You Can Call Me A Boomerang Buyer

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.

Why would these Boomerang Buyers want to jump back into homeownership and at what cost would they “buy” another home? It’s understood that the American Dream of homeownership runs deep in the American belief system. Even people who have experienced foreclosure in the past, still dream of owning another home of their own even BEFORE they move from the foreclosed home. Why is this so important to Americans? The answer is partly based on marketing and myths that have been around for many years. The ability for one to create a pathway back to homeownership is varied and like many things, has potholes along the road. From predatory lenders to landlords who participate in rent to own or owner financing

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.

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

The Federal Housing Authority has put a similar plan together called the “Back to Work Program” which can help the buyer return to the housing market in as little as one year if the buyer is able to meet certain guidelines. The guidelines included in the “Back to Work Program” are: the buyer must pay their bills on time, had a 20 percent reduction in income, and a minimum credit score of 620. The “Back to Work Program”, has strict guidelines to make sure that the buyer is responsible, they must pay their bills on time and cannot miss one payment, or else they will be ineligible for the program. The 20 percent reduction in income must be demonstrated to be in the result of loss of employment and the reduction in income must be for a duration of 6 months. The Federal Housing Authority primarily requires the boomerang buyerthat is purchasing a home to have an hour long credit counseling session with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, after the session is completed a plan is created for the buyer.

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.

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

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

When the Stock Market crashed in the late 2000s, millions were forced to leave their homes by means of foreclosure. Now, after many hardships, the economy is on the rise; and the housing market is making a comeback. Its previous victims are beginning to recover and start fresh in this young economy. The low interest rates and surplus of homes have made the once expensive houses more affordable to those who are seeking to restart. Although these “boomerang buyers” are able to afford these homes, their past record of foreclosure has hurt their credit score which makes it difficult to acquire loans in this cautious market. However, there are several steps such people can take and many methods they can

The current housing market while not quite as oversupplied as during 2007-2009 is still leaning in that direction in some parts of the country. This means that there are those who have mortgages on homes that they would like to keep but are overextended on. These homeowners would be likely candidates for the “Boomerang Buyers” to approach and suggest the idea of a rent-to-own arrangement. Research needs to be done to determine if the

Buyers buying more than they could afford risked their finances in order to have a piece of luxury, but today it seems more buyers had come to realize renting would have been another option too. A would be borrower with good credit history, for instance will be able to qualify for a new mortgage rather than an individual who demonstrates poor financial habits who would need to show documents for the reason of its home foreclosure and prove they been responsible for their credit before. This is where is good to learn that keeping financial records organize such as mortgage payments, tax returns, pay stubs, and a spreadsheet of their household budget would show lenders and banks they’re good borrowers. They should never leave their home without a plan. Another major lesson is that if at some point they had trouble making payments, calling their lender to report it was crucial. Just because the lender was to suddenly file a foreclosure complaint against them, didn’t mean the lender would automatically win. Peter Levy states “home buyers will still be saddled with the mortgage, and advices clients to have the proper insurance coverage for life, health, and disability in place”. He continues, “That’s all part of owning a house, it’s not just the monthly mortgage payments”, he concludes. This was stated in Gigi Berman Aharoni article called 7 Lessons Learned from the US Housing Crisis, as mentioned earlier.

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

Establish Credibility: According to US News, the great American dream of owning a home appears poised for a comeback. Real estate company Trulia reports that in many parts of the country, rents are rising while housing prices are falling, making buying a home more affordable. Trulia found that in 98 out of 100 major metropolitan areas, including Detroit, Atlanta, and Cleveland, buying has become more affordable than renting.” I think the mortgage catastrophe of 2001 left prospective home buyers afraid of buying a house without being extremely certain that is the right decision.

the mortgage crisis brought out, that the change of paper which has exchanged so many times with normal lifestyles, no one knows who owns what. Second mortgages were an issue and the negotiations for values of structures and land were placed in the forefront for evaluation. These mortgages are where people receive money for basically the same free standing structure, which is already overpriced. In bankruptcy, the debt can be forgiven and the original first mortgage total was lowered closer to the price than the structure was "worth." How can you be a "boomerang buyer" when you have placed yourself in a bankruptcy in which there is still a certain stigma.