You Walk Away Hits Television
Lance on Jul 09 2008 at 8:01 pm | Filed under: Housing Market, Politics, economy, real estate
You may remember the website we discussed back in January. Dale Franks just discovered their program, because they now are on Television. He asks the obvious question:
So, should the mortgage companies get off scott-free from facing the results of their poor business decisions when it comes to the loans—loans they shouldn’t have made in the first place?
From my comment there:
No, they shouldn’t. I don’t endorse walking away, but when you take out a loan, and offer collateral, it is assumed that one possible recourse is to give back the collateral. Since lenders don’t want that to happen, they are supposed to examine the worth of that collateral pretty carefully, and get some money down. That way it isn’t in the interest of the homeowner to “walk away” even if they don’t mind the damage to their credit.
The lenders didn’t do either, now people are returning the house when it is in their best interest. I don’t count on the benevolence of my bankers, I suggest they shouldn’t have counted on consumers to take it on the chin for their sake either. Nor do I want our government, or the Fed, to keep bailing them out, either directly or indirectly by helping people keep houses they cannot afford. Neither is likely to work anyway.
