Car and jp, you guys love that squatters rent thing, I think that phase has passed. It’s a small sample, but of all the people I knew who got into trouble and ended up losing their homes, the glory days were the early days. When the banks were failing ad buying each other. When the government was panicking, when policy after policy was right around the corner. Moratorium after moratorium, scandal after scandal. I knew some who got a free ride for a year or two, I probably knew a dozen total who have lost their homes and all of it is in the rear view mirror now. It’s like any other disaster, initially it’s just triage and stabilize, but as time goes on and less enter the pipeline, things go back to normal.
That guy you quoted CAR says there are 44 million mortgages out there with 8% behind. So less than 4 million, but how many are 90 days behind? How many of those homes are vacant and in the short sale process, how many were investment properties that are not occupied? The total number that are squatting for years is going to be far less than half of the total, even at half (which I bet is way too high) were getting in the 1%, maybe 2% at best of the population. That’s not filling up the malls and driving the economy.
Back to the original idea, no intervention is always better, but there are many people left (far more than squatters) who have never been late on a payment, are still employed and are unable to refi because of LTV or self employed or any of the myriad of reasons. Which is why lowering the interest rate never has the desired effect of keeping people in their homes who are in the margins. What is the answer, I have no idea, compelling arguments on both sides have been made.
