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Hobbits hit by subprime crisisThe Shire - the verdant, pastoral home of the Hobbits in Lord Of The Rings - has survived many things. Marauding Nazgûl, evil wizards, treacherous Hobbits and a massive campaign of industrialisation all failed to destroy the halflings' rural idyll. But where Ringwraiths and ruffians fell short, another, more powerful evil has triumphed... namely, the massive slump in the American real-estate market.
'Watch out for bailiffs, lads.'
As a result of plummeting property prices, The Shire - a development in Bend, Oregon that was modeled after Tolkien's descriptions of hobbit houses - has been hit with a foreclosure notice. Astonishingly, it turns out that in these troubled economic times, the hobbit-wannabe market isn't quite as lucrative as the developers thought.
The dearth of fantasy fans willing to pay $899,000 to live in a mock hobbit-hole in the Pacific Northwest is blow for the project's mastermind, non-hobbit Ron Myers. 'It basically destroyed my life financially, but that’s the price of a dream,' he told the Bend Bulletin.
It's not clear if the project's collapse was down to the general undesirability of a hobbit hole as a residence, or if it was in fact a result of their failure to be hobbity enough. Several wise souls in the MetaFilter comment thread have issues with the design - a selection of quotes includes 'hideous McMansions with dopey hobbit trim'; 'Artificial thatch? WTF?'; '...it's green paint and a brass knob in the EXACT middle! Could Tolkien have been any clearer?'; and, succinctly, 'I hate Bend.'
Hobbits hit by subprime crisisThe Shire - the verdant, pastoral home of the Hobbits in Lord Of The Rings - has survived many things. Marauding Nazgûl, evil wizards, treacherous Hobbits and a massive campaign of industrialisation all failed to destroy the halflings' rural idyll. But where Ringwraiths and ruffians fell short, another, more powerful evil has triumphed... namely, the massive slump in the American real-estate market.
'Watch out for bailiffs, lads.'
As a result of plummeting property prices, The Shire - a development in Bend, Oregon that was modeled after Tolkien's descriptions of hobbit houses - has been hit with a foreclosure notice. Astonishingly, it turns out that in these troubled economic times, the hobbit-wannabe market isn't quite as lucrative as the developers thought.
The dearth of fantasy fans willing to pay $899,000 to live in a mock hobbit-hole in the Pacific Northwest is blow for the project's mastermind, non-hobbit Ron Myers. 'It basically destroyed my life financially, but that’s the price of a dream,' he told the Bend Bulletin.
It's not clear if the project's collapse was down to the general undesirability of a hobbit hole as a residence, or if it was in fact a result of their failure to be hobbity enough. Several wise souls in the MetaFilter comment thread have issues with the design - a selection of quotes includes 'hideous McMansions with dopey hobbit trim'; 'Artificial thatch? WTF?'; '...it's green paint and a brass knob in the EXACT middle! Could Tolkien have been any clearer?'; and, succinctly, 'I hate Bend.'
