Culprit can’t be the cure

On the housing crisis (“Lawmakers combat housing crisis,” March 23, 2018):

It’s hard for me to see how the culprit can be the cure … i.e., the government.

There really is no free market. The housing market is payment-based, not value-based. A home’s value is the payment on a government loan a buyer can afford. The lower the interest rate, the more a home is worth.

And it’s pure socialism: Buyer A buys with a 95 percent mortgage with a payment of 35 percent of their income for $250,000. Economy cycles down and Buyer A loses home to foreclosure. Joe Flipper gets home for $120,000. Government eats deficiency of $130,000. Economy rebounds. Buyer B buys same home for $300,000 … and on it goes.

The home’s price is inflated because of easy 95 percent or 100 percent government-backed mortgages. Even second, third or fourth homes!

Worse yet, the culprit government also overpays or over-pensions our best homeowners in the public sector, further inflating housing costs. But if a teacher or peace officer goes private they’re suddenly worth half the pay. Imagine that!

Meanwhile the poor schmucks in the private sector need handouts to afford to keep up with the overpaid and overpensioned publicly paid.

Until we tether public pay to private sector pay and get rid of government-backed mortgages, the culprit government can never be the cure.

Mike Reno

Newman Lake