Gimme Shelter (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Mary Elizabeth Williams, New York, Carroll Gardens (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Williams, a freelance journalist, provides a blow-by-blow account of the recent inflation of the real estate bubble and its economic—and emotional—impact on middle-class families like her own. The author paints a vivid picture of the crisis in New York City, where even with a housing budget of $400,000, she and her husband found only properties that provided less than 1,000 square feet of living space or were located under bridges or facing expressways or were in dire need of six-figure renovation. She provides cogent explanations of the recent financial crisis and foreshadows its still-developing repercussions, given that she is one of the millions who signed onto an Alt-A (not quite prime) mortgage. Her family's search for a home and their journey through the mire of the New York real estate market rises to affecting heights and is a compelling, clearly written story that will interest anyone seeking a personal perspective on the causes, depth and long-term consequences of the financial crisis and the ramifications of past and current policy decisions. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Williams had a young daughter and was considering having another child when the tinyness of the family’s Brooklyn apartment, the pressure of the New York housing market, and the house-hunting and -buying activities of friends all brought to a fever pitch her own desire to take the plunge into home ownership. Over a three-year period that included the birth of a second daughter, Williams discovered the alarming pace of gentrification in New York, the maddening inverse relationship between home price and mortgage rate (when one was rising, the other was falling), the dizzying array of elements that go into buying a home (from finicky co-op boards to snippy real-estate brokers and lenders), and the widening gap between those who can and do own their homes and those who don’t. Loath to leave their beloved Brooklyn, Williams and her husband looked further and further afield, pondering the similar moves their friends were making across the nation. In this engaging and personal look at the home-buying process, Williams takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster of fear and envy as she illuminates some of the market pressures that lie behind the nation’s current financial crisis. --Vanessa Bush

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1 edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416557083
• ISBN-13: 978-1416557081
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #424,202 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First aid for the pain of real estate, March 7, 2009

By	Liz L. (Bronxville, NY) - See all my reviews

Very, very funny. I only wish we had this hilarious handbook during the two miserable years we spent searching for plausible, affordable real estate within commuting distance of Manhattan.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars truthful and hilarious, February 28, 2009

By	N. Griffin "man in search of sleep" (New York City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

gimme shelter is mary elizabeth williams' quest for a simple reasonably-priced home. and what does she get? more monsters, setbacks and double crosses than frodo and his fellowship.
apparently real estate folk have more nifty lies than a bar full of frat boys and williams tell us all about them. the writing is precise, honest and very funny. if one got paid for laughs generated Mary Elizabeth Williams would be a wealthy landowner with many cows by now.
read this book in the warmth and comfort of your undersized, overpriced but rent stabilized apartment and feel good about yourself. apartments - they aren't just for losers anymore.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Intelligent, Fun, Informative-and a good read!, February 25, 2009

By	K. J. DellAntonia "raisingdevils.com" (New Hampshire, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished Gimme Shelter, and even though I was reading ever faster to see how the personal story that's woven through the book ended, I'm sorry it's over. It's the real estate bubble from the inside, told in a funny and searingly honest voice that puts even the whole sub-prime mess in terms we can understand. Mary Elizabeth Williams was in the thick of it, trying to buy in New York City, one of the most overheated markets out there, and she deftly intersperses her experience with what's going on all across the country, offering pricelessly lucid explanations for everything from no-interest loans to the mortgage default rate in between descriptions of apartments with triangular bedrooms and stoveless kitchens bordering graveyards and expressways, all at prices that any New Yorker will recognize and everyone else will blanch at. It's a good story, an engaging memoir and an informative read all in one.