[amenmesse]

Originally Posted by David Merrill

That is a good point. I am trying to understand it. "...the people at the state level..." I am presuming to mean taxpayers. Cutting weeds and replacing a roof etc. to prevent an empty home from decaying to the point where they have to bulldoze it - yet another taxpayer expense.

I think if you look at it that way it will make more sense. Mostly as I understand it, the bank will have the sheriff kick the people out - whether anybody comes in to live, rent or buy the house or not.

A spectacular treatise on banking practices was written about 1840 by George Lippard New York - The Upper Ten and the Lower Million.


Regards,

David Merrill.

You understand it as I meant it. We have a class of people paying interest only mortgages that I equate with peonage. Its like paying rental for an apartment but paying the taxes and doing maintenance. If the successors foreclose and can't sell the property because we have a glut of homes on the market it may be they ask the homeowner to stay, pay a small rental/interest fee, plus the taxes plus maintenance of the property, taking us back towards peonage. If the bank can resell the house because its more profitable then the sheriff will evict. I participated in an eviction once.

As to Lippard I had to do some searching but found the book thank you. Interestingly the author is buried not far from me. In a neighborhood where my parents would on occasion take us to visit their friends. Small world. But my reading on Lippard says his work was fiction and taken as fact. Any truth to this claim?

And thanks Moishanb, nice links.