Are homeowners a privileged class?

Re “Mortgage relief plan advances,” April 3

I am confused about why the government would spend so much money on one sector of the population: homeowners facing foreclosure. What about those of us who cannot afford to purchase a home? We are already at a disadvantage because the current tax laws reward those who own homes with deductions for home-loan interest and taxes on their income tax returns. The rest of us are left paying more taxes simply because we don’t have the income to purchase a home. The $60 renters credit that California allows pales in comparison. I am left wondering what the government will do for the rest of us who are suffering from financial situations that are not related to homes or mortgages?

Bill Remy

Walnut

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Congress shouldn’t give home builders a big handout -- being able to write off current losses against previous profitable years. If Congress allows this, the building industry will take a lesson from the entertainment industry to use every accounting trick in the book to magically turn everything they own and do into a loss. There is no need to give builders a tax break. They made obscene profits selling overpriced homes using creative financing supported by the discredited mortgage industry. Now the lean years are upon them. The astute ones set profits aside during the years of plenty and don’t need congressional intervention.

John Bean

Murrieta

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Be very afraid. The last time Congress experienced such rare bipartisanship, it resulted in the invasion of Iraq. We will end up regretting this rush to deliver help, and, just like Iraq, it will be impossible to unwind it. Hey, just add it to our bill!

Constance Cuttell

Palos Verdes Estates

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Re “Let the housing chips fall,” Opinion, March 31

Peter Schiff concludes that government policies “may save a few mortgage holders and bail out some Wall Street firms, but they’ll also wash away the prosperity that Americans have built up over generations.”

There is also a fairness issue. Because of these policies, millions of retired Americans whose main income is the interest they earn from their savings are losing half of their earnings. They also will lose most of their savings when the current policy inevitably causes inflation.

And the government’s only concern is to save the people and the Wall Street firms who took an unreasonable risk in the housing market and lost.

Ergun Kunter

Irvine

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I thank Schiff for telling the truth about the current housing crisis. Few people want to admit that homes can’t stay at the ridiculously inflated price levels of the last few years. The reason is simple: Incomes do not match the cost of housing.

The only reason prices went so high was that people bought into the “buy now or you’ll be priced out forever” hysteria. They were able to obtain exotic loans from lenders with little or no money down to finance their purchases.

Now home prices are falling and people are trying to find ways to stop the pain. Interest-rate cuts, bailouts and government regulation are only going to delay the inevitable.

Home prices need to fall substantially in California for people to be able to afford them, given the tightened standards in lending.

David Balstad

Long Beach