Foreclosures going up, did too many get their McMansion when they really could not afford?
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if they got an A.R.M.(adjustable rate mortgages) laugh at them. Those are the roots of all evil and Bernake and company are wroking to eliminate them for future generations. If you got an ARM GET OUT OF IT NOW!
Too many unscrupulous lenders out there. It's too easy to get 2nd and 3rd mortgages.
ARMs are not evil. People just got greedy, and took them instead of taking a historically low fixed rate. But refinancing seems to just be a popular thing to do, regardless of benefit.
Option ARMs are the devil though. Anyone selling them should be smacked around.
Lending got awfully lax for too long. No one needs a down payment for anything under $1.5 million, which is just stupid.
Just like the credit card companies cried foul when people (95% of which had true, desperate need) file bankruptcy, even when they issued the cards regardless of income, so now mortgage companies will feel lots of pain for lending too easily.
Many of the foreclosures happening now are in the subprime world, or they were investment properties bought by amateurs with no cash down and no savings in the bank to pay even one month with no renter.
And yes, there are lots of people that knowingly borrowed 100% of their purchase price, took interest-only ARMs, and are now facing severe payment shock.
Idiots or victims, it is hard to say. It has become all too common for lenders to 'creatively' finance a mortgage beyond a buyers limits. People are now buying houses and financing 100% of the home cost. People are getting mortgages where all they pay is the interest cost...no principle.that used to be called renting. I guess people or no more idiots today than people who lost their shorts in the stock market a few years ago.
Generally, you are correct. Mortgage brokers are partially to blame for getting people into loans who couldn't forsee the consequences down the road. Especially when English is a second language.
ARMs and Option ARMs have their place, and are not for most people.
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