Non Political Housing Vent!!!

elliemom

elliemom

Cathlete
Has anyone else gotten really tired of hearing about foreclosures???

I live in New Jersey (highest property taxes in the country) and am amazed at the number of people losing their homes. Now mind you I'm not including those that lost jobs, had major illness etc. I'm talking about people that bought $500,000 homes with $13,000 taxes and just plain couldn't afford it!
And the ones that bought vacation properties on top of it. :eek::eek::eek:

It's very difficult for me to have sympathy. Sorry. Who in their right mind buys a home with NO MONEY DOWN, Interest ONLY loans??? On their primary and second homes??? Are you out of your mind????

I've spoken to quite a few people who will be losing their second homes because they bought a condo in SC for $350,000 with the above rates. They were soley relying on rental income to foot the bill!! WHAT????? And now are at risk of losing their primary home as well!!!!

If I came to you and said "Can I borrow $10,000, I don't have a job and no money in savings but I'll pay you back next week"??? Would you give it to me?
Then why in the world would the banks??? And why would you ask in the first place? I know couples with one child, living in 5 bedroom homes with 3 baths, a library, family room, full basement etc. That's just out of control. But they NEED all that!!! Nevermind what it takes to heat and cool and maintain a place like that.

I bought my 1st house in 1988 and the interest rates were 18%. :eek::eek:
So it was a quaint little rancher with everything one person needed. I'm having a hard time blaming all this on the banks, how about some personal responsibilty here. How about. "Sorry, I just can't afford that"

Sorry for the rant, but I am just tired of hearing it
elliemom
 
Ellie, I am with you. I built my house 10 years ago and lucked out with a really good 5% rate, but the bank that both DH and I had worked for at that time, had just been bought out and our future unsure, so we made sure to build nothing more than what we could afford no matter what happened.
 
It's ridiculous, the whole housing situation! :confused:

I'm thankful for my smaller house and smaller house payment!! We had thought about trying to get a bigger house in the near future, but for now we're staying put! ;)
 
AMEN!!! There is something to be said for living within your means. ;) I love my small affordable house. Even though we could have gotten one for twice as much.

Missy
 
Amen sister! There is plenty of annoyance to go around on this one. I think the banks should be ashamed for providing financing to people who clearly weren't qualified. I would say they should be held accountable but now they are broke. Maybe it is karma coming back to bite them in the behind!

The people who applied when they had to know they couldn't afford a house payment, taxes, etc. are also to blame.

Finally, the people who jumped on the "foreclosure bandwagon" and defaulted on their loan JUST BECAUSE (my brother) are seriously to blame for empty houses.

Carrie
 
Thank you! Thank you! I totally agree. My husband and I couldn't afford a house because we are pretty much on a single income. I work part time from home, but even 5 years ago when everyone was pressuring me to buy a home, . . . .look no down, interest only I said hey what will my mortgage be including everything and when I saw it I knew that we just couldn't afford it. My brother and sister jumped on that bandwagon and bought 2 houses each, . . now they are dying for a renter and freaking out about how much money they've lost. You know sometimes when something sounds to good to be true it generally is. I decided to stay home with the kids and forgo the luxury of owning my own home and for me I'm glad I made that decision, but man cry me a river over the fact that people got greedy.
 
I agree for the most part, but I will say this: I bought my first house w/no money down. It was a teeny little 2 BR, $210K, $5K in taxes (yep, thank you NJ! :p). If I had to put money down, I wouldn't have been able to buy it, & I'd have been renting for the rest of my life.

I worked hard on it & invested maybe $15K into it. I sold it at a $120K profit, which gave me my 20% down on my next house, which was about 50% bigger. The monthly mortgage is $100 less. :)

Sometimes it works. It's a gamble--on the market, the community & the right buyer. But when it does work it works very very well.

Now I'm trying to figure out how to finance my second home. I'm thinking a 5BR on the beach at the Jersey shore. Anyone wanna contribute? :D
 
I'm in NJ as well...and I agree 1000%

My favorite are the people who decided to move and assumed that their 1st house would sell. When it didn't, they just decided to stop paying the mortgage and then have the attitude that, *it's not fair...they shouldn't be expected to have to pay 2 mortgages.* Well, I'd like to thank them because now I get to help pay off their foreclosed mortgage.:mad: I'm sorry but these aren't people who were *taken advantage of.* These are people who made bad decisions and now want some else to fix things for them.

I sold a home last November. I had paid $700K but only financed $550K. I sold it for $600K. And I had 2 mortgages for 11 months. But you know what? That was my problem. No one told me to move.

I'm sorry..this subject just really burns me up.
 
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ITA! When we bought our house 4 years ago the banks would have given us way more than we could afford. We knew what we could afford and still were able to buy a nice house. We even have an adjustable rate mortgage. We have saved thousands because the rate is so low. We know that it can go up but only 2% at a time and no more than 5% over the life of the loan which means we could max out at 9%. We also put down 20% to avoid PMI. Do you know what we do with the extra money we are saving on the mortgage...we save it. Duh what a concept. This has helped us immensely because I can now stay at home with our kids for quite a while. We live within our means.
 
Apparently our bank didn't get the "easy credit" memo ~ they put us through the wringer to make sure we weren't a credit risk. And we put 20% down on a moderately priced house.

At one point, I thought I was going to have to submit to bloodwork.
 
i bought my first home with no money down and some sort of interest only deal, cant remember, but we refinanced at some point to get a proper mortgage. if it had not been for the ability to pay no money down, i would not have been able to buy either. but, i was raised to be responsible for my debts and pay them.....luckily for us, we knew we were moving across the country so we sold our house right before everything went haywire....

with the instant gratification, put it on credit culture we have in america, of course if a mortgage company says even though you only make $12 / hour, we think you should have the money to live in a $400 K house anyway, alot of people will take the money and run.....

there are many people who have legitimately lost everything, and that is very sad to me, but i do agree that the "i have to have a bigger house than my neighbor even if i really can't afford it" society that we live in today is enfuriating. perhaps this economic fiasco will help remind people what is really important in this life.....
 
I agree a lot of people got caught in this home crisis, and I used to feel that people should have know better. For the most part, most homeowners dont want to lose their homes and just forgot about reading the small print before signing. My sister in law, who i love dearly, bought a fixer upper home in 2004 for 61,000, I know not a lot of money in comparison to some home prices. But she had never owned her a home and her children are all grown and moved on with their lives. She had a down payment of $3000, her payments were 565.00 per month with an hourly wage of 12.00 per her. So she felt she could afford it, since her rent was 650.00. Within 2 years, she open up an credit account with home depot and lowes, so that she can fix her home. She spent 10,000 in remodeling her kitchen and 7,000 on h er bathroom. She redid the lawn with new sod and landscaping. Her 2 bedroom house was looking good, she did not over extend herself, she need a another car so instead of financing she bought a used car in cash, $3,000. Well last year her payment increased on her home from 565 to 825 per month, she had an adjustable rate. Now she can't afford to stay in her home. She tried to refinance, but was told her income with her 2 credit with home depot an lowes she couldn't qualify for a new mortgage. She has never been late on any payment, including her home. So guess what, her home eventually went into foreclosure and was autioned off for $13,000! Countrywide was her bank and they didn't want to help her keep her home. It is a shame that the bank would rather sell it for so less than to help her with a modest payment for 30 years. Do the math, they would have made money from her over the long haul. I bet there are alot of people in similar situations like her, and because she is considere low income no one hears their cry.
 
You know what drives me crazy is what some people who have been foreclosed on do to their homes before they leave. We have friends and family who have bought some of these homes and the tales of destruction they tell! Homes that have been stripped bare of switch plates, cabinets, fireplace inserts, decorative columns!! It's like ruining the home for the next owner is going to make them feel better for losing their home, when most likely it was their own fault for having eyes bigger than their wallets!

I, like a lot of people on here, am happy with my small, affordable home. We live in a 1600 sq ft ranch. There are 5 of us! Sometimes it's tight, but at least it's ours. And we bought it on one income, of which I'm extremely proud.

I wish this society would start taking responsibility for their actions-in all aspects of their lives.
 
grad2010 said:
It is a shame that the bank would rather sell it for so less than to help her with a modest payment for 30 years. Do the math, they would have made money from her over the long haul.
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*nods* I think the idea of helping these people refigure their monthly payment (as opposed to just kicking them out) is a good one. It's smart financially, and it's the right thing to do.

I'm not on board, however, with McCain's idea about refiguring the loan amount and the price of the house. That's not fair to the rest of us who did everything right...unless he wants to refinance us in the same manner.
 
grad2010, i am so sorry to hear your sister-in-law's story....that is the kind of thing that just makes me sad....there are so many people in that sort of boat....people who wanted to do something positive for themselves, and have been so responsible and would continue to be.

unfortunately, it is the irresponsible a-holes that knew better and bought anyway, that make the banks and mortgage companies scared to put any faith in anyone. i know you can't run a business on the "honor system", but what kind of business person knowingly gives loans to people who clearly can't afford it in the first place???
 
See, the problem now is that if we don't bail out the a-holes we'll end up paying for it in other ways. Say there's a foreclosed home on your block. Say you live in a very similar house & have to move & sell your home for, maybe, a great job opportunity. Say a buyer looks at both houses, & the foreclosed house is maybe $50K less b/c the bank wants to unload it. Who gets screwed?

Say there are 2-3 foreclosed houses on your block that the bank is ignoring. Say they get overgrown w/weeds, paint starts to peel, & they look generally dilapidated. Your property values have just taken a nose dive. Who gets screwed?

McKain is right on this one. For the sake of those of us who've paid our mortgages on time, we'll have to bail out those who haven't. :mad:
 
LaughingWater said:
Apparently our bank didn't get the "easy credit" memo ~ they put us through the wringer to make sure we weren't a credit risk. And we put 20% down on a moderately priced house.

At one point, I thought I was going to have to submit to bloodwork.
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Lori - I'll bet that bank is still in business, though....

And Laura - You knew you could afford your house with nothing down. You didn't buy your current house with zero interest - you were too smart to do so.

Yeah, I agree. I get really upset at the notion that we SHOULD bail out those poor little people who were taking advantage of by the big bad banks who had the audacity to loan them too much money. Then those of us who were smart and did the right thing are now paying for it. No one wants to take accountability - it's always someone else's fault. Sorry - you are the only one responsible for your own finances.
 
andtckrtoo said:
Lori - I'll bet that bank is still in business, though....
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Yes, they are. I'm grateful they didn't tempt us in any way to buy over our heads. I doubt we would have gone for it, but still.

Laura's got a point about property values. Again, refiguring the monthly mortagage payment is something that appeals to me as a taxpayer. I don't want to see families kicked out, and I certainly don't want my neighborhood losing value.

I'd still want the total loan to remain the same though. Either that, or McCain better fork over cash to pay some of my mortgage too.
 
We bought the house we are living in now for my father when he began showing sign of dementia. It was right around when they first started offering all these crazy loans. We needed something near us for obvious reasons (it's on the same block as our old house). We were actually told by the lender that we might have trouble with the approval since we weren't "trading up". They also tried to talk us into an ARM even though we were putting 20% down and qualified for a fixed rate. We told them we wouldn't even consider an ARM. I even suggested that in a few years time people would start defaulting on these loans and that real estate prices would go down. They all laughed at me! Including my worthless realtor. We only used him 'cause at the time homes in our neighborhood were selling in less that a week and we had to move fast. Anyway we got lucky (in an sense) 'cause my father had to move into assisted living after about two years. It was right at the peak of the market so we sold one of the houses and now have a very low monthly payment. What gets me is that me, a nobody, could see the writing on the wall while the pros thought prices would just keep going up.
 
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