Boats, motor homes being repossessed as housing slumps (August 24 – San Diego Union-Tribune)
With paperwork in hand, Ashley Sparks set off in search of his newest target – a 2005 Winnebago motor home.
Sparks,
an adjuster for ABA Recovery Service, found the vehicle on a
well-manicured street in Point Loma, surrounded by homes nearing the
million-dollar mark.
This was an easy one. The owner willingly
handed over the keys, and Sparks’ partner drove off in the latest
luxury item repossessed by the Grantville company. Egley-Sparks’
adjusters have hooked up and hauled away opulent motor homes worth
$800,000 and powerboats with price tags of $300,000. They’ve picked up
travel trailers, dirt bikes, all-terrain vehicles and the trailers used
to carry them.
Never in her 28 years in the repossession
business has Egley-Sparks seen so many discretionary luxuries being
lost to hard times. And it’s happening all across the country,
economists and industry analysts say.
Even as the
government stubbornly clings to the illusion that we are not yet in a
recession (“Look! GDP is still positive and inflation is only 1%!), the
anecdotes from the real world tell a very different story.
By the time people are coughing up $300k boats and motor homes in “record amounts,” we are deep into recession territory.
Soon people
will be openly talking about ways to scrimp at cocktail parties, cheap
will become the new chic, and everybody will wonder what all the fuss
used to be about.
And, this close to the election, this scares Washington DC and their sacred 98% incumbent re-election rate.