This reminds me of when Oprah gave away free cars on her show. The acceptance of the gift would have boosted everyone's annual income to a higher tax bracket. Many declined.

I was in the audience, and Oprah did a follow up show. Not a single person declined the car. If we signed the contracts that day at the show, we couldn't change our mind later. Some people did sell their cars later.

i love extreme makeover home edition and joe wilson they don`t pay the house for a year if you watch the show as much as i do you`ll know

I love your show and it brings a tear to my mum's eye when we watch it . Could i PLEASE HAVE YOUR ADDRESS THANKS XXX

I watch Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and know that if you want a new house (or rebuilt one) you have to apply for it. Well, anyone that knows anything about owning a house knows that the higher value your house is, the higher the taxes each year - SO, why would you watch this show, see how expensively built the houses end up being, and apply if you know you're not going to be able to pay for it during tax season. Kind of stupid on your part if you ask me!

my family thinks it is a mircle what you guys do and so do i i cry almost every time i see your show it is so amazing you guys amazing i was wondering if i could have your address please.

Extreme Makeover Home edition: is way more than a reality show, it gave us a hope in knowing that one part of this crazy world care about people, why can't all of the powers that be find away to deal with the taxes on the house. I enjoyed the show from the start, what can be done to bring it BACK!

I just want to say that anyone who says that EM:HE is bad is just wrong. Almost every episode I've seen lately shows somebody paying off the mortgage on the houses, and if you don't have to pay your mortgage, you can probably afford higher utilities bills. And for the quality of living that you've been given...I mean seriously...I doubt the people involved mind too much about having to find a higher paying job or even having to work two jobs, if it came to all that. I'm just being very real here. Ty has wonderful vision and has helped so many people, I'm just in awe, and hope I can help people some day, though probably in a MUCH smaller way...in the end, it's about what you CAN do. So good job, ABC.

Ty Pennington and ABC aren't doing EM:HE out of the goodness of their hearts. They're doing it for ratings. They're exploiting these people for ratings.

I agree with MOST of the comments here. This is a positive show which, despite most other shows being about nonsense, has a very positive purpose. It makes you want to be a better person, and inspires you to pay that giving, positive attitude forward. I look forward to watching this show every week, and I hope it gets brought back. I think it's very inspiring and uplifting and we're at a time now where we can use that more than ever.

EM:HE teaches everyone that "happiness" = "oversized monster house with absurd and unnecessary amenities that wastes way more resources than it should".

They are not doing these families a favor and anyone who is "touched" by the supposed "generosity" of the show has blinders on. They do it for ratings and once the shows are over they don't give a darn what happens. I have always thought that they should use the funds and volunteers that they devote to giving one family an absurd setup and, instead, help 10 families out by giving them something more reasonable.

this is why we have a mortgage crisis
hoodrat homeowners: Hi. So, we'd like to refinance our home.

loan officer: Okay. How much do you owe on the home?

hoodrat homeowners: Oh, actually, extreme makeover paid off our mortgage for us since we couldn't afford the payments on our house when it was only worth $100,000.

loan officer: Okey doke, how does $450,000 equity line sound?

This show, while seemingly harmless and even helpful in nature, is starting to show it's true colors. As previously mentioned the show is about ratings and advertising. Helping people is only a byproduct. You have to understand that if the show did not generate enough money, it would be dropped. ABC would not keep it out of the goodness of their heart simply because they want to do the right thing. Secondly this is very much similar to the current housing problem. You cannot expect to give someone something more than they can afford and expect everything to be fine. If the show was really concerned with people it would have worked out a budget with them and built within the confines of that budget. The unfortunate thing is that is not the case. They build a house that sells products for their sponsors. My pops mentioned that if they were really concerned with people they would go in to a whole declining town and pump the same amount of money into the town as they do into one house to help the whole area. Problem is if you spend $500,000 on one house you'll have a home that is much more beautiful than 10 houses you spend $50,000 on each. However, the second scenario helps out more people and could still be potentially within their means. For the individual that mentioned that people should check their budget previous to entering the show, that is a load of crap. If someone told you you could get the house of your dreams and all you had to do was send in a video about why you deserve it, do you honestly think people are sitting down at the kitchen table and working the numbers to see if they would be able to afford what could potentially be built for them? Much of the people in the US are in lala land as it is. Many people wouldn't even be able to figure out what the taxes alone would be less alone the increased energy consumption and insurance. Come on - get real - it's not going to happen. How many people turn down something that is "free?" Not many - unless they are very smart. Most people do not understand that "if it's too good to be true IT PROBABLY IS." The show, if it's true intention is helping people, needs to do a better job of fitting the home to the family and that means in their budget. Even if your mortgage gets paid off, but your taxes double and your energy consumption doubles or triples, what have you really accomplished? The fact that they put LCD screens in everyone's room and all those other unnecessary luxuries proves they are "selling" the show and not "helping" the family. Unfortunately many of the people watching the show are watching with their heart instead of understanding the economics of it - which I don't think is a bad thing, but to side with a show that is hurting good people is not right. It's very similar to many lotto winners - many end up WORSE than they were before they won - tells you something doesn't it! Unfortunately I'm sure this is not the end to foreclosures stemming from Home Make Over.