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Foreclosures May Hit 1.5 Million in U.S. Housing Bust »
Posted by: populist 2 years, 8 months agoHold on to your assets. The deepest housing decline in 16 years is about to get worse.
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Comments: 186
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HealthDoctor
March 12, 2007, 12:41 p.m.If this quote from the news story doesn't scare you, it certainly worries me. When people default on their mortgage, they lose everything...a place to live, their credit worthiness, any equity they might have built up....and we lose millions of jobs in the housing industry. What a loss. These loans should not be legal to start with.
"Many of the delinquencies came from loans where borrowers didn't have to provide tax returns or other evidence of income, or where they financed 100 percent or more of the home's value."
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jovial
March 12, 2007, 3:41 p.m.It was only a matter of time. Being from the California market and seeing a uncontrolled housing boom that stretched from San Diego to Las Vegas with home valuations jumping on average of 15-25% a year. I knew it was only a matter of time. The interest rates have been held low. Any significant change upward in the mortgage interest rate wil spell doom for many homeowners.
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hamy
March 12, 2007, 7:37 p.m.Real estate was propping up our sagging economy throughout the Bush presidency. When it fell, it took the rest of the economy with it. Now even lower interest rates won't sweeten most markets. And Bush has done nothing to help housing starts or resale markets. As inflation grows the housing market will continue to crumble. Now tell me how great the economy is!
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dobskier
March 12, 2007, 7:55 p.m.What's Bush suppose to do? Give everybody free intrest and no payments for the 1st 10 years. Here's some advice.... don't buy a house you can't afford. They make houses with wheels that are affordable. Blackbeard is right. Buy property that is below sea level. Don't worry nancy will save you.
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simonsez
March 12, 2007, 8:33 p.m.For jovial
Rodney: My wife met me at the front door in her negligee ...
She was just getting home.
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NelsonR
March 12, 2007, 9:09 p.m.The time is ripe to invest in Camping tent manufacturers. With the home ownership decreasing, tents will be the next venture capitalist realm. Cheap, mobile and affordable are the prime attributes involving TENTS.
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alaskalady
March 12, 2007, 10:15 p.m.I live in Alaska and the going rate for home in Anchorage is 250,000 and up...
Most people I know cannot afford this kind of home and they are not that great looking..
we are pricing ourselves out of the market.. Everything is money now no matter what...
No wonder most companys are moving overseas look the the salarys of CEO's are getting when thay retire, or what sports are paying for players, its out of sight. We need to get a real look at where we are going.
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NelsonR
March 12, 2007, 10:41 p.m.Alaskalady - hell the CEO's don't retire they just start taking a company down hill like Home Depot and the company then pays them millions to get rid of them.
Republicans have made millions under Bush while the middle class dwindled through outsourcing or having jerks like Bill Gates, who now wants unlimited skilled foreigners to immigrate to America, Why, cheaper labor of course!!!
Just today it was announced that this fine American Republican no bid corporation who stole billions is moving out of the U.S., Haliburton. Yeah right everything in America is great under our illustrious and chief idiot Bush.
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dEditor
March 12, 2007, 11:03 p.m.More doom and gloom promoted by the liberal scare tactics seeking to demish the current adminstration and bolster their own liberal hypocritical agendas. In California the Housing market continues to grow, not as fast as it was but still growing. I am sure other parts of the country are doing just as fine. Of course some Businesses will bust. Some always do. However, the liberals own scare is their own shadow thinking that America has become a great society under GW Bush. And in many ways it has. VIVA BUSH.
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evelyna
March 13, 2007, 1:01 a.m.I heard on the radio the finance organization that gave the high interest loans to the people is going bankrupt.
People are defaulting on their loans.
It is time for the banks and credit card companies to police themselves.
Giving people high interest loans just because they are a risk is dumb because the people cannot afford to pay them.
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1robert027
March 13, 2007, 1:29 a.m.nelson, i do agree with your sheep theory, so sad most can not think for themselves
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TOD396
March 13, 2007, 6:55 a.m.It's all Bush's Fault. I can't get a free living, Bush's Fault. Stocks are down, Bush's Fault. Clinton got a hummer in the Oval Office, Bush's Fault. Gas Prices too high, Bush's Fault. Healtcare costs gone out-of-control, Bush's Fault. I have a hangnail, Bush's Fault. Rosie O Donnel is still on TV, Bush's Fault. 9/11, Bush's Fault. Katrina, Bush's Fault. Astronaut Nowak driving 900 miles in a diaper, Bush's Fault. Paris Hilton, Bush's Fault. The checkout line at Wal-Mart is too long, Bush's Fault.
Feel free to add in any other items that we can squarely blame on this man. He is so diabolical, yet so inept. Just ask any Democrat to explain the enigma that is President Bush. He can't seem to speak, yet he was able to master the weather and personally cause Katrina. He can't walk and chew gum, yet he was able to dupe hundreds of congressmen into voting to go to war with a simple lie. This guy is good.
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ADAGUY
March 13, 2007, 8:31 a.m.If this is true, why are so many of them defaulting at the same time?
People are defaulting due to the lack of decent jobs. Decent jobs are disappearing overseas due to outsourcing, and unlimited imports with no tariffs.
If the assumption you just made were correct, there would be no sudden drop, unless you are going to try to convince me that they all became lazy at the same time.
Laughable!
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Destry
March 13, 2007, 10:50 a.m.A rather negative view I must say. I don't agree with your theory at all. The problem is that the cost of housing keeps rising until its become unaffordable to a great deal of people. I see those tiny 900 square feet houses in California going for nearly a million and wonder how the average working guy can afford to live out there.
Just a few years ago you could get a really nice 3 or 4 bedroom house here for less than 50 thousand, now its up to well over 100 thousand. And I am talking about nice homes.
Same applies to automobiles, they are now so expensive that a lot of people have to take out a 5 year loan on a car, thats ridiculous. And I don't blame it on the unions either, its good old american selfishness and greed where profits have become more important than people.
Not everyone out here makes 100k plus per year, just the lucky ones who have good connections, family ties, and possibly specialized training.
I am very lucky that I no longer have those worries.
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pismo
March 13, 2007, 8:56 a.m.Personnaly I beleive the recession has already begun. I used to work for the vinyl industry and the housing has slowed to the point that vinyl siding and window manufacturers are closing plants and in some cases completely getting out of the market.
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Amazing1
March 13, 2007, 9:15 a.m.Sure, people shouldn't buy what they can't afford. And mortgage companies shouldn't be pushing subprime loans on people who are poor and unaware of what they are getting into. These people do not know they can't afford the mortgage because the company has painted an entirely different picture.
This affects our entire economy. And the Federal Reserve is at fault for printing money hand over fist with nothing to back it up. We are in deep do-do and the fault lies with a government that for decades has spent more than it took in.
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disney91david
March 13, 2007, 9:27 a.m.That's is scary....I brough my 1st home in 2005 and the loan is going up every year and it starting to scare me a bit......what's going on with the American Dream.......it going down the toilet for a lot of people like myself, we both work, pay taxes, pay childcare and many other bills and we still living pay check by pay check. Blame it on the greedy people who buy and buy and rent it out to someone else to make profit and here we work hard and what do we get in return, increase and more increase in our mortgage payment...Good Bye American Dream, what make it worst is that your local government agency don't even want to work with you on your property taxes, I didn't put my property together with my mortgage and my propery tax was so darn high - it double this year (what the hell wrong here) and I call the County to make monthy payment and they say NO - where is the American Dream, they want everyone to own there own house and they don't even want to work with you.
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brad1231
March 13, 2007, 9:41 a.m.It's not the lenders fault, it's not anyones fault... if you could hardly make it when you started out.... you should have seen that and then maybe bought something a little "less" expensive.. like a condo instead of a house... or a 3 bedroom instead of a 4 or 5...What is killing most borrowers, is their "2nd" trust deed or their line of credit..... when they originally borrowed.. it was 4% or 5% and not fixed... now it's 8.25..... or more..... that's where the BIGGEST problem is...... ya gotta be smarter than the loan when you sign on the dotted line and get someone to represent you and tell you what "COULD" happen.. and in most cases, WILL HAPPEN..... rates will go UP as will your payment... or get a fixed rate... then NO WORRIES..... at least you know from month to month what you will up against..... BB
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pattif
March 13, 2007, 9:53 a.m.These subprime lendng companies may be able to get people into houses alright, but, they are at a much higher interest rate making them more vulnerabe to begin with. If their financial situation changes ever so slightly this is what happens.
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joeblowe
March 13, 2007, 9:54 a.m.I can't imagine why this would be a surprise to anyone. Why, even I could tell you this boom housing market was going to go bust. And I'm no kind of financial expert. You have GOT to know that when the price of housing climbs to the point where an average person simply can't afford it (particularly if the mortgage rates go up a point or two), that SOMETHING is going to give. And these greedy bastards holding an overpriced mortgage carrot in front of people who they already KNOW can't afford them -- well, that's got a predictable consequence too.
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espse
March 13, 2007, 9:56 a.m.Oil companys are making record profits. Hundreds of billions a quarter. Investment firms in wall street are making record profits, front page NYT today. The rich are getting richer. They are getting huge tax cuts. Immigration is at record highs, mainly from impoverished mexico, I see this morning on CNN that the wages are 17 dollars a week for labor, they can make that an hour here. They are moving chemical research jobs and engineering jobs and computer programing jobs overseas as fast as possible, because companies don't have to pay health care, and can pay a dime on the dollar for the same quality labor. The american public is getting much less educated, public schools are a sham, which is driving the housing market out further and further from the center of cities, as whites try and find a decent public education. There is absolutely no centeral planning, its planning by white flight, cheap farm land, and real estate developers.
Wake up.
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jumpmaster
March 13, 2007, 10:02 a.m.It has been a while since I bought my house but I do distinctly remember that nobody held a gun to my head to sign the papers. Yes, I am absolutely sure that nobody held a gun to my head.
When people sign up for ARM's, didn't they understand that the "A" stood for ADJUSTABLE? Duh. No, double duh. Which direction did they think the rate would adjust?
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jumpmaster
March 13, 2007, 10:04 a.m.I see people all around me who bought too much house. Then they took out home equity loans and bought boats and Tahoes, and all sorts of stupid, depreciating toys. Now the ARM goes up and they are in trouble. That damn Bush.
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nostalgia
March 13, 2007, 10:06 a.m.People today are just not good at personal finance & budgeting. Just ask your friends & family how many have a monthly budget on paper.
ARMs & 100% financing can be disasters.
Real estate agents will always try to convince you to buy the larger more expensive home - their commission depends upon sale price
Lending institutions that made risky loans to people with a poor credit history, deserve to go out of business.
Many years ago, a friend in banking gave us several rules of thumb to use when buying a house - mortgage payments should be a maximum of 25% of your monthly income. Stay with fixed rate conventional mortgages. Don't forget to include property taxes & home owners insurance when deciding what you can afford.
You are also seeing many people using their homes as piggy banks - home equity loans to pay off credit cards and cars. What they fail to do is stop using credit cards. Now they have a mortgage payment, home equity payment & credit card payments
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