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Seattle gives away free money....

SunTzuSunTzu
edited January 2008 in Seattle Real Estate
It was in the news last night on King5

Mayor Nickels has started a pilot program of providing interest free loans in the amount of $5,000 to 40 home owners in forclosure. The loan is due back when the owners sell their houses.....

Don't you just love it when your tax dollars are used to support the local RE market ?? Welcome to People's Republic of Seattle.....

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/642 ... loans.html

Comments

  • laxtosnocolaxtosnoco
    This type of program doesn't bother me much, but I don't think it will make much of an impact (40 homes is a drop in the bucket).

    Foreclosures and vacant houses can certainly damage neighborhoods. If the City focused these loans on high-crime areas then it might actually be more cost effective than providing for police/fire/code enforcement.
  • carlislematthewcarlislematthew
    I couldn't believe it when I saw that news article. Hopefully, they're being a tiny bit sensible and only giving money to those people that ARE selling, have a lot of equity, and just have a job loss or some other issue like that. i.e. people where we can get the money back.

    My idea for saving the housing market and the economy is much better:

    Give everyone $100,000 and reduce all local taxes to 0%. This will help everyone afford all those houses out there, and at the same time spur new growth. We don't have to worry about the loss in tax revenues because we'll GROW our way out of the hole we're digging. (Bush taught me that one).

    Could it work?
  • mike2mike2
    laxtosnoco wrote:
    This type of program doesn't bother me much, but I don't think it will make much of an impact (40 homes is a drop in the bucket).

    Foreclosures and vacant houses can certainly damage neighborhoods. If the City focused these loans on high-crime areas then it might actually be more cost effective than providing for police/fire/code enforcement.

    I agree. It's more the principle of the program I disagree with. Creates a moral hazard, which in the long run only fosters the kind of behavior that caused the need for the incentive.

    Like taxing people that drink espresso to pay for people that don't use birth control, there's a strong implication that dumb decisions will be made smart retroactively, so why worry?
  • UbersaladUbersalad
    what the hell is $5000 bucks going to do in the city with medium house price more than $400k.

    this might work in Detroit or something.
  • mike2mike2
    Ubersalad wrote:
    what the hell is $5000 bucks going to do in the city with medium house price more than $400k.

    this might work in Detroit or something.

    You can put together a pretty sweet home theater for $5K.
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