Comments on: How Taxpayers are Making Your Home Affordable

By: Bible Money Matters

Bible Money Matters — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:43:14 +0000

One of the things I found interesting from the plan was that if you prove hardship (not hard as mentioned above) you can have your interest rate reduced to as low as 2%. If that STILL isn’t enough to make the home “affordable”, your loan term can be extended to up to 40 years, part of the loan deferred and/or forgiven.

Let’s be honest here, if someone’s loan isn’t affordable at 2% interest, they’re in a house that is way more than they should have bought. I have a hard time helping out people who got in over their heads due to their own fiscal mismanagement.

Will I take advantage of the refinance program if I can? You bet! May as well try to recoup some of my lost tax dollars!

By: Louise Rimel

Louise Rimel — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:47:22 +0000

I am a homeowner. Unfortunatley when we purchased our home my husbands job seem to be very stable and we were doing just fine. I do not work and am on disability due to a serious injury. My husbands work became very unstable fortunatley he still has a job. But his hours have been cut drastically at times causing us to fall behind. I agree with what you are saying but we have tried to refinance but because of where we live our home has dropped at least 11,000 dollars from what we payed for it so now what do we do. We have exhausted our savings in trying to keep up. We have worked very hard to keep our home and by the way it was very much in our bugdet when we first purchased so now what do we do without help just let the bank take it back so that it can sit empty for months for anyone can afford to purchase it or the bank has to sell it for what it is worth which at the time is not very much. I know that there are allot of irresponsible people out there who have bought homes way above what they can afford. But we are not one of them.

By: Funny about Money

Funny about Money — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:28:49 +0000

I’m with Kitty: the foreclosures around my paid-off house and my son’s modestly priced house are pushing our property values down to below what they were before the bubble started to inflate. And the result of the economic collapse occurring just as I’m on the cusp of retirement very likely means that I will never be able to retire…period. Luckily I didn’t retire when I planned to, a year ago. I now expect to work until I die, or until they throw me out of the place. It’s not a prospect I relish.

Am I thrilled about the government having to put the next six generations or so into hock to try to revive the economy? Heck, no. But something needs to be done; the alternative is worse.

By: Mr.ToughMoneyLove

Mr.ToughMoneyLove — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 05:27:17 +0000

I appreciate all of the comments here, most of which seem to express feelings similar to my own.

Kitty: I understand your concerns about foreclosure effects spilling over into neighboring properties. But what evidence is there that government bailout programs will do anything other than prolong the pain and delay the recovery. It is all too artificial. Also, I have no confidence that rescuing people from their own irresponsibility will cause them to become responsible. Some would argue that we are simply enabling them. In fact, that thought has inspired me to write something about the government as enablers of bad money decisions.

By: kitty

kitty — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:25:21 +0000

I think most responsible people don’t like to subsidize those who bought homes they couldn’t afford. I paid off my mortgage a few years ago. I also have always bought properties I could afford, and have paid my bills on time.

But I am also sick of watching the market drop every day. I lost about 20% of my money last year, and more this year, and it is a large amount. Many friends of mine – all responsible people – lost their jobs, and I am worried about mine. If stemming the tide of foreclosures is going to help the economy, then I am willing to give it a chance – it just may be cheaper to help some of these people than let more houses foreclose. I don’t know if it’ll help, I do have my doubts about it, but I am willing to give it a chance.

Also, since I own a (townhouse) condo, I am aware of how foreclosures in a condo complex can affect very responsible neighbors. With houses, the foreclosures simply affect the value of other houses. With condos, the responsible owners who are left may face an assessment, a considerably higher common charges, or inability to get anything done. My complex is fine for now as NY state hasn’t yet been affected as much, but there are a lot of condo owners that live in complexes where there is a number of foreclosures. If they do, foreclosures in a subset of units can result in significantly higher bills for other owners – many of them very responsible – and may lead to more foreclosures. If bailing out irresponsible owners help their responsible neighbors, I can see some merit in it.

I am not sure this would help, I have my doubts. I’d much rather they concentrated on buying up toxic assets – something they seem to be dragging up their feet about – or if they (finally) did something about mark-to-market. But maybe stemming the tide of foreclosures a bit will help too. I am willing to forgo my rightful indignation, if this plan helps the economy and our jobs.

By: Corporate Barbarian

Corporate Barbarian — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:48:48 +0000

I have to agree with you, TML. I never thought that I’d be subsidizing irresponsible people for their pipe dreams. It took a long time for my family to get out of debt. It also required sacrifice. I don’t see the sacrifices that the bailed-out people are making.

By: Fabulously Broke

Fabulously Broke — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 17:21:34 +0000

I feel like the rest of the responsible citizens and companies left in the States have to clean up after errant adults who have seemed to have run around pooping all over the floors and flinging food at walls without concern about the mess they were creating.

Felt a bit sick reading your post, and I agree with you 100%.

I also feel like these people should pay for their mistakes (companies and people alike). If they couldn’t afford the mortgage to begin with, then they can’t afford a house in that area and need to move.

Maybe, 50% of Americans would have to rent for the rest of their lives based on my logic, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles and so be it.

Not everyone can own property in NY, Boston, or SF. It just isn’t in the cards if you plan on staying in that city.

Everyone just feels too entitled to the American Dream.