"Stripping" Takes On New Meaning In Today's Economy

Owners faced with foreclosure strip the house of everything but the kitchen sink.

And even sometimes the kitchen sink is included.

"Jack O’Leary has seen foreclosed homes where ex-owners put paint on the carpets, anti-bank graffiti on the walls or took everything but the kitchen sink - then stole that, too.

“I’ve gone into houses where the light fixtures are gone, the toilets are gone, the kitchen is gone. And when I say ‘gone,’ we’re talking stripped down to the bare walls,” said O’Leary, a Brockton Re/Max real estate agent who specializes in foreclosed homes."

Can't say as though I blame these folks. If some greedy bank came after my home because I was unable to pay the mortgage dollars (dollars that only exist on some damn computer screen), I'd take everything from the house I could.

Want to solve this mess? Get the banks out of the housing business and return to the days when people would homestead. Eliminate the scam 15-30 year interest bearing mortgage program. Government allocates folks a plot of land and said people, with the help of others in their particular communities, develop the land as they see fit. But this is obviously a pipe dream. Too bad as this "stripping" business seems to be on the rise.

Florida.

Arizona.

Woodbridge, VA.