New face of public housing

[Jay]

Originally Posted by c1ue

The consequences of this program are not to be understated.

1) I guarantee Fannie Mae won't be taking as good care of these houses as the occupant previous owners. You can probably visibly measure the deterioration as lack of maintenance and lack of 'give a crap' take its toll over time.

2) Given this deterioration as well as anger over paying for the same house twice (lower price or not), the percentage of those buying back the same house at a lower price is probably going to be very low. Because not only the above 2 reasons, but also because it is unlikely the prices offered by Fannie will be competitive with those houses being offered by people who actually need/want to sell.

3) The over-representation of foreclosures in certain states will lead to some interesting battles: Will Fannie fight for lowered property taxes on all its homes? Will Fannie pay fire insurance for all these properties? Will Fannie directly or hire out management of these new rentals? Will Fannie push for Section 8 preferential treatment given both are now part of the government?

The list goes on and on.

Fannie is going to do what any government institution does, it will be ten steps too slow, inefficient and unresponsive, and blow a lot of money. In the meantime, the tenants lose status in the new US caste system.