Times Are Tough, Except in the Repo Business

Mon, 05/19/2008 - 16:11 — Bibliofuture

So many people have so many things they can no longer afford. This is an excellent time to be a repo man.

When a boat owner defaults on his loan, the bank hires Jeff Henderson to seize its property. The former Army detective tracks the boat down in a backyard or a marina or a garage and hauls it to his storage facility and later auctions it off. After nearly 20 years in the repossession business, Mr. Henderson has never been busier.

“I used to take the weak ones,” he said. “Now I’m taking the whole herd.”

Boating was traditionally the pastime of the well-off, but the long housing boom and its gusher of easy credit changed that. People refinanced their homes and used the cash for down payments on a cruiser, miniyacht or sailboat. From 2000 to 2006, retail sales for the recreational boating industry rose by more than 40 percent, to $39.5 billion, while the average loan amount more than tripled to $141,000.

Full article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/business/20repo.html?pagewanted=1&hp

Technorati Tags: News

Bookmark/Search this post with:

News

Comments

Wed, 05/21/2008 - 10:31 — nbruce

Even the rich make bad choices

I've noticed a number of these sob stories about foreclosure and money woes (worse even than the Obamas being required to pay back their loans to Ivy League schools) of the rich--particular WSJ and USAToday do this. I don't know if the journalists are being a bit snarky (their income must be a fraction), or if people are tired of reading about food pantries and school lunch programs.

I've done 6 or 7 stories over the past 3 years on this theme. It seems the journalists can't figure out that if you've borrowed against your home equity in a million dollar house to buy boats, or vacations in Europe and it loses value or you lose your job, the rest of the life style collapses too. Go figure. Who knew that all bubbles burst?