Geronimo’s loss is your gain

It's a buyers' market.

The Bin Laden residence in Abbottabad, valued by U.S. analysts at $1 million, was really worth only about $250,000, according to this story in the Guardian. That suggests the late terrorist had a lot in common with the American infidels he hoped to destroy:  He was upside-down on his mortgage.

It’s a familiar tale. Bin Laden got cocky after making a killing on his three-bed, two-bath cave in Tora Bora. He took out a nothing-down Countrywide loan to build the new home in 2006, figuring he could flip it a year later and use the proceeds to build his dream place in Afghanistan, something with a 50-seat theater, Olympic-size pool and a really enormous family room. But he kept refinancing to keep up with cost overruns and orthodontia for the kids. Three mortgages later, after the Pakistani housing market turned south, he couldn’t unload the place and found himself owing about $750,000 more than it was worth. Under those circumstances, he was probably not all that sorry to see the Seals charging upstairs. At least the funeral was paid for.

Anyway, if you’ve ever thought of moving to Pakistan and don’t mind the hassle of a short sale, the Third National Bank of Karachi is entertaining all reasonable offers.