Jan04
A profile of the subprime mortgage mess
The Wall Street Journal had a piece yesterday that offers a glimpse into the life and profile of a person who received a sub prime mortgage. She had no business receiving one. Her credit was a disaster. She already had creditors coming after her. Yet, a lender gave this woman a mortgage for $103,000.
Democrats like Barney Frank and Maxine Waters pull at the heartstrings and argue that everyone deserves a home. Apartments are homes, too, and I would argue that some people should be living there and paying rent instead of a mortgage. Not everyone is capable of handling the responsibility of a mortgage. The Democrats don’t see it that way, however. To them a mortgage is a right, even if the consumer can’t pay it back and the thousands of defaults and forclosures created as a result send our economy into a tailspin the likes of which we haven’t seen in our lifetimes.
Here’s a portion of the WSJ article. I recommend you read all of it.
The story of the two-bedroom, one-bath shack on West Hopi Street, is the story of this year’s financial panic, told in 576 square feet. It helps explain how a series of bad decisions can add up to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Less than two years ago, Integrity Funding LLC, a local lender, gave a $103,000 mortgage to the owner, Marvene Halterman, an unemployed woman with a long list of creditors and, by her own account, a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. By the time the house went into foreclosure in August, Integrity had sold that loan to Wells Fargo & Co., which had sold it to a U.S. unit of HSBC Holdings PLC, which had packaged it with thousands of other risky mortgages and sold it in pieces to scores of investors.
Today, those investors will be lucky to get $15,000 back. That’s only because the neighbors bought the house a few days ago, just to tear it down.
At the center of the saga is the 61-year-old Ms. Halterman, who has chaotic blond-gray hair, a smoky voice and an open manner both gruff and sweet. She grew up here, working at times as a farm hand, secretary, long-haul truck driver and nurse’s aide.
In time, the container of vodka-and-grapefruit she long carried in her purse got the better of her. “Hard liquor was my downfall,” she says.
Hat tip @betancourtc
Dems will also tell you it was the fault of the greedy financiers in Wall Street. But no one was complaining when then attorney general, Janet Reno, was threatening banks that failed to provide loans to people who’d normally be red-lined. Banks agreed to not red-line anymore and turned that into a profitable line of business by selling all the bad debt to Freddie and Fannie, another government created boondagle.
Everyone involved is at fault, including the banks and the people taking loans simply because they were available. But the biggest culprit of all is a bunch of lawyers with too much power in Washington D.C. who invent rights, assign grievances and postulate unnecessary solutions, all in order to remain in power.
Oh honey, you don’t even need to get me started….
Here I sit with a perfectly lovely home, that in any other market would have probably been snatched up just days on the market — and we’ll be lucky if we get $10 K more than we paid for it 5 years ago. It’s a total joke. Those of us that have worked hard, invested in our property, paid our mortages and taxes are going to suffer the repercusions. All because my husband, you know, took a better job so we could continue to live and pay our bills….
Are you saying you guys are moving? I was just looking at your bio on the main site and thought how great it was to live by the river and be in the rental business, especially after seeing your Little Man all happy on his first canoe trip.
Hey, Claude. Kim H. is a different Kim. I don’t see us moving from our paradise in Northern Michigan anytime soon.
Sorry I addressed the wrong Kim.
Not a problem!