What is your thought on the current Mortgage crisis in the U.S??

Question

I understand this is the hockey section, since all others are asking there foolishness, I'd like my sections POV on this topic that involves my day job and maybe some of your home life's.?.?.?

Answer 1

Glad I don't have a house! (yet)

Answer 2

I think it really sucks.  I feel bad for people that lost homes, but not the ones that lost homes that were out of their financial grasp to begin with.  People live way beyond their means these days.  What do they say, your mortgage shouldn't be more than one-third of your take home pay?  

I understand people who decided to go with the adjustable rate, say back in the mid to late 90's when Clinton had the economy rocking.  To me, a fixed rate is just the obvious choice.  It's piece of mind.  But I don't blame people for taking the adjusted rate when the opportunity was good.  It's pretty sad when the economy is so bad the government has to pass legislation to bail out mortgage companies.

I feel bad for those who just got screwed with this situation.  Fortunately I do not know anyone personally who has lost their home.

Answer 3

Well, out here in Vegas it was caused by investors from California who got caught at the end of the cycle and couldn't flip them in time. They just walked away from them when the ARM's went up. That and the usual idiots who bought more home than they could afford.  I got a 15 year fixed  7 years ago @ 4.875. Halfway home.

Answer 4

why build more habitat for humanity houses if so many people are losing their homes? if the govt cares so much, why doesn't they just buy homes from specific federal insured banks? why build ghettos and have section 8 housing with so many empty houses?

nothing's changed and nothing will - the media HAS to have SOMETHING to talk about and the word 'crisis' sure does make me turn on my tv - ask someone in their 80's about the mort crisis in their time - then ask a 60 yr old - then ask me - we're all sayin' the same things - so what's really goin on? NOTHING..... JUST LIFE

Answer 5

An I had the perfect smart *** answer all ready until I realized you were a hockey regular and did it deliberately.

The short answer.

It was caused by people buying houses that they could not afford in the long term.  Lenders were crazy enough to believe that prices would keep going up and the increase in "value" of the house would more than offset the fact that on some of these mortgages people were not even paying the interest, the capital was increasing.  

Most buyers were looking at today's payment and nothing else and for them it was no big deal as the lender would take the house, they had no equity in it anyway.

Answer 6

I think that mortgage companies and brokers need to suffer loses.

Govt shouldn't bail these rich companies out. The mortgage companies and brokers were so greedy to make money that they knowingly gave people mortgages that they couldn't afford. (Interest only loans, exotic financing, ARMS, no doc loans WTF!!!)

I know that when I bought my first place (a condo) I had a conventional mortgage-but when I decided to pull out some equity (my value had tripled) to buy a house- I was talked into a 5 year ARM on the the first property--luckily I speculated and saw the market was changing and sold before things got bad (late 2006). If I hadn't sold I would have been in foreclosure now because I wouldn't have had the money to pay the mortgage.

I know that people are also mad w/ investors, flippers, etc and feel that they shouldn't get any help but I think that when every other commercial is Donald Trump real estate investing, or some of those other info-mercials who wouldn't want to try to get rich by buying property and flipping. Property has always been a stable investment not like the stock market. And now people are losing their money/savings

in banks.

I feel sorry for the families who are going through this. Almost everyone's dream is to own a home and to stop renting.

When you watch shows on HGTV or Style-it makes you want to own your own place and paint and decorate ..

Hopefully things can change around. I would like the gov't to maybe step in and to not let people be put out of their houses and or to find a new way to refinance these folks or at least help to downsize to a smaller more affordable place.

When I visit cities like Detroit- I'm just heartbroken at the number of empty foreclosed houses. (Detroits economy is also a factor)

Answer 7

Well...Nobody can afford a new home AND schools taxes on top of it anymore.

Answer 8

All the people that obtained an ARM are in big trouble.  Fortunately I have a brain...so I have a nice 15 year fixed.