Discover and share the best of the web!
Learn more about Digg by taking the tour.
Housing Market Devalues $157,000 House to Just $2... WTF
money.co.uk — The worry of falling house prices has been taken to a whole new level for one resident of small Norfolk village Happisburg this week. As home owner Jane Archer learnt her 3-bedroom bungalow with uninterrupted sea views was valued at just $2.
NewsFeed- 355 diggs
- digg it
- acmaurer, on 07/08/2008, -5/+11What? How is that even possible??
- elfs1der, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1Because we have sunny and cher
- ohitsme553, on 07/10/2008, -0/+4How about reading the article before trying to get first comments... it explains how and why.
- Stormwern, on 07/10/2008, -0/+2Since they got it valued for a loan it's probably the long term value, I'm sure the current market value is over 1000£
- BCCStu, on 07/08/2008, -1/+28The house will be consumed by the sea in a decade or so...maybe sooner.
- acmaurer, on 07/08/2008, -1/+6But that doesn't mean it's worth $2! Maybe AFTER it's consumed it could be worth $2...
- NJank, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1LONG TERM value.
- acmaurer, on 07/08/2008, -1/+6But that doesn't mean it's worth $2! Maybe AFTER it's consumed it could be worth $2...
- NewsFeed, on 07/08/2008, -1/+34Honestly.. I would buy it for 2 bucks...
- eggraid, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1I could buy it for the present value of the rent I would have to pay for "n" years. "n" being my best estimate of the longevity of this house. I mean, renting an apartment on the seashore is probably more than 20 pence a year!!!
- Dunnion, on 07/08/2008, -1/+20Hell, I'll give her $5!
- StingingNettle, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2I'll give her 5 plus a teriyaki chicken lunch!
- fLUx1337, on 07/10/2008, -0/+2$10 here......anyone wanna raise to $15?
- mytruckhasdents, on 07/10/2008, -0/+3i'll give 'er tree fiddy
- charris1980, on 07/11/2008, -0/+1i'll give her $0.50. maybe she'll counter-offer at $0.75
- ironeus, on 08/01/2008, -1/+25It must have more than $2 in scrap metal & plumbing pipes -- undervalued.
- pitchblack16, on 07/08/2008, -14/+1dont be shy to digg this one also
http://digg.com/business_finance/Rare_Mistakes_Men ...- iceman0113, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4At least I'm not shy in burying you
- Surferess, on 07/08/2008, -3/+9Norfolk? No kidding, there is a great cheer about Norfolk. It goes like this:
"We don't smoke,
Norfolk, Norfolk!"- zorpscorp, on 07/09/2008, -0/+13That's the worst cheer I've ever heard.
- wrongonce, on 07/10/2008, -2/+5How about this one?
"Push it in
Pull it out
Rectal exam
Makes me shout!"
- wonderchemist, on 07/09/2008, -4/+15I'm I reading this right? She bought the house impart because she wants a government bail out when it gets swallowed by the sea do to costal erosion?
- hakkola, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9No, you're not reading this right. She bought the house in the 80's when there were defences against the tides to protect the cliffs.
The defences were not well kept and failed, and the government isn't doing anything about it, just letting homes and roads fall into the sea, and they're not compensating people for their losses.
They only compensate birds for lost habitats, appearantly. In Britain, is a bird a pretty woman? - wrongonce, on 07/10/2008, -0/+6You're both doing it wrong.
The house, realizing the sea would eventually swallow it up, spawned her in an effort to have someone do legal and political battle on its behalf. She was meant to run for office, get elected and then change environmental policy to save the house. But she went into car repair instead -- sad story.
*in part*
- hakkola, on 07/09/2008, -0/+9No, you're not reading this right. She bought the house in the 80's when there were defences against the tides to protect the cliffs.
- Lukesed, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8A house like that must be worth more than 2$, even if it is bound to be destroyed you could rent it out for some amount of money until that happens.
- NJank, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1LONG TERM value.
- BurningSand, on 07/09/2008, -0/+4Maybe the family should pretend to be an endangered species.
- nj10ii, on 07/10/2008, -0/+2Maybe they could adopt a minority child.
- loganhid, on 07/09/2008, -2/+1I'll give you 2 Billion dollars
- Rotzooi, on 07/09/2008, -4/+1That's a lot less than this mess actually cost us. Thank you, President Bush!
- TonySki, on 07/10/2008, -0/+5... I don't get it...
- mikesbaker, on 07/09/2008, -1/+48buried because her low value house has nothing to do with the housing market and everything to do with the fact that her house will fall into the sea.
- griz, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1It is also an insurance valuation which means that it is what the insurance company will pay in the event of total destruction. Likely due to falling into the sea.
- Tessela, on 07/09/2008, -1/+3Hopefully they will be able to convince the government to implement some sort of protectionism measures. How unfair is it to pay taxes on land that is slowly disappearing?
- BufordT, on 07/10/2008, -0/+2How unfair is it that we (taxpayers) would have to pay for any protection measures?
- Wronghead, on 07/09/2008, -12/+4What did we learn from all of this?
DON'T BUY A HOUSE 5 FEET FROM THE ***** BEACH, BITCH.- DangerMouse9, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4If you weren't illiterate you'd realize it was more than 400 meters away when she first moved in (aka, it was ~1200 feet away). Within 20 years it eroded down to 60 meters away.
Maybe you should get your facts straight before insulting someone so you don't come off looking like the retarded offspring from two siblings both with down syndrome. - Carl306, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Read the article before you make yourself out to be a pompous *****.
- DangerMouse9, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4If you weren't illiterate you'd realize it was more than 400 meters away when she first moved in (aka, it was ~1200 feet away). Within 20 years it eroded down to 60 meters away.
- yellowcakewalk, on 07/09/2008, -2/+2Glad to see the ocean gobble up beachfront houses. Uninterrupted beach is so much nicer than subdivisions.
- mghwom1, on 07/09/2008, -0/+8I'll go $10. Who's up for a friendly bidding war?
- wrongonce, on 07/10/2008, -0/+6I'm not. I want to make it personal, vicious and ugly.
If you get too close I will bite you.
10.50$
Now back off.
- wrongonce, on 07/10/2008, -0/+6I'm not. I want to make it personal, vicious and ugly.
- elshizzo, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3"Ralph (considering buying the Simpsons' house): I'll give you three crayons and my milk.
Cookie Kwan (to Homer): It's a good offer. I advise you to take it.
Homer: Make that a chocolate milk and you got a deal.
Ralph: I'm walking away." - mrwells, on 07/09/2008, -9/+3I'm suprised that this lady is in England. She sounds exactly like a typical lazy American (I'm from the US South), expecting a government hand out to compensate her for a dumb ass decision.
I hope she gets nothing from this except a good lesson in where not to buy her next house.- DangerMouse9, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Did I read a different article than you?
It said she bought the house in 1987 for ~$40,000 and at that time it was 400 meters from the ocean. Erosion occurred over 20 years causing ~340 meters to be eaten away leaving the house ~60 meters from the ocean. She was going to use the house as collateral for her business then finds out it's worth $2 so she had to back out of a deal costing her $60,000.
Now, if you bought a car/house and it was destroyed and the insurance company said "***** you, I'm not giving you *****" what would you do?
I must have missed the part where she was a fat, lazy, jizz stain of a human asking for hand outs.- mrwells, on 07/09/2008, -4/+1Well now, I didn't liken her to any type of fatness or jizz stains... more so the "typical" fat-lazy American. I image the "typical" fat-lazy American would have acted in similar fashion to this woman.
Asking a government to make reparations for something it had nothing to do with is like asking "Please, can we just convert to socialism now!?"
I would obviously have a problem with my tax dollars going to help someone who sat by for 20 F'ING years and did NOTHING as the ocean slowly destroyed her home's value.
She's an idiot and deserves the consequence of her inaction. - sagat, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3So she bought her house at a time it was protected by government maintained coastal defences, which the government failed to maintain and in time were destroyed and not replaced leaving her house in danger, why in this case is she stupid to expect the government would offer her a basic service to protect her home?
Say you buy a house in an accessable area but over time the government fails to maintain the roads which soon become unusable and suddenly your home is isolated in the wilderness with no way of driving anywhere while your neighbouring town enjoys smooth newly paved freeways. Would you not feel pissed off at the Government?
- mrwells, on 07/09/2008, -4/+1Well now, I didn't liken her to any type of fatness or jizz stains... more so the "typical" fat-lazy American. I image the "typical" fat-lazy American would have acted in similar fashion to this woman.
- DangerMouse9, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Did I read a different article than you?
- audleylibrary, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0Well it looks great from a mile up
- thespi007, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2ebay ?
- yellowsnowcone, on 07/09/2008, -0/+3at least the property tax should be low
- gr00vy, on 07/09/2008, -0/+7This is a horrible headline that totally misleads the reader...
Buried. - lolupissed, on 07/09/2008, -1/+4Buried for a very misleading headline.
The house is falling in the ocean tards - wynja, on 07/09/2008, -0/+2Hell, I'm going to have to bid 100$ on this one.
- arjie, on 07/09/2008, -0/+1$2? I'll take five, please.
- subliminali, on 07/09/2008, -0/+0this is why mcdonalds invented the dollar menu
- Crakecake, on 07/10/2008, -2/+1Can anyone say 'Great Depression'?
- wooFmeoWoinK, on 07/10/2008, -0/+6Buried for a ***** headline.
- barktwiggs, on 07/10/2008, -0/+2The wiseman built his house upon the rock...
- vegaminor, on 07/10/2008, -1/+0Put it on Ebay... starting bid a $2 and lets see how high it goes.
- SIRBERUS, on 07/10/2008, -0/+4WTF? The housing market didn't devalue her house... Neptune did/is.
- wrongonce, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1She made FSM angry.
- rubaaan, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1lol its worth what someone is willing to pay for it. and i bet its over 2 bucks.
- Bamont, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1Buried for newsfeed once again showing his inability to post accurate headlines.
- xplosiv26, on 07/10/2008, -0/+2Falling house prices? Or falling house?
- Nightfire009, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1Well... Sue the God.
- MrMustard, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1Did the submitter some of the first comments actually read the article? The reason the property is worthless is because erosion of the cliffs at the end of their garden means the house will not be around for too much longer. Where's the WTF?
- minoss, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1WTF, this has nothing to do with the housing market.
- wedges, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1NewsFeed did you even read the article? This has nothing to do with the sub-prime mortgage situation. You're an *****.
- Rodalli, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1I think the real issue is this: How the ***** could a 3-bedroom house on ocean-front property only cost this woman $39,000 in 1987?
You can't buy a 3-bedroom house in the middle of nowhere for twice that amount these days.- wedges, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1you could buy a lot for that in 1987. my parents bought a condo in Hawaii in the 80's for like 50,000. It was super cheap since nobody could actually afford to go there. now it's worth easily 10 times that.
- readerz, on 07/10/2008, -0/+1I'd buy it for $2000
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by