patrick.net

Camping "gets it". You get a cookie, Camping!

Indeed, by changing the policy to helping people get out of their homes it benefits buyers by freeing up inventory AND lowering prices (the more short sales out there, the further push downward on prices) AND the greater availability of lower priced rentals which is a double push downward on prices overall.

The purpose of government policies is to benefit some particular group. They tend to favor owners/sellers because they're a bigger group to pander to (social democracy: two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner) Perhaps they realize that since they can't stop prices going down and they can't "buy" votes that way, it's better to buy votes from the short sellers...

Hopey~Changey. Everyone enjoy the Hopey~Changey!

Paying people to leave their homes is really to increase inventory. Obama is squeezing every last drop out of the government support. You know it must be bad if even Obama wants to lock people into high debt before he withdraws government support. If everyone stays in their homes now, they will get foreclosed on when there is no government support, causing another crash then. This is all part of his exit strategy - to push everyone in before it collapses.

Obama has made it quite clear that his intent is to prop prices high since it's everyone's most expensive investment. You won't see anything from him helping buyers directly; only homeowners/sellers.