There really are some victims in the housing mess

26 12 2007

There really are some victims in the housing mess

Posted by: in Mortgage

I know most of us hate to see the government bail people out for being greedy. And, yes, some people were exceedingly greedy when they took out mortgage loans for their current homes.

I’m referring here to those folks who took out adjustable-rate mortgages or interest-only loans so that they could benefit from artificially small — and, it’s important to note, temporary – monthly mortgage payments, all so they could get into that more massive, more high-priced house, a home that normally would be too much for their financial wherewithal.

Yes, some of these people will benefit from the federal government’s plan to bail out homeowners who face suddenly higher mortgage payments once their interest-only loans or adjustable-rate mortgages adjust.

But, and maybe it’s the holiday season stirring me to write this, let’s have a little compassion. There are lots of, many homeowners out there who truly were victimized by mortgage loan officers who convinced them to take out inappropriate loans. These loan officers knew that when their loans adjusted, these people would have no chance to make their monthly payments. Yet they pushed their borrowers into them anyway.

I know that in the United Says, we believe in personal responsibility: You make a mistake? You fix it on your own. But buying a home is a challenge. Many people do it just once or twice in their lives. They hire real estate agents and mortgage loan officers to help them do it right. They’re relying on their advice. If a loan officer that they hired steers them wrong, who is really at fault?

So this Christmas season, when you feel like complaining to your neighbor about all those greedy homeowners getting a break from the government, stop and think: Remember that many of these so-called greedy homeowners are actually victims of unscrupulous lenders and uninformed real estate agents all taking advantage of the U.S. obsession with homeownership.

(Remember, too, that the government’s mortgage bailout — which is, unfortunately, only a very small step in addressing the possible wave of foreclosures that may soon hit this country — will cost you, the average taxpayer, barely anything, especially when compared to some other big mistakes the government is paying for … like, well, a largely unneccessary war it’s waging in Iraq.)