Re: Bailout. Humm. 2.3 Million Homeowners All Sub-prime ? 860,00 Repossessions, All Sub-prime Mortgages?
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Don’t think so.
Looks as though foreclosures and auctions affected more than those who obtained sub-prime mortgages.
Feds move to Help Distressed Homeowners
WASHINGTON January 28, 2009
The Fed’s Bear Stearns’ portfolio is valued at $27 billion, although the central bank doesn’t say how much of that is in home mortgages. The Fed’s AIG assets include one portfolio valued at nearly $20 billion of residential mortgage-backed securities and a second portfolio valued at nearly $27 billion of collateralized debt obligations, which are complex financial instruments that combine various slices of debt.
More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, a whopping 81 percent increase from 2007. And more than 860,000 properties nationwide were actually repossessed by lenders last year, more than double the 2007 level, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based foreclosure listing firm. Nevada, Florida, Arizona and California had the highest foreclosure rates last year.
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All of these homeowners and ex-homeowners Did Not obtain sub-prime mortgages. Need to put just as much blame on those who were partially responsible for this economy. Homeowners who struggled to pay other than sub-prime mortgages (mainly because of obtaining second mortgages, buying unaffordable SUV’s and other gas guzzlers,boats,partying, etc.and living beyond their means are just as much to blame for unpaid mortgages as those who obtained sub-prime mortgages.
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you are correct..ultimately Wall Street greed and people living beyond their means are the cause of the mortgage meltdown. I live in Vegas and I used to re-finance the same people every couple of years. they used the equity in their homes like banks. they would run up credit card debt then do a cash out refi to pay off the debt. people with big houses (4k sq ft) and Mercedes and Audi’s parked the drive way. they lived off credit but had no cash. people pulled billions of dollars of equity out of homes in the last 6-7 years to pay down debt from living beyond their means.
so when real economic times hit people have no cash reserves and are already extended on credit. they have nothing to fall back on and it’s foreclosure city.
Comment by lv_consu — July 17, 2009 @ 11:32 pm
No one is to blame except the people who signed a mortgage they did not have an understanding of. They saw they could get something for almost nothing and jumped in with both feet. It’s not my responsibility or anyone else’s responsibility to lead people by the nose and ensure they do the financially correct thing for their lives.
Oh, can I even say “responsibility” anymore?
Comment by Navy ACC — July 18, 2009 @ 4:04 am
The public simply imitated the Congress. They spent more than they made and that was part of the problem. The other problem was Senators like Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and Barack Obama forcing banks to write loans that the banks knew couldn’t be paid back.
If everyone, including Congress only spent the money they had and quit buying all these luxuries, we would not be in this situation.
Comment by gyt — July 18, 2009 @ 5:57 am
Not exactly. In my state we have a 10.6% unemployment rate with many people not being able to find jobs of any kind. Our local paper just printed a 14 page list of foreclosure notices. If you’re not working, you can’t keep up the payments. Not all people who can’t keep up their mortgages were irresponsible.
Comment by Smartphone Software — July 18, 2009 @ 7:12 am
the banks still had the right to put out these loans from the government under their own financing.all fdic insured.the regulations were all out of the way so people could still barrow the money.this all falls under clintons removal of the glass segal act.
Comment by whip — July 18, 2009 @ 1:47 pm
You’re right, but you also can’t exclude foreclosures due to the economic conditions causing lay offs. It started with sub-prime and irresponsible home buyers and lenders and is now effecting more and more innocent people.
Comment by misty194 — July 18, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
Individuals unwisely leveraged their assets for loans, and investment securities were unwisely leveraged (multiple times) for loans by big firms…
Comment by WP Robot — July 18, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
I am a home owner, I bought responsibly, not trying to live beyon our means. The problem I am having now is this economy sucks because of all these idiots not buying and doing things responsibly and living off of credit. My husband has been laid off and now we are going into our savings account to try and keep up with our house payments while my husband tries to find another job. We don’t have any credit card debt and only one car payment which is a hybrid. It sucks because I know a couple people that have just let their house go because they wanted to buy a new house, or people that just didn’t want to make that payment anymore because it was the “in” thing to do. This may not answer any question you have but it was a good chance to vent a little.
Comment by ~Jilly~ — July 18, 2009 @ 11:38 pm
No, nobody said they were all sub-prime. But it was the contortion of the market by the federal government imposition of mandatory sub-prime loans, and the opening of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy large quantities of sub-prime loans that started this whole ball rolling.
Once you eliminate the ability to pay from the granting of a mortgage, that applied across the board. And in states with high housing demand, those housing prices soared beyond the buyers’ ability to pay, or the assets used for collateral were themselves overpriced housing.
When the housing bubble collapsed, that caused a lot of mortgages to be more than the house was worth. Thus just walking away from the property was a more financially sound action than to continue ownership or sell at a significant loss, where the owner would have to make up the difference on the mortgage.
Without the initial distortion of the market by the government, these financial instruments and questionable mortgages would not have become so widespread, if they happened at all.
It’s the ripple effect from the initial distortions caused by government intrusion.
There’s a lesson to be learned here. Will it be ignored? Seems likely.
Comment by Call Me Bwana — July 19, 2009 @ 2:48 am
I think that the percentage of reasonable, responsible individuals that went into foreclosure due to economic issues is minimal.
The Libs forcing banks to make bad loans, and the secondary mortgage brokers scratching for their little piece of the pie, along with idiots signing notes they knew (or should have known) they couldn’t afford.
Notice all the advertising for computers, cars, etc., that say “bad credit? It’s not your fault!”
Wake up people ..It IS your fault. Live beyond your means, use a lot of credit…you’re going to get bitten, and there’s nobody to blame but yourself!
Comment by Scoot — July 19, 2009 @ 9:33 am