by Calculated Risk on 3/30/2005 04:29:00 PM

Mortgage defaults are on the rise in Denver. This story says that "soaring foreclosure filings in Arapahoe County for the first three months of this year helped drive metro Denver's foreclosure rate 34 percent higher than the same period of last year and 30 percent higher than the fourth quarter of 2004."

Some interesting quotes:

"Lenders started giving money to people, and it's gotten out of hand," said Jeannie Reeser, public trustee of Adams County. "I am talking to people who have jobs, but their income doesn't come anywhere close to matching their financing."

"I am not in a position to say it's faulty lending, but we have too many foreclosures that are on brand-new loans not to conclude that something is wrong," [ said Arapahoe County Public Trustee Mary Wenke].

But this post is about hamburgers. And not just any hamburgers; 30 year hamburgers! At the end of the Post article was this comment:

"Credit is so loose today that I can buy the groceries I need on a credit card, eat the food tonight, discard the food by tomorrow at noon and finance my debt on a 30-year, amortized loan. How stupid is that? But people do it all the time - and then they wonder why they're in foreclosure."

The recipe for a 30 year hamburger:
1) Go to your fast food restaurant.
2) Buy a hamburger on your credit card.
3) Refinance your house and payoff your credit debt with a 30-year loan.

I hope it was a great hamburger!