Sweet Home Woes

Be it ever so humble there's no place like home.
Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There's no place like Home! there's no place like Home!
—John H. Payne

Foreclosures, bank owned houses are for sale in all streets, all cities, all states and the whole country. The CEOs, who advanced their businesses to mind blowing levels, flee out now but only with contractual discharge benefits. Big banks and other corporates write off billions as bad loans or irrecoverable loans. Fannie-Mae is the latest to report a loss of 2.2 billions.

House owners find that they have no equity left on the house they are supposed to own. For many that has turned into negative equity. Many find the installment amount double on adjusting rate interest loans. Many have to just walk away and leave the house to its fate or file bankruptcy.

The Government acts by reducing the interest rates, which does not help. Now they introduce ‘Project Lifeline’ to save the situation. Accordingly, the six big wigs in mortgage industry are to contact the defaulters and make arrangements to find possible and viable solutions to bring solace to the supposed home owners.

The lending companies, expecting the market to go up, went into a mortgage spree, conveniently forgetting the minimum safe guards. The Government has now made the FBI start an inquiry into the loose lending practices adopted by the institutions.

‘Home, Sweet Home’ of Payne is famous among Americans and of course the world over. This has become one of the extinguished truths, through propaganda. The practice of big businesses, encouraging the people go for loans for houses without getting the minimum down payment and allowing them take second or even third loans, has created the mire. Everyone knows it. The Institutions know this. The Government is conscious about it.

But the suffering that has totally devastated the individuals rests solely with the individuals, who have signed thinking they own the houses.

The government should have encouraged actual owning the house by the instalment paying individuals through liberal tax benefits for principal and interest and the lending institutions should have recognized prompt payment of installments. These may be considered at least for the primary living home of any household in future.

Happiness is having OWN ‘Home, Sweet Home’