What is Digg?200 Comments
- starbabe, on 03/08/2008, -9/+75About Freakin time someone actually blames the person that's actually responsible. Nobody forced people to refi and take equity out of their homes to piss it away on consumable goods (Junk). Nobody forced anyone into buying a home while the market was super hot (Overpriced). People love to blame everyone else for their problems, but the hard fact is people create their own problems (99.9% of the time).
- judyo, on 03/08/2008, -3/+48No sympathy here at all; a computer engineer crying over his daughter's college education that forced him to refi more than $700,000? An attorney that had to bring $65K to closing because of his depreciating house so he could move into a home with a $670K mortgage - aw, poor guy. And the 60 yr. old woman who earned $100K a year until she lost her job & now can't afford her new 4 bedroom, 3 bath home that she bought for her lonely self? Does anyone here think these idiots were misled?
- openthink, on 03/08/2008, -7/+49Author takes a somewhat politically incorrect view. She definitely doesn't have a lot of sympathy. But I think she's right at least in saying that too many people behaved pretty irresponsibly. Many were ignorant & were misled by banks, etc; these people I think should be sympathized with. But some knew what the risks were (or should have) and still acted like they could keep on spending, borrowing. The banks were bad news (some unbelievably bad). But seems fair to ask some of the more educated among those now in debt...what were you thinking (or not thinking)?
- Jade456, on 03/08/2008, -0/+35Too many people trying to keep up with the Joneses.....too bad the Joneses have been foreclosed on!
- diggface5000, on 03/08/2008, -2/+31Government help is NOT the solution. I cashed far too many welfare checks as a bank teller as the customer drove away in a nicer car than I have. I imagine these are the same people who have gotten themselves into this mess with the mortgages. I know enough people who have had their homes(and fixed rate mortgages) for 15+ years and are struggling with raising property taxes... aren't they more victims than these greedy people who tried to outsmart the market?
- Y0tsuya, on 03/08/2008, -5/+33All those fools who complain about being cheated or misled by banks and brokers should remember an old saying: "You can't cheat an honest man" - WC Fields. It takes just a moment to review the fist few pages of the loan document, where all the important info are. They knew the risks but were enticed by the ever-rising housing market and wanted a piece of the action, thereby throwing caution to the wind. Well it's coming back to bite them now and I sure as heck ain't gonna help them out with my own money.
- thejokker, on 03/08/2008, -0/+27i was watching a show on HGTV following a couple buying their first house, the couple talked about how they didnt think they could afford it. Then the broker told them about this great way to finance the house. They were going to get a adjustable loan for 80% of the house and then an interest only loan for the other 20%. This was their best option because according to the broker, 'they wouldn't be approved for the full amount with a regular loan.'
The guy and girl talk about it and then thank the broker for helping them get their house. Me and my wife just starred at the TV in shock. - lettuce55, on 03/08/2008, -2/+28Some people didn't have skills to know they were getting screwed by banks. But some did and acted like morons anyway. It is nice to hear someone telling these people, you screwed up too, stop blaming everybody except yourselves
- jaggedwind, on 03/08/2008, -0/+21People in these stories knew better. Lawyers and engineers? They lived through past bubbles. They knew things weren't going to last and now they tell their stories like theuy're victims. It's sad, how they got sucked in and also how theythey won't face reality of their own greed and stupidity.
- allaboutdatiki, on 03/08/2008, -0/+17So at 52, he has to start over, but it sounds like his daughter should be nearly through a 4 year college program. That's a huge plus. And seeing that he's making a six figure income, surely he could cover the rent on a smaller place now that he's an empty nester.
- inactive, on 03/08/2008, -1/+17many people did not want to hear the consequences. They were told by the banks and even read in the documents but it did not matter because they were too blinded by greed. It is the oldest trick in advertising. As long as you have them hooked on what they want to hear you can tell them all the negatives about what might happen and what could happen and no one cares about that until it actually happens to them
- diggface5000, on 03/08/2008, -2/+18"But seems fair to ask some of the more educated among those now in debt...what were you thinking (or not thinking)?"
No. It doesn't take an engineer to understand how a loan works. You don't need a degree to have the self control to live within your means and say "no" to yourself sometimes. - greenboogerman, on 03/08/2008, -0/+15I completely agree with diggface. I have to say that it will piss me off a little bit if the government uses our nation's tax revenues to subsidize, what I believe to be, irresponsibility on the part of the people who signed up for these loans in the first place. Sure, sometimes bad things happen to people through no fault of their own. But I really think that most Americans are getting in over their heads with respect to the amount of debt that they sign up for.
- greenboogerman, on 03/08/2008, -1/+13And what message will it send to people if our government subsidizes this mess that people got themselves into?
- inactive, on 03/08/2008, -2/+14I have no sympathy for these greedy ignorant morons..let em all sleep under a bridge
- davidemm, on 03/08/2008, -2/+14Don't worry guys! Your tax rebate check is in the mail! We're saved! Yay Bush! *sarcasm*
- rand0mm0nkey, on 03/08/2008, -0/+11Yah, I have no sympathy at all. About that time, we were buying our house. We were offered an adjustable rate mortgage or we could lock it at 5.5%. Duh. We knew banks are companies, and that they are not out to be nice. You are signing a piece of paper that holds you responsible for 6+ figures. If you didn't read it or think about it, sit in your own *****. Why should I have to bail you out with my taxes?
- edstate, on 03/08/2008, -0/+11"It's not "corporate greed", it's consumer stupidity."
It's actually a perfect storm of both. - dagoonmaster, on 03/08/2008, -1/+12if you cant read you really dont need to enter home ownership in the first place >_>
- thejokker, on 03/08/2008, -0/+10because, they "deserve" a nice house, and a house is an investment right? it will always go up in value. And because i want i want i want i want.
- inactive, on 03/08/2008, -0/+10yeah, wtf?
1) sell all unneeded *****
2) move into an apartment
3) pay off debt / save for 10 years
4) reap rewards
--- or is that too difficult? - rzxc, on 03/08/2008, -2/+12You notice that this story wasn't run by the mainstream media. In fact, its a rebuttal of stories run by the mainstream media. The mainstream media seams intent on generating sympathy for homeowners. Of course, its not because the mainstream media gives a damn about homeowners. But they do care about the financial institutions that take a hit when people default on their mortgages. By the way, if you want to know what the bailout is going to look like, its going to look like this (unless we stop it). All these bad mortgages are going to be transfered from the financial institutions to the taxpayers. One way or another, I'm sure the banks are going to try and make this happen. Most likely, the politicians are going to try to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac take the loans, and then have the government guarantee the loans. Besides saddling the taxpayers with huge losses, this is going to encourage the morons on Wall Street to behave even more irrationally, because hey, if they screw up, the government will just bail them out, so why not take even more outrageous risks. If you're wondering what's the best way to bankrupt a country, this is probably it.
- diggface5000, on 03/08/2008, -1/+10Makes you wonder if these guys ever heard of a stafford loan... it's got to be a better interest rate than doing a refi
- protodon, on 03/08/2008, -0/+9I also have no sympathy for these people because they were going out buying their McMansion that they knew they couldn't afford while I was scraping the money together for a studio-apartment sized shack in the middle of nowhere because I was actually being responsible and staying within my budget.
- Jlaugh, on 03/08/2008, -1/+10No sir it's capitalism at it's finest fleecing the sheep. How do honestly expect people who didn't even pay attention in high school math to understand compound interest, it's not common sense. People who are not taught by their parents to manage their money are not likely to learn it except from the school of hard knocks. However the financial people who encouraged this sort of behavior and the reality people who pumped up the housing bubble knew exactly what they where doing.
- inactive, on 03/08/2008, -0/+9This is the rich persons' version of a poor person having kids when they can't afford them.
Why are people so ***** stupid?
(knock on wood) - vertinox, on 03/08/2008, -0/+8I dunno. If I was a major shareholder of one of these lending companies, I'd be in the board room right now screaming "WTF WERE YOU DOING LENDING MONEY TO PEOPLE WHO YOU KNOW COULD NOT PAY IT BACK!!! WE'VE LOST OVER 75% OF OUR SHARE PRICE!!! I'M RUINED! *throttles CEO by the neck*"
Actually, I've read a few groups of shareholders have started lawsuits about CEOs misleading them about particular mortgage practices... They were using junk bonds to finance the lending so in a sense... They were lending out money they didn't even have so thats why so much was allowed to be loaned.
Of course its the fault of the people who took the loan out, but its also the banks fault for allowing the loan checks to be cut in the first place.
On the upside... Its a good time to invest in real estate stocks if you still have the money... And the company you invest in doesn't go bankrupt in the next 6 months. - edstate, on 03/08/2008, -0/+7Nail on head, and then some. The "American Dream" has been so twisted up into some Paris Hilton-esque haze for way too many.
- jimmyb3, on 03/08/2008, -1/+8H&ll freaking yeah! Finally, personal responsibility is rescued right before being taken out behind the barn and shot. Please, people, you are responsible for your actions, dammit.
- thenet411, on 03/08/2008, -1/+8There is NO excuse for ignorance when a home is the biggest investment in most people's lives. Yes, the greedy banks and scumbag lendors share the blame, but there is NO reason that ANYONE can claim ignorance here. If you are dumb enough to spend the most amount of money you ever will and not know the facts, you deserve what you get. Period.
- SemiSarcastic, on 03/08/2008, -0/+6I agree, but America didn't become the sole superpower until 1991 after the Soviet Union fell. And if I remember correctly we became (somewhat of) an exporter country after world war two (at least until corporations started looking over seas) and people could still afford televisions and other things for themselves. We aren't doing ourselves any favors saying we'll soon be working on $2/hr wages, because if you do you'll see a lot of people saying "well ***** this, robbing a bank is easier than working 3/5's less of what I was making before". You need balance, and we don't act like a third world country to get there...and unfortunately we'll still bread and circuses because lets face it, if your life was that ***** that's the only thing keeping you from offing yourself. If you don't believe just look at the amount of WoW accounts in China.
- kublerross, on 03/08/2008, -0/+6but how else can people essential items like SUVs, big screen TVs, etc?
we need people to buy this crap to sustain our economy - michlibrarian, on 03/08/2008, -0/+6I stopped going to banks and am a member of a Credit Union. They make it a point to educate and counsel members who apply for loans, including mortgages. The Credit Union loan officers work to help their members. If someone can't afford a house, the loan officers tell them. But they go the second mile and teach them to get into the place to be able to afford a house. There are a lot of predatory lenders who were interested in the fees they got immediately and did not care whether the person defaulted in two years. Lenders have a social responsibility and many of them ignored it to line their own pockets. My Credit Union does have adjustable rate mortgages, after 1, 3, 5, or 7 years, but they never go up more than 2% in any year or over 6% in the life of the loan. One person from a bank mortgage shifted to the Credit Union after he discovered that after one year his bank adjustable rate mortgage adjusted monthly. Yes there are people who are buying speculatively, but a lender can figure out that as well. It is unbelievable to let predatory lenders off the hook. How many mortgages defaulted at my Credit Union out of thousands (in the past 5 years)? Two. One of those was when both adults lost their jobs and couldn't find another.
- Jlaugh, on 03/08/2008, -0/+6Oh but you are going to help them out because it will be taken out on you through inflation and taxes. Also if it gets bad enough you'll be waiting in bread lines like the rest of us.
- Jlaugh, on 03/08/2008, -0/+6The ridiculous price of housing in our cities due to speculation is one of the major problems with all this. Housing is actually cheap to build relatively. Land speculation, and housing speculation have priced out any working person from owning anything in a major city. There's no good reason why a house that cost $4000 to build in the sixties should sell in the millions today.
- Radigg, on 03/08/2008, -4/+10the blame lay with legislators and greedy bankers, if you give a loan to someone with an abominable credit history, there can only be one outcome.
- garbanzo, on 03/08/2008, -0/+6I agree that these people made their own problems. That's fine, it doesn't really affect me if other people screw themselves over. But to look at this situation that way oversimplifies things and makes the banks sound like honorable institutions that were left holding the bag. The fact is, the bank should have been the voice of reason and denied the loans in the first place. Instead, they made the loan and then sold the debt on the open market to avoid responsibility for hundreds of loans that never should have been made in the first place. Bottom line is, yes these people are *****-heads but it's the banks that enabled the behavior, profited by it, and when it didn't work out they expect the government to bail them out.
- Andia83, on 03/08/2008, -1/+7While I realize a lot of people were trying to live beyond their means, that wasn't always the case. When my parents bought their home they could afford it quite comfortably, but then my stepdad's company gave everyone a paycut, my grandmother had to come live with us so we could take care of her, their original home owners insurance company bailed out of the state because of possible hurricane damage costs, I could go on really. Point is, unforeseen events kept taking place and they had to file for chapter 13 bankrupcy and now the whole family has to budget very carefully so we can just buy groceries after all the other bills are paid. So really, all you people saying "let them sleep under bridges, greedy bastards," ***** you.
- Andia83, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5My point was that sometimes things happen even when people live within their means. For the record, we weren't stupid enough to get an ARM or anything. Just wanted to clear that up.
- cozb, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5mikesown, so what you are saying basically capitalism as reached its peak, where the consumers can no longer buy from the producers? I think Karl Marx wrote a book about that...
- inactive, on 03/08/2008, -2/+7So you're allowing a foreclosure on a condo so that you can begin renting? One step forward, two steps back - in my opinion. The reality is that your attitude is what's wrong with a significant part of this country. You believe you can borrow money from banks and not have to pay it back, you believe you can be irresponsible with your money and the government will come along and bail you out. You believe that, in the end, it isn't and shouldn't be YOU that pays back the interest rate on your loan, but tax dollars. Get over yourself. You've been brainwashed into believing all of the problems in your life aren't your fault, and by the way - your credit will be shot for 5-10 years (according to who is running it). Hope you don't need to buy a vehicle, have an emergency, or anything else where having good credit might come in handy.
- Goldbricker, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5That's standard practice in the lending industry. All day long. What's worse is about a year ago I started seeing these negative equity loans. They went on the assumption that your home was going to appreciate at a rate of 5% per year "Because we all know that real estate never goes down in the long run right guy?" So they would allow people to pay even lower monthly payments than interest only. Basically borrowing money against your house while you're making payments on it. HORRIBLE product. Got a lot of people in predicaments that they never recovered from.
- Spektr4, on 03/08/2008, -1/+6They were probably on welfare *because* they piss money away on status symbols. Funny how you see some nice, expensive rims when driving through the ghetto...
- Goldbricker, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5As a real estate appraiser I have seen two things that I think should be done by the government in order to improve the lending process. The first is that mortgage brokers and loan officers should be regulated and licensed by either the federal or state governments. Included in this regulation should be extensive background checks to get some of the shadier characters out of the lending business. Another thing that should definitely be done is to formulate a plan for providing true appraiser independence from mortgage companies. Something modeled along the lines of appraisal service companies as they operate today, however, without the middle man taking a piece from the appraiser.
- dadioflex, on 03/08/2008, -0/+55 years ago you'd be hard pressed to find home-owners who weren't crowing about how much money they'd made on their homes. Should all those people who turned a 50k home into a 250k home be made to give the money back?
The ridiculous price of housing is due to relatively ordinary people with slightly more available money than average, buying property instead of getting a pension. Those "speculators" are suffering like everybody else. The only people who made a killing were the realtors who were working on a commission. The banks and mortgage companies are all losing money. Homeowners are getting rimmed. Real estate agents are just reining in their plans to buy solid gold spaceships. - KSUdesigner, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5Sorry but New Orleans is an entirely situation than what is going on with the mortgage crisis. I know a few people who lived in New Orleans when Katrina hit and they have been doing everything in their means to rebuild their lives. Many of their jobs were washed away along with their homes. Many of them were poor to begin with and had no savings to rely on. It IS the government's duty to help its citizens when natural disaster strikes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the government should build every Katrina victim a brand new home, but they do deserve some relief while trying to get back on their feet. As a unified country we have a responsibility to help our fellow citizens in time of need. I understand that you don't want to give away any more of your money in the form of taxes, neither do I, but if your life was destroyed by a natural disaster you'd need some help too.
On the mortgage crisis, I agree with you that a lot of it is consumer stupidity, but you can't discount corporate greed either, especially considering the CEOs of these mortgage companies are reporting record profits this year. - Jlaugh, on 03/08/2008, -1/+6People like Ell3 always are the ones who whine the most when disaster strikes them. You'll be saying "I just don't understand it I did everything by the book" Those people in New Orleans lost everything they had and the entire infrastructure collapsed. and then the government ***** the dog. He'll even Walmart was more useful than our government. Katrina would would have a complete cluster ***** if it wasn't for the Mormons and the Red Cross.
- zacharytelschow, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5You were hit by bad circumstances and aren't the type of people who get most of us ticked off; you're obviously being responsible citizens. I'm personally made mad by people who take out a mortgage on a house worth ten times their annual salary and just think someday they'll figure out a way to make payments.
- pyronik, on 03/08/2008, -4/+9maybe the govt should stay out of it and let banks and people make bad decisions and suffer the consequences of their own actions.
End socialistic taxation, Reduce Wellfare, NO UHC, cut spending and pork, put the govt on a effing diet... - greevar, on 03/08/2008, -0/+5This is the stock market crash all over again. People were allowed to invest on a margin (10% from you, 90% from the bank) and greed got the better of them. Then, when the market crashed, these people still owed the margin they borrowed in addition to the money they lost on the market. Sound familiar?
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