Comment by gridmaths | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gridmaths | Hacker News Reader

I zoomed in on google map, was hoping for streetview [ in which I fantasized seeing Jack Reacher walk past for some reason ]

From the OP, I assumed this would be literally 100 miles from the nearest drugstore/711.. but its bang in the urban grid of a small town.

Shouldn't some of the bailout money be towards loans for people to do up cheap homes like this? It would seem a good investment for the future at low cost to enable more people to pick up these low end deals. Are the banks now so stupid they cant get people into homes and paying interest.. instead of this foreclosure fire-sale nonsense ?

Assuming this place can get internet installed, it would make some family a great home which they could gradually renovate, after which they would look after the place and contribute to the town.

Such bailouts and programs for average Joe don't really work. When real estate price is in decline, housing becomes in time more affordable. In this conditions you may actually get a chance to buy a house without a loan. It's a natural evolution. Now suppose the government steps in, throwing easy money - what do you think will happen next? I don't live in USA, I live in Romania, EU. Here the real estate prices jumped threefold after the government started „the first home” (literal translation) - a program that wanted to support young families in getting a home. I don't say there weren't any benefits for involved parties - the program actually spurred a lot of construction around, the banks made a lot of profits, and some young selected couples had in the end the privilege to be supported in buying overpriced living places. For everyone else (most of us) the entire thing made the housing more expensive. I don't want to see such things happen again.

Plenty of CDBG money has gone into Jamestown. Mostly in different parts of town. At its peak the city was 50k people. Now more like <30k. That house is shot. If you go west a bit you can find the worst off housing in the city (right next to a park oddly enough). That part of the north side of town also has really nice old houses east of the cemetery.

Imagine manhattan before Central Park.

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