Last year, I bought my house from a family that was in the midst of the foreclosure process after having lived in the house for just over a year. The only way they could afford the house was if the father worked two jobs and the wife was able to get some OT most weeks.

We (my wife and I) actually tried to work a deal with the sellers that they would buy our house (in the same town so their kids could stay in school), which would lower their mortgage payment by a significant amount because the house we were selling was going for 139k less.

Their response? (bear in mind they were in the midst of foreclosure)

No thank you, because they'd already found a company that would loan them $300k so that they could buy a house that was only a little smaller.

Because they were in such bad shape, they never forwarded their mail, so we still get everything they are trying to run away from - including the multiple notices of default, which are hard to miss when the envelope is red and the text is readily visible through the envelope.

These people will undoubtedly benefit from the rate freeze, which I think is just plain wrong. While I feel badly for the kids because they are being sucked down due to the parent's bad decisions, the parents need to learn to live within their means, rather than buying a big house that they really can't afford.

So, my personal feeling is that some people should be helped because something might've happened to their situation to cause them to feel a pinch, but for the rest of them that spent far more than they could possibly afford, they should feel a degree of discomfort at this point.