The Great Recession hit in 2008. It was caused by the 2007 financial crisis when the breakdown of trust between banks occurred. Deregulation permitted banks to employ hedge fund trading with derivatives. That caused the subprime mortgage crisis—interest-only loans became available to high-risk borrowers who were most likely to default. Low-interest rates were offered in the beginning. But these “too-good-to-be-true” loans were reset to a much higher rate after a certain period. At the same time, home prices fell. Many homeowners were trapped—they couldn’t afford the payments, and they couldn’t sell their homes. That created the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession.
In Florida, the Great Recession was much more pronounced than in Northern Virginia. People lost their jobs, and every second house was for sale. When the house sale was unsuccessful, the home was simply left to the bank, and all belongings were sold via garage sale for pennies. Developers left the area with unfinished business. Brand-new houses were sold in North Port at unbelievably low prices. With sadness, we observed the situation in Florida, but we had our jobs waiting for us at home in Virginia and felt secure, despite what we saw around us.
On the morning of our last vacation day in North Port, I said to Sparky, “Let’s go see houses here that are for sale. Why are they so cheap?” And off we went. By the end of the day, we gave an offer on a three-bedroom, two-bath house at 4594 Appleton Terrace in North Port. The house was brand new and owned by the bank. The next morning we went back home to Virginia. All of the paperwork and transactions were done via the Internet. In less than one month we became the owners of our second house, our Florida house in North Port.
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