Panama City Beach, Florida, Tries to Assist with Mortgage Crisis

One million to three million U.S. homeowners face losing their homes because of mortgage payments they can not meet.

House and Senate lawmakers are working on plans to help Americans out of the housing crisis. The Congress bail-out may not be in time for folks currently facing foreclosure but may help prevent future loss.

Economic analyst forecasters call for the taxpayer buy-out to reach at least a trillion dollars. They predict the housing decline will wipe out gains in national home values seen on the increase since 2001. That all except a few homebuilders will declare bankruptcy.

Panama City Mayor Scott Clemons wants to put into action for its citizens a new state program known as Homeownership Pool or HOP to decrease home prices. Under the HOP program the state loans money to homeowners to lower their mortgage payments. The money is paid back when the house is sold.

There is also a housing program called the State Housing Initiatives Partnership or SHIP. Home buyers qualify if they make eighty percent or less of the area median income and are attempting to buy a home valued at $150,000 or less.

City Commissioner, John Pilcher, thinks the government has caused the homeowners enough problems and shouldn't interfere further in private matters. The high cost of new homes rose in part by stricter regulations enacted, applied pressure to make new homes built to withstand stronger hurricane force wind and water of which the cost was passed to the consumer. In addition, the insurance companies continue to raise rates regardless of safety measures in place.

Phil Lucas, the editor for our local paper, credits the Federal Reserve for creating every boom and bust since its creation in 1913. Inflation strips the American dollar of its buying power. In persistent inflation people do not save money. Interest yields fall short of prices. To protect their wealth, people swap dollar bills for assets; stocks, bonds, real estate. Inflation enriches Wall Street which in turn sells and finances assets. We are all trapped on this merry-go-round of capital gains and losses, clutching for the brass ring.

Rating agencies have been criticized for not properly evaluating the risks of bonds backed by mortgages given to borrowers with weak credit. A young couple, with two small children, bought their first home on the beach. The husband was a long distance truck driver and the wife a stay at home mother. The home was a newly remodeled three bedroom, two bath brick house. The woman and her kids visited me fairly often being strangers in a new town without family nearby and the husband absent for long hauls.

It was a short time until she confided to me their financial difficulties. They had made large purchases on credit and her husband's income wasn't panning out to be the gold promised him by the company he was driving for. Several months of using credit cards to pay past due bills put the brakes on their livelihood. They were both crushed by the prospect of filing bankruptcy as admitting to failure.

Sadly, their American dream home became a nightmare when the bank foreclosed. The unforeseen tragedy was the young Mom took an overdose of pills and died inside the home with her children present before the bank took possession. The father was on the road at the time and was called home on emergency leave. He was convinced it was an accident, that his wife would never take her life intentionally, leaving their children all alone.

When you find yourself in despair over any financial upset, seek professional debt counseling. Don't wait until the wolf is pounding on your door or your misery will compound daily. A house is just bricks and mortar that can be replaced. Life is too precious to blow away. Suicide- is the one exception to the rule, which could make all the difference; better to put off until tomorrow what you plan to do today.