Having a place to call your own

Via Mish, comes this story of a family who are the sole residents of a 32-story high rise luxury condo building in Fort Myers, Florida:

The Vangelakos' southwest Florida condominium has marble floors, a large pool overlooking a river and modern furnishings that speak of affluence and luxury. What they don't have in the 32-story building is a single neighbor.

The New Jersey family of five purchased their unit four years ago, when Fort Myers was in the midst of a housing boom and any hints of an impending financial crisis were buried in lofty dreams of expansion and development. They made a $10,000 down payment and eagerly watched as builders transformed an empty lot into an opulent high rise, one that now symbolizes the foreclosure crisis.
...
"It's a beautiful building," said their attorney, John Ewing, who is representing 27 others who made deposits on units. "The problem is, it's a very lonely building."

When the Vangelakos' travel from Weehawken, N.J., to spend a week or a few days in their Florida home, they have exclusive use of the pool, game room and gym, but they miss having a few tenants around.

"Being from the city, it's very eerie," Vangelakos said. "It's almost like a scary movie."

A large, circular fountain in front of the building is dry. The automatic glass doors that lead to the front lobby are locked. On the front desk is a guest sign-in sheet. The last entry: Feb. 13, 2009.

"It's like time froze here six months ago," Ewing said. ...

I imagine being the only family in a large, otherwise empty building like that would be a little creepy, and the article mentions some of the security concerns that the family has encountered. Unfortunately, given the real estate situation in that area, not only is their condo probably worth a lot less today than what they paid for it, but according to the article the family spent most of their life savings on the purchase downpayment, with a mortgage for the remainder.