Readers Respond: Foreclosure solution? Hardly

An article in yesterday's Home Channel News Monday described an idea from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to turn government-owned foreclosures into rentals. The idea received a chilly reception from readers.

“In a word, Geithner’s idea is ‘stupid’.

“The economy needs:

1. Reduced taxes

2. Stability in the tax rates

3. Reduced regulation and the size of the federal government

4. Repeal of Obamacare, Sarbanes-Oxley & Dodd-Frank.

5. Increased production of domestic sources of Hydro-Carbon and Nuclear Energy so that the U.S. can be energy self-sufficient.

“Take these five steps and stand back as the whole world puts unprecedented cash to work as investment in the U.S. economy. Jobs and housing come back with a roar!  Bigger earnings will make greater tax revenues to reduce the deficit.

“The downward economic spiral is reversed to upward.”

— Steven Friedel, president

Strategic Brands, Inc.

“The Fed needs to downsize, not grow bigger by being in the rental business. Where will it end?”

— Richard Freund

“I imagine the government won’t be renting those houses out at market rates, and/or the government will subsidize the cost of the rent to the renters in some way.

“It is not hard to believe that in my neighborhood 4,000-sq.-ft. and 5,000-sq.-ft. homes will be subdivided into duplexes. This will then further reduce the value of my home until I’m so upside down that I in turn decide to default and hand my house over to the government. Due to the well-known lower level of home maintenance by both renters and rental owners, many homeowners’ insurance rates may be affected if a larger percentage of homes in the neighborhood are rentals. Plus, some HOAs have limits and/or restrictions on renting. However, these issues are nothing that an executive order can’t remedy. "

— Name withheld