Housing authority to rehab foreclosed homes

Tom D.
07/09/2009 10:39 AM

First, is it the governments role to buy, sell or rent homes? This is the key question. Second, is it the "market" when the government influences prices? I'm talking about the free market, not a quasi market. Third, is the government really making housing more affordable by doing this? Fourth, How did the Federal reserve setting interest rates artificially low and Fannie and Freddie guaranteeing all mortgage loans the big financials made effect the housing market? Fifth, Why should the property owners value be protected/subsidized by the government. Is that what we have government for, to protect property values? And lastly, a house foreclosed right across the street from me a few months ago. I tried to call my mortgage company and ran into the same problem as John S. The whole thing is totally backwards and that's what you get when government gets involved. We are getting what we ask for. If we ask for local government to get into the housing market, we will see more unintended consequenses. I agree the intention is good, but the results are bad. I am for freedom, liberty and personal responsibility. I am totally opposed to the nanny state, big government, unconstitutional, anti rule of law, subjective, relative, unprincipled, socialist government we now do not enjoy, nor have not enjoyed for the last few decades. It just keeps getting worse and worse. What did we celebrate just a few days ago again? We would do well to read the founders.

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Chris R.
Cottage Grove, MN     07/09/2009 9:05 AM

Wow, it's been a while since I've been here, but Tom, you certainly haven't changed. Good for you - stick to your guns. But, the purpose of this program is to protect the property owners surrounding the foreclosed house. This does not inflate the cost of the house, but brings it back to market value - isn't that what you are all about - the market? Why artificially deflate the value of homes because someone lost their house and decided to trash it? Is it fair for someone to have paid $300,000 for a home and then have the value drop $50,000 because the home next to it is in foreclosure and the occupants destroyed it? Lots of eager real estate investment people are looking at the homes and thinking of turning them into rental properties - is that what you would want in your neighborhood? And having a foreclosed property at a cheaper cost may allow someone to buy it, who may not have been able to afford it before. But, they won't be able to repair it and if they do, they may end up in foreclosure - so the home is back where it was within a year or two. The housing bubble was created by banks lending to people who had no business buying a house. That is what has led us into this problem. Builders inflated the prices - going for higher profit. Banks provided favorable terms to people who couldn't afford a $400,000 home and sold off the loans as investment products. When the homes foreclosed, the investments fell through and the bank, home owner and investors started to lose significant amounts of money.

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john s.
07/09/2009 9:01 AM

Why not reward people that actually pay their mortgages with better rates? I tried to refinance a while ago and the first thing they asked was if I had missed some payments. I said no and got redirected away. What a crock. I would've been better off to tell them that I was being delinquent and irresponsible! That is totally bass ackwards!

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Tom D.
07/08/2009 8:51 PM

Anyone think the governments role is to buy, rent and sell houses here? I sure hope not. That is what they are proposing. How can we justify that? We have totally forgotten what governments role is. If we keep asking for this kind of garbage, we will get an even bigger nightmare. Checkout what happened when Fannie and Freddie, two government sponsored entities, got into the housing market. It is time to start learning from our mistakes. This last one imploded on us a year ago and now we are suggesting we do it in our own back yard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously. Short term superficial fix does not equal good idea. And why is the government using our money to buy junk houses! Man o man, you just can't make it up anymore.

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Jamie S.
07/08/2009 11:26 AM

This works for me. We bought our home right before the crash and our neighbor went into foreclosure. That house went for $100K less than what we bought ours for and we cannot refinance to a better rate because of the LTV and of our surroundings. Fix them up and help us out. We were told to let our credit take a crap and miss a payment or two to be qualified for a better mortgage. How does that make any sense!!!!

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Tom D.
07/08/2009 10:13 AM

This is a bad idea. Now the local governments are getting in on creating small housing bubbles. The market needs to find it's bottom before it can come back up. With this program, houses that would have been sold at a cheaper price to willing buyers, will now price people out of the market again. We just don't learn. I spoke at a council meeting about this. Apparently it didn't do any good.

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