Affordable Housing Is Not a Crime

Now that you've wiped away yesterday's tears and begun to accept that sales of overpriced U.S. real estate have again slumped, Mike Riggs says it's time to turn that frown upside down.

At the Daily Caller, Riggs, (a former Burton C. Gray Memorial Intern for Reason) swings one fist labeled "Tim Cavanaugh" and another one labeled "Jim the Realtor" and knocks the air out of calls for more government support to a housing market that is returning to balance after nearly a decade of hyperinflation:

"The mainstream media is addicted to spewing the most negative spin on everything that happens," [San Diego Realtor Jim Klinge] said.

Here's Klinge's take: The bubble may have burst, but sellers and banks are acting like it's 2006.

"There's no shortage of buyers today," he said. But selling a home in 2010 means facing facts: The first time buyer's tax credit ($8,000) and the repeat home buyers tax credit ($6,500), which were much touted by the White House, and the hair-pulling perpetuated by easily shocked reporters, are simply signs that the country hasn't adjusted to the post-bubble reality. America's homes were never actually worth what easy credit and rabid consumerism led us to believe.

"Anybody who puts their house on the market today, for 5-10% less than other people are putting their home for, they're going to find a buyer," Klinge said. "Most sellers are 10-20% above where they should be."

Includes my argument that—if you're going to spend the public's money to solve this "crisis," which you should not do—a good foreclosure is a consummation devoutly to be subsidized by the federal government.