Second foreclosure crisis?- cleveland.com: "Banks and mortgage companies are so eager to dump a glut of abandoned foreclosure houses in the Cleveland area that they sold nearly 1,000 last year for pennies on the dollar. The often rundown houses most often went to out-of-state investment companies, which buy in bulk, sight unseen, then sell in “as is” condition to people with bad credit or landlords. Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli and others predict that some buyers will flee as repair bills mount, triggering more foreclosures. “They're taking the worst houses and putting people in them who have no ability to pay,” said Brancatelli, who represents the Slavic Village area. “I have people call me and say, 'I bought this house, and I can't afford the roof. Who's going to help me?' ”"

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How about, "Yourself, pal."

Isn't there any point where we are allowed to point out that people shouldn't buy houses they can't afford? That includes both the relatively affluent people who bought more house than they could possibly afford using jumbo mortgages, and the low-income people who took out a vicious ARM, or, as in this article, bought a junkheap that they couldn't afford to make habitable. I mean, are we just going to continue with this Clintonian braying about the evil real estate industry that somehow forced these people to take obviously horrendous financial risks? It is not a public or governmental responsibility to bail out people who make a bad deal with their eyes wide open, and if these losses get socialized it will just encourage more reckless speculation when the real estate market gets hot again, which it will. If they make a profit, they get to keep it. If they take big losses, we all pay them off? Baloney.