On 9/30/03 10:42 PM, "Chris Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Dean Carlson wrote: > >> Furthermore MPHA did not "lose" or squander the money. HUD gave one lump >> sum to MPHA to build all the housing in 1995 with no provisions for >> inflation or increased housing values. Image someone giving you money in >> 1995 to buy a house in 2003. Also image that in 1995 you needed a >> two-bedroom home but since then your family size has increased and now you >> need a 4-bedroom house. Given the fact of home price increases since 1995 >> do you think you would have enough money to buy house now? That's the >> situation facing MPHA with the settlement dollars. >> > > If someone had given me the money in 1995 to buy a 2-bedroom house in > 2003, I would have invested it until 2003. With more than a little > care, that investment would pay for the 4-bedroom house now, and with a > little luck, my retirement on top of it. The Dow Jones Industrial > Average was below 4,000 in early 1995 and peaked over 12,000 in 2000. > It's now currently over 9,000. The S&P 500 is similar. Only an > incompetent would not have enough money for the 4-bedroom house now. > > So, what did MPHA do with that big lump sum of money? It rather sounds > like they did squandar at least part of it. Umm, to squander means to "spend wastefully" so I don't think failing to invest in Wall Street is tantamount to squandering HUD dollars. Furthermore, hindsight is 20/20. Had MPHA invested those HUD dollars in Wall Street in 1999 or 2000, they'd probably have lost a good portion of it when the market dropped off and all the critics would be pissing and moaning about that instead. So again, this is a weak criticism. Finally, housing values have nearly tripled in this city in some cases. In 1995, my house (then my mother's) was valued at approximately $60,000. Now it's valued at about $160,000. So if I'd invested $60,000 in a fund that followed the Dow in 1995, I'd fall short by at least $10,000 if I wanted to buy my house today. Does that make me incompetent? Seems to me that Mr. Carlson made a good point in that lots of critics have tried to make MPHA and the city look bad with regards to Hollman/Heritage Park, but nobody seems to be able to make anything stick. Rather than come up with all sorts of wild conspiracies or hypothetical theories to explain away that little problem, could it be perhaps that the critics just might be wrong? I haven't personally followed Hollman/Heritage Park closely enough to say one way or the other, but if the city and MPHA officials are as skillful at covering their tracks as they'd need to be for none of these charges to stick, they should probably be working in some multinational corporation or maybe the Bush Administration since their talents at obfuscation are what is being squandered. Mark Snyder Windom Park REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
