Who is Responsible for the Subprime Mortgage Crisis?
The idea of playing the blame game has been circulating for a
while, deciding exactly who is responsible for the subprime mortgage
crisis is never fun, but it is a task that has to be done. Looking
at who is to blame is really a sad issue, but sheds a lot of light
on various problems in the mortgage industry.
While the number of people who are all sitting around casting
blame increases so too does the amount of people who are being nominated
for creating the subprime mortgage crisis.
The real truth is that there are several places who are ultimately
responsible for the crisis and it has been a collective work from
a variety of sources all experiencing problems that have not been
easily solved.
While most consumers are quick to cry for help, many have been
avoiding helping themselves as well and are merely waiting on someone
to bail them out. As we determine where the blame is placed we have
to look at several factors.
The first place to look when trying to decide who is responsible
for the
subprime mortgage crisis is the buyer. The homebuyer is
the person who ultimately did not qualify for a traditional mortgage
for one reason or another.
Perhaps they are self-employed, perhaps they have bad credit, perhaps
they did not have a good work history, perhaps they even had their
sights set on a house that was a bit above their budget and needed
some creative financing to obtain the house. Ultimately, a lot of
buyers have been purchasing houses that were either not ready for
homeownership or who could not afford it.
A lot of lenders are also taking blame in the who is responsible
for the subprime mortgage crisis game. While many lenders could
have been offering fixed mortgages to the huge numbers of sub-prime
buyers who were looking to buy a house they were instead only offering
ARM mortgages to the majority knowing that interest rates would
skyrocket in the near future.
The lenders were counting on the skyrocketing interest rates to
help increase their profits exponentially. This has come back to
really hurt the banks as the number of consumers going into default
has reached astronomical levels.
Additionally, the number of programs that are designed for the
under qualified buyer has hurt as well. While most buyers have been
forced to acquire a down payment themselves and work to build up
their credit history while they prepare themselves for home ownership
many programs were designed that would let a borrower obtain a house
with no money down at all.
This created a huge influx of people who had no business buying
a house to rush out and start buying. All of these people who were
unprepared for home ownership and only acquired a house through
a special program are now facing huge difficulties in actually keeping
their home.
Regardless of where exactly all of the blame goes in the scheme
of things there are several people who is responsible for the subprime
mortgage crisis. Correcting the problems that have been created
is now the biggest priority and requires a great deal of time, effort
and money before far more people lose their homes as well.
Working to correct the problems and stop the blaming is a very
important step at this point before more consumers are trapped into
the cycle as well.
Additional Resources:
The Fuel That Fed The Subprime Meltdown
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
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