A couple of days ago (actually on Wednesday, March 4) I posted here about a program that Oakland County had announced to use some fo the Federal monies that it will receive to help potential homeowners buy up some of the vacant foreclosed homes on the market. It was good press and Oakland County got both TV and newspaper coverage of the announcement.
Then yesterday the details started making their way out in the form of follow-up newspaper articles that focused more on the substance than the announcement fluff. It turns out that there is only $5 Million earmarked for this program, which officials admit will mean only about 200 homes will likely be bought under this program, out of the thousands that are currently on the market. Apparently the County has already received more than 200 requests for loan assistance under the program.
Now I suppose that one shouldn’t look any gift horse in the mouth; however, this particular program seems to have been mainly aimed at getting some positive press, more so than actually being designed to do what it was announced to do. I guess a headline “Oakland County Announced Drop-in-the-bucket Program” wouldn’t have generated quite as much press coverage.
Many of the government programs, at all levels, really aren’t going to do all that much for distressed homeowners, when you look into the details; however, all are aimed at getting some positive press, in hopes that good media coverage, as much as anything else, will help generate confidence in the economy. It seems our government has become a PR machine as much as anything.
So crank up the music and bring in the clowns to tell everybody how great things are gong to be. After all a few $Billion here and a few $Billion there and sooner or later it’s all bound to have some affect – isn’t it? Well, here’s holding out hope in Oakland County Michigan anyway.
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