Chapter 8: Bailout talk riles Kate

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We knew that Kate in the Valley was a patient house-hunter; this week she tells us, in her weekly diary, where her patience runs very thin: when anyone starts talking about direct aid to homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

‘So, earlier this week, I was pretty unhappy about mortgage rates going up even though this is probably necessary to put more downward pressure on housing prices. And, just I was swallowing that bitter pill, I read that Hillary Clinton said she supports a bailout for homeowners with bad loans. This statement pushed me over the edge:

‘’The unfortunate fact is, many people have gotten into the mortgage market who are being exploited and abused by boiler-room mortgage-lending operations that are just like selling phony penny stocks or the old traveling salesmen with the snake oil.’

‘Cry me a river. First off, how are you going to separate the homeowners who knowingly misrepresented their income to qualify for a loan from those who had no idea that the loan officer plugged in make-believe numbers without their knowledge? Certainly you can’t expect me to support the government using my tax dollars to bail out the many people who got into the mortgage market thinking they were going to get away with something by fudging the numbers. I also don’t think government aid is necessary when other remedies exist, like suing the mortgage broker for fraud (if in fact a fraud has been committed upon you) or just selling your house.

‘And don’t tell me about the tragedy of people losing their homes. First off, we are talking about people who bought in the last several years using high-risk loans to fuel spending beyond their means. It’s not like they are losing the family farm, the very land that their father and their father’s father built up with blood, sweat and tears. It’s just a house they lived in for a couple of years – a house they very likely bought with zero down. It’s not like an act of God is depriving them of all their worldly possessions; their own fiscal irresponsibility is forcing them to forfeit something that they have almost no investment in anyway.

Read more of Kate’s anti-bailout rant below.

‘And let’s not forget that those homeowners who are drowning in debt have hurt many people. They’ve damaged the residential real estate market such that young, honest, hard working families can’t afford to begin building their lives in a home. And think of all the people that Countrywide is going to have to lay off. Innocent people who worked hard to get hired by a big stable company will soon be out looking for entirely new lines of work, forfeiting seniority and abandoning their training. All because certain people thought it wouldn’t hurt anybody if they just fudged the numbers a little bit.

‘For once, I was cheering after reading a quote from George W. He has repeatedly stated he won’t support grants to individual homeowners. Amen, Brother. Amen. And, Hil, I am so not voting for you. I guess you think that there are more fiscally irresponsible voters than there are people like me. But do you really think the Casey Serin’s of the world even vote? Something tells me they don’t.’

Thanks, Kate.
Read Kate’s blog here.
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