kzseattle Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Ha ha ha! These suckers should have known better! As long as people keep buying them, these builders would continue to thrive.http://www.kbhomesucks.com/viewcomplaints.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danax Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Ha ha ha! These suckers should have known better! As long as people keep buying them, these builders would continue to thrive.http://www.kbhomesucks.com/viewcomplaints.asp<{POST_SNAPBACK}>It's an interesting topic to ponder; what precipitates the formation of a ghetto? In the past, it's always seemed to have been due to a lot of low-income people with a low percentage of home-ownership. A high percentage of single parent families with a higher than average number of children might be another factor. The quality of construction of the homes doesn't always mean an area will or won't become a ghetto. In Houston, look at Washington Terrace. Those were high quality homes built in the 20s, almost mansions. I work in the mortgage business and we have done a few loans for KB in the past few months, mostly in Missouri City. They are a machine. The business is always rush, rush to close but they push harder than normal. It appears to be all numbers to them so it's probably safe to assume that they are cutting corners in the construction process wherever possible. The borrowers we've seen have been about half investors and half owner occupied, with first-time homebuyers using 100%, high-risk stated income loans. If the economy slips and some of these people lose their jobs and have no reserves, foreclosures will start popping up.If the homes start to fall apart quickly, slabs cracking, mold forming in the ultra-tight walls once the cheap A/C systems die, then the ghetto clouds could start to form as the original buyers, who bought American Dream suburbia, get disillusioned and sell, then prices fall or don't rise as quickly as other areas, then more investors swoop down to pick up the bargains, resulting in more lower-income renters. Add a little graffiti, a few publicized crimes, then the reputation is established and even more people sell and fewer suburban types buy. It can be very disheartening to watch your neighorhood decline around you. I think the average person's response would be flight, not fight.As the lower-income people get increasingly flushed from the center of the doughnut to the outer rings, it does seem that these KB type subdivisions could be the poised to accept them. It's up to the people themselves as to whether or not they become ghettos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmancuso Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 this is why i would never buy a production home becuase they bang them out like they do toasters, cars or widgets. to folks like KB, it's all about quantity and not quality.buyer beware... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 this is why i would never buy a production home becuase they bang them out like they do toasters, cars or widgets. to folks like KB, it's all about quantity and not quality.buyer beware...<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Mass production isn't always a bad thing. If you have the same people building the same houses over and over, then they know what they didn't do so well on the last one, and can fix it on the next one....ever improving the process, and design. On a custom built its one shot and that's it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw2ntyse7en Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmancuso Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Mass production isn't always a bad thing. If you have the same people building the same houses over and over, then they know what they didn't do so well on the last one, and can fix it on the next one....ever improving the process, and design. On a custom built its one shot and that's it.unfortunately, that's not case; pretty much the only thing production home builders learn (and improve on) from one house to the next is how to construct them quicker and more cost effective. i saw this first hand when i worked for one a few years ago; cost cutting was their biggest concern.custom home builders build a lot less houses so their reputation is more at stake if they start building shoddy houses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danax Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Those homes are cheap but ghettos are made by people. Ghetto is an attitude of lack of caring. Ghetto is driving over to Mom's house with all your kids and nieces and nephews, blowing off fireworks for 4 hours straight somewhere that is not even your neighborhood, then leaving a mess that looks like a war zone. Further ghetto is when Mom comes out in the morning to sweep up, which makes the neighbors think she's not so ghetto after all, then proceeds to only sweep her little section by the curb, leaving 90% of it in the street.Ghetto is when you buy a huge dog and don't take care of it and it dies in the corner of the back yard, tied to a leash on the fence, skinny, cold and laying in the mud. Ghetto is when you go and buy and even bigger dog right after that, and neglect it the same way, and let the thing bark at night and run wild in the streets during the day, and it deficates on the next door neighbor's nice lawn, repeatedly.Ghetto is when you decide it's time to party and play loud music without considering anyone else living nearby.I made a statement in an earlier post that my neighbors were alright. Today, I'm retracting that statement. The above examples happened here where I live, and right now I wish they would move away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw2ntyse7en Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbaNerd Posted January 1, 2005 Share Posted January 1, 2005 Don't forget Centex, Choice homes, and most other builders with homes below 150,000. (usually from the 80's up) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tw2ntyse7en Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bachanon Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 D.R. Horton was noted as one of the worst builders nationally by the business journal. one of the issues i have with these "crooks" is their tendency to encourage low income people to "fudge" on their credit apps. they are creating entire neighborhoods of people who can barely afford their house payments. these houses are sitting empty with no curtains because the buyers cannot afford to furnish them. we are facing an abundance of new "slums". these neighborhoods (some have model homes with 24 hour security due to vandalism and thievery) are a mess before they are finished. there is coming, IMHO, a nationwide scandal due to the crooked, loose financing occurring now in the new home (mass product, cookie cutter, "two tree neighborhood") industry. get it? everyone gets "two trees". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danax Posted January 2, 2005 Share Posted January 2, 2005 D.R. Horton was noted as one of the worst builders nationally by the business journal. one of the issues i have with these "crooks" is their tendency to encourage low income people to "fudge" on their credit apps. they are creating entire neighborhoods of people who can barely afford their house payments. these houses are sitting empty with no curtains because the buyers cannot afford to furnish them. we are facing an abundance of new "slums". these neighborhoods (some have model homes with 24 hour security due to vandalism and thievery) are a mess before they are finished. there is coming, IMHO, a nationwide scandal due to the crooked, loose financing occurring now in the new home (mass product, cookie cutter, "two tree neighborhood") industry.get it? everyone gets "two trees". <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I agree that a lot of these people buying these are a little financially precarious. The current trend in mortgage "products" are the 100% financing/no down payment loans aimed at first-time homebuyers, they call it "emerging markets", which is fine but there have never been so many high risk loans as there are right now. The result is that homes are sold, people get out of apartments, but worst case, they have nothing in the house in terms of down payment so, if rates go down and prices follow, they would have negative equity and could easily just walk away en masse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.