LV had been the fastest growing city in America for many, many years in a row, until this year. Now it’s McKinney, Tx, a formerly sleepy farming town north of Dallas, and they haven’t stopped building there yet.
A clue for the clueless, the problem is identified in the very name of this type of loan. Sub-Prime.
Once again, the government should build and maintain the roads, provide for national defense and vital national interests, regulate commerce, and leave me the f*#k alone.
Bail-outs? Stimulus packages? I call BS, they are handouts, candy for the electorate in an election year.

Left by no2liberals on January 29th, 2008 at 11:28 am

The love of money is the root of all evil.

There were greedy lenders who took advantage of people, some of whom didn’t even read English. And, there were people who didn’t even have a job that got loans because nobody checked their employment status. And, a great many of the people LIED about their income, their debts, their legal status, their job status, etc. These sorts don’t care how long their little joy ride lasts, they’ll ride it till they get caught and then walk away, leaving the rest of us with their bills.

Not too long ago if you wanted to buy a house, you had to have a 20% downpayment, or with less, such as 10%, you were put under plenty of scrutiny. Somebody (maybe it was on this blog) said the regs were changed to allow for more minorities to get loans. If it was somebody on this blog, I’d appreciate a reference.

Left by Dianne on January 29th, 2008 at 11:48 am

Dianne- regulations were changed so banks could make more money.

It’s greed if you buy more house than you can afford, it’s fraud when someone you hire to get you a mortgage misrepresents a high-cost, high-commission loan as the best deal for his client.

It’s nice to talk about personal responsibility but the fact is that the government allowed these fraudulent loans to go through even after the warning bells started ringing. Why? Dogmatic adherence to “deregulation” and the greed of the political donor class.

Left by Preston on January 30th, 2008 at 8:58 pm

… it’s fraud when someone you hire to get you a mortgage misrepresents a high-cost, high-commission loan as the best deal for his client.

what if the high cost, high commission loan is the best deal for the client?

Left by adam on February 1st, 2008 at 3:06 am

Well, let them both share the blame.

I think your banks were way to easy with other peoples cash. That was the problem, it wasn’t their money, outside bond funds etc., were. So of course they didn’t care about if someone could pay it back, they didn’t make money that way, they made money on volume.

So you had people that were perhaps foolish to think they could afford an expensive house, but that error is far more ethical than someone already swimming in pools of cash doing this criminally.

Basically a few thousand lenders may have brought down the u.s.a’s economy for the next 10 years. They’ve done for more damage than any drug baron, or Osama.

You have to regulate the industry, otherwise these guys start to think they are gods and untouchable, and sadly…everyone else pays, never the nincompoops that helped cause it.

As for the borrowers, again, kinda stupid, but their only error was wishing to be home owners…not really that evil..just misguided.

BUT..one final issue. Given the rise in house prices, nobody should have been affording those homes. The average wage has only increased (when you balance out prices etc.,) by about 60$ since 1980. And that’s with double incomes!

Trust me, someone got very rich off this…and frankly they should be the first ones lined up!

oops!

Left by Robert on May 27th, 2008 at 3:56 pm