Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure Aid (from Obama)

[Pepper]

Bloomberg:

 

Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure Aid

 

The Obama administration will extend mortgage assistance for the first time to investors who bought multiple homes before the market imploded, helping some speculators who drove up prices and inflated the housing bubble.

 

“This is a huge change,” said Dan Immergluck, a housing policy professor at Georgia Institute of Technology. “The excessive concern to make sure nobody who played any role in creating the problem gets any benefit has paralyzed the response.”

 

‘Ridiculous’ Policy

 

John Burns, an Irvine, California-based real estate consultant, said it’s “ridiculous” for taxpayers to come to the aid of individuals who made bad bets.

 

“What kind of precedent are you going to set?,” Burns said. “Are you going to refund people who lost money on the stock market too?”