The Economist comes through with this:Shelter Or Burden?
The disaster began with defaults on American subprime mortgages, a financial instrument designed to spread home ownership among the poor. It gathered pace after the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two government-sponsored enterprises that provide cheap home loans. As a result, the home-ownership rate in America has fallen for four years, the first time that has happened in a quarter of a century.
FIRST off.. what the heck are you doing posting so much on a weekend?
ReplyDeleteI've been remiss. A combination of blogger block and being unable to get excited about stuff and not getting much feedback from the stuff I do post. It's better now and I have dozens of posts I want to get out now.
ReplyDeleteBaby Boomers wrecked the country.
ReplyDeleteEven Al himself stated the last 5% of homeownership was "at risk". Consider it gone, plus a little more just for good measure.
ReplyDeleteThe funny/sad part is that the very same people who felt like they were on the outside looking in find themselves the ones trapped inside wishing they could get out. 5% is 4 million. Gee, how many times have i said 4 million?
ReplyDeleteYeah, pretty ironic that those poor people are now upside down -- the only escape is FC & BK. Nobody was doing them any favors to begin with. They were probably overcharged.
ReplyDeleteDoes the type of loan really matter when the homeowner is more than 25% underwater?
ReplyDeletePrime or sub-prime, the logical choice is to walk away from that loan.