If the mortgage holders prefer to not foreclose and evict, that’s between them and the defaulting owners; it’s not my business – it’s a business decision on the part of the banks – plus a rational economic decision on the part of the defaulting owners.

And certainly not grounds for the government to intervene and make matters worse than they already have made. Indeed, most or all of the inventory backlog is due to ill-conceived government intervention already.

I don’t see any “entitlement” mentality that results from these actions, just envy on your part – and inappropriate moralizing about “entitlement”.

The operative word here is not entitlement but grace. The owners already chose to default and to take the consequences, and they happen to be receiving grace for a certain period of time. What’s your complaint?

Check out Matthew 20:1-15 for an historical perspective on the matter. Take your complaints to Him.

…insofar as it features some people fighting foreclosure rather than simply cases in which the banks have chosen not to foreclose.

The sentiments that the CNN article author narrates certainly contain a mixture of motives and rationales, some of which does amount to special pleading. But you know what, even if there is some “entitlement mentality” there, that’s still between them and the banks (who have their own “entitlement mentality” too, including riding roughshod over the law).

Not to mention there is the irony is that many of these folks would be better off just walking away rather than fighting to stay. So those folks may be reaping what they’re sowing. No problem there.

Nonetheless, I don’t see in the article anything to indicate that we’re dealing fundamentally with something other than a dispute between two parties (banks and home owners), which is why we have the courts if the two parties can’t settle the matter between themselves

The Matthew 20 text has no tenants, just contracted day labor. The point is that so long as your contractual agreement is being upheld with your employing party, don’t kvetch about how they’re treating others. That’s between them; you have no standing in that matter.

I’m not clear why this $50 billion (or whatever the actual number is) so bothers you. Whether it should be in the hands of the bank or the owners, in either case it’s not your money under any scenario: you have no claim on it.

Of course, if the government wants to take your (our) individual money by coercion (e.g. taxes) to pay the banks, that’s a different matter – but there the correct target is our elected representatives, not delinquent home owners.