at the NYT!
I'm fixing up an alcove for the Estonian nanny - just in case.
Why not a pleasure-dungeon? Estonians have seen it all.
Shouldn't he just tell his nanny to walk away from her mortgage. He must not read his paper:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/25/AR2009112504186.html
or the Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10FOB-wwln-t.html