Posted on 03/26/2007 3:13:51 AM PDT by edpc
Immigrants are emerging as among the first victims of a growing wave of home foreclosures in the Washington area as mortgage lending problems multiply locally and across the country.
Nationally, 375,000 high-interest-rate loans were made to Hispanics in 2005, and nearly 73,000 of them are likely to go into foreclosure, said Aracely Paname?o, director of Latino affairs for the Center for Responsible Lending. About 1.1 million homes in the United States are expected to go into foreclosure in the next six years, and many native-born Americans are likely to be stuck with burdensome loans. But immigrants are getting hit first in part because their incomes tend to be lower and many have lost construction jobs.
Homeownership rates among immigrants surged in the first half of the decade, making their prosperity an economic success story. Now it is becoming apparent that many people managed to buy homes in an inflated real estate market by turning to unusual new mortgages only now receiving scrutiny from regulators and legislators. Many of these loans start with attractive low "teaser" rates but feature payments that can suddenly increase.
Unfamiliar with the U.S. mortgage market, unable to speak or read English well and vulnerable to the blandishments of real estate professionals who told them property values always rise, many immigrants are struggling to deal with high mortgage payments as their homes sag in value, making it harder to escape the loans by selling.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This is what happens when diversity over assimilation is encouraged.
Instead, Azimi, a cashier at Giant who makes $2,400 a month, found herself strapped into a no-down-payment loan with payments of $3,800 a month.
Hard to be sympathetic. Even if you don't fully understand English, numbers don't lie. 3800 is more than 2400 in any language.
Good judgment is often the child of bad judgment.
Already posted here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1806768/posts
Same article, same title, same source.
When we were making 2400/month up here we were still in an apartment. That's not a lot of dough in the D.C area. In fact, it's pretty low.
They must have taken advantage of "relaxed" income requirements.
$2400/mo is good money no matter where you live - true, you can't afford a 3000 sqft house, but $2400/mo is nothing to sneeze at.
Very relaxed.....almost comatose. I remember pre-qualifying prior to home shopping. I was told what kind of mortgage I could afford at the upper limits. While my income could have covered the total, I wouldn't have anything left for the "little things" like food, heat, or gas to get back and forth to work. Why impose that kind of stress upon yourself?
The feds bent over for Jesse Jackson in forcing the banks to lend to people who had no business getting a loan for a car, much less a house. There was a very good reason for "red-lining" low income neighborhoods where people made too little money to get loans. But again, "civil rights" trumped good judgment and now banks will be left holding lots of degraded properties, because most of these homeowners had no concept of how to take care of a home, either.
Illegals hit hardest.
It's really not a lot in the D.C. area, or probably big pieces of the East Coast, Chicago, L.A. or other places. It sounds like a lot...but it's just not. We moved in 1993 making a little more than that...and it was tough even with a budget.
The guy probably had no business buying anything at that salary.
Plus, if you're married and both of you have jobs, they assume neither of you will ever lose your jobs, or decide to go part-time/quit to raise kids etc.
Take back there homes and cars and throw them over whatever fence exists... send them back to nirvana south.
LLS
Here's my cell, call someone who gives a shit.
Instead, Azimi, a cashier at Giant who makes $2,400 a month, found herself strapped into a no-down-payment loan with payments of $3,800 a month.
Obviously, a wise loan officer made THAT decision. These banks deserve what they get for being irresponsible. Unfortunately, the FDIC might have to bail them out.
When I got my first mortgage the local bank had two prices, the cheaper of the two was if they sold the thing. I think that might be what is causing a lot of the problems here, the local banks gave the sub-primes out and then sold them to the larger brokers, and they failed to screen them as well as they should.
With the housing prices rising so fast they knew their butts were covered if they foreclosed, but that was the short view of things. Now that the market has slacked and flooded with homes they may get the money they need but the homes will sit for a long time.
"Dont banks check to see if you have sufficient income to pay the mortgage any more ????"
Not if you look at them like you don't understand and say "Que?"
Sarchasm, great word. Race-Baiting is part of the problem:
They didn't want to deal with State and Federal Civil Rights groups and agencies crawling all over them and screaming "discrimination!".
But the banks not only wanted to remain PC, but the Banks know that they can count on the Taxpayers to eventually bail them out of any consequences....business as usual.
Stupidity and ignorance is color blind.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.