Letters to the Editor
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yes, FilthyHarry, that same model that worked so well in "privatizing" all of our retirement packages ....
with, I gather from the Bakersfield examples below, hint of deja vu from the Savings and Loan Debacles of Bush I ...
yes, that private sector can always be counted on to skim off large profits and leave the public sector to clean up the mess.
Also worth a nod, after more than a decade of stagnant or even declining real wages (and job security) and zero savings for many many people (and the destabilization of retirement and health care benefits -- less coverage, more out of pocket costs, etc.), buying a home for a "reasonable" monthly mortgage sounded like a golden opportunity to create a "nest egg" and "leave something behind" (an inheritance or sellable asset in the face of old age, illness and death).
Freedom from landlords and rent increases, gentrification are real as is the desire to "put down roots."
Naive maybe, but it wasn't "stupidity" when "the establishment" embraced these buyers ... it was snakeoil and seduction. When I got my mortgage, I was offer almost twice as much as I had previously decided I could afford. There weren't many houses in that price range (and god knows the ancillary services that make their percentage based on selling price always push the next-better (and costlier) models). It was VERY tempting to push my price ceiling up by a measly $50,000 ... where a whole bunch of bigger, younger houses were available. If I had, with energy prices skyrocketing, food steadily climbing, wages flat or declining, I would be in serious trouble NOW ... even with my fixed 20 year mortgage. On one income, after 10 years, it's squeaky.