Jon Smirl

Housing: Did We Learn Nothing from the Dotcom Bust?

Another group that got hurt badly were people doing involuntary moves that put down a large down payment. Aren't about 7% of transactions involuntary due to relocation, divorce, etc? This group wasn't speculating and lost their down payments.

It's insane that the government is helping the nothing down crowd who were effectively renting. I know a builder who cleared $4M by renting out his spec homes, keeping the rent and not paying the mortgage, who ultimately lost them to foreclosure. Of course he knew he was going to lose them all along and fought in court for as long as he could.