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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Foreclosure crisis just about finished"
Foreclosure crisis just about finishedby Mitchell Hartman at Marketplace.org
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/foreclosure-crisis-just-about-finished
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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.
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applegrove
(118,758 posts)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
(45,251 posts)I wonder if Canadians will still be crowing if the recent plunge in petroleum prices lasts much longer. Could be a long winter.
applegrove
(118,758 posts)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
(35,337 posts)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
(118,758 posts)the loans didn't take on unreasonable risk. Because that is their job.
merrily
(45,251 posts)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.