$600,000 and 3% down payment (I say, that’s three percent). Her mortgage is for 40 years with the first ten years interest only. When the ten-year period ends her monthly mortgage payment goes to $4,000. Even though she had rental income of $1,100 per month, how can a person with that level of income afford such a mortgage? They cannot. This woman is saving nothing and according to the article, if she sold the property, she likely would not clear the balance on her mortgage.
Potential foreclosure? Perhaps not.
Our pandering politicians may see to that. Mrs. Clinton blames President Bush for the mortgage crisis and her strategy would be to: “Freeze home foreclosures, freeze rates on adjustable mortgages, provide real tax relief for the middle class. She isn’t alone many politicians are talking in a similar fashion. Some would create a government fund to help refinance troubled loans, others would simply forgive all the loans and let the homeowners keep their homes (ok, I made that one up, but if someone running for president sees it, you can bet it will be in a new campaign ad).
Personally, I think they have missed a few things. Why not give out free high efficiency light bulbs so those in danger of a foreclosure don’t have to give up their cable TV, but can save the cost via their electric bill? On the other hand, I think anyone earning over $200,000 should be made to increase the interest rate on their home mortgage so that we can lower the interest rates for all those people who should never have purchased the house they did…because they could not afford it! :-2
Imagine if you were at work, came up with such brainless ideas, and in making your proposal simply ignored the cost, the inequity or the long-term implications.
That’s the beauty of politicians, they can say whatever sounds good to the audience they think may vote for them and reality be damned.
So who is to blame for the mortgage crisis? No one except the people who took the mortgages, yes there were apparently rather shady people out their promoting some of these deals, but that does not excuse people from making stupid decisions or from buying something or structuring a mortgage they could not possibly afford either now or in the years ahead.
I recall when we bought our first home (for $29,000). I set up a simple chart showing the mortgage payment and the real estate taxes so I knew if the house cost X I needed the taxes to be Y, etc. I agonized for months over what we could afford and I tried to figure in various contingencies, what if my wife lost her part-time job? I did the same thing with our second home where we have lived for 35 years. I once used a home equity loan to pay for college costs and as I wrote checks each month, I could not sleep. What if the interest rate goes up again, how am I going to make the payments? So, I stopped and converted the home equity line to a fixed mortgage that I could afford.
Is all this beyond the capabilities of the average person? I think not, that is unless you are plagued by delusions of grandeur or simply greedy.
I want a politician to tell people that...don’t do stupid, greedy things so that you will not be disappointed when other people don’t bail you out.
-1:-1Yeah, right!
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