MasterG2kTR
Posts: 6677
Joined: 8/7/2004 From: Wisconsin Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Joenextdoor The seeds of this whole mess were planted in the first Clinton administration. After 4 years, he saw the mess that was going to happen, but for whatever reason, he didn't push to fix it. It was further spurred on by Barney Frank who demanded that Fannie and Freddie encourage banks to give loans to those who don't qualify. Housing starts went up, as well as housing prices. Most if those loans for less than qualified people went out with no money down. These homes were over valued. When the housing bubble began to burst, and prices started falling back to more a more true valuation, ARMs reset and the foreclosure mess began. Once that began, it fed itself, in that as more were foreclosed, it depressed prices which caused more resets, and more foreclosures. I am tired of hearing that the fault lies with Bush. He has been a convenent boogeyman for the last 7 years. He was not in office when the rules were relaxed. He is not guilt free, as he could have made this an issue, but really all parties were asleep at the switch anyway. In this country, we do a poor job of looking ahead, and only seem to react to disaster. The last point I want to make is about ACORN. ACORN was going out and encouraging poor people to buy homes. They helped them find lenders, helped with the applications, and basically put people in this situation. They pressured lenders to make loans, and now they are calling those same lenders "predatory". This organization needs to be looked at by the Justice Dept., but that won't happen as the Democrats won't let it. They are corrupt and committing voter fraud, but nobody seems to care. We need to get back to a situation where people who buy homes actually have a documented income, an acceptable credit score, and a down payment of 5-10%. What on earth did Barney Frank think would happen if we got away from this standard?? The idea is a good one. Create home ownership among those that might not otherwise become owners, but we see now the huge mess this has created. It all goes back to what I have always believed....You can't help those who won't help themselves. Government should not give people things, but instead, create an environment where hard work rewards the individual with the things that they want, such as a home. Ok, so if Bush has known about this for the past 12+ years (since as you state that the problem started in the first Clinton administration) why did he wait until now to do anything about it? He should have put a stop to it 8 years ago when he first took office. Clearly he IS the boogeyman and is using this to make himself and his party look good as he exits the office. Nothing more than political posturing. A good portion of the blame also falls on the idiots who think they can live beyond their means by biting off more debt than they can handle. When you are stretched so thin financially that if any one part of the equation fails it will all collapse like a house of cards, you are not being fiscally responsible. I have always left myself a cushion zone.I am by no means rich or even well off (less than $50k/yr), yet I own my home and will have it paid off about 4 years early, and that is in addition to paying child support for the past 10 years!
< Message edited by MasterG2kTR -- 9/28/2008 8:10:03 AM >
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