One of my colleague bought a house for half a million 4 years back and his monthly payment was $4K. With the recent divorce, he was unable to make mortgage payments and for the last 6/7 months he was not making payments hoping to do short sale.
He is a very nice/easy going simple guy but financially irresponsible who likes to drive $40k car with toy like $8K in his driveway.
Last week he told me that, bank did some deal with him taking advantage of bailout, now he is able to keep his house paying just $2k/month for next 30 years which is what he can afford.
I am very happy for my colleague since I like him personally though I know that we all are footing the bill for this bailout.
At the same time, I think I have missed an opportunity to get bail out from govt.
Sometimes, I think I should have bought a million dollar house in 2006 though I cant afford it but anyway I would have been bailed out by bank/govt.
Being over analytical/financial responsible kind of kicked me back.
