I’m not really big on infusing money into government, but this is honestly the worst possible way to manage this mess. I’m sure the story is that what the government’s actually selling is contracts to manage the homes, and not actually selling the properties.
Personally, I think every single city and county and state should be demanding that these homes go up for public auction, with auctions held at each home. There’s a load of considerations - these properties should be revalued to current market prices, they should be available to the housing market, and local governments shouldn’t be denied the opportunity to collect sales and property taxes on the properties.
But for all I know, the real deal is to sell contracts to rent the properties out, and the federal government is paying the property taxes based upon the old and outdated property values and cities and counties don’t want to disturb the cart that is funneling federal dollars into their pockets.
It’d be interesting to find out some of these details. I’m sure there’s a newspaper working on it right..about...never.
HUD used to sell these homes directly to the public, at a discount, listed through a local contracted realtor. First they went to families/Individuals, and you had to live in it as your primary home for at least two years.
If they didn’t sell within 4-6 weeks of being listed that way, they were made available to investors, with the price falling each week until the unit sold.
If that didn’t work, auctions were used to dispose of the rest.
They also had the VERY effective Officers/Teachers Program, allowing them to buy homes within certain “Distressed” zip codes, for 1/2 of the listed price,provided it was thier primary home for 5 years, a VERY GREAT DEAL, putting these people in to the neighborhoods they worked in.
Unfortunately, this program was corrupted by Baltimore, DC, and Philly cops, who would buy the homes, then RENT THEM or sell them to a straw buyer, pocketing the mortgage, knowing the contracted local inspectors could be bought off.
What’s going to happen here is the typical DC two-step, with money going DIRECTLY in to Democrat Coffers, through corruption, and straw buyers like ACORN housing.
The RFI is pretty clear—they’re talking about disposition (that is, the sale) of the properties. Here’s the first paragraph:
“The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), in consultation with the U.S. Department of the
Treasury and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is issuing this Request
for Information (RFI) to solicit ideas for sales, joint ventures, or other strategies to augment and enhance Real Estate-Owned (REO) asset disposition programs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The agencies are exploring alternatives that will facilitate the current and future disposition of REO, improve loss recoveries compared to individual retail REO sales, help stabilize neighborhoods and local home values, and where feasible and appropriate, improve the supply of rental housing.”