Housing Delenda Est

A day after we looked into the hole where hundreds of houses were being tenderly razed by the loving dozerblade of the caring banks under the benevolent gaze of the compassionate government, the tallest midgets in the intellectual circus are peeing into the smoking cellar holes to double down on proving me prescient again.

The Obama administration may turn thousands of government-owned
foreclosures into rental properties to help boost falling home prices.The
Federal Housing Finance Agency said Wednesday it is seeking input from
investors on how to rent homes owned by government-controlled mortgage
companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing
Administration.(Link)

In some insane alternate universe, persons believe this is a good idea.

MarketWatch: Renting, Blowing Up Foreclosures Not A Bad Idea

In this bizarro world, people unable to afford a free house because they have no job will purchase an expensive house right next door if you’ll  simply destroy the empty free house. Further, in this outre galaxy, the government-supervised rental of housing will brighten up neighborhoods, and renters will take better care of properties than owners. Okey dokey, then. See you down at Spacely’s when you need some sprockets, space real estate cadets.

You’ll have to bear with me, as I’m a little behind the times on these matters. We used to build good, solid, liveable houses, employed lots of people to do so at good wages, and then we’d sell them to customers who would live in them, usually by qualifying for a mortgage by having a job themselves. I fear you’re going to have to bail Tony Rezko, Charles Keating, Neil Bush, Susan McDougal, or someone similar out of jail, or look under whatever rock they might be under just now, and ask them how it’s going to work from here on in. Any five Senators will do in a pinch.

A little later on in the AP article, there is a bit of a clue of what we might expect:

A federal “request for information” released
Wednesday included an option for previous homeowners to rent out the
homes or for current renters to lease to own. Private investors could
also be allowed to manage the rental properties.

I see. The housing industry will now be run from Washington using the ColorTyme business plan.Sounds like paradise.

There’s no word on whether Bank of America and Wells Fargo will eventually be nationalized and run on a payday loan/ pawnshop hybrid model.