Comments on: Poll: Do Mortgage Bailouts Encourage Irresponsibility and Punish Prudent Borrowers?

By: tyler

tyler — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:24:40 +0000

I can’t believe all the haters out there. At some point in my career as a commissioned sales rep I could have afforded my modest home. Maybe some of you were fortunate not to lose your job and have had to settle for half your salary just to get by every month. There are a lot of us suffering from job loss, etc…which have caused us to spiral into this horrific situation.For some of us things have gotten so bad that it would be difficult to qualify to rent at this point. What do you mean you have not been rewarded for paying your bills on time? You’ve had the opportunity to pay lower interest rates for years on end. Spread the wealth.

By: bank robbery is illegal

bank robbery is illegal — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:42:55 +0000

The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 removed the last incentive for borrowers to remain in “their” homes. This law must be rewritten and retitled the Patriotic Mortgage Repayment Act of 2008.

The Patriotic Mortgage Repayment Act of 2008 – If a borrower defaults on a mortgage and the market value of the collateral is insufficient to repay the money borrowed, the Treasury will recover 105% of the residual borrowed but unpaid amount using IRS collection methods and interest schedules. Such a law would prevent the general population from bailing out the speculators that purchased more house than they could reasonably afford. These wannabee flippers took grandma’s money out of the bank, now the bank has collapsed the the FDIC is having to pay off grandmas. The least these deadbeats should do is repay 100% of grandmas’ money to the treasury plus 5% as a handling fee.

It should be trivial for the borrower to meet his obligation. After the foreclosure sale recovers 60% of the original loan, the payments on the remaining 40% loss should be well within the budget of even the biggest speculative wannabe flipper real estate genius that bought at the top of the market using grandma’s money.

By: annon

annon — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:03:15 +0000

They are determined to “help people stay in their homes” I guess this means foreclosure forbearance and loan modification. Obviously this is not fair at all and can drive a prudent person nuts. My money is on the prudent person slowing slipping into imprudent ways. The prudent people still paying their loans which were obtained in the last 5 years in addition to putting 5 to 20 percent down and yet still underwater what will they do?

I think these people should stop paying their mortgages and qualify for the forbearance because they will be able to squeeze a good year of living for free in the house. The downside is simply a 3 year credit hit but who cares. Right?

By: Iwanna

Iwanna — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:10:38 +0000

Why should taxpayers end up paying for the mistakes of careless and irresponsible people? Why should we allow people to be careless with other people’s money?

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:33:39 +0000

TO: Ben Riggs
“I bet that everyone here who is saying that the bail-out is irresponsible bought their homes BEFORE the boom and took advantage of lower prices….”
Not necessarily, it could be also people who had enough sense not to pay $800K for an overpriced two bedroom condo in San Jose and rent it instead for $1800 a month…
If you are a professional, you should have been at least able to do a simple calculation or find a simple Rent vs Buy calculator online.

“…We didn’t create this mess. Speculators, flippers and the like created it.”
I am sorry to point it out to you, but you did participate to create this mess. You could just say no and rent for a couple of years. It’s buyers like you who created this boom, speculators could not function without people ready to pay any prices they asked for overpriced property.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:24:04 +0000

Paulson, Bernanke & Co. should just let the market work to clean up this mess and to scare irresponsible borrowers and lenders for generations to come. The less the government does, the better.

Is putting 20% down payment and paying 6.5-7.5% interest on a 30 year mortgage considered to be constrained credit? If it does, I must agree with Phil Gramm – we are a nation of whiners. I still get 3-4 credit card offers a week and a friend of mine just got a 30 year fixed mortgage with interest rate around 6%.

Do they think that Weimar Republic style economy is better then Great Depression?

What is this obsession with Great Depression?
During Great Depression many countries had it much worse then United States when their economies were run by “go-getters” like Paulson and “esteem scientist” like Bernanke who knew better then the market. And the more government intervention there was the worse the countries fared.
Maybe our “esteem scientist” should also study a history of such a wonderful institution as Soviet GOSPLAN and learn how “well” government can regulate ones economy.

If Paulson is concerned that sound businesses and high quality borrowers will be denied credit, he should ask Congress to create a facility that helps to provide credit to the affected borrowers which will not be a total loss to the taxpayers unlike his decision to bail out his buddies.
Instead he decided to squander taxpayers money on the toxic garbage, no one in the world wants to buy at current prices, encouraging and rewarding the behavior which got us into this mess in the first place. What a bunch of lies, I feel like I am back in the USSR. Just wondering if it’s going to take 75 years this time and if the slogan is going to be ‘Mortgage non-payers of the world – unite!’ ?

By: Ben Riggs

Ben Riggs — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:16:18 +0000

I bet that everyone here who is saying that the bail-out is irresponsible bought their homes BEFORE the boom and took advantage of lower prices. When my wife and I (both professionals in Northern California with almost zero debt) wanted to buy a home, the prices had been driven so high that we had NO choice but to take out a 5 year, I/O ARM converting to a 25 year adjustable. If our condo cost what it was actually worth we could have easily qualified for a 30 year fixed. We are not rich, nor do we have rich families to help us out. We are like most people in this mess, we wanted to own a home for the security it provides yet the “boom” made even modest home out of reach. What did you all expect us and others like us to do? Pass on owning a home and watch all you “lucky” folk who bought in when the market was down? So, we should have been renter s all of our lives? We didn’t create this mess. Speculators, flippers and the like created it.

By: Foreclosure Freeze - Project Lifeline

Foreclosure Freeze - Project Lifeline — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 12:37:28 +0000

[...] months ago the government sponsored subprime mortgage bailouts to varying degrees of success. Project Lifeline differs as it is designed to assist anyone with a [...]

By: David Messmore

David Messmore — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:52:08 +0000

I would be interested in the demographics of this mess. Who are the borrowers that took loans they knew were above their means? They should be held accountable for their bad decisions. I’m only 44 but I am just old enough to have been brought up with the idea that I had to save for a few years to get the home I wanted. Nowadays it seems that instant gratification is the order of the day and big business is greedy enough to take the risk by handing out loans to people who don’t quite qualify. My guess is most who were “suckered” are the twenty somethings and gen xrs who were born and bred on the notion of instant gratification. Am I right? Of course it doesn’t end with just the mortgage. Let’s not forget about the behemoth Yukon Denali at 10 mpg that most of them have to have to go in their new 4-car garage. The bottom line is, without getting people to be fiscally responsible, they will just move on to the next exploitable market to get their fix. One of which is credit cards. YOu know where I’m going with this. Bye!

By: Weekly Roundup - Contests and Cars Edition | Cash Money Life

Weekly Roundup - Contests and Cars Edition | Cash Money Life — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 15:17:08 +0000

[...] – Do Mortgage Bailouts Encourage Irresponsibility and Punish Prudent Borrowers? This is a great article about the current … Be sure to check out the poll attached to the [...]