Sub-Prime Mortgage: The Snowball Effect
Intermediate Macroeconomics
Sub-prime mortgages were a lucrative new market idea, pushed by the government, executed by the lending institutions, in order to provide everyone the American Dream. During the expanding economy, this dream became a reality—untested and unchecked—as low interest rates fueled the desire of investors to make dreams come true! Ultimately, the vicissitudes of the economy turned downward and the snowball effect began while financial sectors and investors scrambled to catch the falling knife. While history is being written this very day and hindsight is 20/20, we can reflect on the ideologies and policies that brought forth the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
At the birth of the sub-prime mortgage market, investors and lending institutions had found a way for more families to live the American Dream while they were able to profit. The economy was booming, the unemployment rate was low, and the demand for housing was high due to low interest rates. The idea was that lenders were willing to accept more risk by financing homes with less equity to those that were not creditworthy. The incentive to the lender was a higher interest rate to the consumer, while expecting a higher foreclosure rate. Due to the high demand for housing, assets were also appreciating decreasing the implied risk. Add in the origination fees, suddenly the entire proposition became very profitable. In theory, the market assumed an annual foreclosure rate of 8% with the average loss due to foreclosure being 30%. Over a $1.2 trillion market pool, the predicted foreclosures would only cost a mere 2.4% implied loss from gross revenues. If the subprime homeowner’s a...
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...e leaders and thorough oversight, our economy should bounce back with another painful lesson learned.
References
Petroff, Eric. “Who is to Blame for the Subprime Crisis?” 2007. Investopedia. October 5, 2008. http://investopedia.com/printable.asp?a=/articles/07/subprime-blame.asp
Amerman, Daniel. “The Subprime Crisis is Just Starting.” March 20, 2008. Financial Sense University. October 5, 2008. http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/amerman/2008/0320.html
Bajaj, Vikas and Story, Louise. “Mortgage Crisis Spreads Past Subprime Loans.” February 12, 2008. The New York Times. October 5, 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/business/12credit.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
Barnes, Ryan. “The Fuel that Fed the Subprime Meltdown.” 2007. Investopedia. October 5, 2008. http://investopedia.com/printable.asp?a=/articles/07/subprime-overview.asp
Just as the great depression, a booming economy had been experienced before the global financial crisis. The economy was growing at a faster rtae bwteen 2001 and 2007 than in any other period in the last 30 years (wade 2008 p23). An vast amount of subprime mortgages were the backbone to the financial collapse, among several other underlying issues. As with the great depression, there would be a number of factors that caused such a devastating economic
A majority of mortgage defaults that Americans used were on subprime mortgage loans, which were high-interest-rate loans lent to people with high risk credit rates (Brue). Despite knowing the risks, the Federal government encouraged major banks to lend out these loans to buyers, in hopes, of broadening ho...
The sub-prime mortgage market crisis started in the United States in the fall of 2006 and took hold as a global financial crisis by July 2007. Due to innovations in securitization, the risks from these sub-prime mortgages had to be shared more broadly with investors which essentially led to the ripple effects in the world-wide economy. The mortgages are generally repackaged into a variety of complex investment securities which are bought by institutions to diversify their portfolios. In the case of the U...
Mortgage crisis can evidently be associated with excessive borrowing from the financial institutions without proper considerations of the terms and conditions of the deal. The prospects that surround business in real estate are always promising and this presumption got into the mind of all stakeholders involved in the subprime mortgage lending business. This is because in 2000, the mortgage rates were low and everybody would afford a mortgage. Unfortunately, the financial models were flawed as the rate was adjustable. After many people were nested in the mortgage bracket, greed propelled the rates to levels subprime cannot afford thus leading to foreclosures. It can be concluded that greed, lack of sufficient knowledge and flawed financial models led to the emergency of subprime mortgage crisis.
"Subprime Mortgage Crisis - A Detailed Essay on an Important Event in the History of the Federal Reserve." Subprime Mortgage Crisis - A Detailed Essay on an Important Event in the History of the Federal Reserve. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 May 2014.
During 2008, America suffered one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression. The first indication that the economy was in danger was when the housing prices started to decline in 2006. Initially, it wasn’t seen as a threat. Realtors felt that the overheated market would safely return to a sustainable level. What they didn’t realize was that there was a dangerously high number of homeowners with questionable credit ratings who had loans for 100% and sometimes more of their home’s value. Banks resold these mortgages as part of mortgage-backed securities. It was originally thought that the problems with subprime mortgages would remain
Whenever an investment is made there is risk that accompanies it, the higher the risk of the investment, the higher the expected return. The same is true with the real estate market, and the mortgages banks issue. Each loan a bank gives out to a customers is an investment. To a prime borrower banks could loan them money at a stable, fairly low interest rate because these borrowers have a low risk of defaulting. However during the real estate boom banks were able to lend a large amount of subprime mortgages, mortgagees given to less than prime borrowers, with an inflated interest rate to make up the risk of these borrowers defaulting. “Overall, the subprime market was $600 billion in 2006, 20 percent of the $3 trillion mortgage market, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. In 2001, subprime loans made ups just 5.6 percent of mortgage dollars.” (Kratz, 2007) Banks were lending out to subprime borrowers at a lower teaser rate, giving borrowers an affordable payment because the interest rate was held artificially low until the teaser rate period was ov...
I guess most of you’ve heard the words Subprime Crisis again and again on TV when you were a middle school student 6 years ago. You may not know what it was when you were a child.
Holt, Jeff (2009). A summary of the Primary Causes of the Housing Bubble and the Resulting Credit Crisis: A Non-Technical Paper. The Journal of Business Inquiry, 8, 1, 120-129. Retrieved from http://www.uvu.edu/woodbury/jbi/volume8/journals/SummaryofthePrimaryCauseoftheHousingBubble.pdf
This was the first global financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s; it spread at an un-parallel rate across the world (Claessens et al, 2013). In the aftermath of the Great Depression it was universally believed by economists that the unregulated financial markets were to blame as they were fundamentally unstable, subject to manipulation by bankers, and capable of triggering deep economic crises and political and social unrest (Crotty, 2009). These are the same issues that occurred following the aftermath of the financial crisis 2007. It can be argued that the current crisis is the latest stage in a series of financial boom and bust cycles, in which there is a shift from light to tight financial market regulations. The global financial crisis (GFC) is seen as the deepest post-World War II recession (Blankenburg & Palma, 2009) with the United States being the epicenter of the crisis due to the housing bubble burst and sub-prime mortgages (McKibbin & Stoeckel, 2010). This essay will be focusing on the housing bubble, sub-prime mortgages, and the interconnectedness of the global banking system, the lack of transparency and regulation within the finance industry as the main causes for the GFC.
The "subprime crises" was one of the most significant financial events since the Great Depression and definitely left a mark upon the country as we remain upon a steady path towards recovering fully. The financial crisis of 2008, became a defining moment within the infrastructure of the US financial system and its need for restructuring. One of the main moments that alerted the global economy of our declining state was the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on Sunday, September 14, 2008 and after this the economy began spreading as companies and individuals were struggling to find a way around this crisis. (Murphy, 2008) The US banking sector was first hit with a crisis amongst liquidity and declining world stock markets as well. The subprime mortgage crisis was characterized by a decrease within the housing market due to excessive individuals and corporate debt along with risky lending and borrowing practices. Over time, the market apparently began displaying more weaknesses as the global financial system was being affected. With this being said, this brings into question about who is actually to assume blame for this financial fiasco. It is extremely hard to just assign blame to one individual party as there were many different factors at work here. This paper will analyze how the stakeholders created a financial disaster and did nothing to prevent it as the credit rating agencies created an amount of turmoil due to their unethical decisions and costly mistakes.
The subprime mortgage crisis is an ongoing event that is affecting buyers who purchased homes in the early 2000s. The term subprime mortgage refers to the many home loans taken out during a housing bubble occurring on the US coast, from 2000-2005. The home loans were given at a subprime rate, and have now lead to extensive foreclosures on home loans, and people having to leave their homes because they can not afford the payments. (Chote) The cause and effect of this crisis can be broken down into five major reasons.
An argument can be made that someone should be held accountable for the subprime mortgage situation. The main focus now is to preventing a continuous meltdown. The first step to cure the situation is taking immediate and corrective action. Kevin Alexander Gray states “We‘ve got to do more to stem the tide of foreclosures and stabilize communities throughout the country,” (Gary, 2009). In order to thoroughly understand the impact this crisis has had on the economy, it will be important to look at what has really prompted this housing meltdown. The immediate cause or trigger of the crisis was the bursting of the United States hous...
The financial crisis of 2008 was the worst economic downturn in history since the Great Depression of 1929. There were, not only domestic implications, but there were massive international implications as well. Unfortunately, the crisis didn’t overnight, but had been in the workings since the late 1990’s when the financial system started to deregulate. The common denominator connecting the reasons the market crashed in 2008 had to do with sub-prime mortgages. Sub-prime mortgages affected institutional banks, borrowers and eventually lead to monetary changes in the U.S Government.
In 2007, the housing market in the United States was booming. Banks were giving out subprime mortgages to buy new houses. “A subprime mortgage is a housing loan that’s granted to borrowers with impaired credit history. Often,