I agree with you. I too saved and refused to pay a ridiculous price for a home. I was completely blind to the possibility that I didn’t really need to buy the house. I could have bought, very cheaply, a call option on the house, by borrowing all of the purchase price.
In retrospect, what I should have done was buy a new house every year of the bubble (without selling the older houses), using none of my own money. As the older houses showed big enough appreciation, I’d sell them off and pocket the gain. If and when house prices start to go down, I sell them all off. The last one or two show a loss, but I just get a short sale, or mail back the keys, or get a bailout on those.
I could have made around a million dollars net, without even trying.
It is offensive to me that this was made possible, and even more offensive that our government is using my taxes to subsidize homeowners, thereby continuing this madness.
I absolutely disagree with the idea that we have to throw money at homeowners to “save our economy”. 90% of what’s going on is just a way to continue shoveling more money at homeowners, under the guise of saving our economy.
I guess, like you, jp, I am a little irritated, and disappointed that I live in a society where people raised to spurn free lunch schemes get shafted.
