While the Bush administration is concerned about the wellbeing of the citizens in foreign lands and is quick to send troops to Iraq and Afghanistan to salvage the citizens of those countries from tyrants, when it comes to its own people President Bush and his team seemed to have turned a cold shoulder. Americans were first lured into investing in homes with cheap interest rates only to become bankrupt and now they are losing their possessions as well.
After losing their homes to foreclosures in the sub-prime mortgage crisis, thousands of Americans had put their belongings in self-storage facilities tempted once again by low rates. With failure, once again in clearing their monthly rents, the storage owners according to their agreements with their customers are auctioning off their possessions at throwaway prices. The number of auctions is rising every day. According to Blair Auction & Appraisal, a company that conducts auctions at self-storage facilities in the Mid-West, it recently sold the contents of 45 units at one site in Detroit alone.
A cottage industry has developed to profit from items that are after all some unfortunate persons’ belongings, who have become a tragic victim of absurd credit policies. Nearly non-existent 35 years ago, self-storage facilities have sprung up through out the country. Even as the US economy is faltering, this is one industry that is thriving with 51,000 of them spread across the nation.
Not every area is witnessing an increase in auctions though. Storage facilities in Ohio, for instance, are finding a large number of customers rescuing their possessions at the last minute. On the other hand, Chicago seems to have the largest number of dispossessed.
