Don’t feel too bad, in Atlanta, property values are dropping in the hundreds of thousands. This “catastrophe” happening here is by design. None of this is a fluke. Follow the C-A-S-H and you’ll see who’s controlling the market and its outcome. It’s a pimpish move to say the least but in the end watch from the bushes emerges the cash heavy investor gobbling up everyone’s property for dirt cheap selling it back to us like we are at a pawn shop. Remember my “blue dust” theory?

The powers that be will systemically make money even during this recession or depression or whatever you want to call it at the cost of the consumer. Now its real estate, tomorrow it will be something else. The consumer is the Ginny Pig each and every time. Education and accountability solves that.

If little ole granny \’e2\’80\’9cknew\’e2\’80\’9d what was happening, she shouldn’t keep her home if she did all of that and can’t make her payments, but even if the loan was free of charge, little ole granny should not have been given that loan either………….even if she knew.

By the way grannies are coming in ages from 29 and up now. Grannies aren\’e2\’80\’99t that old anymore. Lack of education is the result of foolishness like this

There is a segway between what the borrower wants and what the borrower needs. Then, there is a segway between what the L.O. should be doing and what he/she shouldn’t be. It\’e2\’80\’99s that segway where right and wrong gets lost every time.

At the rate the market is going down the tubes, unless someone comes up with solutions – dumping now (while prices have only begun to drop) will result in less of a deficiency judgement should that apply. I don’t think we’re near the bottom. You don’t have to have a PhD in mathematics to figure that out. Not that I’m suggesting anyone should do that without looking deeply into it.

Additionally, even folks not having problems and paying their loans on time without the need for a modifications – are now going to be SLAVES to their homes and loans. They can’t get out or move if they want to in some cases. Now markets always go through cyclical changes due to natural disasters or other business related ventures such as large geographical employment centers, etc. Nonetheless, this market failure was engineered by the folks manipulating the market – quite a different ballgame.

I hope some good comes of this and folks can get their head out of the clouds and look at the real issues – and not just see the extreme cases of idiocy in this mess we’ve seen in some of the news stories. There are real people with real problems in this mess, and many of them haven’t even figured it out yet. Give them time and another 20% depreciation, in California my guess is that’s about a year from now.

In the here in now, unless you’ve been living under a rock, this is no longer the case. Just because a home generally carries a 30-year mortgage doesn’t mean everyone’s on a 30-year plan. As a guy who entered the market on the five-year plan, now looking at a perfect credit score going straight into the crapper (by the way as a military guy who has spent 4 of the last 7 years deployed overseas – that ain’t real easy to pull off) – I wish I’d have played the ‘greedy granny’ role when I refinanced (just for a better rate/no cash. At least I’d have something to show for this debt pool – even if it were a disposable cruise to Hawaii – or some ‘pretty things’.

Unfortunately, I lack the background to address the issue but Moe generally tends to be a straight shooter.

The ‘industry’ IMHO needs to take responsibility for all of this ficticious equity they artificially created.

Those are my two cents.

I wonder sometimes if Moe is truly that disconnected or just enjoys seeing the resulting posts that occur with these type statements.

Everyone wanted to beat the system, from the homeowners to the traders on Wall Street who put the bundled packages together for sale. I saw fraud on many levels, payoffs to employees, it was sickening.

I have worked in this industry almost 40 years, and cannot believe what has happened. However, since I was always above board, my conscience is clear. Course jobwise it is not that great, but other than that, I am glad this came out, it could not continue as it was. I am just surprised it took so long.

The MBA probably didn’t help, but for the record in the 1980s they were very involved with education, and if you go to their site today, there are many courses to take. I took their “underwriting” correspondence course, and it was very informative.

How can you require a person to be able?

Either they’re able to or they’re not.

“Interesting, then, that neither congress nor the Fed has yet mandated that borrowers\’e2\’80\’99 reasonable ability to pay be documented.”

I agree that this should be mandated, but you have an interesting way with words. Who are you putting the onus on, the borrower to document their ability to pay or the LOs?

In many cases the income was presented and it was the mortgage professional who went stated anyway — that seems to have been where the money was.