Home Ownership is Not Part of the Bill of Rights

Sept. 16, 2009 - PRLog -- We recently reviewed the United States Constitution, the original Bill of Rights, and all subsequent amendments to that fine document and were somewhat surprised to discover that nowhere is the right to own a home in the good old U.S. of A. guaranteed.

You read that right. As an American citizen, you are not entitled to own a home in any shape, matter, or form. Hmm…this little tidbit of information is apparently downright disturbing to a segment of the populace, especially those who like to label themselves progressives. "Of course, we're entitled to home ownership," they say. "We're entitled because we want it. The very nature of our want means that it should not be denied to us no matter the wretched state of our personal credit history, overwhelming debt, insufficient income, and/or unstable work history"

Sorry, Charlie. Home ownership is not a constitutional right and not everyone can afford the American Dream.

You can expect the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness to you might include a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch style in the suburbs with attached two car garage. That's fine. Sounds good to us too. But you've got to expect to prove that you deserve that house. Prove you're responsible enough to make each and every payment on time, every time.

Somewhere along the way, the lending industry lost touch with the idea of reviewing a loan applicant's credit worthiness, capacity to repay, and collateral. Under the thumb of the government drivel "our diversity is our greatest strength", we get what we have now. A flood of unqualified home owners, which drove home prices ever higher until the bubble burst and now their credit is destroyed for years to come, perhaps forever, and that ultra nice American Dream Home is now worth less than what they owe on it.

Yikes. Thanks Uncle Sam.

For too long, federal bureaucracies have been pressured by both Democrat and Republican politicians alike to promote minority home ownership at the expense of common sense. In the aftermath of the housing meltdown, we have the debris of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac strewn to the four corners. We have major players in the banking and insurance industry like Lehman Brothers and AIG turned into Welfare Queens living only on the generosity of a government bailout.

Would the founding fathers have approved? Would they have thought any of this was a good idea? We're guessing not. And where does this insidious entitlement attitude come from anyway? It's not genetic human nature because there are too many practitioners of rugged individualism out there, men and women who would rather have their toes gnawed by rabid weasels than accept a handout. Ultimately, a handout is an I.O.U. Even worse, maybe it's like crack to the unwitting recipient. Get it once and you can never go back. That miniscule monthly payment is worth signing over your dignity and integrity. You're addicted. You've gotta have it and will vote for whichever political party promises the most of it.

The entitlement mentality is learned behavior and boy have we got a lot of good students wandering around society these days. The more troublesome aspect of this grand scheme is that with every passing year we have fewer and fewer working taxpayers footing the bill for a burgeoning unproductive class. It used to be that there were dozens of workers for each non-worker (disabled or welfare recipient), but now you have a single worker paying taxes to support payments going to keep three people on the government benefit string.

Maybe you've seen the slogan on the t-shirt: "Work harder! Millions on welfare are depending on you!" Funny. Sad. True. You've got to wonder how long the workers are going to keep their noses to the grindstone in order to pay for others taking it easy. There must be a breaking point somewhere. Are we getting close to finding it? President Obama seems determined to do his part to antagonize every productive American who pays their way through life and accepts responsibility for their own finances.

We were shooting for diversity in home ownership and now we've got diversity in foreclosures. Rather than being forced to wait until their financial life made sense to give them a home loan, we've got an entire class of people who gleefully signed on the dotted line with nary a thought to the reality of a monthly mortgage payment. Umm, did the loan officer explain to you that the payment is due every month? Not just the first one. Did he remind you that mortgage payments are not optional once you buy the house, or else the whole concept of "buying" becomes seriously undermined? Didn't mention that?

But it's not all doom and gloom. If you manage to stay current on your payment, even if your mortgage is upside down, you still have a way out. You'll eventually have equity in the house and with equity you can create amazing wealth through income property investments following the unique strategy found at http://www.JasonHartman.com.  

Here's what you need to do. Don't miss a payment, no matter what. Modify your loan if you can. Meanwhile, make good use of your time by studying our Complete Solution for Real Estate Investors. We charge nada for this world class real estate education. Visit the website above and we'll prove it to you.

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