Reply #61: Well in reality [View All]

Homeowners pay many of the taxes that society and especially renters need. I was a renter until I was 38 and then me and my husband barely made it into the homeowners market buy buying in our means in a distressed neighborhood. Then we lived below our means for many years until yes-just now we bought our dream house-with 20 percent down and paying points to get the lowest interest rate possible.

I think it's a shame that many were suckered into believing they could afford houses that they would never be able to afford-regardless of the int erst rate. It was again a sham system-reminds me of wall street-buy this house now-sell it a profit in two years so it doesn't matter that I can't afford it THEN. Well that's a shitty reason to buy a house-it's hard to have empathy for that-how about buying a house because you want a home for many years? WHAT a concept. Well those folks we want to help.

But back to the taxes. FOR YEARS I loved being able to vote yes yes yes on all the tax measures that affected homeowners but not renters. For schools-for the library for fire and rescue, for anything you can imagine.

I was a renter-I didn't have to pay property taxes.

Well now I do and of course I still vote yes yes-because it's the right thing to do. The homeowners are the ones that pay for the basic services many times in any communities. Without homeowners paying taxes, everyone suffers. So renters benefit from those that have keep their homes.

Besides if you want a home, there are (were?) many programs to get first time buyers into homes. FHA is 3.5 percent down-without that program we wouldn't have been able to buy our first home. I'm thrilled prices have come down to more reasonable levels-making 20percent a year for doing nothing is insane. You get to own a home when you save money and really really want one. I didn't want one until AFTER I had a baby and throwing away our money to Ms. Greedy landlord for our shitty rental house was not as appealing as paying that money to ourselves and making it our first priority and SETTLING for a house in a neighborhood many would never live in. But it worked for us and I think everyone that wants to own a home should. And everyone that can really afford the house they have now if they just have a reasonable interest rate should get to keep theirs. It benefits everyone, even renters.