Mortgages

During the mortgage crisis of 2008 the government used $800 billion to bail out the big banks. Many felt it would have been better to pay the home owners what was needed to save their home. A total of 861,664 families lost their homes to foreclosure last year, according to RealtyTrac, which released its year-end report Thursday. There were more than 3.1 million foreclosure filings issued during 2008, The median price for a home sold during 2008 fell by $20,000. If the government had given these home owners the $20,000 they could have saved the house from foreclosure. This would have cost the government $600 billion instead of $800 billion. The interesting part is what happened after the crisis was over. Prior to 2010 big business did not invest in residential real estate. Home ownership was the American dream and that dream was transferred from the middle income people to the corporations because big business bought the houses that went into foreclosure at bargain prices. They then set up a separate division to rent out these houses. Now they owned the American dream because they not only got the rent but they got the appreciation along with it.