jlt, Vox, Mavericks of A-sauce! and 6 other people liked this
Yeah, I hate that plan. - Jason Carreira
I think the country needs to realize that while wall street was irresponsible, so were a lot of the everyday people who are in this housing mess. I don't think the politicians can say it aloud though, because for the American public being a victim is easier. Sure there was some sneaky underhanded mortgage brokers, but I think the majority of people simply bought something they couldn't afford and didn't fully understand. - JoEllen
Maverick-Backed Securities (vs. amending the Bankruptcy Code)... http://www.concurringopinions.... ...but either way, those of us who were responsible and lived within our means pay for the externalities imposed on us by the greedy and the stupid. - £ogical €xtremes
I think the country needs to realize that people were responsible too. Nobody who makes $100k a year believes they can pay for a $500k house. - Patricia
fo realz, where do i sign up?I can afford my mortgage just fine today, but maybe I should go out and get 2 new cars and take a scuba trip to Australia... No fear, the Maverick is going to bail me out! - Chris Hollander
The vast majority of people don't understand basic compund interest. Much less the effects of a adjustable interest rate. For the most part I think the mortgage industry is to blame and that they participated in predatory lending - Chris Patterson
via twhirl
I know it's easy for you guys to sit here and say "people should know", but people don't know. Once they have to think beyond how do I fit this into my weekly budget, it's a wash. Sure YOU know how all this financial stuff works, but the average person is relying on the "expert" trying to sell them the house. Sad, but true. - Rah™
+1 Rah - Lindsay Donaghe
When did we decide to ignore "Caveat Emptor?" Most people in the USA have some connection to the internet. If you can find plans for nuclear weapons, surely you can learn about financial topics. If you choose not to, and you then enter in to a bad financial deal, well, caveat emptor. Arm yourself with education. It's pretty close to free these days. - Mark VandenBerg
@Patricia: I am not sure I understand your comment. Plenty of people believe they can afford more than they can. Lots of people live $500K houses and make far less than $100K a year. That's because the value of the home went up far faster than their income. I think people see that and think they can move in beside their co-worker (at the same income level). - David Muir
at Rah, ignorance of the law doesn't mean you're not guilty. I hate to say it but people SHOULD know. If they took the time to, would it have happened to them? Probably not. I'm sympathetic but only to a point. When I mess up, I'm the one responsible, period. - Patricia
I bought a house in 2004, adn I have to say that *everybody* was trying to convince me to spend about 2x as much- the mortgage broker, the realtor, the escrow person, everybody. It wasn't just Wall Street. People were doing fuzzy math all around me in the hang-on businesses involved. - anna awesomesauce
I'm curious. Is there any kind of sound economic theory behind McCain's plan to buy up the bad mortgages? I don't understand how accruing more government debt from buying these loans is going to help the failed economy. How is this supposed to help the people whose mortgages weren't bought up by the government? - Cheryl Jones
@ anna - I have coworkers who've bought homes recently and had the same experience, but they also went over and over their finances to determine what they could afford - though they were offered twice as much. Just because other people (who are in it for the $) are acting irresponsibly doesn't take the ultimate responsibility of the situation from the consumer. - JoEllen
Another thing I'm wondering about the plan is that it is rescuing folks whose properties have devalued. Essentially isn't it killing the real estate market, if you only have to pay for what your home is worth at that new determined moment? Which is what McCain is suggesting. On the flip side (and I know this isn't what's proposed but) what if your property goes up in value - now do you owe more suddenly? - JoEllen
So what about buying what you can afford and then having it suddenly be worth 2/3s or 1/2 of what you bought it for? Is that irresponsible? How could you know when the market would bottom out? And suddenly you are trapped in a house you can't sell for 10 years or more... and what if you need to move? - Lindsay Donaghe
I read this: http://ap.google.com/article/A... which helps a little, but I'm still wary about this idea to buy up bad mortgages. I think it's a bad precedent, even though there may be sound economics behind it. - Cheryl Jones
@ Lindsay - I don't think that's irresponsible, I think that's how the market usually works. I guess my point is that it is like buying a brand new car off the lot - fast forward 3 months from then, you're still paying a loan for that "off the lot" price, not for the price the car is worth 3 months after you bought it, which is already considerably less. - JoEllen
@JoEllen, cars depreciate the minute you drive them off the lot - homes/property/land 99.9% of the time appreciate - it is more the idea of living within your means and not cry foul when you cannot afford your home. Could it be the furnishings were high end - large screen tv/media room - gold plated fixtures in bathroom? I go with orionstarr on this one! - jlt
