Foreclosure

[Stinky The Clown]

I'm not posting this one to start a debate and won't engage. I **am** here to post my personal opinion.

My tendency when I hear about a foreclosure is to sympathize with the people being evicted, not with the ones doing the evicting.

There's plenty of blame to go around and lots of room for recriminations. No one is blameless.

But it is a matter of degrees.

Some say that the home buyers who went for the stated income, high balance, subprime loans were the greedy ones, looking to make a fast buck.

Some of them, indeed, were greedy.

Some would say that the banks and mortgage companies, brokers, realtors, settlement companies, and all the other parasites and hangers on were to blame, luring starry eyed innocents into the netherworld of high finance and fast money.

Not every last one of them deserve the scorn they get.

But let's keep something in mind. For every poor son of a bitch - even the greedy ones - who wanted to buy into the housing game, there were a few score to thousands of people on the other side trying to get a chunk of that chump's change. And every one of them is a true expert in their niche.

That's hardly a fair fight.

Every case is different. And some people getting foreclosed are hardly victims.

But many of them are.

I am a person who cares about people. My first instinct in almost every case is to side with the little guy before I side with the impersonal corporate 'persons'.

I'm not so stupid as to think every little guy caught up in this is a victim nor that every company involved is predatory.

But when we consider numbers and degrees, I'll start out, at least, on the side of the little guy.

If you don't agree with me, that's your problem.

But you can still feel free to call me if you need some help some time.

Yeah, I'm a fucking bleeding heart fucking liberal.

So what?

[SharonAnn]

1. I'm with you. In some cases, predatory lenders targeted people.

And remember, half the population is below "average" (below the mean), so it's not morally right to lie to them and cheat them. It's not a level playing field.

[chixydix]

2. As with most things, these probably deserve to be looked at on a case by case basis.

Bleeding heart is fine, even considering the term's origin :D
Soft head--- not so much. ;-)

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. K&R!

Always two side to a story. I grew up in a Union household. I will always side with the little guy.

[alstephenson]

4. I'm with you, Husb!

I'm a fucking bleeding heart fucking liberal, too. And PROUD of it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

6. !!!

:thumbsup: :yourock:

[enid602]

5. but for the grace of . . .

The only difference between me and the current generation of foreclosure bait is that I happened to have bought my house 20 years ago. Given a different set of circumstances, I might find myself among their ranks. I sympathize with them

[noamnety]

7. What the hell.

I actually agree with you on something! :D

My first instinct in almost every case is to side with the little guy - siding with the person with the least power will put you on the right side of justice more often than not.

I get really angry when I see people on the left sounding as bad as republicans with their welfare queen-inspired knee jerk judgments. Not just annoyed. Really angry.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=12411#12418

[Robbien]

8. You are half right

in my opinion.

True, not all foreclosed homeowners are victims (most are, but yes some are as caught up in the greed as the corporate culture is).

But the entire home mortgage system for the last six or seven years has been caught up in a culture of greed. I am not sure there is any one company out there in this mess who does not have dirty hands.

[hunter]

9. Look, if the government is going to back these bad debts...

... shouldn't the people actually living in the houses, actual victims of this disaster, be the ones to get bailed out?

Let people continue to live in their homes on some kind of lease, and sort it all out when the dust settles and the mess is cleaned up by sound government regulation.

[Lerkfish]

10. well, you have to realize the shell game of predatory lending.

a financial entity INTENTIONALLY approves a loan to someone who cannot pay it when it balloons out. They know that by looking at their financial statements.
Then, IMMEDIATELY after making the loan, they sell the paper to other mortgage companies, and it becomes a game of hot potato, each company hoping they're not the ones holding the potato when the buyer goes bust.

Used to be, only fly by night mortgage companies did this, what is different is that larger, more reputable firms saw the potential profit and abandoned their tried and true methods of determining who was a worthy risk for a loan.

:shrug:

yes, you CAN blame the buyers for being stupid, just like the victims of con men are stupid. But the bigger banks KNEW better and did it anyways.

[El Pinko]

11. All sides were at fault.

The buyers were at fault for being ignorant that bubbles happen, even in real estate (look into the 1920s Florida land boom) and for not understanding the terms of their loans, for taking on loans that they knew that they couldn't afford, foolishly thinking they could sell at a profit or refi.

The lenders were even more guilty becuase they knew the history, they knew it was a bubble, but they goaded people into buying at insane prices with nonsense like "don't get priced out forever", they had the PHd's and concocted the crazy loans and CDOs to sell off to naive foreign investors.


I'm not a liberal, I'm a leftist, but I'm opposed to any bailout to foolish buyers. They have my sympathies, and maybe the government should help them to transition into rental housing they can afford. It's not the government's job to keep people in houses they can afford to prop up still-overvalued real estate prices.

There is nothing progressive about propping up unjustified real estate prices and keeping houses unaffordable to the masses. Let real estate values correct back to long-term trends so that people who were not debt pigs can buy at a decent price!

The high real estate prices we see today only benefit those who are already fairly well-off and those who are selling homes!

[InsultComicDog]

12. I tend to agree

I do understand the people who are complaining that their "good-for-nothing" neighbor got a break and no one gave them a break. It's human nature. But really, that's the way the wingers would have it, to set the working man one against the other.

[flvegan]

13. H2S, so many folks just don't "get" foreclosure.

I did 12 years in the trenches in my state for a foreclosure law firm. I saw it through the boom, I saw it hit the bottom.

Like anything else, folks seek to be understood before understanding themselves.

Odds on taking the side of the little guy are pretty good.

[many a good man]

14. Yer a bleedin' heart stinkin' clown

And right again, as usual.

[Ichingcarpenter]

15. 70% of the ones I know of personally were not

doing speculation but were just trying to find a place to live and own.

[davekriss]

19. I only know of one couple who were foreclosed...

...and it was due to extended job loss right after 9-11. No fault of their own.

[slackmaster]

16. Kicking and Recommending

Very well written and thoughtful.

:kick:

[SidDithers]

17. I agree almost completely, but with one caveat...

I still think the borrower has the ultimate responsibility to know how much they can afford, and to not blindly swallow what the lenders tell them they can afford. Seek independant advice, if it's needed, but don't rely solely on the lenders marketing.

Sid

[varelse]

18. I noticed this way too late to recommend it

sooo I'll just give it a little :kick: instead

:thumbsup:

[earth mom]

20. As I said before, the wrong people are being punished while the rich & well connected get off

scot free. It's Enron all over again. :grr: