Unfair to renters

Re “Mortgage plan may cut costs for 395,000,” Oct. 24

Rampant foreclosures have dropped the median home price in the Southland by 39% from its peak last year, and yet The Times reported that only 15% of L.A. residents could afford the median home price in the second quarter of this year. This can only mean that housing prices are still overinflated. Continued foreclosures are the necessary, and sole, corrective measure to this market -- not the windfall “Hope for Homeowners” program created as part of the federal bailout.

This measure, funded by taxpayers, is unfair to those of us who’ve been renting because it was clear to us that it was neither prudent nor feasible to purchase property in the hyperinflated market. Everyone wants to excoriate the “predatory” banks and mortgage brokers, but reckless loan recipients are just as much to blame. Artificially propping up the market rewards the irresponsible.

Christopher Brisson

Los Angeles