Should there be a Mortgage bail out? Clinton, Obama or McCain

I tend to say "No," which puts me in uncomfortable company with McCain even though I'm more Democratic leaning on most other issues.

Hurray for McCain for saying No on this one at least.

Among the top Democrats, it sounds like there is a big difference between Hillary Clinton's 30 billion dollar bailout and Obama's more reasonable 10 billion dollar proposal. Maybe there's some differentiation emerging between those two candidates with Obama looking better, here at least.
Continued below.

Dream of home ownership? Photo of house in Pierre, SD. I saw on my 1991 cross USA bike trip. This image the result of pushing "cartoon" in my old MGI PhotoSuite SE software.

One problem with bailout proposals is that society needs to encourage living with a low footprint on the environment. Homeowners often consume more space than renters. Often consume more resources as well.

My own situation is a case in point. I rent a small room that's adequate and comfortable enough. Handy to work. I've never owned a car. My job isn't "high end," but I work with good people. I have a nice boss. These are virtues that are often overlooked.

I would buy a condo, rather than renting, if there was something in the $40,000 range. Punching my honest income into a mortgage calculator brings up the $40,000 figure.

Well, there's probably nothing in this market that low. Or, I should look, maybe there is? Maybe there will be if prices fall far enough.

It seems like even condos in this area start in the $100,000 range. Maybe a little bit less using something like the Kulshan Community Land Trust system.

How many people can use Kulshan's system?

* One can learn more about their system, but that's a topic for another day.

Often rental units are smaller than units that people would own, especially houses and yards. So far, I haven't really needed much space.

Still, I often feel like I've missed the boat. Home ownership has been a big fad and everyone seems to have been jumping on the bandwagon.

This fad has caused real estate prices to spiral. People, like me, have felt left out.

In Seattle, one keeps reading news about renters being evicted as rental units convert to condominiums.

One bastion of affordable home ownership; mobile home courts, seem to be disappearing.

It's kind of a rat race.

I know of many folks that have been so bitten by the fad of home ownership that they do things, seemingly crazy to me.

They work more than one job, often putting in well over 50 hour weeks just to make those astronomically high payments on a house larger than they really need.

They commute long distances to hold this all together. Remember that phrase, "drive till you qualify?" That applied to folks living way out in "low price ville" and commuting to work.

Here in Bellingham, we have a different version of the "drive till you qualify" thing. Here it's, "live in Bellingham, but commute to Everett and north Seattle metropolitan area so you can afford an overpriced Bellingham home." Local jobs don't tend to pay that much.

So now it looks like some common sense is starting to come back to the real estate market.

Not struggling to live above your means doesn't look so bad. This might mean renting.

If the government bails out homeowners, I hope there's also money to help renters, in case we get into trouble in the next real estate boom. There should be some reward, or at least security, for not having a big footprint.

PS. Some people blame the mortgage crisis on spending for the Iraq War, rather than the excesses of ordinary people.

I've been listening to call-in radio shows where this comes up.

Well, I blame the mortgage crisis AND the Iraq War on excesses of ordinary people. I blame Iraq War on ordinary people, in part, at least.

"Buy, buy, buy, work, work, work, drive, drive, drive."

"Then worry, worry, worry if instability cuts off Persian Gulf oil." I remember people saying, "if Iraq invades Kuwait, or if Iraq falls into chaos, Saudi Arabia could be next." Gas at $12 per gallon?

Much of our involvement in the Persian Gulf is about security of world oil supplies to keep the economy going.