Home foreclosures reach new high

You can put a lot of this on the shoulders of your local elected officials for looking the other way while promoting the "American Dream", which in fact was another get rich quick scam, the biggest ponzi scheme in the history of mankind, and now us common taxpayers get to bailout the fat cats who reaped the profits while creating this mess.

Talk about the "American Dream".

I agree, but I also have to ask, when you buy a house, much like buying a car, you get a payment schedule, and you see what you will pay, including any increases,(i.e. balloon payments) and these people merely saw the "American Dream" and didn't see the truth. I personally know of three families who that occurred to, a fourth who went beyond their means by remodeling, buying a big SUV and then asking if the government could assist them. When I buy a car, or for that matter, even take out a credit card, I know the rules and my limitations, and although it goes against my religous beliefs, why should you and I (through the gov't) bail them out?

I'm just glad That I don't own a home!

Haily wrote:

I'm just glad That I don't own a home!

Yeah, who'd have thought renting would get you in a better place than the homeowners, huh?

Radical Raul wrote:

You can put a lot of this on the shoulders of your local elected officials for looking the other way while promoting the "American Dream", which in fact was another get rich quick scam, the biggest ponzi scheme in the history of mankind, and now us common taxpayers get to bailout the fat cats who reaped the profits while creating this mess.
Talk about the "American Dream".

i blame those idiots in office who just smile for the cameras and wear a suit and tie. the "american dream" does not exist anymore ever since MLK was assassinated. who in the hell is going to buy a home when the payments are always sky rocketting and never level off. greed has gone to far.

Michael wrote:

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Yeah, who'd have thought renting would get you in a better place than the homeowners, huh?

Anybody who bothered to look at the ratio of median home price to median household income or median home price to monthly rent over the past 5 years. When those ratios double it's a pretty good indication that you are better off renting than buying until they get back to normal.

In Chicago, I rent a 1 BR apt. for $1,400 per month. If I were to purchase a similar unit in the same area, WITH a nice down payment, my monthly nut would be over $2,200 per month. Parking would be $250 more per month.

I cannot afford to buy at this time.

drw312 wrote:

In Chicago, I rent a 1 BR apt. for $1,400 per month. If I were to purchase a similar unit in the same area, WITH a nice down payment, my monthly nut would be over $2,200 per month. Parking would be $250 more per month.
I cannot afford to buy at this time.

nobody cannot afford it. parking should be free or included in rent. no wonder everyone is homeless. this is just what greed ordered. the banks charged too much than what the customer could handle.

One of the dumber things I've read here.

Haily wrote:

I'm just glad That I don't own a home!

Why do you blame the elected officials? The home buyer, the seller and the bank/lender are all to blame. The buyer bought way over their head, the builder moved them into a home they knew was too much and the banker/lender used all kinds of trick financing including faking the earned income.

Live with it. That was greed on everyones part.

Radical Raul wrote:

You can put a lot of this on the shoulders of your local elected officials for looking the other way while promoting the "American Dream", which in fact was another get rich quick scam, the biggest ponzi scheme in the history of mankind, and now us common taxpayers get to bailout the fat cats who reaped the profits while creating this mess.
Talk about the "American Dream".

Not one mortgagor in a thousand understood a negative amortization clause, which was explained in the boilerplate of their contract. However, lenders understood it very well and, IMO, relished the thought of receiving what was effectively usurious income from a certain percentage of mortgagors which was bound to grow as principal balances grew. And, I believe lenders failed to input into their algorithmic models a factor designed to provide a margin of safety, a risk offset, in the event of what I term a "credit Armageddon." Moralists and philosophers would call the resultant meltdown "poetic justice."

DESERT RAT wrote:

Why do you blame the elected officials? The home buyer, the seller and the bank/lender are all to blame. The buyer bought way over their head, the builder moved them into a home they knew was too much and the banker/lender used all kinds of trick financing including faking the earned income.
Live with it. That was greed on everyones part.
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You can't put ANY blame on local elected officials.

There is plenty of blame to go around involving the entire spectrum of characters in the housing debacle.

If blame must be assessed, one could justifiably start with Alan Greenspan, who lowered the Fed Funds rate to 2.0% in December of 2001 and keeping it there, or less, until the first of 2005. In fact, during that period, the rate was at a mere 1.0% for 12 months. While the borrowing rate of depository Fed members to one another is the shortest term of interest instruments, it eventually percolates through all interest vehicles, including the 10 year Treasury Note which, along with LIBOR rates, determines most real estate interest rates in the Western world. Naturally, the increased liquidity in capital markets spurred aggressive marketing...and who wouldn't take advantage of the lowest rates in decades..if not in history? Capitalism and competition being what it is, after all, the profit motive is the heart and soul of the system....new forms of loans sprung up like mushrooms and consumers jumped on them...meanwhile, the top end of the daisy chain, Wall Street, was making huge profits packaging, securitization, these loans, intermixing them and their high returns with other, traditionally lower yielding, instruments and selling billions and billions worth of them all over the world...with the paid imprimatur of agencies charged with rating their safety...such a deal! Back at the kitchen table, mom and dad learned they are expecting # 3, or 4...and their little 2 BR won't cut it any more and its time for their second...bigger, newer, nicer house...so mom falls in love with the kitchen, the guy likes the 2 car garage w/work bench and space for his beer frige..so when the loan 'broker', former used car salesman, tells them its OK, they have a "no doc, liar loan" program..mom and dad only want to know what the monthly payment is...oh, they can handle THAT! They have no idea what an 11th District Cost of Funds index is or the constant yield of the 10yr T-note is, not to mention the 1 month LIBOR, and they "BUY" the house..ignorant of all these terms plus pre-payment penalties, caps, 3/5s, 3/28s, neg ams, non-assumable and blah, blah. Everybody is happy until the teaser rate runs out, the monthly payment jumps $300 or more..pop didn't get a raise...all the new furniture needed to fill the bigger house is driving the Visa hickey up..they were 3 minutes late on the Cap One card and the rate is now 4,000% and one night they again sit at the kitchen table, look at each other and, in harmony, proclaim, "we're screwed." Not unlike mom and dad at the kitchen table, but at a gleaming directors' table maybe 60 stories in the sky...an executive calls his PhD minions, computer geek types, to a meeting and asks them how much their mortgage backed bonds, carried on company books in the amount of, say,$15,000,000,000, are really worth? One geek looks at the guy next to him and says "I don't know", that guy turns to the fellow next to him and says, "I don't know, do you?" and so it goes round the table....a year or so later a bunch of nit-wits, myself included..spend hours on blogs swearing and cursing at people we don't know....is this a great country or what?

martscan wrote:

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You can't put ANY blame on local elected officials.

i especially blame those ceo's from banks because it got out of hand and knew what was going on as far as their lending practices. everybody in this business is out to make a quik buck. they just lended out way too much money to people who couldn't afford it. also, most importantly i blame those elected officials in the federal reserve because they are suppose to regulate the banks supposely. all they do is raise the interest rate and failed to protect the consumer. all i can say is that the fbi or whoever is in charge of investigating the banks they must go after the ceo's or lending officers and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. i want to see alot of arrests in these cases because they put alot of people out in the streets without homes now and stole millions from them. these white collar workers are no different from a crook on the street. this has to stop!

I think we almost agreee on that smartcan. Don't get angry with me now.

martscan wrote:

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You can't put ANY blame on local elected officials.