While working on my entry about why I’m not investing in real estate, I just found this article on the U.S. housing market in the Economist, “Cracks in the façade.” It starts like this:

CASEY SERIN knows all about the excesses of America’s housing bubble. In 2006 the 24-year old web designer from Sacramento bought seven houses in five months. He lied about his income on “no document” loans and was not asked for anything so old-fashioned as a deposit. Today Mr Serin has debts of $2.2m. Three of his houses have been repossessed; others could share that fate. His website, Iamfacingforeclosure.com, has become a magnet for those whose mortgages are in trouble.

I checked out Casey’s site, and he’s definitely in a sad state of affairs. The majority of reader comments are quite critical of Casey’s behavior and actions–and amusing too. The term “hater” would accurately describe many of the site comments.