The Mansion A Subprime Parable

In “The Right Kind of House” by Henry Slezar, a man called Mr. Waterbury desires to purchase a house at the edge of a town. This house is in a horrendous condition and costs $75,000, but what caused Mr. Waterbury to purchase this house after speaking with Mrs. Grimes? The answer is money. Within the house he wanted, there was an extremely large sum of money hidden where no one could find it and this large sum of money was also the reason why Mr. Waterbury slaughtered Mrs. Grimes’ son. Such a heinous crime committed out of greed ended with a large consequence. Mrs. Grimes knew that only the person who murdered her son and the person who knew that there was an unimaginable amount of money hidden in her house would pay $75,000 for a house that was barely worth $10,000. In the end of the story, Mr. Waterbury’s

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

As the family arrives at their new home, Sarty takes note of the de Spain mansion. Sarty perhaps feels that his father’s immoral beliefs will become irrelevant now that people of such wealthy status employ them. Sarty describes the mansion and its relation to the father: Hit’s big as a courthouse he thought quietly, with a surge of peace an joy whose reason he could not have thought into words, being too young for that: they are safe from him. People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond his touch, he no more to them than a buzzing wasp: capable of stinging for a little moment but that’s all; the spell of those peace and dignity rendering even the barns and stables and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive…this, the peace and joy, ebbing for an instant as he looked again at the stiff black back, the stiff implacable lime of the figure which was not dwarfed by the house, for the reason that it had

In 2008 the real estate market crashed because of the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodities Futures Modernization Act, which led to shady mortgage lending or “liar loans” (Hartman). The loans primarily approved for lower income and middle class borrowers with little income or no job income verification, which lead to many buyers purchasing homes they could not afford because everyone wants a piece of the American dream; homeownership. Because of “reckless lending to lower- and middle-income borrowers who could not afford to repay their loans many of the home buyers lost everything when the market collapsed” (Tankersley 3). Homeowners often continued to live in their houses for months or years without paying any

Fischer describes how in the house, “debauchery became the norm” (20), and so did, “brutality and carnage” (20). Debauchery, brutality, and carnage are not usually what most people will associate with being normal. Fischer then describes how later on the residents “[delved] into mutilation, murder, necrophilia, [and] cannibalism” (21). This description just adds to the fact that the things that went on in this house are from being normal. The history Matheson created for the house makes it cross the boundaries most people have and that is not including the fact that the house is now also a home to evil spirits. Some might even feel that the history behind the house is more haunting than the house itself. Matheson does this in order to show that a haunting does not only result from ghosts and spirits, but can come from almost anything. Even just a brief history of something that happened years ago can cause more fear than being inside a haunted

The author had high expectation for this house, but fails to realize that her family was constantly moving from one poor district of Chicago to another. The addition of a family member every time they moved didn’t help their economic status either due to the increase in budget when you have one more child to take care of.

The mansion is very different then the surrounding houses in the

The Mansion: A Subprime Parable by Michael Lewis is an intriguing read about humans and the desire to own properties that are beyond their means. The article identifies owning a house as one of the necessities of humans. However, he notes that in the modern times, people want a big house just to show off their status rather than as a necessity. Lewis takes note on one of the mansions he had lived and its previous owners and uses it as an example of how humans are infatuated by big things that they do not need in life. I do agree with his take on how people live beyond their means just so as to maintain their social status.

The book says in this place we find ourselves in Spiritual warfare where conflict between the world and divine is being waged. There are six categories or rooms in the second mansion. The first room of the mansion is “Key Activities” in Response to God. Theresa discusses how in this mansion, one should pray that he prepares himself with determination to bring his will into Gods will. The struggles and conflicts faced actually increase our desire to listen to God.

At the time, to own or stay at a haunted house is considered to be the height of fashion. There is something romantic about a haunted house as that means something forbidden went on in the house before a great tragedy. However, the colonial house they have been able to lease, while not haunted, is “queer;” or why else would they have been able to lease the house so cheaply.

The house represents the world in which we live, a world in which money is everything. The most profit we made the most happy we would be, that is what capitalism is about. “And so the house came to be haunted by the unspoken phrase: There must be more money! There must be more money! There must be more money!” However, only a few are able to understand that money or luck not always come with happiness. Some people are able to understand it when they

Most novels have either the characters or the characters houses change throughout the story (mentality for the character's, appearance for both house and character, etc) to have an effect of uncertainty and an uneasy feeling, like when someone goes into a room in a scary movie. For example, in the story “Where is Here” the house was dulled out after the strangers visit, “the patterned wallpaper seemed drained of color… Even the robust green of the carpeting looked faded” (Oates 39). The house changed (transformed) dramatically after the strangers visit, to the mother and father, it was bland and had no life to it. The stranger had, what seemed like, a terrible childhood, and when he went into the house, it could have rubbed off onto the mother and father and completely changed their mentality on the house. In addition, in The Dream Collector, there was a picture of a kid stuck in a roof with nobody around except for an abandon/washed up ship and it looks like no one is going to help him or her (picture #1). The kid (from what we can assume) had a good childhood but now his life changed very drastically and

One of the first indications of the late 2000 financial crisis that led to downward spiral known as the “Recession” was the subprime mortgages; known as the “mortgage mess”. A few years earlier the substantial boom of the housing market led to the uprising of mortgage loans. Because interest rates were low, investors took advantage of the low rates to buy homes that they could in return ‘flip’ (reselling) and homeowners bought homes that they typically wouldn’t have been able to afford. High interest rates usually keep people from borrowing money because it limits the amount available to use for an investment. But the creation of the subprime mortgage

Due to such events as the subprime mortgage crisis, the auto market and Wall Street’s failure, the United States suffered a severe economic blow. Looking at the situation from an economic view, supply is supposed to equal demand. Due to the mortgage crisis and the careless attempts of some to make money, there is a superfluous amount of empty homes throughout the United States. In the subprime mortgage crisis, the nature of the failure was the inability to account for money given to individuals, who lack the appropriate requirements. In order to obtain a loan, collateral is needed. References were not being checked and poor credit history went ignored. People were obtaining loans and not paying attention to the interests rates associated. “This time around, the slack standards allowed millions of high-risk borrowers to get easy home mortgages. When this so-called subprime market collapsed beginning about a year ago, ordinary working people bore the brunt” (Gallagher, 2008). Companies were so anxious to place people in homes, that it cost them billions of dollars and

The long family line has imprinted its aura onto the house, and in turn, the house conduces the inhabitants towards a predetermined lifestyle. The Usher family, as the narrator says, despite its age, has always been feeble, because it has never been able to generate an enduring branch. Just as the family, the house has a sturdy appearance, given by its endurance through time, but it is marked by decay and so are its surroundings: the crumbled stones, the trees and the spooky tarn all add to the oppressive, uncanny atmosphere. Just as the individual parts which shape the domain are marked by decomposition, so is each member of the family plagued by some form of disintegration.