In one of the escalating protests between the "Occupy ... " whatever movement and government authority, I noticed one Occupier carrying a sign that said, "I will never own my own house."
Well, certainly not with that attitude!
I once felt that way, too. I remember thinking, "I'll never save enough money for an acceptable down-payment on a house." because common thinking was that you had to have 20 percent down to buy a house! Crazy, huh?
Anyway, I lucked into my first house because the people who owned it wanted to move out and allowed me to simply take over their note. Because the loan was privately held, it didn't require any money down. I think I assumed a note for something like $34,000.
I wonder if this Occupier would even consider buying a first house for $34,000?
Here's the thing, though. As I think back, I realize I've "owned" five houses, and yet not really ever owned one.
Because while my name was on the loan and I was responsible for the property, the truth is my houses have always been owned by whoever held the note - an individual, then any number of banks or mortgage companies.
Still, if I could buy a house based on what I was making working as a newspaper reporter, almost anyone with a regular job can afford a house - if they aren't trying to buy the Biltmore Estate.
Or a modest duplex in the suburbs.
Still, the underlying complaint from this Occupier was apparently the idea that was promulgated in the 1990s that it was the right of every human being - much less every American - to own their own home.
So pressure was put on banks and lenders to lend money willy-nilly (I've always wanted to use that phrase), regardless of whether people could really afford what they were buying or not. Hundreds of years of best practices when it comes to lending money were thrown out the door and suddenly lenders went out of their way to make sure people could get loans - even up to 125% of the value of what they were buying!
From worrying about saving to come up with enough money to put 10 or 20 percent down to suddenly being able to buy a house with nothing down to not just no money down but all other costs being built into the life of the loan -- it was incredible! And I should know, because I did it too.
So is there any wonder that the housing market bubbled and eventually burst? Plenty of us bought houses we really couldn't afford in the hope that somewhere in the next five years, before our interest only payments ballooned into some ridiculous interest rate that actually included paying principal.
But of course it was the fault of the banks and those evil mortgage lenders who duped us into borrowing more money than we could ever hope to pay back.
Isn't life great? There are no more "mistakes;" everything good is mine by entitlement while everything bad is somebody else's fault!
Here's the thing that really scares me, though.
With so many of those mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-backed mortgage companies, it means that the government actually holds the notes on many of our houses - and in many cases, the other loans are backed by the government as well.
One of the great historical attractions of the New World was the idea of owning land and property. Owning your own home was part of the American dream. And citizens owned the majority of the country - that is why we called it "private property" - making the government beholden to the citizenry.
Now, the government owns our houses and we the people end up paying the government for our shelter and land, which threatens to turn the system on its head. Instead of government being subservient to the citizens, we citizens are subservient to the government, which has the power to call our 'note' and take over our very homes!
That's scary - particularly when you include the new threat of "eminent domain" and the Supreme Court's 2005 ruling (Kelo v. New London) that essentially made it legal for local government to take away private property and turn it over to a private developer simply because that developer claimed he would generate more jobs and tax revenue. It's a battle that continues in many states across the nation.
For many the whole plan behind refinancing mortgages to save people's homes was to extend the life of the loan to up to 45 and 50 years. Does anybody expect to live in a house for 45 or 50 years anymore? Essentially, that means we're just renting from the government.
So the truth is, just like the above mentioned Occupier, I don't think I'll ever own my own home, either.
That's OK. Unlike the Occupier, I won't stop trying.
And if it doesn't happen, well, what the heck - I can always rent.
Or I guess I could even live in tent in a privately owned public park in the middle of New York City.
But why would I want to?
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