Two of the Three Little Pigs Would Have Trouble Getting a Loan (house is made of 17,000 old tires)

[Omaha Steve]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704398804575071381513802938.html

Odd Homes Built of Tires and Trash Lure Environmentalists, Turn Off Bankers

By ANTON TROIANOVSKI and NICK TIMIRAOS

HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS, Colo.—Like many Americans, Jon and Laura Hagar are searching for a lender to refinance their home loan. But banks are leery of the Hagars. Their rural Colorado house is made of 17,000 old tires.

A niche mortgage mess is brewing in homes made of earth, tires, concrete and trash. Environmentally minded people built them, hoping to conserve energy and to re-use what might otherwise wind up in a landfill.


Anton Troianovski/The Wall Street Journal

'This Odd House'


Such sentiments in some cases have been no match for the new resolve of the banking industry in the wake of the housing bust. Banks have become much pickier about examining sales of comparable homes, in deciding whether and how much to lend. Owners of odd homes can be out of luck.

The Hagars built their 2,700-square-foot house by stacking tire bales—five-foot-wide blocks of compressed tires—to form the exterior walls. They plugged gaps between the bales with cans, bottles, plastic plates, and other junk and moved in toward the end of 2008.

"We lovingly call it the trash house," Ms. Hagar says. The Hagars covered up all that trash with concrete, clay and stucco and installed south-facing windows to capture light, heat and views of the snowy slopes.

To pay for it, the Hagars in 2007 took out a $240,000 line of credit from Red Rocks Credit Union in suburban Denver. In the old days of easier credit, appraiser Lori Slota couldn't find another tire-bale home that had recently sold but said the house would be valued at $500,000 when complete, citing the listing of a straw-bale home as well as other houses in the area.

FULL story and video at link.

[Donnachaidh]

1. Ironic - something useful isn't able to get re-financed, but derivatives are?

Our economy is based on a ponzi scheme.

[Suich]

2. Dennis Weaver built a similar house.

http://earthship.net/global-network/north-america/378-dennis-weaver-earthship.html

Saw a show on TV about it once...beautiful home!

:)