Pop Quiz: Including Homeowners in the Bailout?
Do you think homeowner relief from foreclosure should be included in the mortgage bailout package? ( polls)
Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with BrownstonerDo you think homeowner relief from foreclosure should be included in the mortgage bailout package? ( polls)
Need a Hand?
Your Next Project Starts with Brownstoner
Next year I don’t feel like paying taxes.
interesting none of the strong supporters of homeowner relief are piping up too loudly.
guess deep down, its hard to stand up in public and say you love capitalism and freedom, but hate personal responsibility, and when you doinked your life due to stupidity/greed, you want daddy to come help you.
Heck of Job:
It’s really a tough and scary time for people employed in financial services and I’m talking about the sub $100K crowd. The degree of consolidation that has occurred in just ONE week means that the will be a serious contraction of the jobs available. If you’ve worked in the financial services industry for all of your working life, it will take time to transfer the skills to another industry. To be sure, they won’t be making the kind of the money that will help them keep pace with the rent increases on the horizon and the dream of living in the neighborhood that they grew up in, has slipped beyond their reach. Just ask any kid from an average family who grew up in Park Slope or Windsor Terrace in the seventies and early eighties. They can’t believe that Aunt Sally’s house has sold for more than $500 K, much less a million.
Here’s the irony. Can you imagine how much criticism Bush and his cohorts would have heaped upon a Democratic administration should they have been present when this market collapsed? They (ie. Bushies) would be fighting tooth and nail against it.
Bail out, how about the breathing room that comes with a renegotiation of terms?
And tscola, I like your idea about those being foreclosed paying fair market rent. But I don’t think it should be forced on the banks.
I don’t even like the word “bailout”. To me it’s he same as “handout”.
Where is my reward for waiting until I had at least a 20% down payment and then purchasing a home I could genuinely afford? Where’s my reward for being responsible? Oh that’s right, I am rewarded by knowing my tax dollars are being handed out. Don’t I feel SO altruistic?!
I understand each situation is different and there are certainly scenarios out there where people like my husband and I who “did the right thing” found themselves in unforeseen situations (loss of jobs, major illnesses or disabilities etc.). However, I think that is a very small fraction of this mortgage crisis picture. Frankly, I’d have no problem with them getting assistance.
the bailout package should do nothing more than the bare minimum required to avoid a financial meltdown. it’s not “hey, we’re handing out a trillion dollars, who needs some money?” yes, it is unfair to bail out large financial institutions for their screwups while not similarly bailing out individual homeowners for theirs. but this package is not about fairness, it’s about keeping the economy afloat.
Most people being foreclosed fall into one or more of the following categories:
1) Got 100% financing.
2) Have already walked away.
3) Are so far under water they should walk away.
4) Serial refinancers who had to have the Mercedes.
5) Lied about their income.
6) Speculators/flippers.
None of the above should be bailed out.
Who should be bailed out? Perhaps the poor schnooks who have made all their mortgage payments and are not under water, but did not understand that a variable rate mortgage meant their monthly payment was going to go from $900 to $1,400. But that’s about it.
Unfortunately, preventing foreclosure would have the effect prolonging the housing downturn for everyone.
I would, however support something along the lines of eviction relief: allowing homeowners who have been foreclosed to stay in their homes at fair market rent if they can afford it.
This could, hopefully, help preserve neighborhood vibrancy, and help stabilize neighboring property values.
That’s tough one.
On the one hand, helping people stay in their homes and keep paying off their mortgage sounds great from a humanitarian perspective and it would go a long way toward stabilizing the economy.
On the other hand, using my tax dollars to help out the people who borrowed money they couldn’t afford so that they could overpay for property and help inflate the housing bubble and are (indirectly) responsible for pricing me out of my old apartment makes me sick to my stomach.
I’d like to see people who just got caught in a bad spot helped out, but if some flipper just stopped paying his mortgage because he realized he wasn’t going to be able to turn a profit on it, then he should get no support at all.
I’ll go with Not Sure.