Gee thanks guys.
Regarding the AP article written by Andrew Taylor, “Senate Leaders Agree on Housing Relief”, gee thanks. Nothing like too little too late. The main points of what the Senate agreed upon seem to be that the federal government will make grants amounting to $4 billion to local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed homes. And that the government will make available a $7,000. tax credit to people for buying homes or properties in foreclosure.
How do these measures help someone that is already in foreclosure? The first one, giving local governments money to buy up foreclosed houses sounds like version of NIMBY (not in my backyard) to me. It might help a little, by not having a falling down abandoned foreclosed house next door that drives down your property values. But it still does nothing to help the people that already got thrown out or are soon to be thrown out.
And what are the local governments planning to do with these refurbished properties? Sell them? We all know how well that’s working right about now. They could rent them out. Look what a great job local governments to with the Section 8 programs. In Daytona Beach Florida there is a two year wait for qualified low income families to be placed into a Section 8 rental. All the while there are empty properties all over town. Go figure. Sounds like a much better deal for the lenders in the scenario than anyone else.
As for offering a tax credit to people that buy foreclosed homes … who would be those people? Investors? I’d say so. Nothing wrong with investors getting a tax break, but, see, this still doesn’t help the homeowner to work himself out of foreclosure. By the time an investor buys a foreclosure, the original homeowner that was foreclosed on is already out of luck. So that one doesn’t help too much either. The investors that still have money, by luck or design, are already sitting pretty. Why are they getting a break anyway?
Thank you for all of the e-mailed comments. Now please post comments for me. It’s easy, don’t be scared.
I wrote an e-mail to Florida AG, Bill McCollum yesterday. He hasn’t responded yet. I’m hoping he will, I was going to post it up here.
