Foreclosure Crisis: What Should the Federal Government Do?
The mortgage crisis we are experiencing in the United States today is already ranking as among the most serious economic events since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Hardly a day goes by without a story in the newspaper or on the cable news stations reporting about the increase in the number of foreclosures across the United States. The effects of this crisis have spread across all financial markets, where in the end all of us are paying a price for this home mortgage crisis. When the housing market collapsed, so did the availability of credit which our economy depends upon. The home mortgage crisis, the financial crisis and overall economic crisis all need to address by the
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A few years later the market took a turn for the worse, where interest rates were on the rise, and homes were losing their value quickly. Now borrowers that were in these interest only ARM’s needed to refinance these loans because the rates were going up, to a point where the homeowner was not be able to afford the payment. The Federal Reserve tried to stimulate the economy by lowering interest rates during the recession in early 2001, from over 6% in 2000, to a rate just above 1.25% in 2002. These low rates encouraged many Americans to apply for loans for homes that a few years ago they would have not been able to. To encourage the homeownership boom, the Bush administration urged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allot more money for low-income borrowers so they could buy their own homes. This resulted in the subprime mortgage boom, which lasted from 2001 to 2003. During that time, about 9% of all mortgages were given to sub-prime borrowers. This figure increased dramatically to 19% in 2004, and over the next two years was as high as 21%. The main goal the government should be focusing on is to reduce homeowner’s monthly payments, by enticing lenders to make concessions in interest rates that will make their payment affordable. This plan can keep families in their homes and would decrease the number of foreclosures. Providing a financial rescue plan without requiring
The mortgage crisis of 2007 marked catastrophe for millions of homeowners who suffered from foreclosure and short sales. Most of the problems involving the foreclosing of families’ homes could boil down to risky borrowing and lending. Lenders were pushed to ensure families would be eligible for a loan, when in previous years the same families would have been deemed too high-risk to obtain any kind of loan. With the increase in high-risk families obtaining loans, there was a huge increase in home buyers and subsequently a rapid increase in home prices. As a result, prices peaked and then began falling just as fast as they rose. Soon after families began to default on their mortgages forcing them either into foreclosure or short sales. Who was to blame for the risky lending and borrowing that caused the mortgage meltdown? Many might blame the company Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but in reality the entire system of buying and selling and free market failed home owners and the housing economy.
There is by no means a simple solution to solving the home foreclosure epidemic but there are many changes that can be made to help Americans across the globe. The first, I believe starts
The current financial crisis, which had its roots from subprime mortgage crisis, began to increase dramatically in September of 2008. There have been significant economic disorders in United States alone. Major banks and financial organizations around the world are going bankrupt and writing down billion dollars. Housing markets are falling not just in United States but all around the world. This crisis is truly global and it is spreading like fire. Because of these economic crises, the US Congress came up with a $700 billion bailout plan to buy troubled assets from financial institutions who are struggling financially. Nevertheless, another bailout was proposed and it's the homeowner bailout. It is known that the foreclosure
For the last several years, the one issue that has been bringing the United States into a state of trouble that it has not been seen since the great depression has been the monstrous Foreclosure problem. Thousands of people have lost their houses. Thousands of people have faced the dangers of debt and chaos. Thousands of people lives have been ruined because of the mistakes that Americans have done in this nation. In order to solve the problem, one must take a look at how it started and how this depression began. Around eight-nine years ago, the market in housing caused many people to chase after it. This caused a mistake of creating a domino affect that has hurt banks from lending out the high amount of money to people and finding out
The foreclosure crisis in America has impacted everyone- even those who don’t own homes. Our nation is currently struggling with high unemployment, a relatively illiquid credit market, and a deficit that raises serious concerns about the value of the US Dollar in the not too distant future. With interest rates already at historic lows and the government pursuing an unprecedented policy of quantitative monetary easing, options for government intervention are limited. While there is no simple solution to this problem, I think that we must look at the reasons the housing market went into crisis, and based on that develop a regulatory system that will allow us to avoid another situation like this in the future. If Americans believe
The banks should hire more people to assist the homeowners with taking care of their mortgage issues. If they have to develop a new department specifically to handle this crisis, this is what needs to happen and if it is the President or Congress, someone will have to police this procedure to ensure that it gets done.
Brooklyn, NY – December 30, 2009 Foreclosures continue to rise drastically across the United States due to the recession, and have effected, and continue to affect thousands of families and individuals every day. One aspect we must take into consideration is that most people are not informed of what foreclosure means, or the process, even those who are homeowners. I believe that one step to preventing foreclosure is to educate first-time homebuyers. In addition, first-time homebuyer programs should not only assist potential buyers with financially preparing them to buy a home, but to keep the home once
The foreclosure crisis, which tragically happened several years ago, stole away the homes from countless Americans and left them high and dry. These Americans were not even neglecting to pay for their mortgage on purpose; the economy took a drastic downfall and took all of those unshielded Americans with it. Now, these Americans are left with many questions that are unanswered – until now. They still have the chance to improve their credit, test out their dream home, and thrive in the current reasonable home prices and interest rates. All the potential buyer has to do is know where to find that information and how to use it. Now, it is time to explore those tempting options.
There is no doubt that subprime lending was a major cause of the Recession. It was a tactic used by investment banks in order to get more money from unsuspecting homeowners. However, lenders found out that most of the people who were qualified to have a mortgage already had one. In turn, the lenders had to lower their credit criteria for people to take out a loan on a house. This is how the term subprime lending came to be in the financial world. As a result of subprime lending, the investors were able to make millions off of these mortgages. People who qualified for a subprime mortgage usually had a credit score below that of 620. To make the subprime mortgage deal more customer friendly, the lending banks decided to have the people who qualified for these mortgages didn’t have to have a down payment. Normally, the down payment would be as much as 20%, but this made it easier for people to get mortgages without having to worry about how much money they needed at the beginning of their purchase. “ Many American homeowners bought houses they could not afford,
In order to solve the foreclosure crisis, first we must identify and examine the reasons why people are going into foreclosure. The unstable economy which has led to the loss of thousands of jobs is the most obvious reason that people are foreclosing their homes. Without a stable and sufficient source of income, it is virtually impossible to pay back mortgage lenders. The first step we should take to solve the foreclosure crises is to create more jobs so that people can pay their mortgages on time. Its easier said than done, but who said it would be easy. The way to create more jobs and a moral society is through free college education. We spend billions of dollars building penitentiaries and fighting wars which to me is a waste of
The problem was everyone who qualified for a mortgage already had one. Lenders knew if they sold a mortgage to a person that defaults the lender gets the house, and houses were always increasing in value in that market, that would be a valuable asset to sell. To keep up with the demand from investors, lenders started selling mortgages to borrowers who wouldn’t have qualified before because of the risk for default. These mortgages are called sub-prime mortgages and lenders started creating tons of them. In the unregulated market, lenders employed predatory tactics to get more borrowers with attractive offers such as no money down, no credit history required, even no proof of income. People never would have qualified before were now buying large houses, and the lenders sold their mortgages to Investment bankers. The investors packed subprime mortgages in with prime mortgages so credit agencies would still give a AAA rating. The rating Agencies who had a conflict of interest by receiving payments from the investment banks, had no liability if their credit ratings were correct or not. They turned a blind eye to the risky CDOs and kept giving AAA ratings. This worked for a while and everyone was happy including the new homeowners. The housing market became hyper inflated with more homeowners than ever. Wall Street continued to sell their CDO’s which were ticking time bombs. The subprime mortgages began
There are several issues which must first be addressed in order to solve the current foreclosure crisis. First and foremost is the issue of “what can the homeowner actually afford to pay in monthly mortgage payments”? The second issue is the frame work which needs to be implemented by future homeowners and financial institutions to prevent a reoccurrence of another foreclosure crisis.
It is no secret the foreclosure crisis has played a significant role in the financial meltdown of the past year. The collapse of the housing marketing has brought thousands of families across the country to financial ruin, forcing many out on the streets. Although the common consensus is that something must be done to stabilize the foreclosure crisis, the agreement ends there. Proposed solutions to the foreclosure crisis have drawn controversy from all political affiliations and walks of life. This controversy is largely due to the fact that no one can determine for certain, a single factor that led to the housing market meltdown. By carefully analyzing the factors that potentially caused the foreclosure crisis, one can better determine
The frequency of foreclosure in our nation today is dangerously high. The strain from the recent economic downturn has put many families and individuals in a financial chokehold preventing them from being able to make their monthly mortgage payments. Consequently, many of these people feel they’ve punched a one-way ticket to foreclosure. With all these homes being foreclosed on, we face a very real crisis.
The United States economy has been in trouble for the past couple of years. The foreclosure crisis is a condition that began due to the inability of homeowners to pay their mortgages. Foreclosure is a legal proceeding whereby a lender obtains a legal termination of a debtor’s right to redemption. The foreclosure rates have been increasing for a considerable period and certain steps have been put into place to solve the problem. While the government, financial institutions and the general public are highly aware of the crisis, the steps taken to combat the problem are still not sufficient as the foreclosure rates are still increasing.