http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2544556/posts
The notion that homeownership is an unalloyed good is deeply ingrained in policy and politics. Powerful interests - homebuilders, the real estate industry, minority advocates - promote it. Congress, especially, seems in thrall to these lobbies and to their myth that homeownership is a ticket to the middle class.
This “American Dream” ideology has led to a massive real estate bubble and financial catastrophe in the past decade, and works its dark magic today. It’s surely one reason why Congress refuses to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage market mainstays that, by one Congressional Budget Office estimate, could end up costing the taxpayers $389 billion to bail out. Others put the figure as high as $1 trillion.
Fannie and Freddie got into trouble because they lowered their credit standards, with government’s blessing, and tried to convert too many renters into homeowners.
Even now, as they try to clean up their portfolio, they are favoring potential homeowners over investors - that is, would-be landlords. Fannie Mae has a policy of not accepting offers from investors in the first 15 days that one of its foreclosed properties is on the market. The Dream dies hard.
It’s time for some politicians with backbone to start asking, publicly, what’s so wrong with investors snapping up foreclosed homes. If the market is allowed to work, we would expect perhaps several million Americans to become renters - and quite possibly see their living costs go down.
NO ONE has a RIGHT to own a home. It’s a priviledge.
I actually prefer to rent. Of course, there is nothing like owning your own home and painting your rooms whatever color you like, I feel more comfortable financially letting the landlord sweat the big stuff. And to those who are landlords - thank you. It isn’t easy, I know.
There are two components to that. First not everyone can own a home and many who can own a home try to own one they can’t afford. I read an article several years ago about a liberal couple in DC who got in a hole because they were too good to own a starter home and wanted “the home they deserve.”
Remember when if your home was underwater it was because you lived next to a river?
My home has now been underwater for 21 months and there is no sign the river is going down any time soon.
Have you 'cleared' this headline with Bwanee, Chris, and 'THE ONE?'
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In states with Property Tax, no one “owns” their home anyway.
Via property taxes alone, I pay RENT to the parasitic bureaucrats of about $600.00/month on my home and $1000/month on my commercial building.
We bought our home in 1990 and refinanced a couple of years later at a lower rate and a 15 year mortgage. Finished paying the last payment almost two years ago.
Fine, but don’t make me give up on my dream to own a pony!!
It’d be nice to own a home, yeah. But at my current credit rating and debt-to-income ratio, I can’t. And that’s OK, it’s my fault I’m in the pickle I’m in and can’t own a home. Hopefully in a few years, we’ll dig out of it and I can actually buy a home of my own. In the meantime, being a renter for the past 23 years in various places hasn’t always been much fun, but it’s how things are.
}:-)4
I don’t think it’s a question of “deserves” or even of “rights.”
Every American, obviously, has the right to own a home - but not to have it given to them. People who have it given to them don’t even remotely appreciate what they have. I have a family member who was head of a Habitat chapter for several years, and I can tell you stories...
Some people are actually better off renting and don’t want a large property, and that’s what the condo market was developed for. They pay a little extra for maintenance services, but they don’t want the bother of maintaining the exterior or other services.
One of the problems Habitat and other lower income owners havae is that they often seem to believe the tooth fairy is supposed to change their doorknobs, stop their leaky faucets, replace their roofs, etc. They’re used to living in government housing, where all these things are done for them...done badly and slowly, but done eventually and they don’t have to pay for it.
Even high-end renters don’t have to worry about these things, however, and there’s nothing wrong with renting. Supposing you travel a lot and don’t have somebody to look after your house while you’re away? Supposing you hate being a home handyman or having to do anything but pick up the phone and call the rental agency? Supposing you’re someplace where you may not want to live forever and don’t want to be bothered selling your house when you leave?
Owning is good if you’re an owner type of person; renting is better if you’re not. And in any case, they all have to be at reasonable market rates, which is the fundamental problem when the government skews it, either through doing Section 8 for renters, or for giving away properties through Fannie and Freddie loans.
Better to buy when high mortgage rates force home prices down, then refinance when mortgage rates drop, and make out like a bandit.
1) If you are a "good" and "successful" person, you own a home. If you do not own a home, then you must not be either good or successful.
2) If you wish to become a "good" and "successful" person, you better go to college -- preferably, a really expensive one. People who don't go to college are "losers".
Personally, I think apprentice programs and on-the-job training are great and the number of people who need to go to college is really quite small. And, if you have money and want to buy a home, then go to it -- but plenty of people don't want that or cannot afford that: and that's OK too.
We are a consumer driven society and houses and education are part of that, and I'm not at all sure that it benefits us. Right now, it seems to be biting us pretty hard.
Ditch the idea of home ownership? I completely disagree with this entire premise (having not read the article). Perhaps if America were allowed to function as it is laid out in the Constitution, home ownership would be more of a reality to more people willing to work for it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2544556/posts
The american dream is not about owning a home, it’s about owning your destiny - Glenn Beck
It think the banks changed it to “Everyone has the right to borrow a home from the bank - and to borrow more home than the borrower can afford if he or she feels bad about it...or suffers from a perceived legacy of past discrimination.” :)