Subprime Mortgage Crisis : An Example Of A Financial Crisis

There have been few financial crises in the United States. The Global Financial Crisis of 2008 to 2009 was the most recent and before that was The Great Depression of the 1930s. The Global Financial Crisis actually began in 2007 when prices of homes tanked. It not only affected the U.S. but it also affected economies overseas. The entire investment banking industry, some of the biggest insurance companies, enterprises government used for mortgage lending, top mortgage lenders, the largest savings and loan companies, and two of the largest commercial banks were many of the financial sectors affected by the crisis. “Banks stopped making loans, share prices plunged throughout the world and most of the world plummeted into a recession” (The Financial Crisis of 2008: Year In Review 2008,” 2009, para. 1).

The financial crisis from2007 to 2008 is considered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1920s and destroyed the U.S. economy severely. It led the housing prices fell 31.8%, the unemployment rate rose a peak of 10% in the United States. Especially the subprime market, began defaulting on their mortgage. Housing industry had collapsed. This crisis was not an accident, it caused by varies of factors. The unregulated securitization system, the US government deregulation, poor monetary policies, the irresponsibility of 3 rating agencies, the massed shadow banking system and so on. From my view, the unregulated private label mortgages securitization is the main contribute factor which led the global financial crisis in 2008.

Because of this downfall of the housing market, the U.S. economy fell along with other markets across the country. Homeowners had mortgages higher than what their homes were valued at, the decline in housing prices caused many people to default on their mortgages which caused the values of mortgage backed securities and CDO’s to collapse, leaving banks and their financial institutions holding those securities with a lower value of

Real estate values further rose, luring lenders into taking more risks in their financial transactions. All this was done in the hope of raking in huge sums of dollars since the prices of the mortgages had gone up. Consequently, a large number of people, including those who would not have qualified under normal conditions, were able to secure mortgages. They soon realized that they had blundered but it was too late. Due to increased supply of homes being disposed off by lenders and other financial institutions, the demand went down sharply. There was no more money flowing in the economy as many people now stopped taking the mortgages. This could have resulted into the mortgage crisis.

The housing market had started to decline in 2007, after reaching peak prices in 2006. There was an extremely high amount of subprime mortgages that had been issued in the early 2000’s. Homeowners could no longer afford to live in their homes, payments started going to default, and foreclosures started to rise. According to The Washington Post, there were five contributing factors to the housing market crash: low-doc loans, adjustable- rate mortgages, equity line of credit, more money down than needed, and mortgage insurance.

The housing bubble went into full effect by December of 2007, and is seen to be the leading cause of the Great Recession. With the lowering of interest by mortgage associations, lead to those who had poor credit to obtain a mortgage. Those

There is no doubt that subprime lending was a major cause of the Recession. It was a tactic used by investment banks in order to get more money from unsuspecting homeowners. However, lenders found out that most of the people who were qualified to have a mortgage already had one. In turn, the lenders had to lower their credit criteria for people to take out a loan on a house. This is how the term subprime lending came to be in the financial world. As a result of subprime lending, the investors were able to make millions off of these mortgages. “ Many American homeowners bought houses they could not afford, signed into mortgage agreements they could not understand or which were misleading and took equity out of homes as if they were cash machines” (Cushman 1).

The current economic-financial crisis was indeed caused by the simultaneous occurrence of events in different parts of the world that all had a negative effect. These events are subtly different and therefore it is common that only one event is held responsible for the crisis. In reality, the world economy became critical due to the mix of four major events: 1) the unrestrained greed of financiers in the U.S. and U.K., which transformed bad mortgages into toxic financial assets 2) the habit of getting deeply indebted in the U.S. and U.K., 3) the excessive liquidity in Europe, 4) the real estate bubble in the U.S. and some European countries (Thomas, 2011) At the beginning of the financial collapse in the United States, many commentators, among which was the President of the Federal Reserve, hastily affirmed that the situation would only affect the United States and at most, the UK, where the banks,

Before the pre-2008 economic recession era, people were ignorant of what was bound to happen. Life was a party. Incomes were steadily rising: most people in every financial class had a credit card, a family to support, and an opportunity to do so by moving into the biggest house they could find. Mortgage loans were given out to anybody with a heartbeat and credit rating, this is called a subprime mortgage. If somebody wanted a new home they could get it, no matter if they could afford it or not. However, when interest rates started to rise people were not able to pay their mortgages and their homes were foreclosed upon. Homeowners who were not careful — or just plain unlucky — when choosing what mortgage was suitable for their income were either left homeless or stuck living paycheck to paycheck. The capitalism party was over. Everyone stopped buying what they once thought they could afford just so they could maintain proper housing, in turn a recession began. So was the 2008 financial crisis caused by the homeowners? Homeowners in the United States — for the most part — are not gluttons for bigger and better homes they can not afford, it was a case of misinformation perpetrated by investment banks and mortgage lenders in the pursuit of more money. When higher interest rates began to kick in misinformed homeowners could not pay their steep mortgages anymore, resulting in multitudes of mortgage defaults. Mortgage defaults and the housing bubble did play a significant role in

The house market crash, which broke out in the United States in 2007, was caused by high risk subprime mortgages. The subprime mortgage crisis resulted in a sudden reduction in money and credit availability from banks and other lending institutions, which was referred to as a “credit crunch.” The “credit crunch” and its effect spread across the United States and further on to other countries across the world. The “credit crunch” caused a collapse in the housing markets, stock markets and major financial institutions across the globe.

The “Housing Bubble” itself might be define as an increase in demand spurred a gradual rise in price which shortly turned into significant and rapid price increase on the market. Because of the stable wealth increase in economy since the mid 90’s the US citizens represented stable housing demand

The mortgage meltdown is the period where the real estate market noticed a steep increase in home foreclosures that led to a period of insanity in 2007. This meltdown was the driving factor behind the economic recession that burdened the United States’ economy in 2008-2009. To begin, the housing bubble popped. The housing bubble was the highly overvalued real estate market. The burst of this bubble, which led to the financial crisis, was a correction to the overvalued real estate market. The real estate market, like any market, is subject to the basic law of Economics: supply and demand. It began with subprime lending all over the United States that showed a jump in demand or shift in the demand curve to the right. Subprime lending is where banks grant mortgages to individuals with poor credit history. In time, the individuals defaulted of their loans or failed to make payments.

The housing market crash, which broke out in the United States in 2007, was caused by high risk subprime mortgages. The subprime mortgage crisis resulted in a sudden reduction in money and credit availability from banks and other lending institutions, which was referred to as a “credit crunch.” The “credit crunch” and its effect spread across the United States and further on to other countries across the world. The “credit crunch” caused a collapse in the housing markets, stock markets and major financial institutions across the globe.

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a set of events that led to the 2008 financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage defaults and foreclosures. This paper seeks to explain the causes of the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis and how this has led to a generalized credit crisis in other financial sectors that ultimately affects the real economy. In recent decades, financial industry has developed quickly and various financial innovation techniques have been abused widely, which is the main cause of this international financial crisis. In addition, deregulation, loose monetary policies of the Federal Reserve, shadow banking system also play

The Subprime Mortgage Crisis or so called “United Housing Bubble” is considered as the most serious recession after 1929. The crisis involved not only one or couple companies but the whole U.S. Financial and Real Estate industry. Furthermore, the crisis lead to millions of people in US lost their houses, or homes and several industry giants failed down like Lehman Brothers, American International Group, and Merrill Lynch and so on. The effect of the crisis influenced not only America but also the economics of the whole world in the next few years.