Posted on 01/04/2009 6:56:46 PM PST by Fred
California Rep. Joe Baca has long pushed legislation he said would "open the doors to the American Dream" for first-time home buyers in his largely Hispanic district. For many of them, those doors have slammed shut, quickly and painfully.
Mortgage lenders flooded Mr. Baca's San Bernardino, Calif., district with loans that often didn't require down payments, solid credit ratings or documentation of employment. Now, many of the Hispanics who became homeowners find themselves mired in the national housing mess. Nearly 9,200 families in his district have lost their homes to foreclosure.
Congressional districts with large Hispanic populations often feature heavy nonprime lending. See how different districts break down in terms of prime and nonprime home loans.
For years, immigrants to the U.S. have viewed buying a home as the ultimate benchmark of success. Between 2000 and 2007, as the Hispanic population increased, Hispanic homeownership grew even faster, increasing by 47%, to 6.1 million from 4.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Over that same period, homeownership nationally grew by 8%. In 2005 alone, mortgages to Hispanics jumped by 29%, with expensive nonprime mortgages soaring 169%, according to the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.
An examination of that borrowing spree by The Wall Street Journal reveals that it wasn't simply the mortgage market at work. It was fueled by a campaign by low-income housing groups, Hispanic lawmakers, a congressional Hispanic housing initiative, mortgage lenders and brokers, who all were pushing to increase homeownership among Latinos.
The network included Mr. Baca, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose district is 58% Hispanic and ranks No. 5 among all congressional districts in percentage of home loans not tailored for prime borrowers. The caucus launched a housing initiative called Hogar -- Spanish for home
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Taxes. Try not paying them and see if you *really* own your home. They want as many people as possible to finance public indoctrination camps, etc. And they laugh all they way to the tax coffers.
Joe Baca is my Congress-critter :-(
Yeah a young lawyer was turned down today for what was supposed to be a sure sale ... Not enough down payment, they want 20% now around here.
Maybe he should have tried the name Juan and no speak English and see if that worked. It worked fine in 2005.
This housing mess is not the fault of Republicans and it is damn irresponsible of the Republicans to not stand and shout this stuff from the rooftops!!!!!!!!!!
Kudos to Aracely Panameno
of the Latino affairs for the Center of Responsible Lending! She was one who tried to warn Congress these bad loans were being made...and Congress IGNORED HER.
“directed at black people, even those with good jobs who paid their bills.”
This, of course, was grossly unfair, and failure to verify that many of the subprime mortgage holders had good jobs and paid their bills so more commissions could be gained quicker undoubtedly has played a part. Perhaps annual commissions should be paid out over a 5 year period, and canceled if a loan goes bad?
Those like Barney F%g and Cris Dodd who did this should be jailed for life. They overtly and boldly demanded no audits or examination on Fannie and Freddie . They insisted that oversite be done by HUD!!! They have wrecked our nation’s economy for 10 years (millions will suffer) and it has now spread to the world.
The time is coming for a great demonstration by millions in Washington during which these scoundrels will be rooted out.
Will the Army shoot there own?
Not really. It defined poor, crime ridden communities or ghettos.
They got caught using Tony Soprano’s scam.
Maybe they know something you don't? ;)
Seriously, here's the background info not included in the article. Without Bush's agreements and policies, illegal aliens would not have been able to obtain any US banking goods and services. Because of him, they were and now we have to deal with the mess left behind.
On February 16, 2001, just 3 weeks after his inauguration, President George W. Bush met with Mexican President Vicente Fox to discuss the terms of the Partnership for Prosperity Agreement (with Mexico). (See: Partnership for Prosperity Agreement (with Mexico))
The P4P agreement was signed on September 6, 2001.
On October 26, 2001, Bush signed the USA Patriot Act of 2001 into law. Contained in section 326(b) was the provision that allowed US banks to accept the Mexican Matricula Consular card as valid ID for opening a bank account.
Congress sent a request for opinion to Bush's Treasury Dept. about 326(b). Bush's Treasury responded:
“The proposed rules set forth the requirement that financial institutions would have to establish a customer identification and verification program applicable to all new accounts that are opened, regardless of whether the customer is a U.S. citizen or a foreign national. While the proposed rules prescribe minimum standards for such programs, they leave sufficient flexibility to permit financial institutions to tailor their program to fit their business operations. The customer identification program would have to contain reasonable procedures for identifying any person, including a business, that opens an account, setting forth the type of identifying information that the financial institution will require. At a minimum, for U.S. persons the proposed rules would require financial institutions to obtain the following information: name, address, taxpayer identification number, and, for individuals, date of birth. While a taxpayer identification number is not required for non-U.S. persons, a financial institution must describe what type of information it will require of a non-U.S. person in place of a taxpayer identification number. The regulations state that financial institutions may accept one or more of the following: a U.S. taxpayer identification number; a passport number and country of issuance; an alien identification card number, or the number and country of issuance of any other government-issued document evidencing nationality or residence and bearing a photograph or similar safeguard.”
This also contained a footnote (17):
“Thus, the proposed regulations do not discourage bank acceptance of the ‘matricula consular’ identity card that is being issued by the Mexican government to immigrants.” (See: Treasury Department Issues USA PATRIOT Act Report to Congress)
Note that no Mexican banks accept their own government's Matricula Consular card as valid ID for opening a bank account because the bearer's identity is all but untraceable. In contrast, thanks to Bush's Treasury Dept., almost all US banks accept it.
On June 17, 2002, Bush held a press conference. In this press conference he said that by 2010 he wanted to see 5.5 million new 'minority' home owners.
He called on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase commitments to the 'minority' market by $440 billion. (See: President Calls for Expanding Opporunities to Home Ownership)
Here's how he described the minorities:
Three-quarters of white America owns their homes. Less than 50 percent of African Americans are part of the homeownership in America. And less than 50 percent of the Hispanics who live here in this country own their home. And that has got to change for the good of the country. It just does.
In response to the mandate contained in the P4P agreement, the New Alliance Task Force was formed in May 2003. (See: New Alliance Task Force)
The NATF is a broad-based coalition of 62 members, including the FDIC, Mexican Consulate, 34 banks, community-based organizations, federal bank regulatory agencies, government agencies, and representatives from the secondary market and private mortgage insurance (PMI) companies.
Their goal was to open the Mexican illegal alien market to US banks and visa-versa using low-cost remittances as the bait. As Bush's 2002 speeches show he was talking about hundreds of billions of tax dollars to directly benefit millions of Mexican illegal aliens.
The NATF was organized into four working groups that were tasked with the following goals:
In 2004, Wells Fargo reported that they had signed up 400,000 new Matricula Consular accounts and at the time were opening up 22,000 new accounts a month. Keep in mind this is just Wells Fargo and that sub-prime lending would not reach its peak until 2005-2006.
The IRS says they've issued over 11 million ITINs since its inception. Mexico says they've issued over 5 million Matricula Consular cards.
But, none of this would be workable if ICE was deporting the banks' new customers. Once again, Bush swung into action, hobbling border and interior enforcement.
Worksite arrests of illegal aliens fell some 97 percent, from 2,859 in 1999 to 159 in 2004. Investigations targeting employers of illegal immigrants fell more than 70 percent, from 7,637 in 1997 to 2,194 in 2003. Arrests on job sites fell—precipitously, from 17,554 in 1997 to 445 in 2003. Fines levied for immigration-law violations fell from 778 in 1997 to 124 in 2003. Notices of intent to fine employers fell from 865 in 1997 to just 3 in 2004.
When the USA Patriot Act came up for renewal in 2004, some republicans wanted to remove the provision that allowed banks to accept Matricula Consular ID as the consular ID is unreliable.
Barney Frank (D-MA) and some of his Republican and Democrat friends swung into action to protect it:
Anti-matrícula proposal defeated; financial institutions can continue accepting consular ID's:
In a vote of 222 to 177, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bipartisan amendment, H.Amdt. 754, introduced by Reps. Michael Oxley (R-OH), Barney Frank (D-MA), Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), Ed Pastor (D-AZ), and Rubén Hinojosa (D-TX) to strike the so-called Culberson amendment that would have prohibited the Treasury Dept. from implementing regulations that allow financial institutions to accept matrícula consular identification cards as part of a valid customer identification program under the USA PATRIOT Act...
In countering Culberson’s allegations that the FBI and the Justice Dept. were opposed to the bipartisan amendment to preserve the use of matrícula consular cards, Bachus presented a letter for the record written by Deputy Atty. Gen. James B. Comey and addressed to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. The letter, dated Sept. 14, 2004, stated:
The Department of Justice fully supports the Administration’s current policy under the USA PATRIOT Act that requires banks and other financial institutions to establish reasonable procedures for the identification and verification of new account holders, which is set forth in regulations of the Department of the Treasury. Therefore the [Justice] Department supports the Oxley-Frank-Kolbe amendment to H.R. 5025 that preserves these regulations. . . . The Department of Justice, including the FBI, continue[s] to work closely with the Treasury Department on this and other issues related to halting all financing of terrorists.
In the final roll call vote, 49 Republicans supported the Oxley-Frank-Kolbe-Pastor-Hinojosa amendment and 16 Democrats opposed it. This legislative victory was a joint effort by financial institutions, immigrants’ rights groups, consumer groups, and many others who worked in coalition to defeat, once again, efforts to limit the acceptance of consular ID cards by banks, credit unions, thrifts, and other financial entities.
In Bush's June 17, 2002 speech, he also called for the creation of the American Dream Down Payment Fund.
And so here are some of the ways to address the issue. First, the single greatest barrier to first time homeownership is a high downpayment. It is really hard for many, many, low income families to make the high downpayment. And so that's why I propose and urge Congress to fully fund the American Dream Downpayment Fund. This will use money, taxpayers' money to help a qualified, low income buyer make a downpayment. And that's important.
And, the 108th Congress (2003-2005) responded with the American Dream Downpayment Act:
Amends the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to: (1) authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to State and local participating jurisdictions for downpayment assistance and related home repair to low-income, first-time home buyers; and (2) limit family assistance to the greater of six percent of the purchase price or $10,000. Requires a participating jurisdiction to include intended grant uses in its fiscal year comprehensive housing affordability strategy under such Act.
Sets forth State and local jurisdiction allocation formulas. Permits fund reallocation.
Requires the Comptroller General to report respecting the impact of such grants on a State-by-State basis.
Terminates grant authority after December 31, 2007. Authorizes specified FY 2004 through 2007 appropriations.
Makes the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Policies Act of 1970 inapplicable to such assistance.
The act was authorized to appropriate up to $200 million per year of US taxpayer funds between FY2004 through FY2007 to go to Bush's 'minorities'.
The sponsor and co-sponsors of this $800 million giveaway:
Sponsor: Sen. Wayne Allard [R-CO]
Co-sponsors:
Sen. Samuel Brownback [R-KS]
Sen. Conrad Burns [R-MT]
Sen. Ben Campbell [R-CO]
Sen. Michael Crapo [R-ID]
Sen. Michael Enzi [R-WY]
Sen. Charles Hagel [R-NE]
Sen. Lisa Murkowski [R-AK]
Sen. Richard Santorum [R-PA]
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R-AL]
In the 2004 election cycle, mortgage bankers and brokers poured nearly $847,000 into Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign, more than triple their contributions in 2000, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The administration did not finalize the new rules until last month. (See: White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire)
Housing Push for Hispanics Spawns Wave of Foreclosures:
Between 2004 and 2007, black borrowers were offered nonprime loans at a slightly higher rate than Hispanics, but the overall number of Hispanic borrowers was much larger. From 2004 to 2005, total nonprime home loans to Hispanics more than tripled to $69 billion from $19 billion, and peaked in 2006 at $73 billion.
Regions of the country where the housing bubble grew biggest, such as California, Nevada and Florida, are heavily populated by Latinos, many of whom worked in the construction industry during the housing boom. When these markets began to weaken, bad loans depressed the value of neighboring properties, creating a downward spiral. Neighborhoods are now dotted with vacant homes.
By late 2008, one in every nine households in San Joaquin County, Calif., was in default or foreclosure -- 24,049 of them, according to Federal Reserve data. Banks have already taken back 55 of every 1,000 homes. In Riverside, Calif., 66,838 houses are owned by banks or were headed in that direction as of October. In Prince William County, Va., a Washington suburb, 11,685 homes, or one in 11, was in default or foreclosure.
...
These days, James Scruggs of Northern Virginia Legal Services is swamped with Latino borrowers facing foreclosure. "We see loan applications that are complete fabrications," he says. Typically, he says, everything was marketed to borrowers in Spanish, right up until the closing, which was conducted in English.
"We are not talking about people working for the World Bank or the IMF," he says. "We are talking about day laborers, janitors, people who work in restaurants, people who do babysitting."
Two such borrowers work in Mr. Scrugg's office. Sandra Cardoza, a $28,000-a-year office manager, is now $30,000 in arrears on loans totaling $370,000. "Her loan documents say she makes more than me," says Mr. Scruggs.
There will be tons of bargains out there. Do not buy into local media pitching bogus 'buy now' hype. There will be plenty of time.
New Wave of Foreclosures Coming
LOL, LOL !
Some points: Republicans are not wholly clean on the subject, definitely. They were NOT the prime movers and shakers as the WSJ piece makes clear.
Bush also worked with a Republican Congress early in his administration to tighten bankruptcy laws which was a positive step.
Clearly the responsibility lies with liberals, and the lack of balls on the part of Republicans and conservatives to make strong arguments on the behalf of that fact is NOT an indictment of anything except their unwillingness to play hard ball.
Also, this quote pretty much tells it all:
Many loans to Hispanic borrowers were based not on actual income histories but on a borrower's "stated income." These so-called no-doc loans yielded higher commissions and involved less paperwork
BINGO!!! I was here in Las Vegas and there were 'hispanic' real estate agents and mortgage brokers advertising SOLELY in spanish to lure in mexican-american citizens as well as the illegals who came (coincidentally, to build houses...) to Las Vegas from LA or PHX. And these spanish-only speaking buyers were routinely and almost exclusively ripping them off by putting them into the worst homes with horrible deals and the loans which were practically criminal in nature (in addition to the crimes of lying on all the loan documents) because the brokers all got two to three times more in commission by pushing these illiterate buyers/suckers into loans no adult with an IQ over 90 would ever agree to.
In every situation, it was people of the same minority group who were victimizing their own 'people' whether it be hispanic, philipino, black, vietnamese or any other group. Nobody could get away with the kind of scandalously immoral and illegal deals if they weren't of the same ethnic group. (without getting sued or called a racist)
bump
Not sure where you came up with that.
FYI
I see you were here already. Sorry.
They flip the house to relatives at higher and higher prices, duping banks in the serial mortgage process. The illegals then default and abscond back to their corrupt homelands to retire in luxury.
US taxpayers are now forced to subsidize billions in bailouts b/c of this illegal scum.
AND GET THIS There have also been reports of Mexican newspapers encouraging illegal mortgage activities. Newspaper ads herald: "Free Houses in the USA."
Another serial mortgage scams entailed getting several mortgages on one house under different names......then defaulting.
Next time somebody says “you’re paranoid,” you respond with:
“There’s plenty of professional help available for disturbed individuals with political correctness fixations.”
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