As they lose their homes, people are turning to these humble cinderblock and sheet-metal boxes to store their stuff. But some people cannot keep up with their storage bills any better than they could handle their mortgage payments, and storage companies are auctioning off their property for a pittance.
As if selling off storage box contents in default was unheard of before the current “recession”
Yet some evidence suggests that is exactly what is happening. It is impossible to put precise numbers on the phenomenon, partly because the industry is highly fragmented — the majority of facilities are locally owned — and also because the topic is not one the industry cares to dwell on. But auctioneers who dispose of units in default, as well as the bidders who try to buy their contents, say they see increasing signs of strain. They note that more auctions involve people who appear to have had their homes foreclosed.
Note that “some” evidence of “increasing signs of strain” are enough to put a story together. Lame.
Well it does fit the narrative.
[...] In early May, Richard Wolf at USA Today tried to make a big deal over a very small statistic, and wrote one of those “signs of hard times” pieces that have become all the rage these days in Old Media (previous examples covered here and here). [...]