As the Bush Administration insists that it won’t bail out “speculators” for making lousy purchases, we see that it is not always just the speculator that gets screwed. I’m not a fan of coming to the rescue of rich idiots who’ve taken nasty gambles on investment property, but as we see, the mortgage crisis has a very long tail, indeed:
Mortgage crisis inflicts collateral damage – Mortgage mess- msnbc.com
Especially hard hit are families that rent their homes from landlords facing foreclosure. RealtyTrac, a national real estate network that specializes in foreclosed properties, estimates that more than 20 percent of foreclosures involve investment properties; when landlords lose those properties, their tenants lose a roof over their heads with little warning.
