What’s so ridiculous about these bailout proposals is that most of these subprime borrowers can afford to live somewhere, they just can’t afford to live in the huge house or within the ritzy neighborhood they bought into. Subsidizing subprime borrowers who bought $600K homes would be outrageous. These people can afford a smaller house or to rent a place on their own. They don’t need subsidies.
Plus, I fear that most of any bailout would go to those who committed fraud on the way up and used subprime to buy multiple homes. People like Casey Serrin who committed fraud on the way up to buy multiple houses will also commit fraud on the government to get bailed out of their multiple mortgages.
Plus, I believe that most of these subprime borrowers were just speculators. I read somewhere that the home ownership rate only increased from 68% to 70% from 2003 to 2007. That means that most of this bubble was caused by speculators who used subprime to buy multiple houses. Don’t believe for a second that most of these subprime borrowers are poor families who will get thrown onto the street. Nope, most of them are speculators like Casey Serrin who choose not to work because they fashion themselves as the next Donald Trump.
I wish the media would tell that side of the story and stop focussing on that relatively small percentage of borrowers who have somewhat sob stories. (And even those folks can usually afford to live in an apartment).
