One minor question involving subprime vacant houses which I haven't seen asked much is: Where did the occupants go?  And the answer I can tell you  is: UNDERGROUND.

When a foreclosure takes place, and a lender gets a judgment against a homeowner/borrower, that judgment is good in the courts for decades – in some states for 21 years. 

Now the federal bankruptcy laws were just tightened up by the Congress a year or two ago, and filing for personal bankruptcy costs money, so many of the people who have been evicted from their homes because they were behind on repayment – WILL GO UNDERGROUND.

These people have to go underground, because if they don’t, and a debt collector finds where they work or where they live, their wages will be garnished with a new court order enforcing the lender’s foreclosure judgment.

Going subterranean means these sub prime people will be primarily in a cash economy – they won’t pay taxes.

They probably won’t register to vote – to prevent the debt collectors from trailing them.  And most borrowers were probably in their mid lives – so they will be underground for a long time.

And the sub primers will definitely be encouraged to move out of the State of Ohio (or from whatever state the foreclosure judgment was rendered) because they will be much more difficult for debt collectors to track.

Looking ahead, we need to pass legislation which consists of an amnesty for these sub prime people.  If we want our country to be healthy, we can’t continue to persecute our citizenry in any manner which pushes and keeps them underground. 

Let’s legislate sub prime-anti- subterranean relief now!