KUOW crunched rent data by Seattle neighborhood and confirmed what most of us knew: if you want to pay less for rent, you’ll spend more time in traffic – look to North Seattle, Rainier Valley or West Seattle.
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Some solutions for low-income homeowners?
The housing recovery is uneven at best – while in strong markets, home values have rebounded, many low-income homeowners have seen home prices in their neighborhoods continue to decline. Perhaps in response to the recent SCOTUS ruling that prevents second mortgages from being discharged in bankruptcy, Elyse Cherry of Boston Community Capital proposes three ways to help low-income homeowners:
- Reduce mortgage principal for struggling homeowners
- In designated “underwater neighborhoods:”
- Provide a tax credit equal to the cost of repairs to help LI homeowners keep the home sellable, and
- Write off the difference between the sales price of the home and what is owed.
- Help troubled low-income homeowners repair their credit fast.
Cherry suggests these measures could be paid for by the proceeds from the settlements with banks.
They’re creative solutions to a massive problem. Read more here.
SCOTUS: Go ahead banks, take from the poor and give to the rich.
Got a second mortgage you can’t pay? It’s yours forever.The US Supreme Court today ruled that many second mortgages can’t be discharged in bankruptcy, regardless of how little the home they were borrowed against is worth. This means that while the banks that made the loans will get their principal plus (often high) interest, while many low-income homeowners are, well, screwed.
I remember meeting a programmer who, during the boom, took out a hefty second mortgage on his McMansion, used the funds to buy a luxury speedboat and (very) large-screen TV, among other things, then declared bankruptcy and discharged all that debt. It infuriated me (and not just because he voted Republican). After hearing about this SCOTUS ruling, I got curious – what did most borrowers spend the proceeds from their second mortgages on? Were most responsible or, like this McMansion borrower, using the money to buy toys? I haven’t been able to find data on this (yet), but it would make a fascinating study.
Seattle: segregated, just like everywhere else.
Seattle may not be as old as many cities in the US, but we still suffer from racial and income segregation. Anyone who’s traveled through our more wealthy neighborhoods knows that our affluent, especially segregate themselves.
The Atlantic has a great piece on the segregation of affluence in American cities. Read more here.
housingwonk 