For Alex Pemberton and Susan Reboyras, foreclosure is becoming a way of life — something they did not want but are in no hurry to get out of.Foreclosure has allowed them to stabilize the family business. Go to Outback occasionally for a steak. Take their gas-guzzling airboat out for the weekend. Visit the Hard Rock Casino.
“Instead of the house dragging us down, it’s become a life raft,” said Mr. Pemberton, who stopped paying the mortgage on their house here last summer. “It’s really been a blessing.”
A growing number of the people whose homes are in foreclosure are refusing to slink away in shame. They are fashioning a sort of homemade mortgage modification, one that brings their payments all the way down to zero. They use the money they save to get back on their feet or just get by.
So I get to pay taxes to bail out Mr. and Ms. Douche bag here while they get to roll into Hard Rock Casino on their airboat? All while they're living in a home worth twice as much than the Gekko estate?
Is there anyone else out there that finds that offensive to common sense?
1 comment:
It does bug me to a degree. By the same token I don't see too much difference between a strategic default like this and a forced default where someone simply runs out of money. Niether one is techinically illegal and it would be very difficult to determine which is which. What really, really bugs me is that this that our system makes a strong business case for people to default on their mortgage.
If nothing else, a foreclosure on one's mortgage should be a very heavy hit one one's credit score. Once someone is foreclosed, it is surprisingly easy for them to come back into the market in a few years and get another FHA mortgage. People know this and factor that into a strategic mortgage. If a foreclosure meant that one had to rent for 7 years before you could qualify for another mortgage, people would think twice before missing payments.
I can hear the sob story in a few years: "The Federal FICO Amnesty Act is needed to prop up the credit scores of people who got caught in the credit panic of 2008 because it's not fair that only the rich people that didn't get screwed should get good mortgage rates". Lost in the politics of it all will be that the people that didn't default in 2008-2010 were those who decided to live frugally. As usual, the evil ants will once again subsidize the poor oppressed grasshppers.
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