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Mortgage loans are a substantial form of revenue for the financial industry. Mortgage loans generate billions of dollars in the financial industry. It is no secret that companies have the ability to make a lot of money by offering a variety of mortgage loan products. The problem was not mortgage loans but that mortgage companies were using unethical behavior to get consumer mortgage loans approved. Unfortunately, the Countrywide Financial case was not an isolated case.
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.
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...
In order to solve the problems that America faces, a brief overview of their origin is necessary. Misplaced confidence in the continuous bright future of home prices and the attempts of lenders to profit in every way possible were major causes of the current crisis. Lenders often made mortgage contracts with little consideration for the ability of the recipient to repay. They were able to do this with little risk for themselves because these loans were bundled and sold off to investors. Furthermore, the demand for loans with more flexible standards was tolerated by the lenders because the lenders believed, just as those demanding the loans did, that the increase in home prices had no foreseeable end (Shiller 50). Many people saw an opportunity to make money off of subprime and adjustable-rate mortgages, and the fantasy of endless price increases overcame reasonable judgment.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009), more than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings in 2008. This was a marked increase of 81% over the previous year. During the same time, unemployment rates skyrocketed. From December 2007 through February, 2009, more than 3.5 million payroll employees lost their jobs (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). Increases in unemployment ultimately lead to increases in credit defaults and foreclosures, as borrowers become unable to financially afford payments. In fact, even though predatory lending practices have been repeatedly blamed, borrowe...
4. "Why Subprime Lenders Are In Trouble." BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Web. 29 Dec. 2009. .
Foreclosure is a dreadful aspect of home-owning. The American foreclosure crisis, and its subsequent economic recession, was caused by lateral misguidance on part of private banks, the federal government, and by the millions of people who purchased their homes on credit. Over 900,000 foreclosures have occurred in California alone, making its foreclosure rate the largest and most formidable; as a result of the housing downturn, private banks like JP Morgan and Wells Fargo succumbed to bankruptcy, as the toxic assets they possessed lie curdled and menacing. Stocks tumbled as confidence in our financial system crashed; millions of people lost their jobs in the course of one petrifying year. The lending process was halted, effectively stalling the crediting and lending system that has shaped American consumerism habits since the 1950s.
By irresponsibly lending mortgages to “subprime buyers” for the past three years, banks had created a potentially huge problem if homeowners started defaulting on their mortgages. Banks sold these mortgages, along with their risk of default, to bigger banks that pooled mortgages around America into one big investment. Pooling mortgages was designed to reduce the risk of an single individual defaulting on their mortgage. A majority of people were able to pay their mortgages back, only a small percentage would default, making pooled mortgages a profitable investment. Mortgages can only be pooled if their risks are interpreted as uncorrelated. Big banks claimed that the United States housing market is uncorrelated and housing values would fluctuate independent one another in different housing markets. Large banks went onto sell pooled mortgage debts to inve...
What Is Subprime Crisis
Subprime crisis, also regularly known as the mortgage meltdown is a financial crisis that occurred between the years 2008 to 2009. It is a result of excessive borrowing to numerous homebuyers who have poor credit scores. This act of lending is called subprime lending. During this period, loads of homebuyers defaulted on their monthly payments as their interest rates increased with time. With that, there was a sharp upsurge in mortgage foreclosures.
Based on this case study, it is clear that a plethora of reasons surrounding the U.S housing market led to the financial crisis, and consequently, the Great Recession of 2007. Most notable among the factors were subprime mortgage lending by mortgage lenders, poor risk management and investment choices by financial institutions and banks, and the ancillary agencies that were ready to transfer credit risk to other parties in order to make the most profit for themselves.