What we need to do is have a holiday for loan forgiveness counting as income, and set up a system whereby people who are in houses they cannot afford can surrender them to the lender, or sell them in satisfaction, and have a lesser ding on their credit, say three years.

Get people out of places they will never afford and allow them to start renting again with a housing payment they can afford.

I don't think this idea is as heinous as others but almost everyone is one illness away from doom and gloom.

I'm cool as long as nobody starts talking about anything resembling a real bail-out.

Not to worry - they also voted today to spend $15 million to buy property back from Paul Allen (what the City sold him!) to start work on his otherwise-unfunded $200+ million Mercer/Valley beautification project.

They (oops - we) can only afford to bail one property owner out at a time...

The responsible renters paying sales tax and property tax via their landlord won't mind because hey, otherwise housing demand would drop and they might be able to buy a place just like me.

AMIRITE?

And guess what -- other people pay for it!

I was responsible, realized the offers were too good to be true, and kept renting. How could I have been so stupid?

Seems kind of a double standard, and one that should start coming back on them, since renters are now the majority of the population in Seattle, and will only continue to be a larger and larger share of the electorate here. You'd think renters would start flexing their political muscles to get a more level playing field . . .