Market Transparency and Consumer Choice for Housing Essay

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.

The foreclosure crisis is the second major financial dilemma of the twenty-first century. To solve this, the roots of the problem need to be dug up and exposed followed by replanting with an appropriately improved regulatory system to help build stronger roots for the future. It seems that the free market system can't be free anymore given its intertwining roots extend way beyond domestic to international financial systems. There are two fundamental causes to the latest credit crisis: 1) poor quality securitized mortgages and 2) insufficient underwriting for credit poor borrowers. Secondary (downstream) problems making the financial crisis more complex include underemployment and business failures. Many banks,

In 2008 the real estate market crashed because of the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodities Futures Modernization Act, which led to shady mortgage lending or “liar loans” (Hartman). The loans primarily approved for lower income and middle class borrowers with little income or no job income verification, which lead to many buyers purchasing homes they could not afford because everyone wants a piece of the American dream; homeownership. Because of “reckless lending to lower- and middle-income borrowers who could not afford to repay their loans many of the home buyers lost everything when the market collapsed” (Tankersley 3). Homeowners often continued to live in their houses for months or years without paying any

In the lead up to the current recession, when the real estate market began to fall, there were so many investors shorting stocks and securitized mortgage packages that were already falling, that the market simply fell further. There were no buyers at the bottom, and the professional investors made millions off of the losses of others. Beyond this, there was no real federal regulation for securitized mortgages, since there was no real way to gauge the mathematical risk of any given package. This allowed the investors to take advantage of the system and to short loans on real people’s homes. Once these securities were worthless, many of the homebuyer’s defaulted on their mortgages and were left penniless. No matter from which angle this crisis is looked at, the blame rests squarely with the managers who began the entire cycle, the ones who pursued the securitization of mortgages. Their incompetence not only led to the losses of Americans who have never invested in the stock market, but to losses for their shareholders.

The foreclosure crisis that took over the United States a few years ago left many people facing economic hardships. This crisis happened because there was a huge housing bubble that was unsupported by actual home values. The bubble began bursting in spring of 2008 and the crisis culminated in mid-2009. Many lenders went out of business and many home owners began losing their homes. When the government became aware of this problem and began to implement new programs, it was already too late for many homeowners. Those homeowners are not at a point where they might be considering buying a new home. The housing crisis has created new rules, regulations governing the mortgage industry, and has also created a new agency dedicated to consumer protection. This consumer protection agency is called the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. These dramatic changes have helped to create more responsible lending. The improving market conditions such as low housing costs and competitive interest rates are allowing those affected by a foreclosure to become homeowners again. Prospective buyers have a multitude of programs available to them, so even those with less than clean slate have several options.

In these days of economic upheaval, rising unemployment, increasing bankruptcies, and car and credit card loan defaults, perhaps nothing is more frightening than the rising rates of home foreclosures. Owning a home has long been considered the cornerstone of the Great American Dream, and now for many that dream has turned into a nightmare, from which there seems no escape. The combination of predatory lending practices and consumers who have for to long lived beyond their means has created an escalating problem. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

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

As the economy drops and foreclosures are on the rise, millions of Americans who were financially stable several years ago are asking the same question, “How could this happen to me?” The crisis has occupied the minds of politicians, who are trying desperately to solve this problem, but the tragedy continues as more and more Americans are foreclosed on with no alternatives. The foreclosure crisis will not be solved by simply lowering interest rates, firing loan brokers, or other short-term, ineffective solutions. The long term solution to the housing crisis has nothing to do with housing. The government has lost its way and needs to redirect the way the whole economy is run.

In the early-2000s, Moody’s, one of the leading credit rating agencies in the world, evaluated thousands of bonds backed by so-called “subprime” residential mortgages—home loans made to those with both low incomes and poor credit scores. When housing prices began to fall in 2006, the value of these bonds disintegrated, and Moody’s was compelled to downgrade them significantly. In late 2008, several commercial banks, investment banks, and mortgage lenders that had been

The images of the foreclosure crisis are startling: families forced out of their homes, bank executives begging Congress for bailouts, government officials scrambling to put the nation’s financial system back together. Such disarray, however, arises from a very simple moment – when a hopeful family sits down with a loan officer at their local bank. In that moment, the collective fates of the family, the bank and national financial system are sealed. For better or worse, the outcome of the meeting determines the fates of all involved. The family can embark on a path of either independence and homeownership or ruin and dislocation. The bank can either invest in the community or partake in its unraveling. The national financial system can

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a nationwide catastrophe that resulted in the increase of the default and foreclosure of home loans, and consequent decrease in the value of mortgage-backed securities. The mortgage crash was a result of non-bank originators being insufficiently regulated and engaging in excessive risk-taking behavior and questionable lending practices. However, the leading causes for the subprime mortgage extend further than flawed lending decisions. The subprime mortgage crisis would not have occurred had it not been for a series of fundamentally flawed government policies (Allen, 2015).

The current bull market of the U.S economy has shown rising prices in securities, products, and services. The housing market is no stranger to the fluctuations of today’s volatility, for it goes with it. The real estate industry realizes growth when related industries experience growth. And the housing market realizes loss when related industries experience loss. Housing is interconnected with many other sectors and industries, so it is not sound to solely blame housing markets for their own oscillations. A major contributor to the Savings-Loans and Foreclosure crisis was unpaid loans (Root). Banks were making loans to prospective and current homeowners without sufficient guarantee of return on investment (ROI). It is this default of loaning on the part of consumers I want to provide a solution to minimize its effects.

With all of the incentives and mortgage products given so easily to people that couldn’t afford the high prices (including interest rates), many people defaulted on their first mortgages because they were no longer were able to receive the profit from the homes they first intended to flip. “During the first quarter of 2008, nearly 9% of all mortgage holders were delinquent or in foreclosure, the highest rate since recordkeeping began in 1979. Foreclosure filings more than

Due to such events as the subprime mortgage crisis, the auto market and Wall Street’s failure, the United States suffered a severe economic blow. Looking at the situation from an economic view, supply is supposed to equal demand. Due to the mortgage crisis and the careless attempts of some to make money, there is a superfluous amount of empty homes throughout the United States. In the subprime mortgage crisis, the nature of the failure was the inability to account for money given to individuals, who lack the appropriate requirements. In order to obtain a loan, collateral is needed. References were not being checked and poor credit history went ignored. People were obtaining loans and not paying attention to the interests rates associated. “This time around, the slack standards allowed millions of high-risk borrowers to get easy home mortgages. When this so-called subprime market collapsed beginning about a year ago, ordinary working people bore the brunt” (Gallagher, 2008). Companies were so anxious to place people in homes, that it cost them billions of dollars and

In relation to the increase in house’s price, the rise of financial agreements such as mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO) encouraged investors to invest in the U.S housing market (Krugman, 2009). When housing price declined in the U.S, many financial institutions that borrowed and invested in subprime mortgage reported losses. In addition, the fall of housing price resulted in default and foreclosure and that began to exhaust consumer’s wealth and