The Real Estate Market Hit Rock Bottom

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

Americans across the United States search for the perfect home, location and square footage of course a great price to pay for their castle. Finding an affordable place to live is ideal, and necessary for survival in this day of age. As the years go by the cost of living increases but Americans do not receive a cost of living raise. The demand for affordable housing is on a all time high, but so is the cost of housing in the metropolitan areas across the United States. America must take care of its citizens and should provide affordable housing programs, to assist Americans to either purchase or rent a home.

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.

For low- and middle-class borrowers who either don’t have much in the way of assets or who have poor credit, when

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

As we now know, the U.S. economy, the middle class, and its job growth was damaged by the overwhelming collapse of Wall Street, which was triggered by the downfall of the housing market and sub-prime loan defaults. One of the main things that need to be addressed in our economy today is the housing market and making sure that our banks and credit unions are not allowing people who do not have the necessary income to pay their mortgage disbursements. In an article entitled Thinking outside the Housing Bubble, the author John Vogel remarks how the economy is generally supported by the housing market. Vogel states:

When the housing bubble came tumbling down, there were high defaults rates on the electorate and this led to the emergence of high risk borrowers (Bianco, 2008). These were people with a questionable financial history and may have lacked the sufficient means to sustain their mortgage payments and hence, went under. This occasioned massive loses to all the players in the housing sector. The worst hit was the lenders and the various investors.

During this time period, homeownership typically required a 20 percent down payment (Melicher & Norton, 2014, 168). Lending institutions were very careful about whom they lent money to, and credit standards were high (Melicher & Norton, 2014, 168). Melicher & Norton (2014) called this the “save now, spend later” philosophy, and it would change in the coming years (p. 168).

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

These boomerang buyers represent a wave of potential pent-up demand in the housing market that could reshape the housing market. However, so far less than half of recently eligible borrowers have purchased a home. There are several possible reasons for this: they may believe they are not eligible even if they are, they may be reluctant to seek

When someone makes the decision to buy or rent a home they must consider the advantages and disadvantages of each. In buying a home the primary advantage is that you actually own it. You can do whatever you want with it. Also, you are building equity as the years go by. “People today have problems saving for their future” (CNN Money, 2014). However, when they buy a home, the

An example of this occurred right before our major economic collapse, when mortgages were being sold to individuals who simply could not afford them long-term. These mortgages

With all of the incentives and mortgage products given so easily to people that couldn’t afford the high prices (including interest rates), many people defaulted on their first mortgages because they were no longer were able to receive the profit from the homes they first intended to flip. “During the first quarter of 2008, nearly 9% of all mortgage holders were delinquent or in foreclosure, the highest rate since recordkeeping began in 1979. Foreclosure filings more than

Due to such events as the subprime mortgage crisis, the auto market and Wall Street’s failure, the United States suffered a severe economic blow. Looking at the situation from an economic view, supply is supposed to equal demand. Due to the mortgage crisis and the careless attempts of some to make money, there is a superfluous amount of empty homes throughout the United States. In the subprime mortgage crisis, the nature of the failure was the inability to account for money given to individuals, who lack the appropriate requirements. In order to obtain a loan, collateral is needed. References were not being checked and poor credit history went ignored. People were obtaining loans and not paying attention to the interests rates associated. “This time around, the slack standards allowed millions of high-risk borrowers to get easy home mortgages. When this so-called subprime market collapsed beginning about a year ago, ordinary working people bore the brunt” (Gallagher, 2008). Companies were so anxious to place people in homes, that it cost them billions of dollars and

An increase in loan packaging, marketing and incentives encouraged borrowers to undertake difficult mortgages so they believed that they would be able to refinance quickly at more favourable terms. People borrowed money to buy the house and then expected the price to rise and sold so that they could pay off the debt which owed to the bank and demanded a new loan to buy another house. However, once the interest rate began to rise and house’s price dropped in 2007, refinancing became more difficult and banks could not collect their mortgages.