"Foreclosure crisis just about finished"

[applegrove]

Foreclosure crisis just about finished

by Mitchell Hartman at Marketplace.org

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/foreclosure-crisis-just-about-finished

"SNIP......................


RealtyTrac reports that the rate of foreclosure filings was down 18 percent in 2014 from the previous year, and are approaching the same level as in 2006, before the housing crisis hit.




.....................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. Great. Totally avoidable. But the Banksters don't want to face new regulations.

What creeps. Canada properly regulated its' banks and our wealth growth in the middle class has far outpaced that in the USA. We are facing bubbles in some markets and the warnings go out all the time. To WARN PEOPLE!

[merrily]

3. I don't want to face hikes in my real estate taxes. Doesn't seem to matter, for some reason.

[enid602]

4. Canada

I wonder if Canadians will still be crowing if the recent plunge in petroleum prices lasts much longer. Could be a long winter.

[applegrove]

5. Less petrol dollars mean a lower Canadian dollar and more business in Canada outside

of Alberta. It is a teetter-totter. I'm in the 'outside of Alberta' part of Canada. I wasn't crowing. I was making a point: the US didn't have to have the loose banking laws it had. There are alternatives that worked to keep the banks from destroying the middle class economy in Canada.

[Igel]

6. Neither do people.

One of the big positives to come out of the foreclosure crisis was a scrutiny on income levels and credit scores, making sure claims of income and reliability checked out.

The mortgage providers didn't have a great motivation for making sure that those they paid loans to could pay them back on the terms agreed upon, but would find some other way of getting by and paying things back.

The mortgage takers didn't have great motivation for making sure that they could pay back the loans on the terms agreed upon, confident that prices would go up and they could always refinance on terms favorable to themselves.

One of the first bits of regulation that really came under the gun was precisely that, with calls that the increased scrutiny of consumers' ability to repay loans was __________ (unfair, unjust, racist, discriminatory, classist, pick your term: those found least likely to repay loans were shockingly found to be on the low end of the income/wealth distribution and had low credit scores, low incomes, unstable work histories. Amazingly ... uh, obvious.)

[applegrove]

7. The banks in Canada did due dilligence and made sure that

the loans didn't take on unreasonable risk. Because that is their job.

[merrily]

2. Foreclosures have slowed, but many who were foreclosed upon are still suffering.

As are many more who were not foreclosed upon, but who have been left out of the recovery.

Meanwhile, the settlement releasing lenders from the consequences of their bad and/or sloppy behaviors is still in effect; and they are benefiting from the recovery (as they did from the bailout and the Fed's policies since the bailout).

Main Street vs. Wall Street.