Every day I open my mailbox, as many as half a dozen credit card offers pour out, filled with offers of airline miles, vacations, university t-shirts, and, most of all, free money. If you're like my dad, you painstakingly cut identifying codes off all the correspondence, then stuff it all into the postage-paid envelope and send it right back to the credit card company (yes, he's retired). I just rip the things up as best I can and look forward to doing it all again tomorrow. Whether you see copious credit offers as a prank opportunity, a major annoyance, or even a temptation, University of Georgia professor Stephen Mihm sees them as much more: one of the critical building blocks of this fine nation. And, because of this history of credit-driven capitalism, he's not too worried about today's shaky market.
Blog Of The Nation
I rarely get those credit card offers any more after signing up for the Do Not Call List of pre-approved credit card offers at https://www.optoutprescreen.com
Fineally, we are getting to the heart of the current market conditions. In conversations lately I have been frustrated that no one has brought this up. Of course it is the short term fees and the the individual recipients of these fees that are driving this short term real estate market bubble. They are trying to earn their dollar day to day like the rest of us, and who is interested in the long term damage this will do? This is the first I have heard the layers peeled away, and the real source of the problem revealed. Thanks for bringing this to the attention of your listeners.
Where is the borrower accountability? I don't feel that these people who are losing their homes to forclosure are victims of anything except their own negligence. They purchased homes that they could not afford and they knew the risks. As the gentleman caller said, "It sounded too good to be true."
That should have been his first warning sign.
When my husband and I applied for our mortgage, the banks told us we qualified for much more money than we knew we could easily afford. Rather than accept their offer, we shopped around for homes within our price range. We've watched several friends accept the high mortgages, even though they knew they could not afford them, and wind up forclosing on their homes. Our house is definitely a "fixer-upper,", but we knew it was what we could reasonably afford.
I have little sympathy for people who chose to accept more money from their bank, instead of sitting down and determining what they could realistically afford.
This WILL/WOULD help! (1) Roll back clock to where anything over about 25% total household gross income to housing has to be specifically justified. (2) Pursue lying on applications AND/OR by loan writers/brokers under Perjury.
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