Your Fanny May(be sorry)

Those of you familiar with real estate know that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government agencies which insure home mortgages. Before becoming Afflerbach's main man, Pawlowski headed the Alliance for Building Communities, whose mission is to make low-income home owners. An article in today's Morning Call outlined Allentown's investment in the Alliance's latest project. The mayor is quoted as saying "Having more homeowners helps to stabilize neighborhoods,...They'll have more of a stake in their neighborhood(by) reducing litter...." The story centers around a woman who came to Allentown way back in 1999 from South America and mentions most of the buyers need "credit repair". Allentown taxpayers contributed $200,000 toward the cost for five rowhouses in an alley.(Law Street) The houses have been redone, including granite counter tops. In an era of sub-prime defaults should The City of Allentown still be subsidizing homeownership for those who do not qualify for conventional mortgages? Could we be better off putting that money toward the costly refinancing of bonds, or maybe hiring a few more police officers?