Personal Narrative-It's Time To Purchase A Home

However, hope might be on the horizon for the victims of the mortgage disaster of 2007/2008. Home buyers who were foreclosed upon years ago, or boomerang buyers, are beginning to be eligible to buy homes again. While some feel hope after feeling bamboozled by lenders and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, some feel anxious and fearful of the thought of buying again. Yet there are lessons that have been learned by the mortgage meltdown. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provided a lesson for the

Too many Americans have fallen victim to the crisis that has become the norm for our citizens these days. Lenders no longer want to work with individuals who have gone through the foreclosure process and for many it is not only their homes they lose. Some have lost their jobs and/or families, others fall into a deep depression and worst of all some have taken their own lives.

For many years, the idea that ones’ home being the largest investment was said as a complete sentence when in fact, it was only an incomplete sentence. Any duly licensed financial planner would finish that sentence by saying all investments are subject to market conditions, the value that investment could increase or decrease and other similar cautionary statements that their attorneys wrote to protect them. The American public only heard that their home was the largest investment and had never experienced, nor had their parents seen the value of their personal homes drop like they did in the past few years. They had never experienced the financial pain and although only a few years have passed, many have forgotten and are ready to jump right back into homeownership.

America is seen as the land of opportunity in that there are endless possibilities for an individual. In this land of opportunity, Americans strive to obtain the ideal known as the American dream. The American Dream is seen as the accomplishment of an ambition achieved while challenged by adversity.1 Americans often associate this success with the ownership of a home. The home is not simply a place of basic protection; there is a much deeper connection to the individual. Ownership of a home grants freedom and security that establishes a sense permanency for the individual. In contrast, renting a living space possesses a semblance of instability and dependence.2 The desire to improve ones’ position in life inspires one to

In 2008 the real estate market crashed because of the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act and Commodities Futures Modernization Act, which led to shady mortgage lending or “liar loans” (Hartman). The loans primarily approved for lower income and middle class borrowers with little income or no job income verification, which lead to many buyers purchasing homes they could not afford because everyone wants a piece of the American dream; homeownership. Because of “reckless lending to lower- and middle-income borrowers who could not afford to repay their loans many of the home buyers lost everything when the market collapsed” (Tankersley 3). Homeowners often continued to live in their houses for months or years without paying any

On June 27, 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the National Housing Act, with the goal to improve the housing standards and conditions, as well as provide a mutual mortgage insurance system. It came at a time when at least half of the nation’s home mortgages were in default, millions of people were losing their homes, and the construction industry was halted. This law in turn created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The FHA set standards for construction and underwriting, and it provided mortgage issuers, such as banks and private lenders, a federal guarantee of repayment. The purpose of this was to revive mortgage lending for house construction, home improvement projects, and home purchases. Not only did the FHA’s program

The past decades have dictated our economic policies; the housing market was fed by the politicians instilling the thought that every person should be a homeowner. According to a speech by President William Clinton in 1995, he boasted about making homeownership a reality, “The goal of this strategy, to boost homeownership to 67.5 percent by the year 2000, which would take us to an all-time high”(Wooley). As a result of political ploys like this, banks and lending institutions came up with products such as the 107% financing, interest only loans, negative amortization programs which allowed loans to start at a 1% interest rate, sub-prime credit packages for those homeowners only 1 day out of bankruptcy, and the no document qualifier

In these days of economic upheaval, rising unemployment, increasing bankruptcies, and car and credit card loan defaults, perhaps nothing is more frightening than the rising rates of home foreclosures. Owning a home has long been considered the cornerstone of the Great American Dream, and now for many that dream has turned into a nightmare, from which there seems no escape. The combination of predatory lending practices and consumers who have for to long lived beyond their means has created an escalating problem. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

During 2007 through 2010 there existed what we commonly refer to as the subprime mortgage crisis. Through deduction of readings by those considered esteemed in the realm of finance - such as Ben Bernanke - the crisis arose out of an earlier expansion of mortgage credit. This included extending mortgages to borrowers who previously would have had difficulty getting mortgages; this both contributed to and was facilitated by rapidly rising home prices. Pre-subprime mortgages, those looking to buy homes found it difficult to obtain mortgages if they had below average credit histories, provided small down payments or sought high-payment loans without the collateral, income, and/or credit history to match with their mortgage request. Indeed some high-risk families could obtain small-sized mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), otherwise, those facing limited credit options, rented. Because of these processes, home ownership fluctuated around 65 percent, mortgage foreclosure rates were low, and home construction and house prices mainly reflected swings in mortgage interest rates and income.

Everyone has heard the news on the current deteriorating state of the economy, the severe credit crisis and the declining housing market. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, other news outlets and even the President remind us of our pain daily. The people's fears and perception have now become reality. Home foreclosures are at an all time high even in my neighborhood in Jersey City with many more foreclosures likely to come. The unemployment rate in Hudson County, New Jersey is growing daily and is the highest it has been in many years. Housing resale values are at all time lows with no end in sight. Even the banks are going bankrupt as are many Americans who no longer qualify for credit.Because of the recent credit crisis, many people don't qualify for a new loan to buy a house right now, despite the incredibly low housing prices.

The opinion that the homeless should just work to support themselves is common; however finding a job without an address is nearly impossible. Temporary or seasonal shelters don’t provide for residency, and without a stable residence, employment is difficult to obtain and even more difficult to maintain. Conversely, obtaining stable housing is nearly impossible without employment. A cruel, never-ending, negative feedback loop is established.

I was unlucky enough to be front and center working for a homebuilder at the time of the real estate crisis. The mindset of sellers, realtors and mortgage brokers before the “bubble burst” was something that was very obvious to me as a lack of care for the long term homeowners and their financial welfare. While the banks like Countrywide Home Loans and Bear Stearns (JPMorgan Chase Bank) were making billions of dollars on mortgages, they were ridiculous in thinking that this would not come back on them tenfold. How can you purchase a loan and approve it through underwriting without first verifying the documents were accurate? How could I get a home loan when I was 21 and had a credit score of 1? Well, this definitely happened. I had a cosigner, of course, but still, the qualifying standards back in 2005 were relaxed to a fault. I liked to think that I was responsible enough to have this investment in a property to call my own, but we bought at the height of market in Orlando, and only gained in equity for about 6 months. In 2007, our house was worth $40,000.00 less than what we purchased it for.

No one really realizes the time and patience it takes to get a first time home buyers loan. The first and most critical step in homeownership is getting the right mindset. This principally involves

Since the housing market bust, there has been an explosion in the number of federal investigation of mortgage fraud scheme across the country. Mortgage Fraud is a violation of state and

Owning a house has become more important than simply having a place to live, or making a sound real estate investment in our society. Buying a house has become an integral part of the American dream. No matter if you are male or female, young or old, rich or poor, what culture or country you are from, everyone has a dream about it; in other words, every one of us wants to own a place that we can live in and create memories in that will last a life time. For a first-time homebuyer, that dream can quickly turn into a nightmare. The whole home buying process can quickly overwhelm the average individual. You’re entering into what could be the biggest purchase of your life with no experience to fall back on. The good news is a little preparation can go a long way and help you approach this decision with confidence. Luckily for you, I have taken the liberty of putting together a guide for the first-time homebuyer. Throughout this guide I will take you step by step through the daunting process of buying a home.