Cheaters turn into winners

Re “Borrowing time,” editorial, April 14

I fail to understand the logic of bailing out mortgage borrowers who knowingly bought homes they knew they could not afford.

There are millions of financially qualified home buyers who waited for the real estate bubble to burst for the opportunity to buy at more realistic prices.

Let home prices fall to true market valuations and new buyers will move in, just as they have in every other real estate cycle.

Taxpayers should not be rewarding those who knowingly made poor financial decisions.

Glenn Bozar

Upland

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Despite the attempts by borrowers -- and others with vested interests -- to portray themselves as victims, many of these people are criminals.

The Times can euphemistically claim that these people were “enticed,” but many of these borrowers knowingly lied on their loan applications, claiming they made far more money than they did.

Another huge segment claimed the homes they were buying were to be their primary residence instead of an investment property. All of them committed loan fraud.

But instead of throwing them in jail, we’re using taxpayer dollars to reward them with free equity and reduced interest rates.

The only true victims in this fiasco are the honest, hard-working renters who did not take on more debt than they could afford and refused to lie to get a loan.

I hope members of Congress are going to feel proud of themselves explaining to the working family with three kids, living in a two-bedroom apartment with escalating rents, scrimping to save every penny for a down payment, how their tax dollars are going to be used: to keep prices artificially high and these very renters out of owning a home, while letting the cheaters and liars continue to live in nice, single-family homes.

Sara Foster

North Hollywood