U.S. Home 'Ownership' Changing

In the Friday, March 16, 2007 issue of USA Today on page 8A there was an interesting article on a change in private property ownership in China that those now living in homeowner association communities might find of interest (and every single other prospective homeowner now or in the future), especially now with the mortgage industry belly up due to their 'creative lending' practices and use of strictly ARMs for many, if not most, new loans and their other questionable lending practices, assisted with Congress's support and blessing, these past five to ten years since the real estate 'boom' in this country began:

It read as follows:

Beijing - After 30 years of economic reform and 14 years of debate, China's legislature today is set to recognize the legitimacy of private property in a law that provides the first modest legal protections.

Since the Communist revolution in 1949, China has permitted only public ownership. The party stripped landowners and others of private property, persecuting them and declaring all property collectively owned.

The law basically ignores the constitutions upholding of socialist private property as sacred and not to be violated," says Gong Xiantian, a Peking University professor who worked to prevent a vote on a similar law at last year's NPC (National People's Congress) convention last session.

Changes in the new law are mostly symbolic. Legally, all property remains state-owned, but private individuals and companies can obtain the right to use it for periods of up to 70 years and sell those rights.

The relationship between the government and the peasants is worse than before," Wen Tiejun, a leading government advisor on rural issues says. "Local officials take land from the poor rural people, but at their back are the entrepreneurs, the rich people" who want development.