Readers sound off about home values

It looks like Aaron struck a nerve.

Last week, I shared comments from a reader named Aaron who was quite angry about people who look at their homes as investments instead of living spaces. He wrote that he applauds stories about the economic collapse of those who tried to get rich during the housing bubble. "I hope ALL of them end up penniless, starving and living under an overpass," he wrote.

He also wrote that he hopes the recession will lead people to rethink their values.

I asked what you thought of those comments, and Steven wrote that he agrees with Aaron, for the most part.

"In my opinion, the people who were flipping homes have not learned the lesson," Steven wrote in an e-mail. "They have robbed many people of the American dream as a result of their unbridled greed. I can still drive down the road and see ads for homes 'starting in the low $180s.' I drive by those homes and see a $60,000 home and shake my head in unanswered wonder. Nothing has changed."

He wrote that he wonders why many of those who exploited the bubble seem to have avoided accountability for their actions. "I know it's wrong, but I agree with Aaron, except that I include the rest of the people who created this nightmare. I wish for them to share fully in what they have wrought."

Other readers, like Jim, had a different take.

"I think your e-mail writer, Aaron, is correct but a little misdirected," Jim wrote. "I watched the (real estate) bubble firsthand in my two Salt Lake Valley neighborhoods and through the experiences and work of my real estate salesperson wife.

"In my first neighborhood, two of my neighbors bragged about their (real estate) investments. Each one had overinflated the values on the first home to borrow money to buy the next and to make payments and to get living expenses out. They continued the process until one owned 23 homes and the other four homes. None of them rented for the amount of the payment."

In the second neighborhood, Jim wrote, the developer claimed that he would not sell homes to investors, but eventually did sell about 10 percent of the homes to them.

"Every investor-owned home … went back to the bank that financed them," Jim wrote. "Another neighborhood near ours was almost all investor homes that wound up bank-owned. … Bankers are slow learners, I guess. This 'investment' activity, not homeowners who take care of their homes, live in them and add value to the neighborhood … is the problem. These 'investor' people deserve the wrath of Aaron."

I especially liked the wise response from a reader named Terry.