Foreclosures -- a suit and a forum
Baltimore, as you might have noticed, is suing Wells Fargo Bank for allegedly targeting African-Americans in the city for higher-cost, less attractive loans that are going into foreclosure at a higher rate than loans made in white neighborhoods.
The lawsuit says the "damages and costs to Baltimore ... are in the tens of millions of dollars." You can read about it in John Fritze's story today.
On the subject of foreclosures, I have a story today about Maryland homeownership advocates and others gathering in Annapolis to discuss the growing problem and potential solutions. Some of the solutions proffered were educational, some financial -- and some regulatory:
Thomas E. Perez, Maryland's secretary of labor, licensing and rgulation, told the crowd yesterday that the O'Malley administration "will have a robust legislative agenda to ensure homeownership preservation," including "meaningful oversight" for mortgage brokers. Mortgage underwriting, he said, was "unbelievably shoddy" both during the run-up in home prices and sales that ended in late 2005 and, more recently, as sales slumped and lenders rushed to get new business."So many people were set up for failure," Perez said.
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Comments
So let me get this straight.
If a lender doesn't give enough loans to blacks, they get ripped for being racist.
Then, when they do give out the loans, they get ripped for being racist because people can't pay them back?
Were the borrowers forced to sign the loan?
Did they read the loans they were signing?
These sob stories are ridiculous. The Sun just eats it up too.
It's just like the story a few months about ago the couple who couldn't pay their mortgage yet had thousands of dollars of beautiful furniture in their picture that graced the front page of this rag.
And who gets screwed? People like myself who saved for years to buy a house. People who take the time to read the loans they sign and realize the huge responsibility that owning a home is. People who look at their finances and buy a home that fits within in the means of those finances. How many of these "victims" bought homes that they couldn't afford in the first place? Who's fault is that? The Federal Government is already using my tax money to pay for other people's home loans. Now the city has the nerve to sue a lender and basically label the lender as racist? I'd laugh if it weren't so sad and ironic.
It's just another example of tossing personal responsibility out the window.
Owning a home is a privilege, not a right. That's what lenders and the like said years ago when they were accused of not lending to minorities. They showed their books and how loans are approved. By credit scores, income, debt, prior bankruptcies etc.....
But that wasn't good enough so they finally caved and started giving loans out to people who weren't qualified.
Now they get sued by the same clowns who took them to task for years.
I would say it's stunning if it wasn't Baltimore.
What a joke.
Posted by: Mark | January 8, 2008 7:49 PM
I agree with your thoughts. Perhaps the city should require education programs on finances and personal responsibility before lenders give money to people who sign documents they never read and believe everything they hear. I agree that there were a lot of mortgage brokers out there over the past few years that had no clue what they were doing, but usually that gets solved in underwriting when the people don't qualify. And that's part of the problem - the city should target these brokerage companies that made all that money charging outrageous fees which added to the loan amounts. They made a fortune and ran. Most of them used rather sleezy methods to get their buyers to "qualify". Whether you're black or white, if you sign the dotted line YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. On a side note, I own some real estate in Baltimore. One of my houses has a tenant who gets about 2/3 of his rent from subsidized housing. He is 3 months behind on his portion and has asked if it would be OK for him to install Directv!! That's a necessity right? Education not regulation!
Posted by: Unnamed | January 8, 2008 9:55 PM