Upcoming Foreclosures

How many of you really know WHY the "Housing Crisis" happened - the who, what, how and why this happened?

I find that many of those I speak to simply point to the banks and say they did - they got greedy and made unwise loans which ended up in foreclosures. But ask yourselves - why would they abandon sound lending practice for what surely was a risk to high - what motivated them to lend this way. Well it was Fanny Mae & Freddie Mack. If you don't know who these Federal backed corporations are you might want to google it because they have and continue to swallow hundreds of Billions of our tax dollars and have an unlimited credit line with the Fed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Mae http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/09/AR2008060902626.html Fanny Mae & Freddie Mack are Federal National Mortgage Association which buy mortgages from banks which frees up banks to make more mortgages. HUD which wanted more low income folks in homes was the devise by which the Housing Crisis began. HUD stuck to a policy which allowed Fanny & Freddie to count subprime loans as good. From 2004 to 2006, the two purchased $434 billion in securities backed by subprime loans, creating a market for more such lending. Subprime loans are targeted toward borrowers with poor credit, and they generally carry higher interest rates than conventional loans. You can watch an excellent video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4&annotation_id=annotation_918789&feature=iv to further understand how this happened. Did you know that this started with Carter? Did you know that this was worsen by Clinton? Did you know it was bad federal policy that did it? The banks were ordered under penalty of a fine if they did not make subprime loans. Then Freddie & Fanny made it worse. Then the greed really got going via Bears & Stern.

Public Comments

1. Oh look blaming Democrats. You clearly don't have the real story of why it happened either. I do know why it happened, the blame belongs to all equally and is far more complex than this blame the Democrats scenario you choose to believe.
2. FACT CHECK: President Bush recommended a significant regulatory overhaul of the housing finance industry in 2003, but many Democrats opposed his plan, fearing that tighter regulation could greatly reduce financing for low-income housing, both low- and high-risk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddy_Mac
3. You cannot blame a massive housing bubble, global financial meltdown and greatest economic collapse in 80 years on a minority of a minority defaulting on loans that were secured by the US government in the first place.
4. money is why... stock holders wanted higher profit margins... so they pushed harder and harder... cut more corners, loan to less qualified customers... basic business... it's the same reason GM died... they were more concerned with short term profit than long term sustainability... so, you want me to believe carter did something that didn't impact anyone for 30 years? lol mortgage rates should have been high through the 80s, 90s and early 2000s if what you say is the cause...
5. Let's see. 79.8% whites in America. 12.8% blacks in America. So, Blacks brought America down or could IT have been the DE-REGULATION of the laws and the unlawful practices of the categorizing banks & mortgage companies to enable them to sell SECURITIES, THAT WERE NOT, FUNDED! youtube can be very dangerous to those to THINK they have a little (very little) knowledge.
6. Here are the Democrats defending Fannie and Freddie in 2004 when Bush tried to regulate them which would have averted the crisis we find ourselves in! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs
7. Excellent video on youtube? Are you kidding me? It was a bunch of words on the screen that some idiot wrote! that just goes to show how little you know about this situation that you would even post that link. The housing crisis was a perfect storm of sorts with plenty of blame to go around but by far it was deregulation that made it what it was. You are right that it got worse during the Clinton admin, that's because of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 (all 3 republicans) that allowed banks, securities institutions and insurance companies to all merge (AIG). This was a lesson we should have learned during the great depression but that's a whole other conversation. It was then worsened by Bush's incentives to increase lending spurring companies like Quick Loan Funding and others who just gave money to anyone, funded by Wall St. Backed by AIG. It was after this market took off that Fannie and Freddie got back into it. Get your facts straight then try again. BTW just to show you how off you are just look at any chart showing housing price increases, 2004 to 2006 was the peak of the sub-prime market not the beggining.
8. Republicans did have a part too. With deregulation assets could be used for collateral up to 30 times from 6 times. That in itself is not a problem as long as balance is maintained, it doesn't matter if the scale is balanced with 3 high risk against 3 low risk or 15 high risk and 15 low risk assets bundled together. But when you introduce sub-prime loans, that balance is not maintained. So Republican's deregulation set the conditions for a bigger mess, but housing reform tipped the scale over to make the mess. Also, it wasnt just one group defaulting that caused it, but credit being opened up also allowed other groups to qualify for more credit then they should have. So as credit opened up to the poor, available credit also increased for the middle class, it was not just the poor defaulting on loans, but also others who took out more credit then they could afford.
9. There was a 1994 class action lawsuit filed against Citibank. The result of this lawsuit was that minorities were given special treatment in getting loans they couldn't always afford, especially from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. One of the Junior lawyers for the plaintiff - Barack H. Obama.
10. What? Noooooo...that's not what happened. It was all Wall Street. We all did our calculations properly, we all know what usury is, we all understand the ARM time frame, we all bought within our means and none of us were greedy...but WALL STREET did something I can't explain with the words they use, by using financial information I don't understand, and they dealt with someone who promised me they'd be good but that didn't work, so I know, it's Wall Street's fault. It has nothing to do with the Government. Don't you understand? They love us, and those people that God blessed us with---435 every couple of years---are there solely to make my life easier. They don't have any need for money of their own, and now that they're already in power, they won't seek more. Honestly though...Dodd and Mozillo deserve to rot in the same hole.