Columbus Mortgage Crisis

Save Debt Money For Your Mortgage

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 19:29:35 +0000

For many students about to graduate from four year colleges and universities, the idea of a mortgage crisis is but a vague notion. These young women and men will not, in all likelihood, have the opportunity to pursue a mortgage loan anyway, because they graduate already buried under mountains of debt for college loans. This is very bad news for the housing market that is already struggling to recover from years of recession. Where will all these recent graduates find gainful employment? Where will they live?

There are more questions than answers here. Let’s take a look at the different levels of higher education, and break out the costs in terms of loan ratios and other factors to get an idea of what the college students are facing when they sign up for that first semester on campus. The information below, brought to you by ecampus.com, puts things in perspective.

Source: eCampus.com

A Mortgage Story

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:09:53 +0000

Sandra T., who has asked that her full name not be published, contributed this article about her own experience during the mortgage crisis in the United States:

In 2004, my three children aged 4, 6, and 12 and I were living in public housing. The area was ridden with crime, and although the free rent was nice, especially since their father wasn’t paying child support and I was unemployed, but staying in that negative environment with my kids was no longer an option. Every night it seemed someone was getting busted for drugs or break-ins. There was a lot of violence and inappropriate behavior among adults who had no clue how to act in public, people always cursing and swearing in front of kids, being obnoxious and loud. I knew I didn’t have much to offer anyone but my good intentions, but I decided to get out somehow.

First, I got a job working in a fast food restaurant. I put the kids in day care, and at least I was getting government assistance to help with that cost. I also found out if I could find a rental property that was section 8 housing I could rent it for a fair price, so I looked into that. But the government subsidy on the cheapest place I could find outside the projects was more than I could afford. After about four more months of searching, I happened to call this one lady who had a sign in front of her house that I thought had said “for rent.” When I called, she said she was going to sell the house instead. I thanked her and was about to hang up, but she spurred a conversation that led me to investigate the possibility of home ownership.

I didn’t think much of it, but I went to a bank anyway. I gave them the price for the house: $70,000. They asked me for check stubs for the past six months, and I confessed I’d only been working for four. That was okay with the banker, so I turned it in. Somehow all of this came together for me, and they explained I could purchase the house with no money down with a two year adjustable rate mortgage (they call it an ARM) and that my payment was going to be less than $400 a month. Too good to be true, so you know I jumped on it.

Soon I was having trouble making my payments, but I got them made. Until the rate went up from %6 to %8! Suddenly my payment, which I was already scraping to make every month, was almost $200 more. For me, that was what the mortgage crisis meant. I did eventually lose the home, but I am working on saving up for a down payment on another one soon.

FICO Affects Mortgage Costs

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 19:50:05 +0000

Everyone wants a top of the line credit score — especially the score known as FICO, the one banks and other lenders must consider when deciding what kinds of interest rates you qualify for, and indeed whether you are credit worthy at all. For many, the FICO score is a mysterious calculation that seems out of reach and beyond understanding. Here are the factors that go into determining one’s FICO score:

All of these have a direct impact on your mortgage, and the lower your score is, the more your mortgage will cost you over time due to interest rates. Below, this infographic will show you just how much more your FICO score could be costing you on the lifetime of your mortgage.

Home Buyer Considerations

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 17:01:18 +0000

Are you thinking about buying a home in the next 6 months? If so, you’re among an elite group of people who managed to resist the lure of first time home buyer’s tax credits the Obama administration briefly launched during its first crashed wave of economic stimulus spending — which means that a) you probably didn’t get trapped in a house with a mortgage you couldn’t really afford, and b) you now have a buyer’s market and many great deals and mortgage terms to enjoy because of your prudence. Even so, buying a home is no small undertaking. There are all kinds of things to consider when purchasing a new home: is there potential for an increase in value in the real estate of your home’s area, and what kinds of home security needs will you have based on crime rates and other factors? These, along with many others, are costs you will want to think seriously about before diving in and buying your own house.

At other times, renting might be the best option. Renters do usually save money in the short term, while avoiding a host of responsibilities that home owners face — like major repairs and updating, taxes and other fees, and routine maintenance. Once you buy a home, you are pretty much stuck there, unable to enjoy the freedom of moving to a new and exciting place that you might have if you rent instead of buy.

This infographic can help put things into perspective:

Occupy Wall Street: Credit Crisis in the US

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:07:39 +0000

The International Monetary Fund’s Global Financial Stability Report is traditionally very conservative in its assessment of the world’s economic status. The most recent report was released on September 21, and warns that the world economy is quickly entering a “danger zone.” A group of protestors, assembled under the banner of “Occupy Wall Street” have had enough, and are actively protesting the corruption that seems rampant in the mortgage industry and trading. The IMF has downgraded its estimate for global growth from an already dismal 4.3 per cent to 4 per cent. U. S. growth has been cut from 2.7 per cent to 1.8 per cent. The recent downgrade in America’s credit rating from AAA to AA will make it even harder for the US to rise out of it’s predicted financial demise and repair bad credit.

“For the first time since the October 2008 Global Financial Stability Report, risks to global financial stability have increased, signaling a partial reversal in progress made over the past three years,” warns the report. In simpler terms, all the measures taken to staunch the hemorrhage unleashed by the global credit crisis from 2008 to the present have run their course. We are now back to the same situation as when Lehman’s closed its doors.

To learn more about Occupy Wall Street and what they are doing to combat corruption, watch the video below.

Mortgage Crisis: How Bad Will it Get?

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:29:35 +0000

The credit markets are stove up, and the same uncertainty that has plagued America for the past several years has sometimes driven up short-term interest rates, even for municipalities and other presumed rock-solid institutions like New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. Sub-prime borrowers are not the only ones feeling the pain, because now, many prime-borrowers are also facing down the barrel of a loaded foreclosure gun. But what’s the very worst that can happen?

Several top economists and finance industry experts now expect the subprime crisis to mutate rapidly into the biggest fail to hit the sector since the savings and loan debacle of the 1980s, which led to upwards of $500 billion in losses to the banking industry. A lot of this is going to heavily depend on how low the average home prices continue to decline over the next few quarters. High unemployment rates are contributing factors, as well as the overall number of homeowners forced into foreclosure from rate hikes. Already, things aren’t looking good.

The United States is in a sad state of affairs. People cannot afford to buy homes, and cannot afford to keep the ones they have. So many mortgages are being foreclosed on, with homes going back to the banks and sitting there, not selling even out of foreclosure. New home sales are at a record low. The country seems poised for catastrophic collapse, with jobless rates higher than they have ever been.

One thing is agreed upon by analysts: short term fixes like rate freezes and stimulus funds are not the answer. If the Obama administration intends to start that back up again, Americans will be the losers. The stimulus funds he already released early in his presidency remain unaccounted for. No one knows where any of the money really went. Perhaps it is time for him to go. Learn more on Direct Satellite TV.

The US Mortgage Crisis Infographic

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:08:39 +0000

This infographic gives an excellent overview of the mortgage crisis in the United States of America. It shows you the subprime mortgages in 2007, which is now 4 years ago. These were the criminally negligent acts that contributed to the financial downfall of the US, and ultimately its decreased credit rating by Standard and Poor’s last week. The United States is now facing serious trouble worldwide due to the downgrade from a AAA rating to a AA+ by the rating agency, which we predict will not escape untouched from this devastating downgrade. Many believe that a AA+ rating is far too generous and out of proportion with what the current data suggests, and that Standard & Poor’s has been over-inflating the credit rating of the country for possibly several years.

Enjoy the infographic below. And don’t forget that if you want the very latest information, the news channels on direct satellite TV are your best bet for getting up to the minute analysis on the deepening American financial crisis attributed to negligence by the Obama administration and the liberal democratic president’s inability to lead.

Credit Downgraded for America

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 14:52:08 +0000

In yet another sign of worsening economic times that are sure to have a direct impact on the housing markets and mortgage foreclosures in the United States, officials at Standard & Poor’s decided last week to proceed with downgrading the credit ratings of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac along with several other agencies linked to long-term U.S. debt. Some speculate that Standard and Poor’s is itself corrupt, and has been falsely inflating the credit rating for the United States for many years leading up to the current crisis. An investigation into Standard and Poor’s is expected by the people of the United States of America, although this might come as a surprise to the agency. They have been so out of touch for so long that they likely have no idea what the American people expect from them in terms of accountability.

The agency says it has also lowered the ratings for farm lenders and long-term U.S. government-backed debt issued by 32 banks and credit unions. Three major clearinghouses are also involved which are used to execute trades of stocks, bonds and options, and the future appears to be rather dismal. It will be months before we know the full impact of this credit rating downgrade, which will affect interest rates involved in the national debt crisis.

State and local governments will experience significant losses in funding due to the downgrade. A statement is expected to be issued soon explaining the repercussions for these agencies, and ultimately, predictions on life for ordinary Americans as a result of the these credit ratings losses will be speculated upon by analysts and financial market media specialists around the globe.

The global impact of America’s fall from AAA grace has yet to be envisioned. Other countries will certainly begin to feel the trickle-down effect from our economic collapse, although the extent of that is yet to be seen or even noticed. Get direct satellite tv to get more financial news.