carolaa Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Quote: It's not envy, Shane. Oh, no? Quote: It's... those bonuses that are more than most of us make in years or an entire career! Glad we are clear on that. My point was that I should not have to subsidize people to live an extravagant lifestyle. Sorry, that is not envy. I have no desire at all to be part of that crowd or that lifestyle. I rarely give them a thought until they have the audacity to come knocking at my door asking me to subsidize it. Doesn't it sound just a little odd to you, Shane, for the lower classes to be subsidizing the upper classes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolaa Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Originally Posted By: SouthAfrican Put another way - suppose your neighbor have a huge house, the best food, a butler, four big cars (which's still being paid off), garden services, cable television, the whole lot. Now Mr Neighbor's work decided to cut their salaries, and now Mr Neighbor can't afford to pay it all... Yes consider this. Mr. Neighbor's house is foreclosed on which becomes a toxic asset for a bank because he is upside-down in his mortgage. Mr. Neighbor's four big cars are repossessed and the car company or bank cannot sell them for what Mr. Neighbor owes. Mr. Neighbor lays off his gardener so Mr. Gardener joins the unemployment line. Mr. Neighbor cuts his cable service so the cable company lays off an employee. Mr. Neighbor lays off his butler so Mr. Butler joins the unemployment line. But we can all be happy that Mr. Neighbor didn't get his bonus. Why does he need a bonus when he already makes a 1/2 million dollars? If he's making half a million a year, he ought to be tarred and feathered for getting upside down on his mortgage. He should be fired and someone smarter take his place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shane Posted March 28, 2009 Author Share Posted March 28, 2009 Not at all. The Federal Reserve drove interest rates down which made money cheap. Cheap money fueled the housing bubble. Many people that bought multi-million dollar homes are now upside-down in their mortgages. Quote Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com Author of Peculiar Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolaa Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Dumb, dumb, dumb. I can understand having to foreclose if your lose your job or incur huge unexpected expenses, like medical. But how can you be upside down if you still have your job and health? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_in_RP Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Quote: But how can you be upside down if you still have your job and health? Come to Michigan. Many people with great jobs have had to take pay cuts. The housing market is in the basement. Its very easy to be upside down. From wiki Negative equity is a term used to refer to when the value of an asset used to secure a loan is less than the outstanding balance on the loan[1]. Assets (particularly real estate) with negative equity are said to be "underwater", and loans and borrowers with negative equity are said to be "upside down".... Since 2007, those most exposed to negative equity are borrowers who obtained high value mortgages that were commonplace prior the credit crunch, as they are most at risk from property price falls.[2] http://www.planetizen.com/node/37698 About one out of every five homes in America is worth less than what is still owed on its mortgage. The highest rates of negative equity are in Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Florida and California. "As of December, 19.8% of mortgage holders nationwide had negative equity in their houses, according to a new report by loan-tracker First American CoreLogic. That tally, which takes into account both first and second mortgages, represents 8.3 million homeowners, 700,000 more than when the firm checked in September." "The trend is particularly disturbing because of its implications for foreclosures. As house prices continue to decline and more people find themselves paying mortgages above the value of their properties, the risk increases that they'll start walking away in droves." ---- This breads on itself. No one is even looking at an average used home when they can buy a foreclosure for 20 cents on the dollar. It drives all values down more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonnie Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Our home has gone from 184,000.00 two years ago to 153,000.00 currently. Thankfully our home is paid for otherwise we could have found ourselves in the same situations Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CyberGuy Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 I live in California. Back in 2006 a house three houses down from us with the exact same floor plan sold for $450,000. Now houses with my square footage in my area sell for $225,000 to $250,000. Fortuately I bought my house back in 1999 for $133,500. I have less than $94,000 on the mortage with the second mortgage paid off. Still I get backs writing me and offering me a new Mortgage with lower interest and cash out my equity and get $100,000 to $125,000 dollars on the equity. If I accepted that offer I would have negative equity within a couple of years if the housing market keeps falling. This is how we got into this mess and the banks Still are tempting home owners with low interest rates and promises lots of cash. I just tear up the offers and plan to pay off the first mortgage in five years and be done with the banks. Quote Riverside CA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members phkrause Posted March 28, 2009 Members Share Posted March 28, 2009 Right and than after they got enough people to buy homes with the lower interest rates, or refinanced, brought the interest rate up till the worth of the home was less than what they owed. pk Quote phkrause By the decree enforcing the institution of the papacy in violation of the law of God, our nation will disconnect herself fully from righteousness. When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism, when, under the influence of this threefold union, our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. {5T 451.1} Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolaa Posted March 29, 2009 Share Posted March 29, 2009 Dumb, dumb, dumb. I can understand having to foreclose if your lose your job or incur huge unexpected expenses, like medical. But how can you be upside down if you still have your job and health? This was a dumb post. I need to learn to go to bed when my brain is tired. What I meant to express was a response to Shane's comment about wealthy people buying mansions and then being upside down in them. Having never been wealthy myself, it's hard for me to understand how people smart enough to be wealthy can find themselves in this position. And even if it is due to no fault of their own, it is still difficult for me to feel sorry for them when they are still making their wealthy salaries. So they have to downsize, but are they really going to be homeless or bankrupt like many other homeowners are? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Shane Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share Posted April 2, 2009 Real estate almost always goes up in value over time. Normally the only things that make it go down is if something major changes like the crime rate in a city increases dramatically, major employers in the area close down or a war breaks out and destroys the area. The Federal Reserve driving down interest rates fueled the housing boom. It wasn't just low-income people getting loans and not being able to pay them back that caused the crisis. That is only part of it. Millionaires were also buying mansions. As the value of their estate dropped many of them found themselves in upside-down mortgages. As long as they can afford to stay in the home and make their payments it won't be a problem. However if they are using their bonuses to pay for their homes and the government suddenly takes away their bonuses the bank will have to foreclose. The problem than is that the bank will not be able to sell the home for the amount that is owed against it. That impacts everyone that borrows money from a bank or does business with companies that borrow money from banks - pretty much everyone. Quote Pastoral Family Counselor... Find me at www.PostumCafe.com Author of Peculiar Christianity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Gerr Posted April 2, 2009 Moderators Share Posted April 2, 2009 Right and than after they got enough people to buy homes with the lower interest rates, or refinanced, brought the interest rate up till the worth of the home was less than what they owed. pk Many years ago, when Hemet Federal S & L was still around, (remember Hemet Fed?} I refinanced when the interest rate came down. It turned out that I would have been farther ahead if I put the cost to refi into paying down the mortgage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonnie Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Where is the outrage? Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac will be giving 210 million dollars in retention bonuses. They are responsible for bring the housing industry to it's knees. Barney Frank and friends were incensed over AIG or so they pretended. The silence from them on retention bonuses that were far more than the bonuses to AIG. Barney Frank,Chris Dodd,and the president demonized and targeted others for receiving retention bonuses. Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthAfrican Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Same is happening with the property prices here in South Africa. Property prices are coming down - slowly, but surely. Our bank also offered us a refinance agreement - where we can refinance our bond over 30 years. No. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bonnie Posted April 7, 2009 Share Posted April 7, 2009 Same is happening with the property prices here in South Africa. Property prices are coming down - slowly, but surely. Our bank also offered us a refinance agreement - where we can refinance our bond over 30 years. No. Thanks. Prperty prices aren't falling below the actual value as much as they are correcting to where it should have been. Ours took a 82,000.00 increase in a few short years which was not realistic. Had we sold and someone had paid the inflated value they would now have a house worth 31,000.00 less than they paid for. But if they lied on the mortgage app they could have a judge lower it to what he deemed the value and give those that lied a 1,000.00 bonus every year for five years to further lower the principal amount. I still wonder why no outrage here or from the public in general about 210 million dollars in retention bonuses for those that work for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Driving the housing industry to it's knees must be a positive then,with the bonuses reflecting that Quote Everything you do is based on the choices you make. It's not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument, or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period ... ... Wish more people would realize this. Quotes by Susan Gottesman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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