Dear Dollar Stretcher,
I was really scammed on my 2007 Durango and now I can’t afford the lease payment of $900 plus a month. I don’t know what to do. The dealership won’t return my calls. I am in trouble and I can’t get out.
CB

Dear Dollar Stretcher,
I have a situation and I don’t know what to do. I am in a vehicle that I am upside down in by $8,500. The vehicle is worth about $1,500. The vehicle is having a lot of mechanical problems and I have already spent over $3,000 to fix it. How can I trade the vehicle in and get a car payment that I can afford?
Kate

South Florida is no stranger to real estate booms and busts.

In the 1920s, even swamp land was going for premium prices. A couple of disastrous hurricanes literally put a damper on the land speculation and housing boom. Then the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression sent the region even deeper into the economic muck.

South Florida eventually recovered, but not until after World War II, when a revitalized national economy and the widespread use of air conditioning resulted in massive migration to the region.
It seems like only yesterday that the late comedian Red Buttons starred in TV commercials touting to seniors the benefits of living in Century Village.

The California Association of Realtors recently revised its 2007 housing outlook based on “newfound weakness” in the housing market over the past few months.

CAR now expects sales of existing single-family homes to end the year down 19.4% below last year’s pace, said Robert Kleinhenz, the association’s deputy chief economist.

“Especially in the last three months, there’s been newfound weakness in the market, and we’ve had to adjust our sales decline accordingly,” Kleinhenz said today.

The association originally forecast last October that sales this year would fall 7%, then changed that figure to a 14% drop in its mid-year revision.

Homeowners and consumer advocates urged a state Senate committee to help save foreclosure victims’ homes and improve lending standards on Tuesday, the same day a study showed that foreclosure filings in California almost quadrupled in July compared with a year ago.

“Unless I can figure out a way to get out of this mess, I’m going to lose the home I’ve lived in for almost 40 years,” said Dorothy Hicks, an Oakland resident, during public comments at a hearing on the subprime mortgage crisis. Hicks refinanced her home twice to get cash for a new business and ended up with payments far beyond her means, she said. The adjustable-rate payments continue to go up.

There was a 93% jump in filings for repossessions on the same month a year ago, and a 9% rise on June’s figure, property firm RealtyTrac said.

The figures will make worrying reading for many analysts as problems in the US mortgage market have triggered a global credit crunch and drop in share prices.

Other data showed higher job losses in the construction and property sectors.

Heavy exposure

Falling sales and decreasing prices have made it harder for homeowners who have hit difficulties to sell their homes and clear their debts.