The upside of the bad housing market

With all the talk about how bad the housing market is -- and how the federal government has a sacred responsibility to help prop it up -- it's nice to hear the occasional story about how good can come of it.

CNNMoney has put together a gallery of nine families who were able to buy dreams homes that they wouldn't have been able to afford at the height of the housing bubble. The foreclosures and short sales that have led to tear-jerking headlines provided them with the opportunity of a lifetime.

I wish that the media would focus more on the upside than on the downside. If it did, Congress might not feel the need to try to prop up the market with billions in "economic stimulus" packages that will have to be paid for by future generation.

In addition, the obsession with slashing interest rates may be good for people looking to get mortgages or refinance existing ones, but it's a disaster for seniors living off of fixed incomes who are finding that their million dollar nest eggs invested in CDs that used to yield $50,000 in income now yield $20,000.

For every person who loses his dream home to foreclosure, there is another person who gets a great bargain. For whatever reason, most of the public discourse has been focused on the person losing the home.

Photo from Flickr: Respres