The Housing Crisis, Demographically
Atlantic Monthly has a great piece on how the subprime mortgate market crash has affected the U.S. demographically. Here is a teaser:
At first, the subprime crisis stung two groups in particular—people of modest means who’d gotten in over their heads, and a wealthier crowd, people working at hedge funds and investment houses, who’d trafficked in the first group’s debt, fueling the market for exotic, unstable loans. One might find a measure of rough justice in the travails of the latter group (45 residences in Greenwich, Connecticut, home to many hedge-fund operators and investment bankers, were in foreclosure in the third quarter of 2007). But the ripples from the subprime crisis are now beginning to affect nearly everyone. A cooler housing market chills construction, consumer confidence, retail sales, and all the rest.
Yep…Unwise folks putting themselves into silly loans and now they expect the government (nee us taxpayers) to get them out of it.
I don’t know what it was they didn’t grasp. You can have a 1% loan and the ARM rates so low that you have no clue they will go up when the initial period is done. Better to rent, build a good credit score and buy a modest home, pay it off and then upgrade before doing something crazy like this.
…and the bad thing is, I will get punished for being a wise spender and building good credit by having my tax money going into some fund to rescue these fools who thought they were one-upping everyone in the first place.
What a great country! *L* Okay, that line is a bit dated.
My only thought would be that we need to be addressing the predatory lending that has been occurring for years in low-income areas.
That is taking advantage of people who, like the previous commenter pointed out, ‘don’t understand.’