re: #201 reuven

The best way to make housing affordable is to have the Government stop propping up house prices. No more $8000 “first time home buyers tax credit” (which has a 50% fraud rate [Link: www.npr.org…] ), no more mortgage interest deduction, no more tax-free “cram downs”, no more income tax exemption for forgiven mortgage debt.

(And yes, I’m a homeowner, with two 100% paid-off properties. Because I care about affordable housing, I don’t care one bit if my property “value” declines. I bought a house to live in, not as a piggy bank/ATM machine.)

When I buy a house (which will be maybe sorta soon? Not sure) this is it right here. This country stigmatizes renters as failures, and it’s ridiculous, it encourages people to get into houses they can’t afford for some keeping-up-with-the-joneses phantom rite of passage.