'Luxury squatters' take over vacant houses and declare themselves owners. In Seattle, one family moved into a $3.3 million place.
For years, the 8,000-square-foot mansion in suburban Seattle sat vacant and for sale, the price gradually coming down from $5.8 million to $3.3 million. One day in June, a 30-year-old woman, a man and two children took down the for-sale signs, changed the locks, moved in and declared it their home.
They didn't actually buy the house, or even rent it. They just moved in and declared it their house.
Jill Lane, who was arrested on a charge of trespassing after two weeks in the house, is not contrite, The Seattle Times' Danny Westneat reports. Not only did she try to take over the mansion, with its wine cellar, home theater, six bedrooms and nine baths, she has staked a claim to 10 other bank-owned houses in the Seattle area.
"Banks do whatever they want and nobody holds them accountable," Lane told Westneat by phone from Disneyland, where she went on vacation after she was released by the police. She and her partner ran a company that pledged to "eliminate mortgages" and help others move into empty foreclosed homes.
And this is going to become a HUGE issue with the new unemployment freeze - as soon as they run out, you're going to see a lot of squatters. I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bunch all over this area right now.
Theft of property my butt. Banks are just unhappy because they are losing revenue on houses they cannot sell anyway, that they chose to foreclose upon rather than work with the people in the house. i have no sympathy for the banks, no sympathy for rich getting richer..
Part of the issue is that banks are choosing to hold these foreclosed houses on thier books at unrealistic prices rather than taking the hit. If banks were forced to sell quickly, more people could afford to buy. But more banks would go out of business.
Sure looks like deflation is still a threat.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
