Foreclosure is one over arching problem facing the United States of America today with no one perfect solution. Each person in the US suffering from foreclosure has a unique circumstance and situation that has led them to the economic turmoil they face, and that uniqueness therefore requires any solution to the overall issue of foreclosure to be versatile to a plethora of situations. There is not one faultless way to resolve the crisis, but with a combination of different measures, the foreclosure crisis can be slowed.
The current foreclosure dilemma can roughly be divided between two main groups: homeowners who cannot afford their mortgages due to either a raise in the rate for an adjustable rate mortgage or a decreased home value and homeowners who are unable to pay their mortgages because they suffer unemployment. Foreclosure can be best stopped if these two groups are treated differently. As a generalization, different economic conditions leading to their current position of foreclosure separate these groups. For those who cannot pay the change in their mortgage rate, the burst of the housing created a situation that pushed them towards foreclosure while the economic down turn resulted in the unemployed American’s inability to pay their mortgage. The first group of the current foreclosure dilemma should be dealt with individually while the second facet requires overall economic recovery.
The current economic disaster began, in brief summary, as homeowners started to default on their mortgages and the price of homes decreased. Now, many homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages who had planned on refinancing their house to a fixed rate once the adjustable rate increased are unable to refinance because their house value...
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...America. Though solving the foreclosure crisis may be a long and daunting task, with hope from the people and appropriate measures taken by the government, it can be solved.
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Maude Barlow’s “Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World’s Water” gives a voice to a very real, but vastly unknown, issue: the privatization of water. I refer to it as vastly unknown because it wasn’t until this article that I was even aware such a power struggle existed. Barlow first introduces startling statistics, meant to grab the attention of its readers. Once she has your attention, she introduces the “new generation of trade and investment agreements.” (306)
The new millennium brought with it a housing boom which had reached an unsustainable level (Pollock, 2011). Housing prices grew rapidly, and Baker (2010) noted a rise in house prices of over 70% from 1995 to 2006. For example, he noted average home prices in Los Angeles rose more than $400,000 over the period of 1995 to 2006 and approximately $519,000 in San Francisco. Prices around the country increased substantially as well (Baker, 2010). To encourage homeownership, banks promoted creative financing options (i.e. adjustable rate, interest only,...
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...
“Last Call at the Oasis” is a documentary about our world’s water crisis. The film discusses how many large cities in America are getting closer to use up their available water, how many areas across the globe do not have access to drinking water and are forced to drink contaminated water, how water shortages are causing acts of violence and are causing stress to agricultural communities, and a possible solution of using recycle water to stop us from wasting so much water. The film goes around the globe to talk to scientists who are studying contaminated water, people who have become very sick due to this water, and to the agricultural community in Australia where, unfortunately, some farmers have take their own lives due to water shortages.
To solve the foreclosure crisis we must take a multi-pronged approach that tackles the issues making the situation worse and that caused the problems in the first place. Our goal is to do this in an efficient and time conscious manner. Any solution is going to have its positive and negative aspects but we must try to maximize the former and minimize the latter.
In essence, the problem leading to the foreclosure crisis is the recent decrease in people’s ability to make their loan payments due to job loss and lower wages brought on by the economy’s weak state. Rather than throw billions of dollars at big banks in the hope that they find ways to help the homeowners’ loans, the government should attack the problem through the individual. Simply, the government aid being spent in the hopes of stimulating the economy should be funneled toward reducing the balance of home loans to make the monthly payments affordable for the owner. By funneling the government aid directly to the American home owner in need, the economy would greatly benefit as homeowners regain their footing with their budget because the economy and foreclosure are directly related. When one hurts, so does the other; when one prospers, the other does as we...
“How can you buy or sell the sky-the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. Yet we do not own the freshness of air or the sparkle of the water. How can you buy them from us? We will decide in our time” (Chief Seattle: 1855). In the Documentary “Flow – for the love of water” it visualizes the global crisis we face on Mother’s Earth as it pertains to the diminishing of fresh water. The Documentary portrays along with the help of experts that this global crises is affecting each and every one of us in today’s society including animals. The film shows us that water is constantly being wasted, polluted, and privatized by big co operations. Prime examples of these greedy companies were mentioned in the film such as Nestle, Thames, Suez, Vivendi, Coca Cola and Pepsi.
All good things must come to and end. In late 2005, the housing bubble burst, and housing began to decline in price. People who refinanced, particularly those who financed with variable interest rates suddenly found their homes were valued at much less. The housing market became flooded with homes for sale, because the homeowners with variable rates and interest only loans could not continue to make their payments. (Greenspan) The rise in the number of homes for sale caused further lowering of home values.
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Foreclosure is an extremely serious topic for so many people. For some, it simply means that there are cheap houses on the marker, for others, it is the end of their lives as they know it. Ultimately, there really isn’t a solution to foreclosure, but there I have formulated a plan to help slow down the process.
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