Personal Narrative-It's Time To Purchase A Home

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.

There is always the common question what does it take to get a first time home buyers loan? And the answer is there is so much that goes into the process of getting a home loan. You have to find out if there is a down payment and what percentage the seller wants for a down payment. Is the seller going to pay the closing costs or does that come out of your pocket? All these questions and more are what go into getting a home loan.

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

When I was eleven I moved into a new house because my last house had a stalker problem and my parents decided they didn't want to bring my siblings and I up in that type of enviorment. We lived in a rather "woodsy" area, not many people around and far away from the town. My mother, worked usually from 9-8 on week days and my father the same. The week that will haunt me forever. my parents decided to take a trip up to vist some friends and family for the weekend leaving my older brother, Devan 17 and my younger sister Juliet 8 alone. As it being in a small town, word spread that they were going all the way up to toronto, a place not many people around have ventured' out to. As the work week came towrds a end, I noticed a man walking near our property.

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

potential homeowners to purchase their own homes. Loans that had at one point been impossible

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.

Prior to the 2008 economic depression, obtaining a mortgage was relatively simple for home buyers. However, many of those mortgages had provisions that made it difficult for borrowers to repay their mortgages (“Dodd-Frank,” n.d.). As a result, many homeowners lost their homes when they were unable to repay their mortgages, which led to the real estate crisis. In 2010 the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act, also known as the Dodd-Frank Act, was enacted to reform how mortgage servicers vetted borrowers and to eliminate the use of predatory loan practices (Cheeseman, 2013, p. 485). Under the Dodd-Frank Act, creditors must establish borrower’s credit history, income and expected income, debt-to-income ratio, and other factors before

In 2005 I became a widow with four young children and no home. I took my husband’s modest life insurance policy and put $12,000 down on what I thought would be our home until my children graduated and went on to live their own lives. After a year of paying a modest mortgage payment in the state of New York, my mortgage suddenly went up over $400 a month and I could no longer afford the payments. For three months I called every refinancing company, every home loan company and any other resource I knew of at the time, in an effort to save our home. Because I was on a fixed income and had gotten behind in my mortgage payments no company would touch a refinance unless I could bring it up to date. I put my house on the market for a much lower price than I was paying for it and after another three months when it didn’t sell I was forced out of my home.

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

Brooklyn, NY – December 30, 2009 Foreclosures continue to rise drastically across the United States due to the recession, and have effected, and continue to affect thousands of families and individuals every day. One aspect we must take into consideration is that most people are not informed of what foreclosure means, or the process, even those who are homeowners. I believe that one step to preventing foreclosure is to educate first-time homebuyers. In addition, first-time homebuyer programs should not only assist potential buyers with financially preparing them to buy a home, but to keep the home once

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

As I’m preparing to graduate from the University of Utah with my Bachelor’s degree in Social Science I have to make some housing decisions. I have to decide if I want to rent an apartment, buy a house with my fiancé, or move back in with my parents rent free. I researched my housing options with the knowledge I gained from taking some housing and economic classes.

When my dad and stepmom began talking about moving, I didn’t think much of it. They had moved a lot, so I admit I wasn’t really worried about it. Where they were living then, was my favorite out of all the places they had lived because it was right down the road from my mom’s house. It was easy for my sister, Kelcey, and I to go visit our dad, stepmom, and little sister, Kyra. We could literally just walk, before I had a car, over there almost whenever we wanted. But, that changed when they started talking about moving again.

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.