BBC reporting - US Tent Cities

zman1

Active Member
The BBC is reporting US tent cities - (Sad, we just borrowed (National Debt) 200 Billion for the Bankers).
The meltdown in the US

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market has led to record foreclosures and forced thousands from their homes. In few places is it worse than southern California, where the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani reports on an extreme consequence of the downturn, but one that some observers fear could grow.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7297093.stm
http://youtube.com/watch?v=CnnOOo6tRs8
 

nordy

Active Member
It's a sad thing to be homeless-I was that way for a short period many years ago when I was a lot younger and able to handle the disruption and resultant stress better than I would if it happened to me now.
That being said many, but by no means all, of the recent foreclosures were brought on by incredibaly poor financial decisions made by home buyers and homeowners. I can't count the number of stories I have read in the news about people who say they did not read the fine print in their loan papers and then found that their loan rate is about to reset resulting in

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payments increasing 25, 50, or 75%. People risked their financial future and stability in the hope that housing values would keep going up at 20% annual rates. People who took out home equity loans they can't repay, who took out multiple home loans anticipating being able to sell or refinance on the word of a loan officer who told them, yeah, you can refinance anytime into a low fixed rate! The last time I bought a new car, and that was only a 21K loan, I spent about 45 minutes reading every single line in every single document I signed. the financial guy was getting impatient, But I told him it's my money, it's my loan, and he would just have to wait. I didn't uncover anything bad but hey, don't sign if you don't understand what you are signing. Oh, and also don't buy something that you can not afford.
And the bankers and unscrupulous

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companies who took advantage of clueless buyers, getting people loans with no income verification just so they could make that sale-evil.
 

dragonzim

Active Member
People should have realized that they were getting a bad deal when they signed those mortgages. How someone can think that they would be able to afford a 500K house on a 50K a year income is crazy. Now, our tax dollars are going to bail these people out. I mean, I do feel bad that some of these people are now homeless, but come on, how you can you really expect to get that kind of house on such a low income. It's not my fault these people didnt read the fine print or research how bad adjustable rate loans really are.
They truly have no one to blame but themselves. No one forced them to sign the contract.
 

al mc

Active Member
Originally Posted by DragonZim
http:///forum/post/2528391
People should have realized that they were getting a bad deal when they signed those mortgages. How someone can think that they would be able to afford a 500K house on a 50K a year income is crazy. Now, our tax dollars are going to bail these people out. I mean, I do feel bad that some of these people are now homeless, but come on, how you can you really expect to get that kind of house on such a low income. It's not my fault these people didnt read the fine print or research how bad adjustable rate loans really are.
They truly have no one to blame but themselves. No one forced them to sign the contract.
I agree. On an individual level it is hard not to have compassion for people. However, you can't live on credit forever...especially variable rate credit...My frustration is that now all of the rest of us are going to pay for this with higher interest rates and more taxes. That will result in slowing the economy with even higher rates (or if the Fed cuts rates too aggressively...inflation) which will cycle back to higher prices, slower growth, layoffs and more foreclosures.
 

salt monger

Member
i agree that alot of these people brought these foreclosures on themselves, i recently bought a house, and because i'm younger (28) the lenders kept trying to talk me into all types of "creative solutions" such as reverse mortgages, adjustable rates, but i refused and insisted on a fixed rate traditional

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, i wanted to know exactly what i owed each month, without any suprises, these people are adults that signed a legal binding contract, and in the state of new jersey are even required to have a real estate lawyer to explain the contract to them.... now people are calling for the government to step in and use our tax dollars to bail them out. what about the rest of us responsible adults. no bonus for making well thought out smart decisions? is anyone paying my bills for me? doesn't seem fair if you think about it huh? maybe they should have took a little time to do the math, think of potential rising interest rates, and other things that could happen...
 
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