Comment: I'm a homeowner. I paid for

I'm a homeowner. I paid for my current house with a very big down payment - 100%. I.e., I paid cash for my house. I will never have to worry about a short sale because there is no mortgage on my house. I am well aware that interest rates are now so low that you almost feel like a fool if you *don't* take out a big mortgage. After all, in 20 or 30 years inflation is bound to be higher than the 4% or so rate on your mortgage, so you'll be paying the loan back with money worth less than you borrowed, even after interest charges are included. But keep in mind, tiny down payments of 5% or so combined with big, low interest mortgages are the very thing that brought about the mortgage crisis in the first place. That is precisely the toxic brew that encourages people to pay too much for more house than they really need. With a tiny correction in property values people realize they owe the bank more than their house is worth. So they're more inclined to walk away and send their bank jingle mail. You wind up with more banks needing bailouts, as they can't sell their foreclosed houses for what was owed in the mortgage. Indeed, the fact that government is trying to resurrect the property markets by encouraging the very policies that caused the crash in the first place makes me very pessimistic about our future. Politicians and the public have learned nothing.

I am in my middle 50s. Had I spent my life eating taxpayers' dollars as a public employee I'd be able to retire with a fat pension right now. But I have worked in the private sector all my life, where defined benefit pensions are reserved for CEOs and CFOs and 401ks are a sick joke -- after 30 years I'm lucky if the nominal value of my 401k is worth the cash I put into it -- projections that assume a 7% annual rate of growth over 30 years are laughable. So what I know is this -- if I am ever to have any hope of retirement I must not have any mortgage payment to make. It is hard enough for someone on a retirement income to pay property taxes and utilities, even without a mortgage payment. Debt is seductive. It is also very dangerous.