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How would you help homeowners during this housing market?

How would you help the housing market - short of giving away money?

Public Comments

1. Tell people to downsize, refinance and rent their homes out.
2. I wouldn't. I am one of the people suffering from falling housing values, but helping all of the people that bought homes with adjustable arms and out of their price range were just asking for trouble. If I bought a Roles Royce and found I couldn't afford it why should the government help me there? The same thing. Just because someone spends their money unwisely doesn't mean that the government should step in to help them. I actually think that the ones who made the bad situation worst are the banks. They were left with all these defaulting debts and started forclosing. If they instead assumed the debt and turned it rental for the same price as the initial arm they would still be making good money and would then own the property... which they could sell as the market turned back around. Bad mistake on their part.
3. I'm not responsible for bad financial decisions.
4. I don't think anything should be done to help them. They bought homes they couldn't afford and the banks helped them do it! No body should get help! What business gets bailed out when it fails? NONE! If I opened a business and didn't run it right and it failed, who would bail me out? Let the chips fall where they may and let them learn from their mistakes!!! This is what happens to people when they try and live beyond their means!!!
5. You don't. You let the market correct itself, which is exactly what it is doing. Foreclosures are happening and prices are dropping. When prices were increasing like crazy, nobody complained, even though the price increases were disconnected from any fundamentals. Prices should have tracked some gingerly rate, like wage growth or inflation, but when you have prices increasing at double-digit rates and higher, something is messed up. Now it's time to pay the piper and people are very upset. Now they want help, but earlier they were living high on the hog. The market is working and prices are coming down. What else do you want?
6. Offer current owners some options: 1) look into refinancing 2) look into a "short sale" if you just can't afford the payments (some banks will do this to avoid walk-aways or foreclosures.) 3) ask a reasonably low price for you house, realizing you may take a loss (and there are people out there looking for bargains) and sell it - then rent or buy a smaller, less expensive property 4) cut other unneeded costs in case a lack-of-budgeting is getting in the way of making the payments 5) take a temporary second job in order to get thru the crisis...then reevaluate when appropriate or when refinancing can be arranged 6) walk-away or foreclose, knowing the reality of what that brings (ruined credit, possible legal action...) 7) declare bankruptcy (only as a last resort..also knowing the reality of what it brings (ruined credit, still being responsible for the house note, even if no longer responsible for other debt..)
7. when they tell me their stories of how they got a 100% loan and they bought at the top of the market and now they are going to get foreclosed on I tell them, "it could be worse, you could be losing your hair". Doesn't work well if the idiot is already bald.