Insistence on Property Tax Collection Hurting Already Troubled Homeowners - Coursework Example

Teacher Insistence on Property Tax Collection Hurting Already Troubled Homeowners: Opinion By It is no secret that the United States has suffered under a wave of home foreclosures from coast to coast in recent years. Because of economic difficulty, failure to repay loans, or simply due to an unwillingness to continue paying on a house that is no longer worth even half of what it once was at purchase, millions have lost their homes to the bank in recent years. Foreclosures, as we know, are not what the bank wants when granting a home loan.

Each foreclosure brings additional expenses to a bank that it must work hard to overcome. In essence, the mountain of foreclosures have unwillingly turned many of the nation’s banks into a de facto real estate agent, with some holding the titles to literally thousands of homes in a given area at any one time. It is a problem that continues to weaken the American housing economy,and little end is in sight. Even in the midst of all this turmoil, however, many hardworking families have done everything they can, and then so, to hang onto their homes.

There are documented reports of many families hard hit by the economic downturn that literally are living from pay check to pay check today, yet they are still managing somehow to make their mortgage payments month after month. In some areas of the country hardest hit by issues related to unemployment and inflation, however, this has become more difficult due to numerous factors. Just recently we have read of reports in Detroit of well meaning homeowners who fall into the aforementioned category who are simply no longer able to pay for their property related taxes, as they can barely meet their mortgage and other housing based expenses on a monthly basis.

Because of their back taxes owed, banks are now foreclosing on these homes unless the amount due is paid in full (Waldon 1). I submit that this is not only morally wrong in this day and age, but it defies common economic sense within the scope of a housing market that is already saturated with foreclosed properties. Examples such as the one just mentioned in Detroit can be seen across America, where government obligations that are not met are causing individuals who have been desperately trying to keep homes still lose them in the end.

Governments and local municipal bodies must begin to take action to avoid this from happening further into the future. A certain amount of property tax relief, for example, should be granted to individuals under a certain income level until they are able to regain the solid economic footing that they found themselves in when first purchasing their home. By foreclosing on a homeowner who has become negligent in paying property taxes not only decreases the amount of revenue further to the government, but simply adds to the existing backlog that banks have already acknowledged has become almost too much to bear.

It also goes against the very fabric of America that is predicated on the idea of banding together and assisting one another through economic difficulties. We seem to have lost sight of this ideal in recent years and it is time to bring it back. Works Cited Waldon, George. “Sovereign Actions Complicate Foreclosure”. Arkansas Business, 31.44 (2014): 1.