First-time buyers see dreams fade: Easy mortgages, overvalued homes leading many into foreclosure

Indianapolis Star ^ | January 29, 2004 | Chris O'Malley

[sarcasm]

Rock-bottom interest rates and low-down-payment mortgages have allowed more first-time homebuyers to fulfill the American dream in recent years, but some say the dream has turned to nightmare.

A number of inexperienced buyers now face foreclosure, complaining they didn't realize the high cost of homeownership -- everything from adjustable rate mortgages to hidden taxes to construction defects.

[bvw]

The once common phrase in real estate "boom and bust" is forgotten by nearly all today's participants.

[bvw]

There is a consensus that "owning" one's home is preferred to renting. Historically our rate of home "ownership" is very high -- THAT is your historic anomaly.

Is it good or bad?

Well, is it *really* ownership? In some states a mortgaged properrty is not quite really owned. Further police-state-like homeowner's associations and restrictive deed convenants of all sorts reduce the quality of "ownership".

Socially, it may be important for a good number of people to rent -- for the oversight a renter gets serves to tame the wild ... that is the mighty and constant struggle between landlord and tenant, maybe its a good thing, maybe it force the well-ordered to tame the beasts. Maybe not.

Anyway we are in new social territory, given the never before known percentage of home ownership.

[petercooper]

"From 1998 to 2001, rental prices rose more rapidly than the overall rate of inflation, but not nearly as fast as home prices. If higher home prices are the result of a real shortage of housing, then rental prices should continue to rise to catch up with homes prices. That isn't happening. Rental prices are barely moving as record vacancy rates nationwide force landlords to hold the line on rents. In bubble areas, such as Seattle and San Francisco, rents are falling."

[bvw]

amazing