Yeah right, the housing crash is long over in Seattle. Prices are back above pre crash levels. A city that is 70% single family homes, you're going to find a mayor running on a "I"m gonna lower your property values" platform and win? You have the Mumbling Mumbaian Sawant for that.

This isn't Phoenix Cuntalina, anyone in Seattle about to be foreclosed on SHOULD be foreclosed on. The housing crash is over.

"they will "all but halt" lending. Good riddance. "

What, you're pro-redlining now?

the city makes a profit, since cities are so good at evaluating real estate risks. just look at government success with:

Pac med lease.
pacific place garage.
the MOHAI appraised value deal.
the deal with Hansen in which he's buying little crappy lots for a few million then we sign a deal with him to buy it for $100 million.

there will be no mistakes. oh, and since this will stabilize neighborhoods it's all upside right, there's no like....cost to this program is there?

oh wait. eminent domain requires paying the owner. the fair market value. tell me, how is the city of seattle going to finance paying the fair market value of an underwater home? the mortgage could be $400K and the value could be say, $325K. Does Seattle just print the money, doesn't it have to like tax someone or borrow money based on future tax revenue streams? oh wait, no problem right it just borrows the dough. and it can handle everyone with fairness, right, this won't turn into some arbitrary lottery of rewards to the lucky few, right? and of course our debt limits are limitless.

yes, all sarcastic. look if you want a city to help the economy, fix the damn roads, and bridges, then employ real people to rake the leaves, we have about 1,000 pieces of city land that look like crap, we have buildings to insulate, after that hire some freaking crossing guards at $15 an hour to create real jobs, where we need stoplights but don't have them, and if you really care about working people have the city pay no wage less than $16 an hour. pushing some ill advised eminent domain program that mainly benefits the BANKS holding the mortgages since they are the ones getting paid without even a hint of finance analysis is totally irresponsible. the city isn't even doing its normal job which would include getting busses to make their trips faster without cutting them back, building train system, caring for what we have and ensuring social justice in the direct city programs and employment. how many hundreds of millions would payment subsidies be to keep underwater homeowners in their homes? how would we verify their income? in nyc the rent control program is a total fraud, many on rent control are living in Westchester in million dollar homes while they keep that flat in Greenwich village under rent control at a rent set forty years ago and use it as a crash pad for weekend fun. you just can't administer programs of this complexity efficiently, you end up creating unjustified windfalls and fraud. obviously FIRST you fix what we have GOT already that's in decline. like our bridges.

200,000,000 dollars had to be shared with county because city is near debt limits. for Hansen. let's say the city could borrow 200,000,000 for this eminent domain program. say each house is worth ....200,000. this means we can only afford to buy how many homes?

that's right, one thousand. this is not going to make any difference and you'd have to more or less hand out this windfall like a lottery. it will not change neighborhoods, when there's what, 250,000 homes in seattle. and when the normal foreclosure process means that the home still exists....it changes owners...the new owner benefits getting a reduced price in a short sale.....and life goes on. we are not Detroit, have you noticed? also there's a story today that real estate is going GREAT in seattle right now so it's smart for the banks to just wait out some people as home values are rising. eventually they may rise enough to pay the mortgage in full. so what if 1,000 homeowners lose out and become renters, why is this a tragedy justifying the city sopping up all remaining debt capacity ? lots of people rent and didn't make the error of signing off on more than they could afford. i'd rather see the city borrow $200M to fix the god damned bridges and roads and build some effective transit, this helps everyone. everyone!
and we know it works, that's why we built the bridges and roads in the first place. but no we love these feel good programs that do little in reality, but make us feel good. also my math was deliberately generous it's more like the value of each home will be $300K or $400K so maybe it's just 500 lucky lottery winners. anyone suggesting this should at least do the rudimentary math, right?

@9 totally idiotic. they foreclose on any property if this gets more money. if a borrower isn't paying at all, they will foreclose even if a property is underwater to get the first $200K fo their mortgage at least if not the last $200K. they can't afford to keep unperforming properties on their books. to think they only foreclose when properties are above the mortgage amount is silly. also, there's few legal fees in this deed of trust state. they manage the foreclosure process based on many variables including the ongoing cost of a nonperforming loan, what they get on a sale, and things like how their debt to capital ratios are standing at the moment. and yes as a person foreclosed on following grave illness, I speak from experience.

"Heart says yes; mind says no"

Who says the loony left is pro-facts?