Solving the Foreclosure Crisis

Statistically, one out of seven families live in severe physical deficient housing. In fact, the housing and stock market revealed in July of 2009 that the Great Recession further widened the gap and income disparity between the average, hard-working Americans and the top 1% of wealthy Americans. Edward N. Wolff suggests that the average American produced a massive 36.1% drop in overall marketable assets while the top 1% of wealthy Americans only lost 11.1%. This income gap disparity ensures that ever-increasing need for affordable housing as the economic crisis worsens.

The same way that President Clinton boosted about 67.5% of all American people could become homeowners in 1995, will be the same amount of people that lose their homes potentially putting children out on the street and increasing the unemployed homeless population taking up residence in tent cities, where is the hope now? Now is the time to act and include benefits to all homeowners that still believe in the America Dream. The Government and the Banks need to provide modification programs to all homeowners to reduce their interest rates to 4.75% regardless of equity or loan to values. If these homeowners who are currently 200% loan to value, care enough to strive to make every payment timely but are in loans that are coming due or ready to adjust, the industry owes these homeowners the right to a loan that they can afford and maintain regardless of the economy. Each homeowner in America is surrounded by foreclosed properties or short sales affecting their value and impeding any ability to successfully sell their properties.

The foreclosure crisis in America can only be resolved by every American citizen working together to build a stronger America by changing the way we make decisions for expenditures in our lives. We must stop overextending ourselves beyond our economic means. The foreclosure crisis of America has been caused by Americans borrowing money to purchase a home that they cannot afford. Lending agencies have allowed Americans to borrow more money to buy a home than they can afford. Each lending agency seemingly used logical reasoning that if they did not lend the funds to the homeowners, another agency would. The foreclosure crisis was caused by homeowners, businesses, banks, and even the government. The economic recovery depends on not

FDR’s affordable housing initiative was responsible for the rapid expansion of home ownership throughout the United States (Allen and Barth, 2012). This was accomplished in part through the creation of The Federal National Mortgage Association, which provided affordable low down payment mortgages extended over a 30-year period of time. Over the past several decades the United States economic policy has been to encourage home ownership (Bluhm, Overbeck and Wagner, 2010).

Until every home loses value, buying a home will continue to be a good investment for those who can’t buy stocks or bonds. Purchasing my home was a huge milestone in my life as well as an investment I could make for my future. Adalberto Aguirre also believes that “For many Americans, homeownership is synonymous with success, independence, and the achievement of the American Dream.” Homeownership is seen as a pathway to aspects of the American dream; for instance, the ability to pay for a college education, providing start-up capital for a family business, or funding retirement plans (6). Owning a home, like earning a college education, is something I thought we are all supposed to want for ourselves, friends, and family. Helping others attain the American Dream certainly took a backseat to profits in the minds of many mortgage brokers and lenders during the 2000 housing boom.

Within the past three to four years, the United States has seen the dramatic collapse of the housing market. The housing bubble spurred by ill-advised loans to individuals who could not afford a mortgage, complicated contracts which had interest rates and payments changing without reason, and the mass purchasing of bad loans by lending superpowers, had popped. The rapid increase in the value of homes across the country for the previous decade, had been a falsity, in which billions of dollars funded by investments and home purchases were lost within a few months (Wikipedia.org: United States housing bubble). Millions of home owners were found to be unable to pay their mortgages, leading to hundreds of thousands of foreclosures. These

As the saying goes, history repeats itself. The Great Depression is a time in American history that will always be remembered as a time of hardship in Americans’ lives. The goal: to never have such great oppression exist in the United States again. With the way the economy is headed today, many people are skeptical as to whether history will really repeat itself and create a new Depression. One of the biggest problems in the country today is the foreclosure crisis. Many Americans are living outside of their means or have lost their jobs and are unable to make their mortgage payments. When people can’t make their mortgage payments, they will lose their home and their family will be out on the streets. There are definite changes that need to

The foreclosure crisis in our country has implemented a domino effect that may take years before we note any positive changes. As the country begins to heal, an effective process and/or program must be implemented that will reduce or eliminate foreclosures. It is important to remember that purchasing and maintaining a home is a part of the “American Dream,” and when working class families cannot seem to manage without loss of pride and dignity, then the dream begins to fade. The hopelessness and lack of self worth takes a giant step forward and brings with it anger and frustration which only damages families.

The solution to the Foreclosure Crisis is the implementation of continual, mandatory education classes that must be attended and passed, or penalties will be applied to the homeowners. A little tough love from the lender and the government is necessary. Just as our parents follow through and continue to teach us throughout our lives, so must the lenders and the government take the time to “sit” every homeowner down to make them learn and realize that being a homeowner comes with big responsibilities. Whether people are just on the verge of purchasing their homes or their foot is already close to stepping into the state of foreclosure, lenders and the government must take the time to really educate people about the responsibilities and

However, even though it is the role of the bank to sell homes and other foreclosed property, it is the homeowners’ responsibility to research the expenses of owning property. By reading Web sites, newspapers, and magazines that have real estate listings, a prospective homeowner should determine, based on their options, on how much of a house that they can afford (Discover). Lenders generally recommend that people look for homes that cost no more than three to five times their annual household income if homebuyers plan to make a 20% down payment and have a moderate amount of debt. Before considering a home to purchase, it is best to be prequalified and pre-approved for a mortgage; a lending institution will review the given information and estimate how much they can lend towards a foreclosed home, in which the prospective homeowner can estimate the price range of the homes that they may consider (Discover). One way to prevent foreclosure is by hiring a real estate agent.

The foreclosure crisis has hit America exceptionally hard these past few years especially in California where the housing market is at its worst. California is also the worst because it is home to a lot of the most expensive properties. People are walking away from their homes because they cannot afford the mortgages or loans that they took out on their homes. The lenders are also to blame for this because they did not thoroughly look at them borrower’s credit and income to ensure that they would be able to pay it back. In some cases they would lend money even if the borrower had terrible credit. This has caused corporations like, Country Wide Home Loans, to be bought by other companies. A rather simple solution to this would be to

The 2008 housing market meltdown in America created a ripple effect that had a negative impact on multiple real estate and stock markets throughout the world. Also, many people who were investors in the America market have never recovered from this financial disaster. So, one must contemplate how this event could have transpired in a country with such a strong economy with governmental regulations designed to protect the average investor. Nevertheless, it is simple, it took brokers, real estate appraisers, realtors, Wall Street, and mortgage companies combined unethical behavior to allow greed to be his or her guidance in pursuing wealth form unsuspecting new home purchasers who could afford his and her recent purchase, a new house.

One of the notable issues with the U.S housing market is the extent to which the Government failed to stimulate home ownership rates in the long run. Historical trends in the U.S home ownership rates show stagnant growth in home ownership after the early 1960’s. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review indicated that homeownership rates remained relatively constant from 1965 to 1995, despite a wide variety of government policies aimed at stimulating home ownership (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Review 2006). Following 1995, the U.S home ownership rates indicated significant improvements. According to the U.S Statistical Abstract, aggregate home ownership during the period 1995 to 2005 indicated a record high for the U.S housing market (Chambers, Garriga, & Schlagenhauf 2008). Matthew Chambers, a professor for Towson University,

Banks now offer programs to help homeowners/homebuyers, but many times, these loans are often hard to obtain. The current programs have more stringent requirements that are unreasonable for distressed homeowners. In my opinion, the only way to rectify the foreclosure issue is to make a substantial change in how potential homebuyers and homeowners obtain loans.

The United States economy has been in trouble for the past couple of years. The foreclosure crisis is a condition that began due to the inability of homeowners to pay their mortgages. Foreclosure is a legal proceeding whereby a lender obtains a legal termination of a debtor’s right to redemption. The foreclosure rates have been increasing for a considerable period and certain steps have been put into place to solve the problem. While the government, financial institutions and the general public are highly aware of the crisis, the steps taken to combat the problem are still not sufficient as the foreclosure rates are still increasing.