Real Estate Bailout: How to Live with the Choices

 

It’s time for a real estate bailout.

That’s the cry. There is a lot of uproar over the real estate market right now. The lenders are worried because of the rising number of homes going into foreclosure. The borrowers are panicked because the interest rates are creeping up on loans they already can’t really afford. Everyone seems to think the government should step in and fix the situation.

What kind of country are we becoming?

In the late ’70s and early ’80s, the interest rates really rose. People found themselves in mortgages with 20% rates. To put it in perspective, that is the rate many people claim is predatory today when used by credit card companies.

I was young, and I don’t remember the news, but I can remember my dad getting up at the crack of dawn to go to the local shop and make donuts. It’s one of the reasons the Dunkin Donuts guy resonates with me. My dad did what he had to do to get it done.

He probably didn’t want to do it. He probably would have preferred someone else pick up his load and carry it. But he made his choices and then made more choices to live within the choices he made originally.

Living With Choices

It’s not easy living with choices – especially when the choices are put upon you instead of being yours to make.

When my husband and I both found ourselves unemployed, it wasn’t our choice. Industries changed or collapsed and left us in ruins with the rubble.

We didn’t call the governor and ask him what he was going to do to fix our situation. We didn’t call the news and tell them how unfair it was that we were where we were. We did what we could do.

My husband started mowing lawns and doing landscaping, and I helped out as much as possible, often with two small children in tow. It wasn’t the way we wanted things to be, but we kept making the choices that had to be made to move it from where we were to where we wanted to be. It was up to us. It was not the government or the bank that had loaned us the money to bail out our mistakes.

Bailout Does NOT Equal Bonanza

I have a friend who went to school for half the years she has been alive. She changed majors or focuses almost as often as she changed clothes. But she was smart – like genius-level smart. She was accepted into medical school, law school, and probably more schools than I could name. But she kept borrowing money to learn instead of taking what she learned and pursuing something more.

It’s her choice. Constantly learning is as much a choice as jumping right into a technical field. But as the debt has mounted – including the money she borrowed against her inherited house to pay for more classes – she now claims that she shouldn’t have to pay.

Bailout! That’s what she wants. Someone else needs to step in and pay for her choices.

There is some room in my heart for compassion. Things happen – often beyond our control. But a bailout – whether temporary or permanent – was never supposed to be a bonanza for someone else’s choices.

The Real Real Estate Truth

Not everyone needs to own a home. It probably isn’t the most popular opinion, but it doesn’t make it any less true.

Not everyone wants the white picket fence or the swing set in the backyard. Some people prefer the freedom of renting – and even renting furnished spaces – so they can go wherever they choose. Some people want to live in an apartment or a condo so that others will be responsible for maintenance needs.

There was a time when you could save up the money to buy a house – with cash. Today, the cost of a home has risen so much that most home buyers commit to 30 years of indebtedness just to make the purchase.

30 YEARS

OF DEBT

All hope for this great nation is not lost. Change is taught one choice at a time.

In this house, the children already understand the importance of paying for what you want as you go and my oldest son goes so far as to call credit evil. They are learning how to save, to share, to give, and to work hard for the money. I know that we are not the only family who are growing up financially savvy children.

Should the government bail out the people who are in over their heads (be it the lenders or the borrowers)? The president says no. It will be interesting to see if that stance holds true for the long haul or if the real estate bailout becomes a reality on one side or the other.