Easier condo conversions? No thanks

Re: 'Reforming real estate' (Feb. 27)

Dear Editor:

An interesting list of potential reforms. After a quick read I have some thoughts, particularly about suggestions within point #9, which essentially promotes even greater government involvement in the housing market.

Perhaps for #9 you could include a brief summary of government's role in the current mortgage mess and HUD's history of fraud and mismanagement.

Also, making it easier for "owners and developers to convert condos into rentals" would be tremendously unfair to condo owners who don't wish to live in rental communities.

As for the "teachers, firefighters and nurses" who can't afford to live in "the communities they serve," have you done a survey as to how many really want to reside near schools, firehouses and hospitals? My impression is that a lot of working people prefer to put distance between themselves and their jobs. And if real estate prices continue to fall, unhindered by artificial government support, won't teachers, firefighters and nurses be able to live anywhere they want?

Carola Von Hoffmannstahl-Solomonoff
Mondo QT
Albany, N.Y.

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