CNN: Suburbs the New Ghetto with Neighbors 'Firing' Crack Pipes

     According to CNN’s Greg Hunter, nice, suburban subdivisions could turn into vandalized, crack houses because of the housing downturn.

     “Well you don’t want to jump into a housing market too and end up buying America’s next ghetto. I mean, if you buy into a subdivision that’s way out like [Velshi’s] talking about, all of a sudden the house down the street ends up, you know, with broken windows and people at night, you know, firing up crack pipes, hey, you’ve got a problem. So that’s going to be a real problem,” said correspondent Greg Hunter on the June 28 “Your [Money] $$$$$.”

      Hunter suggested much of the housing downturn is still to come. “Are we at the bottom? Boy, Ali, I wouldn’t be catching that falling knife.”   

     Hunter’s analysis of how bad the housing market might get relied heavily on Yale economics professor Robert Schiller who said last year the downturn was still in its first inning [if it was a baseball game]. The pessimistic report did nothing to cheer “bloggers” who criticized Hunter for being too grim.

     “Your $$$$$” host Ali Velshi joked about his “Daily Show”-inspired reputation as a “prophet of doom,” and mentioned the criticism of Hunter and himself:

     “You know, the other week when you were on, after that there were some blogs that were saying that you’re too grim and I don’t do enough to cheer things up around here,” said Velshi.

     Velshi appeared to be concerned about his image and expressed hope that the panel of experts would lighten the mood.

     “Let’s bring in a panel to continue this discussion. Maybe they’ll make me look less like a prophet of doom,” Velshi said, referring to the nickname created by Jon Stewart, the comedian-host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show.”

     One of those panelists, Brad Inman of “Inman News,” echoed Hunter’s earlier negativity. “[Foreclosure] represents our next, you know, what we used to call our urban problem our suburban problem,” said Inman, suggesting that the typical problems found in inner-city areas may start to plague the seemingly safe suburbs.