I think we need to ask which, at this moment, is the greater social ill: allowing people to escape the consequences of bad financial decisions, or removing them from their homes?
The housing market is undergoing a readjustment. Overvalued homes will never again be worth as much as they were in, say, 2005. Obviously, people were not expecting that when they bought in. Also, unemployment is going up, and people weren’t expecting to lose the jobs that allowed them to pay those mortgages.
Beyond the crime bred by empty houses, there’s also the fact that home ownership makes people better citizens. Home owners are more law-abiding and more likely to be involved in their communities. So, there is some good in helping people ride out this readjustment.
Are you by chance one of those who “bought” a house with no money down or cashed out with home equity loans during the mania—and are now thrilled to have won a jackpot paid for by your fellow Americans?
We used to have a term for people without equity in their houses, they were called renters—and like all renters they can’t stay on beyond what the actual owners agree to. There are worse things in life, and letting prices drop back to where they belong is the quickest and least nationally bankrupting way for us all to get out of this downturn.
They can rent until they can actually afford a mortgage again. You know, like responsible people do, or maybe you’re not familiar with that kind of behavior.
Now this is a good question and a springboard for Devil's Advocate discussion.
You make some good points. Homeowners make better citizens. They become more law-abiding, more rooted and involved in their community. Homeowners are part and parcel of the great Middle Class, that breadth of folks who carry this country on their backs whilst raising the citizens and soldiers of tomorrow. No great civilization ever survives and thrives without a vibrant Middle Class.
The problem with your argument is that the gubmint ALREADY gives homeowners many breaks to encourage home ownership. IE, your mortgage is fully deductible on your taxes, as are your property taxes, as is any home equity loan on the house.
THIS is the fairest way to encourage home ownership. To go about giving mortgage money to this one and that one and the other one, based on this and that and God knows what to a mass of confusion that will only cause resentment between Middle Class citizens across our fruited plains.
If Americans understand anything, it's home ownership and mortgages. The average guy is NOTHING....nothing and nobody, until they own a home and, ideally, grow into increasingly bigger homes as their family grows. It's the backbone of our society. Homeowners buy rugs, home improvement items, lawn goods, home decor, on and on and on.
Americans also understand fairness and this is not going to fly, not going to fly.
It's not fair to the guy who struggled and paid his mortgage, to the mother who worked two jobs to keep her home, to the young couple who shared their home with in-law to afford it....on and on and on. Americans have did many things in order to buy a home, we get it, we understand it, we've had to walk away from homes that we could not afford, we've started out with a row home and worked our way up.
We've did all sorts of things to buy and keep our homes. Obama is tugging apart the very fabric of America and this is one dangerous thing.
Give it time. Americans will be coming out of the woodwork telling out they already lost their home to foreclosure, how they're still renting until they can afford, you'll see them.
It's not going to be pretty. For those who purchased a home they could not afford, and I remind that lady who wanted Barack to give her a kitchen too had a home foreclosed, a home she purchased WITHOUT EVEN HAVING A JOB FIRST...."but I thought I would get one"....Americans are simply NOT going to have much sympathy for.
Democrats are going down with this boondoggle. You heard it here first.