Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
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Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#2Didn't these people learn in grammar school that two wrongs don't make a right?
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#3What these people are doing is exactly equivalent to what tendentious tenants do to avoid eviction. We almost uniformly hold those tenants in contempt; they're perpetrating a fraud. The only difference here is that it's banks holding the loans, not independent landlords.
I see how you could sympathize with a ruthless defaulting homeowner; after all, what else are they going to do? Are we really asking them to vacate early solely to make the bank's job easier? On the other hand: what they're doing is morally indefensible, and any costs to the bank their behavior incurs is largely going to be borne by good-faith mortgageholders and new prospective good-faith home buyers.
Maybe they shouldn't be bragging about this. Here's to hoping it catches up with them sooner than later.
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#4Didn't these people learn in grammar school that two wrongs don't make a right?
In economic terms, two wrongs can certainly make a right. In many cases, having these people move out would serve no purpose other than to destroy the houses' values as well as the values of the surrounding homes. People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in and perform some maintenance. Banks often make economically foolish decisions regarding foreclosure for a whole host of reasons.
Plus, after reading articles like http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/panoramaexcerpts/Ali.html regarding how mortgage servicers and banks deal with foreclosure, I'm disinclined to believe that they are ever acting in good faith.
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#5“We could pay the mortgage company way more than the house is worth and starve to death,”
This implies that if the house was worth what they were paying that they would still starve to death and really they made a bad choice in buying the house in the first place.
"But the couple also refinanced at the height of the market, taking out cash to buy a truck..."
sigh...
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#6Didn't these people learn in grammar school that two wrongs don't make a right?
In economic terms, two wrongs can certainly make a right. In many cases, having these people move out would serve no purpose other than to destroy the houses' values as well as the values of the surrounding homes. People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in and perform some maintenance. Banks often make economically foolish decisions regarding foreclosure for a whole host of reasons. Plus, after r…
Wait, you're saying you came by your principles on this issue through a McSweeny's article about a couple who knowingly stated an income 12x their real income to buy a house that they could only hope to afford if the housing market continued to appreciate stratospherically, and who then blamed the economy when their completely untenable loan blew up?
You do realize that it's perfectly reasonable to be disgusted with the mortgage originators, the Wall Street financiers, the CDO managers, the CDO manager's clueless investors, and the feckless homeowners who got into bed with them, right?
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
In economic terms, two wrongs can certainly make a right. In many cases, having these people move out would serve no purpose other than to destroy the houses' values as well as the values of the surrounding homes. People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in and perform some maintenance. Banks often make economically foolish decisions regarding foreclosure for a whole host of reasons. Plus, after r…
Wait, you're saying you came by your principles on this issue through a McSweeny's article about a couple who knowingly stated an income 12x their real income to buy a house that they could only hope to afford if the housing market continued to appreciate stratospherically, and who then blamed the economy when their completely untenable loan blew up? You do realize that it's perfectly reasonable to be disgusted with…
The article I linked to is not fiction. Do you have reason to believe that the attorney who wrote it was lying?
And yes, I think the homeowners there pretty awful. But the banks didn't determine that they were awful before they acted in bad faith; they acted in bad faith from the get-go, for everyone, whether or not their actions merited such treatment.
And from where I sit, it seems like the banks and servicers are the ones who completely failed to do any due diligence and then blamed the economy when their unsustainable loans proved, well, unsustainable. The average person is functionally innumerate. They are going to make poor decisions regarding quantitative matters, especially quantitative matters couched in ways that are deliberately obfuscated. This is not true of the average bank. I expect better from them.
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, you're saying you came by your principles on this issue through a McSweeny's article about a couple who knowingly stated an income 12x their real income to buy a house that they could only hope to afford if the housing market continued to appreciate stratospherically, and who then blamed the economy when their completely untenable loan blew up? You do realize that it's perfectly reasonable to be disgusted with…
The article I linked to is not fiction. Do you have reason to believe that the attorney who wrote it was lying? And yes, I think the homeowners there pretty awful. But the banks didn't determine that they were awful before they acted in bad faith; they acted in bad faith from the get-go, for everyone, whether or not their actions merited such treatment. And from where I sit, it seems like the banks and servicers are…
It's not fiction. But it's McSweeney's. It wasn't edited for accuracy or logic or fact-checking or bias; it was edited to make it read well. I like McSweeney's probably almost as much as you do, but would hesitate to cite it in an argument about economics!
Your other two grafs don't actually rebut anything I said. Yes. Banks bad. Very bad! Also: require Thomas to sit on hold to wait to talk to someone in Bangalore about mortgage. Ridiculous fees, too! Bad! Unfortunately: still not OK to defraud them. Contracts with bad evil banks? Still valid.
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#9Didn't these people learn in grammar school that two wrongs don't make a right?
In economic terms, two wrongs can certainly make a right. In many cases, having these people move out would serve no purpose other than to destroy the houses' values as well as the values of the surrounding homes. People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in and perform some maintenance. Banks often make economically foolish decisions regarding foreclosure for a whole host of reasons. Plus, after r…
People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in...
Squatters living in a home owned by a bank prevent squatters from moving in?
Re: Homeowners in Foreclosure Find a Rent-Free Approach
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
In economic terms, two wrongs can certainly make a right. In many cases, having these people move out would serve no purpose other than to destroy the houses' values as well as the values of the surrounding homes. People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in and perform some maintenance. Banks often make economically foolish decisions regarding foreclosure for a whole host of reasons. Plus, after r…
People who stay in their homes prevent squatters from moving in... Squatters living in a home owned by a bank prevent squatters from moving in?
There are different varieties of squatters. Drug addicted transients are not equivalent to small business owners with roots in the local community who happen to have an emotional attachment to that particular house. Given the choice of squatters, I'd prefer to have squatters with a non-zero income.