Behind, or in foreclosure: [Thanks L!]
NEW YORK (AP) — An industry survey shows a record 5.4 million American homeowners with a mortgage, or nearly 12 percent, were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of last year.
The Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday the percentage of loans at least a month overdue or in foreclosure was up from 10 percent in the July-September quarter and up from about 8 percent a year earlier.
So 5.4 million American’s are behind? Look however, how many homeowners the administration wants to save. From U.S. News and World Report this morning:
"Many homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages. Today, President Obama rolled out a plan that could help as many as nine million of them." NBC Nightly News reported, "Administration officials admit the plan is not meant to save every borrower, but millions of Americans could benefit from the latest government bailout."
So 5.4 million are behind, the Administration wants to rescue "as many as nine million", but they are not planning on saving everyone? I wonder just how many households they figure are going to end up in trouble? I wonder how many people will decide to quit paying their mortgage and be one of the additional 3.6 million the administration intends to help?
Mish's Global Economic Analysis
Northern Virginia Housing Bubble Fallout
Bubble Meter
Ohio Fraudclosure
UK House Bubble
Breaking News Relevant Articles© Copyright 2012 Housing Doom | Copyright© 2011, AuthentiCraft, Inc.
This should really give us confidence in the numbers being thrown around.
They’re not planning on saving everyone – they’re focused on those who voted for them.
If you’re a responsible spender/saver that didn’t buy a house you couldn’t afford like our bus driver buying an $800,000 place in D.C., demographically speaking, you more than likely voted not to spend an extra trillion this month. You, they have no interest in protecting from anything, quite the opposite – you will be bled to give the money to the people who lied on their mortgage apps.
I’m continually amazed at the fact that this is almost never, if ever, mentioned in articles on the subject – people talk about banks taking unreasonable risks, but a huge percentage, perhaps even the majority, of these loans would never have been made if the borrowers were not committing mortgage fraud in their documents. How on earth can this be ignored in good conscience? Have we truly become a society where there is no right and wrong, only the whims of bribed politicians and media outlets as to who gets prosecuted? It would seem so.
If committing financial fraud is not only acceptable but warranting an extra grant of tax dollars now, what am I supposed to tell my kids about being honest? I suppose the lesson Obama teaches is lie, cheat, and steal when you can – the government will reward you instead of punishing you, and if you’re honest and pay your debts, you’re just a sucker funding other people’s dreams while your own are stolen.
Jim-
I was speaking with M last night- we were discussing the qualification guidelines to participate in the housing bailout. His question to me was, “Where does it say in this that the original docs will be checked to make sure that this loan was not issued fraudulently?”
I’m sure that’s why Bernanke made the comment he did about rescuing our neighbors from their burning house whether it was there fault or not. We’ll there’s a difference between whether the fire was started by a careless smoker or arson.
A lot of the fraud was minor- we can’t send everyone to jail for overstating their income. We can however refuse to bail them out.
Jim -
I totally agree with you… but I doubt any politician would want to propose $1 trillion to build new prisons to hold all of the people arrested for fraud =/
It would be an interesting (and depressing) thing to calculate how many people should be arrested. I’m sure it is in the millions.
They don’t have to be arrested or prosecuted, but if this wasn’t really just a political reward scam, they would at least check the documents and refuse to bail out people who falsified their mortgage applications. The fact that they don’t and won’t reveals the true motivation of the administration.
The idea that money should be consciously and deliberately taken from the law abiding and responsible and given to criminals, on purpose, by the government, suggests to me that very foundation of our system has become so hopelessly corrupt as to be unrecoverable.
Big tax, big government lovers, what is my “fair share” of taxes to be given to the guy across the street to pay his mortgage, which he committed fraud to get, while I rent?
When the government becomes so corrupt as to give up all moral authority, such that a politically chosen group is bestowed with unearned resources taken from others, and the state can only secure the cooperation of citizens by force, and the constitutional foundation of limited government is tossed out the window, the theoretical underpinnings of freedom have been lost and we are only a half step from China or third world banana republics. Whatever at one point may have distinguished us from them has been lost.
Igor is right – I’m “dejected”.
Jim, you are so right. This is payback time to the donors that elected this guy. 3/4 billion is a lot per vote. Welcome to the U.S of V. It’s gonna be a long 4 years
Jim-
Terribly true, and terribly depressing.
I totally agree with Jim. I have been saying for a long time that this country is being turned into a third world country. I give it about 20 years before that happens. Stock (Dow Jones)Market at 6500. How low will it go. During the Great Depression the stock market lost of 87% of its value (from 1929 to 1933).