Homeowners are faced with difficult financial decisions. Impulse buying and extravagant purchases that were made because it was affordable at the moment are forcing home owners to become statistics of the declining economy. Among the many problems they face, they are also being forced into foreclosure and losing their homes.
From the beginning consumers and the banks overspent and overstretched their budgets. Consumers gave into the game, and the financial institutions gave into the greed by not ensuring that their customers were 100% qualified. Some consumers do not have the income they originally had to keep their homes, and too often had to choose between everyday necessities. All home buyers first time or the twentieth time need to be counseled regarding what they want versus what they can afford when researching loans or mortgages. Most buyers are uneducated regarding their debt to income ratio and no one ever thinks twice about losing their income due to unemployment.
Due to the lenders greed, that itch to make a buck, it appeared that anyone and everyone were being approved for a mortgage regardless of their income. Now with the changing economy, layoffs and unemployment, the higher mortgages that were manageable are now unable to be paid and forcing people into foreclosure. Now after the “big guy” got their bail outs, they claim to be able to finance more mortgages and loans in an attempt to regain customers. However, due to the federal funds, there are hefty and strict regulations. The banks are now better off. But the “little guys” bailout has yet to arrive.
To prevent sinking further into the foreclosure crisis, all parties involved need to analyze their situation and take responsibility for their actions. Yes, ...
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...ing in a positive direction. There has to be stop to the “big guy” getting the bailouts and the “little guy” is forced into foreclosure. This cycle will not stop until it is taken seriously and broken. Yes there are rules to the use of the money. New mortgages are out there and waiting for the consumer who is required to fork over five percent down of the purchase price when they could not afford their monthly payments. Instead of putting the time and money into forcing foreclosures on those who could possibly afford a payment now, would it not be more productive to help those already established and avoid the foreclosure? As with any program, guidelines and goals would be mapped out to ensure that 1) the income meets the mortgage needs, 2) If there were hardship in the future, a plan would be set to do everything possible to make payments and to find employment.
Leading up to the crisis of the housing market, borrowers got mortgages without understanding the terms. Banks were giving out loans to people the banks weren't sure could pay the money back. The closer to the crisis, the higher the frequency of illegitimate loans and mortgages. Because there were so many mortgages on houses that could not be paid back, millions of mortgages were foreclosed on, and the houses we...
The trend for home ownership is down. Millennials, those born between 1980 and the early 2000s, are waiting longer before buying their first home. (Rent Jungle, 2015) For them, purchasing a home represents a much higher cost relative to income than it did in years past. To illustrate this point, in the 1970s, the cost of a house represented about 1.7 percent of annual income; today that figure is at almost 3 percent. (Rent Jungle, 2016) Single-family home prices are continuing to trend upward (Hanley Wood Data Studio, 2016), making home ownership an unaffordable option for
Although the crisis came to head in 2008, there were people who had realized that trouble was coming for years. The largest warning sign was the amount of credit in the market place. Many of the big companies and banks had very little capital, and the lack of capital was brought on by the housing bubble. Companies were lending too much money to people who could not pay them back. And even before people started to default on their mortgages, people could see that this was a problem. During a meeting with the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in January 2007 the staff of the Federal Reserve admitted “that they were aware of [the] problem in the housing issue three years earlier” (Dodd). And they were not the only ones. As far back as 2001 there were people who saw the danger that sub-prime mortgages were and who were trying to have bills passed to stop the bad lending that was going on, but no one wanted to list...
In the article Predatory Lending and the Devouring of the American Dream, the article talks about how subprime mortgages were a booming success in the mid- nineties to the early two-thousands. It was a success because subprime mortgages offered an opportunity for people with bad credit history or people from the lower class of society to actually be able to purchase a home. The only consequences of doing subprime mortgages is that there is a high interest rate which makes paying off the home in a reasonable time impossible. More and more people started to apply for subprime mortgages, therefore, causing a crisis. The crisis was because people could not keep paying on their homes, so foreclosures happened. The percent of people applying and getting approved for subprime loans went up anywhere from seven to eight percent every year which also was a contributing factor in the crisis. The fact that the perfect home went up nine hundred square feet in four years, and eighteen years later was up by eighty-five hundred square feet is just an example of how the American Dream was going up in size but down in value.
In order to accurately solve the problem of the foreclosure crisis the nation is currently in, one must look at the cause of the issue. To determine the cause, the history of foreclosures has to be looked at. The questions, “How long have foreclosures been around? In the past what was the cause of foreclosures? How was the problem fixed before? What are the similarities between now and then?” all need to be answered.
The last quarter twelve percent (12%) of American homes are in default of their loan, or in foreclosure. Add that to the previous four quarters and that is eight point seven (8.7) million homes in crisis. (Further on known as HIC's) The United States “Bail Out” helped major mortgage corporations, and their chief executive officers (CEO's), but not the families that are in, or were in these HIC's across America.
While no one likes the idea of turning people out of their homes, when you buy something you can’t afford, you have to return it. When you make a bad business decision, you have to take the consequences. Capitalism doesn’t work when there is no downside to risk – that downside is there to make sure that the system works properly. The most sensible, soundest and, ultimately, kindest solution to the debt crisis caused by the real estate bubble is foreclosure – expedient, easy, simple foreclosure. This is the best way for the housing market to grow again, which in the end will give people the opportunity to enjoy the piece of mind that comes from knowing they own a home they can afford and can really call their own.
The frequency of foreclosure in our nation today is dangerously high. The strain from the recent economic downturn has put many families and individuals in a financial chokehold preventing them from being able to make their monthly mortgage payments. Consequently, many of these people feel they’ve punched a one-way ticket to foreclosure. With all these homes being foreclosed on, we face a very real crisis.
In the early 2000’s the housing market boomed, real estate was a hot investment and everyone was looking to buy a home. However not everyone can afford a home and a majority of people were forced to take out a mortgage to purchase real estate. During the housing boom banks were supplying subprime loans and upping the risk in the real estate market. These loans were not only risky but irresponsible on the part of the banks’ lending them, and although individuals receiving the loans thought they were being helped at the time, these loans were a major reason why so many people their homes, almost crippling toe U.S economy as a whole.
...just as welfare helped people during the great depression, this new plan could help people during this extreme recession. It is so important to keep people in their homes and not on the street and with help from our government and each individual taking responsibility for their actions, the amount of people facing foreclosure can decrease. Every American wants to know that they have a place to go home to and to call their own. For many people placing their homes up for foreclosure was something they never thought would happen and it is easy to say what one would have done to prevent this. As American we must stop blaming and looking at what has happened to the housing market and start planning on ways to fix this situation. Our country should take the resources we have now in the present, and create a plane to insure that every person is taken care of in the future.
The housing boom created an illusion of ever increasing home equity. It was difficult to walk away from potential homes that seemed good on the surface, but in reality were either money pits or less than desirable. For the uninitiated, making sense out of the chaos when things start to go wrong is an emotional process that lends itself to the gradual disposal of the rose-colored glasses. The upkeep and maintenance that homeownership requires of the inexperienced homeowner, particularly an older home, is comparable to taking on a new entry-level job with diminishing returns. There is a prevailing chaos amid the turmoil of a broken water pipe during a holiday weekend.
All of those bad loans and bonds are now becoming subprime mortgages and at alarming rates, the big banks and even smaller banks are targeting people who can’t afford them and other members of the working class. They began to persuade them in with low interest rates but with only the intention to hike up the prices after a short grace period. The worst part about this hole dilemma isn’t totally about loans themselves either, it’s about the people who are being taken for a ride. The people paying for these loans
I believe the foreclosure crisis will only continue and worsen until we understand the needs of the American public. Giving money is not the answer entirely. Each situation is unique and different from another. What works for one citizen may not be the solution for another. This is not only a financial situation but a social situation in my opinion. If he or she has a legitimate reason why they are in a foreclosure panic, such as death, divorce, sudden medical illness, or recent job loss, then the American government and banks should lend a helping hand. We cannot punish the unfortunate. We have only made a step in the right direction. We need to start sprinting to the finish line, because if we follow these steps, the foreclosure crisis will be gone in a flash.
As such, people are less optimistic about the future and have chosen to scrimp and save to last through the recession. Therefore, this has resulted in a decline, in demand for houses, (Tapper & Travers, 2009). This has also resulted in a decline in prices. However, the prices can change in the future when the economy picks up, and people become more confident about the economy. To conclude, the point, which affects one’s decision to buy a new home, is never constant, one's financial situation, level of income, and even number of family members changes all the time. For this reason, people will take into consideration different factors when making the crucial decision for or against the purchase of a new house.
As of December 29, 2009, the website Foreclosure.com reported that over 2.2 million homes in the continental USA are in some form of foreclosure, 486,323 are in pre-foreclosure and 465,490 have already been foreclosed. Over seven hundred thousand have tax liens against them and 87, 389 have been sold in Sheriff sales. Along with the homeowners, mortgage companies and banks have suffered tremendous financial loss. However, the homeowners lost so much more; they not only lost the roof over their heads, but memories, their self-esteem and their piece of the American dream.