to get involved in this, beyond helping the owners find alternate financing to avoid losing their

homes to foreclosure.

I can imagine the type of headline in the Herald a year from now,

should this idea come to pass:

“City told them they would save their home, now they’ve been

kicked out and are homeless!”
“City sits on inventory of hundreds of empty homes, now falling

apart due to neglect – neighborhood demands action!”

It doesn’t make any sense to combat

high housing costs by buying these properties from the owners, and letting them rent them back

and/or sell them to other buyers, and then put limits on the resale values.

My interest in

this is not monetary – it really doesn’t make much sense to say I wouldn’t want this to happen

because it would take business away from me.

1) I don’t work with buyers in those

markets
2) The number of foreclosures is small compared to the number of properties for sale

within the city and wouldn’t have any effect on anyone’s business
3) The number of owners who

would take the city up on their offer is minuscule and wouldn’t have any effect on anyone’s

business

The city should mind its own business.

Throwing money at it will not solve

the problem.

Let’s move on to the next idea, please.

the business of real estate, it’s a terrible idea because it takes potential business off the

table. If you’re looking to increase the supply of affordable housing in one of the most expensive

housing markets in the country for essential middle-class workers who don’t make $$$

(firefighters, policemen, nurses, etc.), it’s a good idea. Why shouldn’t the city take advantage

of the market to buy real estate inexpensively for its own purposes just like everyone else? As a

corollary, Columbia University is one of the largest landowners in Manhattan and they use their

residental holdings to provide affordable housing for their faculty and grad students (who also

don’t make $$$). Like the city, Columbia has an incentive to providing affordable housing that

enhances the viability of the institution. As for the restrictions on resale value, some kind of

safeguard has to be put into place so that beneficiaries of affordable housing can’t exploit the

system and reap a huge personal profit from selling a publicly-subsidized property at market value.

Sam Yoon’s idea, while not perfect, has a lot of merit and has the potential to benefit Boston for

a long time.

every major city is right now, you know, guy in one townhouse paid $550K in ‘05, fast forward

summer of ‘08, the townhouse next to that one is a crack house, next one down is a squatters

house.
On a seperate note, you must be happy your girlfriend Kimberly Blanton is back to

writing puff pieces. Doing shows with Chronicle pointing out “trendy condos” in Brockton and

Lowell, boy, it’s gonna’ be a long, slow summer.