Dollars and Sense......

I met a friend for lunch at The Milwaukee Art Museum last week. It was a good visit. We hadn't seen each other in months so there was a lot to catch up on and the lovely MAM lunch room overlooking Lake Michigan was a nice setting. Our conversation continued as we visited the main exhibit and the visit ended with a hug and a promise not to let so much time go by before getting together again.

Then, on the drive home, I was listening to the news on NPR and there was a story about Puerto Rico and the agonizingly slow recovery for the island after hurricane Irma roared through. It seems that banks and morgtage companies had given home owners a three-month moratorium on payments and the grace period is coming to an end....so mortgage payments will have to be made.

In spite of the fact that many, if not most, of the homes in question are still uninhabitable. The owners jobs are gone and many had moved to the mainland to try to find work until they can go home to their beloved island, pick up the pieces, and begin again.  I began to picture home after home sitting empty....some needing major repair. Home after home going into foreclosure. Home after home continuing to sit empty and fall into more disrepair. And family after family losing not only their home, but their dreams for a prosperous future. And banks owning more and more homes that no one wants to buy.....so communities in PR becoming "shells" with few residents remaining.

And I began to wonder......how does this make sense? Dave and I have owned ten homes and so we are very familiar with mortgage payments. I sold residential real estate in New Jersey to put the kids through college so am even more familiar with mortgage payment obligations and how to explain the process to new homeowners. I do get it. And certainly if you are asking a mortgage company or a bank to "bet" on you by loaning you several hundred thousand dollars in order to buy a house, it is your responsibility to make the payments.

But still......in this instance.....it just seems to me that Irma's wrath should guarantee a longer "grace" period. There should be some flexibility because of the almost insurmountable obstacles still facing the US Citizens who call Puerto Rico home.

It is really going to make sense to see so many foreclosures and so many banks holding so many properties and perhaps eventually selling them for pennies on the dollar. Would it make more sense to take each individual case and negotiate some kind of payment plan......or make a decision that the house is beyond fix-able and the loan should just be forgiven.

I don't know......it doesn't really make sense to me....but maybe it makes cents to the companies holding the loans.

I keep remembering an old TV commercial.....and I don't remember the product....but a voice made a simple comment something like "It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature!" Mother Nature messed with Puerto Rico.......and somehow, to me, requiring homeowners to start making mortage payments again is like rubbing salt into an open wound. Maybe it makes cents......but it doesn't make sense.