I consider myself to be a responsible home owner and borrower.  I obtained a mortagage at a decent rate and put a decent amount down on my home.    I did what many others did and responsibly borrowed money to buy my home and hoped to earn equity in it over time.

Now with the subprime mortgage mess having blown up by people going bankrupt and walking away from their homes, property values have gone into the toilet!  Many of us that were responsible in borrowing money to buy a home are screwed by being stuck in homes we cannot sell and are no longer worth what we currently owe on them!     In our neighborhood, homes that once sold for over $240k now are lucky to get even $130k and that’s if they can get sold at all.  This leaves many of us, who were responsible, upside down in our homes and stuck.

The government seeks to assist those who were not responsible and bail out those banks that made the bad loans in the first place but I say “What about us!?”  What about those of us who didn’t make bad choices earlier on and now owe more on our homes that they are able to sell for.   The government has instituted the ability for bankruptcy judges to have a mortage renegotiated to its current value and a mortage that the previous subprime home owner can now handle.  What about those of us home owners who do not want to go through bankruptcy to get our mortgages lowered?   Why do we have to hit rock bottom before we can get our fair shake in all of this?

My take on this?  The government is already bailing out banks and borrowers for these bad mortgages. From all intensive purposes, the bailout does not appear to be extending this to the rest of the tax payers who DID NOT screw up and make bad choices, who are VICTIMS of the banks and subprime borrowers irresponsibility.  As a taxpayer, affected by this gross irresponsibility, we should be able to expect the same capabilities to do at least one of the following:

First option, if you need to sell your home, be able to do so at the current market value and have the bank receive a bailout for their loss in the sale.  The borrower would walk away with no equity but will also not owe anything on the home afterward either.  I do not see how this is any different than a judge lowering the mortage value and forcing the mortgage company to remake the loan based on the new amount.

Second, if you wish to stay in your home, mortgage companies should have the ability to work with you to refinance the home at it’s current market value and get their difference from the bailout.  Again, I do not see this as being any different from a judge ordering a bank to make a new mortgage to keep someone in their home.  The difference here is, it gives us, the home owners the ability to be proactive and not allow our credit histories to become trashed.

I cannot speak for anyone else, but I strongly believe our government is forgetting about the portion of the population that still pays taxes and tries to live a responsible life.  To ignore their needs, which were created by the irresponsible banks and borrowers, is a crime in my book and it should not go unrecognized or unpunished.

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