Woman buys house for $1.75 on eBay

Plenty of news stories point to gloom and doom in the U.S. economy, and "FMF" at Free Money Finance informed his readers about three: Car sales have tanked, bidding for a date with tennis star Maria Sharapova topped out at a mere $10,000, and -- the craziest by far -- a woman bought an old vacant house in Michigan for $1.75.

FMF said in his tongue-in-cheek way, "I knew things were bad in Michigan, but never thought they were this bad."

Joanne Smith, 30, of Chicago made the successful bid for the Saginaw house in an auction on eBay. Reporter Roberto Acosta of The Saginaw News noted that her bid, one of eight, was lower than the cost of a McDonald's value meal.

Smith told The Saginaw News that she's never visited Saginaw and hadn't seen the house, which looks pretty rundown in a photo at MSNBC. A notice on the door says a foreclosure hearing on the property is pending in January.

The house will actually be more expensive. Back taxes and yard cleanup will cost $850, The Associated Press reports. Smith said her plan is to sell it.

An enterprising reader of the newspaper, "zifferent," found tax information for the property online. It has a taxable value this year of $2,874. Another reader, "tightwork," commented, "I know that she wishes she would have bought a McDonald's meal instead."

FMF was most impressed with the Sharapova charity auction story. "When a date with Maria Sharapova goes for only $10k, you know we're in financial Armageddon!" he said.