Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Professor: Mortgage help unfair but needed

|
|
 
  
Published: Dec. 5, 2008 at 7:33 AM

SAN DIEGO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Some homeowners who make their mortgage payments on time say they are irritated that the U.S. government is helping others who don't.

Helping some homeowners but others may not be fair but is necessary to keep the U.S. economy from sinking further, CNNMoney.com reported Friday. As the number of delinquencies soars, home values decline, adversely affecting the economy.

"There's always the issue (of) 'I'm paying my mortgage even though I'm upside down and my neighbor is not,'" said Mark Goldman, a real estate professor at San Diego State University.

Letting delinquent mortgage borrowers slip into foreclosure harms the entire U.S. financial system, Goldman said.

"The appropriate public rationale (for the bailouts) is to support housing prices," he said. "The reason they're doing this is to stop plummeting prices and everyone benefits from that."

But just because it's appropriate doesn't mean taxpayers like it, CNN Money found.

"All these idiots who bought homes they couldn't really afford are going to be rewarded with loan modifications, but what about those of us who didn't make stupid decisions?" asked Jay Black, a CNNMoney.com reader who rents in New York.

Others wonder why help is available only to borrowers who are at least two or three payments behind.

"Why does a homeowner have to be behind in their mortgage to qualify?" asked Tamila Fiola of Fall River, Mass. "Why can't help be brought to those that are struggling to keep the note current? My sister in law pays over $5,000 a month for her mortgage; she struggles to make it but she does."

Topics: Mark Goldman
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 27
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego wins Finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee
View Caption
Snigdha Nandipati of San Diego, California watches confetti rain down as she wins the two-day Scripps National Spelling Bee championship, May 31, 2012, in National Harbor, Maryland. Nandipati successfully spelled the word .* guetapens *, meaning to lure or ambush. UPI/Mike Theiler
fark
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...
I'll see your zombie apocalypse, and raise you "swarms of deadly spiders" invading a town in India...