The Crisis Of The New Millennium

The mortgage crisis of 2007 marked catastrophe for millions of homeowners who suffered from foreclosure and short sales. Most of the problems involving the foreclosing of families’ homes could boil down to risky borrowing and lending. Lenders were pushed to ensure families would be eligible for a loan, when in previous years the same families would have been deemed too high-risk to obtain any kind of loan. With the increase in high-risk families obtaining loans, there was a huge increase in home buyers and subsequently a rapid increase in home prices. As a result, prices peaked and then began falling just as fast as they rose. Soon after families began to default on their mortgages forcing them either into foreclosure or short sales. Who was to blame for the risky lending and borrowing that caused the mortgage meltdown? Many might blame the company Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but in reality the entire system of buying and selling and free market failed home owners and the housing economy.

During the early 2000 's, the United States housing market experienced growth at an unprecedented rate, leading to historical highs in home ownership. This surge in home buying was the result of multiple illusory financial circumstances which reduced the apparent risk of both lending and receiving loans. However, in 2007, when the upward trend in home values could no longer continue and began to reverse itself, homeowners found themselves owing more than the value of their properties, a trend which lent itself to increased defaults and foreclosures, further reducing the value of homes in a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle. The 2008 crash of the near-$7-billion housing industry dragged down the entire U.S. economy, and by extension, the global economy, with it, therefore having a large part in triggering the global recession of 2008-2012.

The housing crisis of the late 2000s rocked the economy and changed the landscape of the real estate business for years to come. Decades of people purchasing houses unfordable houses and properties with lenient loans policies led to a collective housing bubble. When the banking system faltered and the economy wilted, interest rates were raised, mortgages increased, and people lost their jobs amidst the chaos. This all culminated in tens of thousands of American losing their houses to foreclosures and short sales, as they could no longer afford the mortgage payments on their homes. The United States entered a recession and homeownership no longer appeared to be a feasible goal as many questioned whether the country could continue to support a middle-class. Former home owners became renters and in some cases homeless as the American Dream was delayed with no foreseeable return. While the future of the economy looked bleak, conditions gradually improved. American citizens regained their jobs, the United States government bailed out the banking industry, and regulations were put in place to deter such events as the mortgage crash from ever taking place again. The path to homeowner ship has been forever altered, as loans in general are now more difficult to acquire and can be accompanied by a substantial down payment.

During 1997-2006, house prices rose 85 percent. This led to an irresponsible consumer spending spree. Millions of people bought a house that they could not afford. Government regulatory agencies and mortgage lenders became less strict with credit restrictions so that people could buy homes without making any down payment. In 2007, however, the home values and sales began to decline. Due to the loss of trillions of dollars in home value, a record number of borrowers defaulted on their mortgage payments. America was put into a recession in 2008 because of the contraction of corporate spending and consumer purchased. The prices of consumer goods spiked, while employment declined. On October 3, 2008, former President Bush signed the Troubled Asset Relief Program; however, the bill did not restore the economy as a whole. By June 2009, America's economic recovery was at its weakest since the end of the Second World War. I chose this event in history because it had a major effect on America’s economy and changed the course of history. Historians need to study the Great Recession because America should learn from their mistakes. The Great Recession was due to different factors; however, if the regulations on credit restrictions were not tampered with, then the severity of the recession could have been

In the lead up to the current recession, when the real estate market began to fall, there were so many investors shorting stocks and securitized mortgage packages that were already falling, that the market simply fell further. There were no buyers at the bottom, and the professional investors made millions off of the losses of others. Beyond this, there was no real federal regulation for securitized mortgages, since there was no real way to gauge the mathematical risk of any given package. This allowed the investors to take advantage of the system and to short loans on real people’s homes. Once these securities were worthless, many of the homebuyer’s defaulted on their mortgages and were left penniless. No matter from which angle this crisis is looked at, the blame rests squarely with the managers who began the entire cycle, the ones who pursued the securitization of mortgages. Their incompetence not only led to the losses of Americans who have never invested in the stock market, but to losses for their shareholders.

All the economy’s parts seem to be working together for a change: joblessness is under 5% - a 24 year low – yet inflation is holding steady at 3%, a combination that economists thought impossible” (Pooley). This article placed the economy in very favorable position, but the economy collapsed back in 2008 when Wall Street folded. In a video published by Johnathan Jarvis titled “The Cause and Effects of the 2008 Financial Crisis,” the video explains how the economy went from being healthy and vibrant, to desperate and helpless because investors were creating mortgages with people who were not financially stable, and those mortgagors were more than likely struggling to pay their debts prior to attaining a sub-prime mortgage loan. When these sub-prime mortgages defaulted, the house was reposed by the mortgagee and put on the market to sell. When the house went up for sale because of the default, the

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.

Anyone that was living in America, or even watching from abroad, knows that in 2008 America had a huge collapse of the housing market. Homes were foreclosed on in record numbers causing the real estate balloon to burst. But the collapse did not happen overnight and in many ways was destined to happen. According to Investopedia.com in order to attract buyers and sell houses, mortgages were offered to less than qualified applicants. Then just a few years before the collapse subprime mortgages made up 20% of the market. (Investopedia.com) Factors such as the 1993 passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 9-11 terrorist attacks led to an increase in unemployment. With unemployment numbers climbing many homeowners

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” These words were first written by Italian philosopher, George Santayana. The meaning is all but spelled out for the reader, the past is important, it deserves its due - don’t brush it aside, don’t pretend it didn’t happen – to better build the world of tomorrow, you need to remember (and account for) the mistakes of yesterday. The mortgage crisis, and all that it lead too for our economy, back in 2007, is an event that should never be forgotten… lest we inadvertently doom ourselves by going through it all over again. Today, of course, the situation has significantly improved; our nation managed to get over this rather sizable hump and bounce back from it (not fully healed, but certainly better than we were only a few years ago). That’s not good enough for me though; in order to truly overcome this event (that many have already put behind them and forgotten about, myself included, prior to writing this essay) and push ahead, we need to go over how it happened in the first place. Therefore, today I’ll be talking about the mortgage meltdown crisis, suffered by the United States and felt around the world, of 2007; I will cover how the crisis actually happened, the lessons learned from the collapse / the silver linings of the collapse, and how real estate buyers are intelligently learning from the past in order to benefit today.

The 2008 financial crisis led to a sharp increase in mortgage foreclosures primarily subprime leading to a collapse in several mortgage lenders. Recurrent foreclosures and the harms of subprime mortgages were caused by loose lending practices, housing bubble, low interest rates and extreme risk taking (Zandi, 2008). Additionally, expert analysis on the 2008 financial crisis assert that the cause was also due to erroneous monetary policy moves and poor housing policies. The federal government encouraged the expansion of risky mortgages to under-qualified borrowers. Congress pushed for the support of affordable housing through extended procurement of non-prime loans for applicants with low income (Zandi, 2008). The cutting down

Sub-prime mortgages were a lucrative new market idea, pushed by the government, executed by the lending institutions, in order to provide everyone the American Dream. During the expanding economy, this dream became a reality—untested and unchecked—as low interest rates fueled the desire of investors to make dreams come true! Ultimately, the vicissitudes of the economy turned downward and the snowball effect began while financial sectors and investors scrambled to catch the falling knife. While history is being written this very day and hindsight is 20/20, we can reflect on the ideologies and policies that brought forth the worst economic downturn since the Great

During the early 2000s, when subprime lending reached its peak, Countrywide was extensively involved in risky transactions. To ensure that the company continued to grow and increase its profits, many ethical boundaries were tested. Incentives were offered to salespeople who were rewarded for taking risks. Subprime loans were given to clients who could not afford the loans and conversely those who qualified for traditional loans. Appraisers exaggerated housing values to reassure lending. Liar loans were one of the biggest areas of ethical concern when Countrywide was investigated in the late 2000s. These specific mortgages were given to clients who were not asked to provide proof of their indicated income. Borrowers would overstate their income in order to attain liar loans, possibly with the help of Countrywide personnel. These loans were handed out for the purpose of generating easy, short-term profits through increased fees and high interest

In the year 2008, the United States experienced the most serious financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. The economy, after peaking in 2006, began to express warning signs of a dooming financial and economic recession. The primary cause of the entire recession was a credit crisis resulting from the burst of the housing bubble. This analysis will be devoted to the study of the housing bubble and its burst. The housing bubble was primarily caused by the low, short-term and variable interest rates, subprime loans given to less than qualified borrowers, and the collapse of big time lenders

These brokers have neither the credit skills nor the interest to conduct proper payment due of potential homebuyers. Their interest is only in selling the houses as fast as they can. The MBS instruments allowed all financial institutions to transfer the risks to other investors. The dissociation of ownership of assets from risks encouraged poor credit assessment and was fundamental increasing the risks.

One of the first indications of the late 2000 financial crisis that led to downward spiral known as the “Recession” was the subprime mortgages; known as the “mortgage mess”. A few years earlier the substantial boom of the housing market led to the uprising of mortgage loans. Because interest rates were low, investors took advantage of the low rates to buy homes that they could in return ‘flip’ (reselling) and homeowners bought homes that they typically wouldn’t have been able to afford. High interest rates usually keep people from borrowing money because it limits the amount available to use for an investment. But the creation of the subprime mortgage