Providence Elected The Village Idiot

Read what the Moronic Mayor of Providence just said about his local foreclosure "crisis":



Officials say the empty buildings are eyesores and hazards, offering easy shelter for criminal activities. Arson and accidental fires are relatively common. Neighborhood property values tend to suffer. And the homes are clustered in the very areas where cities worked hard - and spent heavily - to encourage redevelopment during the housing boom.

"Abandoned homes, while they may be a good idea for investors, are having a direct impact on families and neighborhoods in this city," said Providence Mayor David Cicilline. He said the city has about 750 vacant homes, the most he can recall in almost 30 years of experience.

Last month, he submitted an ordinance to the city council that would fine the owner 10 percent of a building's value if it remained vacant a year after receiving a warning from the city. The punitive fine is intended to upend the traditional economic equation by making it cheaper to sell a vacant building, even for a loss, than to hold it and pay the tax.



More times than I could count I have told y'all that politicians will aggravate the housing crash. If mortgage lenders are getting slammed with massive 10% fines, they'll simply pass it on in the form of higher rates to creditworthy borrowers in Providence; higher borrowing costs will propel house prices deeper into the sewer, and the downward spiral will continue.

Who knows, the proposed ordinance may not even be constitutional; it may not get passed; it may prove unenforceable; heck, it may just be demagoging rhethoric from an aspiring governor. The notion that empty homes are a "good idea" for investors just boggles the mind.

Ironically, if not predictably, the city of Providence bemoans the locations of its foreclosed homes. They are "clustered in the very areas where cities worked hard - and spent heavily - to encourage redevelopment during the housing boom".

Hah. It's no surprise foreclosures dot the areas where pols mandated affordable housing and non-discriminatory mortgage rates; it's no surprise that a political, rather than an economical, allocation of money has proved most damaging to asset values.