King 5 News comes at us with some quotes from real people in King County that are part of the ever-increasing group undergoing foreclosure:
Sofia DeLeon says she went for an adjustable rate mortgage, but when rates were adjusted, she couldn’t keep up.
“It was scary, you know, and I felt really, really ashamed. I looked at myself as a failure,” she said. “I’m not really astute at these things, so I was just anxious to get a house… to get my own house, so I probably didn’t look.”
I wouldn’t say that people going through foreclosure are a failure, just that they let themselves get swept up in the mania. They didn’t take the time to learn about the repercussions of the dangerous loans they were peddled, but rather just took the real estate and mortgage “professionals'” word that they should do whatever it takes to get into a home.
Homeowner Nancy Wagner says the fear of foreclosure is incredibly stressful.
“You wonder what’s going to happen. Are we going to be out on the street… looking for a homeless shelter or something?” she asked.
“When those loans are what’s called re-cast, and their payments go up 10 to 50 percent, those folks have no hope of being able to pay them,” said Jane Withers, ACORN Housing.
An advocacy group called ACORN Housing says predatory lending three to four years ago is largely to blame.
I’ve never heard of a renter’s payments suddenly jumping up by 50 percent, leaving them wondering if they’ll be “looking for a homeless shelter.” And while “predatory lending” certainly has a good share of the blame, the willing consumers should not be given a free pass. I do feel bad for anyone that loses “their” house in foreclosure, but that doesn’t mean that people who dove head first into suicide loans get a free pass to escape the consequences of their hasty decision.
(Lori Matsukawa, King 5 News, 06.20.2007)