Home Bulldozer: Pro or Con?

If Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure: Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Banks make a catchy hed and deck, why not Frustrated Taxpayer Flies Plane Into IRS Building Ahead Of Tax Day: Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Capitalists, Insurance Companies, CPAs?

Terry Hoskins, the Ohio man who destroyed his own home in a squalid fight among himself, his brother, and the bank to which he owed money on the the house and two other properties, is getting a full American Homeowner treatment in the media. Here's a sympathetic clip from local news station WLWT:

 

But Hoskins is in no way representative of the "out-of-work homeowners" who in President Obama's words just need "help [to] find a way to pay their mortgages that works for both the borrowers and the lenders alike." He was well above water on the $350,000 home. He claims never to have missed a payment on the house: RiverHills Bank is foreclosing because somebody, presumably brain-sucking space aliens, used the house as collateral for loans on some commercial properties Hoskins bought. And Hoskins' defaults on his payments have little to do with the post-2006 real estate deflation. They spring from a 10-year legal battle that involved RiverHills Bank, the IRS, and Hoskins' brother, a former business partner.

So I'm inclined to agree with WLWT commenter madcastler, who writes, "[D]on't loan Hoskins any money. He will stiff you, destroy the collateral, and then go on the evening news and act like he's a hometown hero for not surrendering the collateral to you as he promised. Of course, in reality, he is an immoral person who has just raised the cost of doing business for other entrepreneurs. I'm just warning you in case you actually believe in this guy."

On the other hand, there is something to be said these days for just fucking shit up, and the destruction of housing stock will probably do more to get the real estate market back on its feet than Obama's decision to slather another $1.5 billion on housing finance agencies in California, Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan (on top of the $75 billion already flushed down the HAMP). The interesting thing will be how much damage the bank can claim: Housing materials depreciate quickly, but it looks like it was a pretty nice house.

Actually, here's something more interesting to know: Where is that $1.5 billion coming from? Was it raised in a Treasury bill float? Was $1.5 billion eliminated from some other part of the budget?

Ah, who cares? It's time for Killdozer, the movie that guarantees quality right in the title: