Comment by rufus_foreman
6 days ago
Whether a house is worth $400k or $300k is, sometimes, a choice the government makes.
It isn't always, but sometimes it is. Through regulations, through monetary policy, through other policies.
Now if the government decides that you, you personally, standardUser, are going to lose $100k, I don't think the government should bail you out. It's called "moral hazard". You lost $100k. Deal with it.
If the government decides that I, me personally, am going to lost $100k, I would say that I am old and I vote in every single election, and despite my failing memory, I will remember that lost $100k until the day I die and no politician who voted for that will ever get my vote again. I will remember who did that to me.
> It isn't always, but sometimes it is.
I think it always is, frankly. The price of pretty much every single house in the US[0] is a function of decades of government housing policy. And I don't think it's particularly fair to say, "oopsie, our housing policy since before you were born was kinda bad, we're going to fix it right now, but it's going to put you underwater on your mortgage... sorry, but you'll have to just deal with it".
[0] Sure, maybe this isn't the case for an off-the-grid cabin out in the woods, far from any town, but that describes a teeny tiny portion of the housing stock.