Renters are Angry! Believe Government Bailout is Unfair

A new website called Angryrenter.com is exploding. In a good way, I mean (at least as far as website traffic goes). A certain population of renters (read, potential homeowners who have been living below their means, putting away money for a down payment who avoided jumping into a subprime loan or other type mortgage loan that could have put them into the house of their dreams without a large downpayment or other piece of the pie that would normally get them a decent monthly payment), is pissed.

Why? Well, to be honest here (I must admit I am a renter who has been putting away money to buy a first home for a while now), because they didn’t put themselves into a risky mortgage because they decided to take the responsible route and do it ‘the right way,’ i.e., have at least 10 or 20 percent down and sign up for a 30-year fixed mortgage or ’safer’ mortgage than an adjustable rate mortgage.

What it comes down to is this: after saving money for a home, and doing everything the ‘right’ way, whatever that may be, these renters feel that they are being penalized by the government if the government bails out those companies and borrowers who did not follow responsible lending and borrowing practices. And I agree. To a point, anyway.

According to AngryRenter.com, the government should ‘Let the free market sort it out!’ Which, really, does make sense.

On a personal level, I agree. I don’t want to use my taxes to help those competitors (because as a homebuyer, that is what they are to me) pay for their irresponsible borrowing. I have continually put away money each month to be able to put down 20% on a modest home. Why should someone who did not build up their credit as much as I have, or did not save as much as I have, be able to make a bad decision and then have me pay for it? It doesn’t make sense. A government bailout will tell me, loud and clear, that I should have been irresponsible and let someone else pick up the tab. Right?

A couple of good sites to read up on if you want to best understand the housing market include:

http://patrick.net/housing/crash.html
http://www.nationalbubble.com
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/index.html
http://www.housingbubblebust.com/

Personally, as a potential homeowner, I don’t want bailouts. But I also understand that there may be consequences around not bailing out homeowners who got in over their heads, consequences that could hurt my future home purchase more than the bailout. I know that rampant foreclosures will bring losses to banks and lenders that will force them to make the money back in other ways–ways that will likely affect what I pay to borrow money. It’s a tough dilemma all around–and I guess I just want to know that doing the right thing pays off. I hope, anyway, that it does.