Las Vegas Sun

November 21, 2009

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Foreclosures, immigration linked in report

Areas hit hardest have high percentage of foreign-born heads of household

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 | 2 a.m.

Related Document

Beyond the Sun

Counties with high foreclosure rates also tend to have large immigrant populations, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released Tuesday.

The study ranked Clark County sixth nationwide in foreclosure rates last year with 8.9 percent of the valley’s houses in the courts. Nearly 1 in 4 heads of household locally were foreign-born, much higher than the national rate of 4.7 percent. Half of those immigrants were Hispanic.

But the study’s main author, Rakesh Kochhar, cautioned that focusing on those factors can lead to a “chicken and egg situation.”

“The two things appear together, but is there a causal relationship? Not necessarily,” he said.

Kochhar noted that jobs building houses drew many immigrants to the Las Vegas Valley in the past two decades. An unknown number of those workers bought homes.

The report also shows that Hispanics, blacks and minorities in general entered subprime mortgages at higher rates than the rest of the population. Nationwide, for example, 27.6 percent of home loans to Hispanics in 2007 were high-priced and a third of loans to blacks were in the same category. Only 1 in 10 loans to whites were high-priced. So areas with higher shares of minorities tend to have higher numbers of homeowners with loans at risk of entering foreclosure.

Kochhar’s report, titled “Through Boom and Bust: Minorities, Immigrants and Homeownership,” shows that counties with high foreclosure rates exhibit other factors, including rising unemployment rates and sinking home values.

Clark County’s unemployment rate for March was 10.4 percent, tenth-highest among major metropolitan areas nationwide. The Pew report looks at unemployment rates only for 2008 as a whole, which in Clark County was 6.5 percent. The construction sector is among the hardest-hit in terms of job loss. And home values in Las Vegas dropped 31.7 percent in 2008, second most in the nation behind Phoenix, according to a recent Standard & Poor’s report.

So there are several factors related to high concentrations of immigrants, each somehow related to another.

As Kochhar wrote, “the presence of immigrants in a county may simply signal the effects of a boom-and-bust cycle that has raised foreclosure rates for all residents in that county.”

Ian Hirsch, who manages Fortress Credit Services and has taken on hundreds of clients seeking to adjust their mortgages to avoid or get out of foreclosure, said the report’s conclusions match his on-the-ground experience.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” Hirsch said. He pointed to the dozens of minority and immigrant clients he has seen who say, “This is not what I was told I was getting into” when they come to his office for help. The adjustable rates in their mortgages and the lack of financial assets they brought to the table lead many of those clients to foreclosure, he added.

Some of those clients worked in the construction industry, building the homes that came with the boom. Now, Hirsch noted, with the construction of CityCenter and other large commercial projects nearing an end, unemployment may continue to rise in the coming months.

This could bring more foreclosures and failed businesses.

“Unfortunately,” Hirsch said, “I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.”

Discussion: 54 comments so far…

  1. wonder if this is because they are an easy target for banks and brokers, my british friend was offered a rate of 10% and was asked to put 50% down, this I feel is disgraceful and shameful, especially as banks have taken taxpayers money from all over the world..

  2. easy targets for banks and brokers ?
    people who sign a contract without first understanding it are the problem. the banks or brokers did not hold a gun to these financial imbeciles heads and force them to sign a contract.

  3. Predatory lending is a complete farce! What ever happened to personal responsibility in this country? Too fat? Sue McDonalds!. Smoked for the first time and got addicted? Sue tobacco companies! Signed up for a loan that you knew (or should of known) you could never afford? Blame the lender! Just think of the example this sets for our kids. "It's not your fault", has ALWAYS been the Democrats battle cry.

  4. Poker and milfy are your typical rednecks who spout about personal responsibility while listening to Rush and Hannity. Sadly, they back the predatory lenders who bilked people into fraudulent loans, simply because the immigrant people trusted "experts" who were one step away from being bank robbers. Luckily, poker and milfy are part of a declining group of Repubs who have red necks and a gun tucked between their legs at night. Good riddance...

  5. it goes both ways unfortunately. it was much easier to sell those loans to those people and they took advantange, but please, it doesn't absolve the buyer from any responsibility for not understanding what they are getting into. What's that saying you hear on NBC, "the more you know". sad to see people try and shove their own responsibility onto lenders/corporations and play stupid. if people would educate themselves, these predatory lending practices may not exist because, gasp, no one would fall for it?

  6. Did I hear Gun?

    O-Kay, I'll put my two cents in.

    Read the report, I must say, I don't like the PEW Hispanic Center (wolf in sheep clothing) then comment on the facts.

    From the PEW report, you find that Blacks and Hispanics pay more for loans in America than Whites, why is that.

    Immigrants where less likely to have their homes forclosed than Black, Hispanics, and Whites, why is that.

    Banks wanted the loans to fail, then they could have all the invested moneies and the properties back, it is called a "hostile take over" in big business areanas. When that happaned to all the loans (non-producers/dead cows-horses) at once to many loans failed and the banks themselves then lost ground to the Fed, who in turn called for the "stress test" to insure there was enough money in the vaults.

    So now here is my question, why does this Sun report want to assosiate the forclosure problem with immigation. Is it to make more reades angry or to help place the blame on something other than the banks or better yet than on Pres. Bush.

    For an Award winning News outfit like the Sun to do such poor reporting fails me, or did they just get lucky like a pull of the handle on the casino floor and win the award.

    Good Luck!

  7. milfy and poker your points are valid, however if you moved to a foreign country did not understand their system, would you not make a mistake? Or maybe be sold something more easily? It is easy to criticise when you know or understand the system, yet many people don't

    Did you know what CDOs were before the credit crunch? Do you know what they are now?

  8. Please look to Bill Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act and ACORN, which basically penalized banks for not providing risky, unsound loans to minorities that failed to meet the standard lending criteria. It used to be that people were supposed to save to afford a down payment. You can't give a house to people that don't have any money, with no money down, no calateral, no credit, and no vested interest in the property, and expect them to magically be able to afford it. If these people were capable of saving money and paying bills, they would have come up with down payments, had decent credit, and purchased a home with a traditional mortgage. It doesn't matter what race you are, I know plenty of stupid white people that engaged in this sub-prime, interest only fiasco as well. I think a lot of people got greedy, saw housing prices skyrocketing, and thought they could profit off of an inflated housing market before it busted. I believe that a lot of people saw this as an opportunity to score really big money with no personal risk. I would love to take a look at a real study that shows how many of these people actually "lost" something or are worse for the wear. How many lost something they worked hard for? I think the majority are probably people that just had to go back to renting. And a lot are people that gambled the equity in their homes and lost. One person I know refinanced her completely paid for home, took $200,000 out of it, and lost it. Very foolish. By the way, ACORN is still providing loans to people with $0 down. I also think that it's the easiest thing in the world for someone to say, "I was taken advantage of." or "I didn't know what I was getting into." or "They lied to me." It is much easier than saying "I made a huge mistake and probably should have known better."

  9. i am man enough to take my loses if i enter into a transaction. this would apply to whether i totally understood it or not. i VOLUNTARILY made the choice and must live with the consequences.
    maybe someone should explain that the united states is not a third world banana republic where if you wait a few years, there will be a coup detat or revolution where the new government will forgive debts from the prior regime.

  10. Ignorance is no excuse. If you don't know the system then learn about it first before signing a contract. Who here would sign a contract in a foreign country without understanding the consequences? Bdover is nothing but a fool who wants to blame all his/her past failures on someone else. It's so much easier that way...just like it's easier to take a handout versus working.

  11. bdover, you are very devious. your OWN words show you do not feel you need to honor a contract that you voluntarily signed when it best suits you. what a coward !

  12. "wonder if this is because they are an easy target for banks and brokers, my british friend was offered a rate of 10% and was asked to put 50% down, this I feel is disgraceful and shameful, especially as banks have taken taxpayers money from all over the world.."

    markp: Maybe if the banks and lenders actually DID require more than a zero down payment and required the prospective home buyer to come up with a minimum 20% down payment AND have the prospective homebuyer be able to actually afford a mortgage payment, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today. Your friend is actually being treated fairly by what has now become today's standard in buying a home. That 50% down may seem a lot, but there is a reason why he has to put down that much money. Is he buying property here in this country?

    Because of taxpayer money, the banks and lenders are now subject to something they didn't have before and that is accountability on who they give a mortgage to - all because of that bailout money. No money - No home. That's how it was "back in the old days" - there were no fancy ARM's, there weren't any "no down paymnent" mortgages (unless it was VA loans). You had to come up with money, prove that you could afford the mortgage on a house that you actually could afford (no $400,000 house on a $50,000 a year salary) and then get a standard 20, 30 year mortgage.

    henderson suumarized it very well in his post on why we are in the position we are in today. If it was all done right in the first place - there would have been no need for any bailouts. Go read it again.

  13. I will say money was lost by all the folks who lost their homes.

    If you say the avg. home was $150,000. in 2004 and you had a monthy payment of $1,000. Then from 2004 to 2008 is four years, which equals $48,000. That is alot of pie anyway you slice it.

    So, the banks got aprox. $50,000. and the homes back too.

    Wait, it gets better, then the banks get eatten by bigger fish (banks) and they only paid 12% ($12,000) of the value ($150,000) at tax payers expense. Who ownes the banks? Poor people, I say not.

    Say what you will about poor people wanting to own their homes instead of renting and "oweing their whole life to the company store", but this rings true now and forever, big banks (Wealthy People) will make all the money after it is all said and done, at tax payers expense.

  14. Easy money was a disaster. The idea that every person deserves a single family dwelling is insane. The Dems push the banks to loan to minorities and the banks have to get their money and by the way you have to sign the contract 30 times. Let's get back to real economics.

  15. When deception and fraud are involved, it is not a binding contract.

    Read a book on contract law rednecks!

  16. GunslingerA10 -

    I have to correct you on the money lost issue.
    Now assuming these people would be renting a home of equal value, they would likely have paid $1000 per month in rent anyways. Even a 2bdrm apartment averages over $900 monthly. I don't consider the mortgage payments as money lost. Let's be fair and call it rent. These people actually made out better than renters because they didn't have to pay the standard application fee, first/last months rent, security deposit, non-refundable cleaning deposit, and pet deposits. The other benefit these people have is that it often takes 6months - 1year of non-payment before people are finally forced to leave the home. That's a savings of $6000 - $12000! I've never lived half a year rent-free, have you?

    I will also add that many of these people are leaving these homes in shambles. Some are so angry they steal the appliances, countertops, plumming fixtures, some even leave water running upstairs/downstairs so the houses are uninhabitable, break windows, and vandalise before they leave. It is just a testiment as to why there should be criteria for home ownership to begin with.

  17. just because it was an adjustable rate mortgage, or there was no money down, etc, etc does NOT mean the contract involved deception and fraud. in fact, over 99.9% of the contracts will be found to be LEGAL since both parties VOLUNTARILY signed them and the terms (no matter what you personally think of them) are LEGAL. oh by the way, i have taken a contract law course in college. why are there almost NO criminal or civil lawsuits that have been won by the poor victims ?

  18. A non Mexican can only lease Mexican land, not purchase it. But, anyone can come here and purchase land, no matter where they come from. This is a great country with many oppurtunities, and instead of making people follow the rules and encouraging people to be strong and smart we encourage people to become victims. What happened to being responsible for ones own actions?

  19. henderson, go to (e.g.) Texas & start your own "whites only" country and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave civilized society alone.

    BTW, ACORN does NOT issue loans. Please get your information from fact-based sources instead of hate radio & a right wing "news" channel.

  20. if you had taken a contract law course then you would know that 'real estate verbal contracts' are not enforcable if there is later a disagreement. It must be put into the written real estate contract that both parties sign. this is why many people, no matter what they may have been told verbally will lose as it is the written real estate contract that counts !

  21. PatriciaLV,

    Curious to know why you think I'm racist, and more curious to know why you assume that I'm white. I've never stated anything in this post that should be construed as racism, in fact the woman I spoke of that took all of her equity was white. You should re-read my posts. Racism is a very ugly word that shouldn't be used lightly. Furthermore, ACORN does not lend it's own money, but it does facilitate a home loan program and it does still put people in $0 down mortgage loans. You should familiarize yourself and refrain from making assumptions, you have no clue what you're talking about. If you feel that I'm mistaken, I urge you to take issue with any incorrect information I've shared here, but please try to be a grown up and engage in an intelligent debate rather than act like a child and call people white racists. It's not my fault you lost your house.

  22. I love these forums - re-inforces my faith in the ability of stupid people to be stupid. Really now, I do sometimes comment on here that Harry Truman went bankrupt - he failed as a haberdasher - and yet after his failure he did over a period of time pay off all his debts though he had no legal obligation to do so. Hey, I say there are lots of reasons for the foreclosure problems - those who knew better went along and made bad loans. I worked for HUD while some of that was going on - based on what I know Andy Cuomo may be a candidate for the cell next to Madoff - maybe not but those folks promoted home ownership non-stop. Now some of the folks who caused the problem are in power and are making others look like it was their fault. What a world! Life is good!

  23. Gee, I'm surprised that milfy and poker are Republicans. A dying breed if there ever was one, the descendants of Dixiecrats and the slave states. Please go home to your uneducated rural upbringings, and be sure to take your sheets and pillow cases with you. And could you take Jim Gibbons with you? We'd have a breath of fresh air.....

  24. henderson:

    True enough if all they had was rent. Most all the floks who lost their homes are back to rent.

    As a landloard myself I know full well how tentants are, they are at times not very good, but then I have my credits and AGI that helps to off-set.

    The point here is that banks like insurance co. are into risk management, and that is no less than what anybody does at the poker table.
    If you bet with insurance, you bet you will die, while the insurance co. bets you will live. If you bet with a bank, you bet you can pay, the bank bets you can not. The bank is not going into a bet empty handed, or do you think they are in the business to just be good guys for the people.

    Moreover, read the news on what is coming for the banks and their credit cards, how they rip off people with their "good guy" schemes.

    you can blame the poor all you want, but it is greed at the root of it all, here and now to just throw out bits of the whole picture does not paint a very clear picture of what caused this whole economic mess, but the article is saying that immigration and forclosoure are liked.

    Why did immigrants have less forclosures than did Hispanics, Blacks, Whites, or Asian Americans, answer that.

    Another question, why do Hispanics and Blacks pay more for loans than Whites, on avg. Greed and economic perjudice, are the reason, but if it makes you sleep better at night lets call it a credit score.

    By the way, more non sub-prime loans have failed than the so called sub-prime ones. Oh and I guess those where sub-prime banks that failed and GM is a sub-prime auto maker, I could go on and on, but what is the use.

    I might add, My brother-in-law is a banker, hence the info.

    Good day

  25. ruby777 yes he is trying to buy in las vegas, it is not the deposit that he has an issue with it is the interest rate he is having to pay, it is 10% well over the normal amount.

  26. GunslingerA10,

    I never said I blame the poor. I don't blame "the poor." There are plenty of people making great money that got themselves into foreclosure through greed. People saw their values skyrocket, many refi'd and took all of the equity out of their homes, had a field day, spent the money, and now the banks own their homes, or at best, they are very upside down oweing far more than their homes are even worth. This factor leads a lot of people into walking away from their homes and their financial obligations. I think a lot of people, if you want to call them poor that's your word not mine, saw the potential to buy a house using no money of their own and expected values to continue rising. This actually worked out for a lot of people that sold before the values plummeted. The values were bound to come down sooner or later. I don't see this as a poor issue. If banks aren't going to formulate loans based on a credit history, income, TRW reports, what are they supposed to look at to find out how credit worthy people are? I don't even understand that logic. If you think lending based on a credit score, income, and existing debt is a bad way to do it, please tell me what criteria you think should be considered.

  27. bdover, a prime example of people who just want to push off responsibility of their own actions onto others. i guess this is to be expected of democrats, since people of the contrary are republicans?

  28. The same as they do for most others, your good name.

    The only criteria any American should need is their ID, for a loan on a car, home, ect. is their name like it is done in the Gulf Coast Countries (GCC).

    Do you know what criteria is used for most big deals around the world, name, which is why we ask who's name is on it, and we sign with a name.

    Get over thinking the banking game is fair and the rules are in place to protect each other, the're not, they are there to allow for disqualifing whomever they want, keep you out or let you in.

  29. Henderson.. excellent posts, and my sentiments as well..

    I have seen quite a few of the sub-prime mortgages play out.. tsk tsk

    Were the banks and mortgage companies greedy? Yep, you betcha! However, they can't give you a loan that you are unable to afford unless you allow them to. It is beyond me why a person would purchase ANYTHING, especially such a large investment as a home, or vehicle, without reading, and fully understanding a contract. That's why we have attorneys. If you don't understand it, then have a professional look it over.

    Common sense should tell a person if your house payment is going to be $2000 a month and you only make $1500 a month, guess what, you can't afford it.. Just because it's offer to you doesn't mean you should take it. If you go for an ARM you are taking a big risk. People that were taking out loans that they couldn't afford are greedy as well.

    Before I have ever purchased a home, I did the calculations myself. It's very easy to pull up sites on the Internet and do an amortization schedule. Also, I can't imagine not familiarizing myself with the different type of loans if I was unaware of them. ASK QUESTION's.. Geez, I even kept a watch each day on the interest rates before I lock in. I wasn't born with this knowledge.... before I ever bought my very first home, I did the research so I would be well versed in home buying 101. Why would anyone ever want to go into something blindly?

    Whatever happened to the "starter home"? The dump you buy cheaply because it's all you can AFFORD.. Work hard, put extra on the principle... fix it up a bit .. sell it, use the equity to get something nicer..

    It's ashame ACORN is still at it, but now the people have been warned.. their bad if they fall for it again!

    This has become the "microwave generation" .. I want it and I want it right now! When you partake of the microwave generation's way of thinking, you usually lose..

  30. GunslingerA10,

    Good Name? What if someone doesn't have a good name? What if you know that they have defaulted on other loans? So if they have a "bad name" in terms of paying back money, I take it that you wouldn't loan them money? Or do suckers just line up to thrown good money after bad? And if their bad name prevents them from borrowing from someone, isn't that kind of the same basis as a credit score? Because the way to earn good credit is to pay your debts on time, it's really not that discriminatory. And isn't the whole "loaning money on a signature" kind of like what happened here with the sub-prime mortgages? Giving people houses with little or no qualifying credit and no money down? I think if banks created mortgages for people based on a lick and a promise we'd find ourselves in an even deeper hole right now.

    Not only that, you are a landlord! Unless you are a complete idiot, you check the credit and background of potential tenants before you let them take residency on your property. Or can someone who just trashed the last place they lived, with terrible credit come and rent from you? I don't believe a word you say anymore.

  31. Pass a law that says an immigrant can't buy a house until they've been "Americanized".

  32. bdover shows his ignorance again by making an assumption. i have been a registered libertarian for well over a decade. we believe in LIMITED government (only what the constitution allows them to do) and free enterprise. we do not believe in a nanny state with the government needing to hold peoples' hand because they are nit wits.

  33. I'll wait for the dust to settle....so people can get back to the "original" point of this article. GEE

  34. I've said it a thousand times, you can't fix stupid. Unfortunately, stupid is stupid does and Obama and clan will seek reimbursement for these people. It wasn't their fault, it was the lenders and American society that did this too them.

    People, wake up, we didn't hold a gun to anyone's head, didn't force them to sign a legally binding contract, and we surely didn't offer out help to bail out Wall Street, Bankers, and Automobile industry; What makes anyone think that Obama, Pelosi, and Reid aren't going to bail out these idiots now?

    We can all agree that the system was broke and the Real Estate Agents, Brokers, Appraisers, and all others who received commission based income done screwed Americana and we're left paying the tab for their lying, cheating, and stealing from us. What we seem to forget, we vote these people into office, Obama won and he is just as dumb and the last 20 years. America needs to vote out career politicians and vote smart.

  35. Well, "henderson", I didn't lose my house nor am I upside down in it. Sorry; you don't know everything.

    It wasn't solely "Bill Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act" (which, IIRC, was passed by a republican congress). I seem to remember Bush and HIS republican congress having something to do with this ....

    ACORN has no authority to "penalize" anyone, let alone banks. In addition, facilitating a loan and actually loaning are two completely different things (your exact words: "... ACORN is still providing loans to people with $0 down"). As intelligent as you purport to be, I'd have thought you'd know that. You should check ACORN's very own web site so you, too, can be properly informed. Just what exactly do you mean by "facilitating" anyway? They are a grass-roots advocacy organization. How exactly do they "facilitate home loans"? And how does that make them responsible for the mess we're in right now?

    You can claim you're not racist all you want but the undertones in your post belie your claim. If I read you incorrectly, I apologize. But I don't think I did.

  36. The fact that so many people are losing their residence is troubling, that fact that they are brown, black, purple, green, or orange is not.

  37. Also, you pile on the homeowner pricks can f___ off. Loan docs are 100 pages. People were treated unfairly and others bought homes they could not afford, but there are definitely different groups of people.

  38. henderson is partly correct he just didn't describe it well...

    Bill Clinton's Community Reinvestment Act and ACORN hoped to allow less fortunate groups of Americans to live the American Dream.

    The banks however then engaged in Malicious Compliance with these well meaning efforts and made a LOT of jack on the backs of trusting less experienced and more vulnerable than prior applicant pools of borrowers.

    Unsophisticated or desperate borrowers acted like pigs and swallowed too much. Greedy money brokers acted like pigs and tried to profit unrealistically.

    Pigs go to slaughter.

    Simple.

    (unless they are too big to fail, but I won't re-open that can of ham)

    Complex.

  39. What I wanna know, is how the hell have all these illegals qualified to purchase homes?

    If I went to almost any other country and tried to buy a house, I couldn't unless I was a resident/citizen.

  40. PatriciaLV,

    I have to correct you on something, it's not "the mess we're in." Please speak for yourself. I am not in a mess. I also don't believe this is a poor/immigration issue either. Most of the people I know that lost their homes or are upside down are stupid white people that refi'd and took equity out of their homes, purchased multiple homes that they couldn't afford, and some simply purchased houses priced out of their league. These people could not be talked out of these decisions. They refused to listen to reason and logic. They knew the potential for disaster behind these choices, and they took the risks. This isn't simply an immigration/minority issue. I believe it has more to do with greed and grandiose expectations of an overly inflated housing market. Blame who you will, but the truth is that we are all responsible for our financial decisions. It is a slippery slope when we start holding other people accountable for our choices. That logic needs to stop or we will find ourselves in a society where casinos become liable for people's gambling problems, bar owners will be accountable for people that drink their paychecks away, other states can hold the lottery accountable for addicts, MacDonalds will become responsible for obesity. I like free will and I don't want to live in a nanny state where I am not free to do what I please, which is exactly where your train of thought leads. There needs to be personal accountability.

  41. what's in the box:

    "What I wanna know, is how the hell have all these illegals qualified to purchase homes?"

    The criteria for an illegal to qualify for a mortgage is different then the natural born citizen, or the legal immigrant.

    The illegal does not need to show 3 years of taxes, paystubs,credit, bank statements, ect. They usually open a bank account when they are putting down earnest money, you know, check #101.

  42. henderson, mostly I agree with what you wrote with one notable exception: Yes, WE are in this mess. WE as a society, as a nation, cannot sustain our society or nation with the I ME MINE attitude that has prevailed for entirely too long.

    If WE don't care for each other when WE need care, WE are doomed.

    I was taught at a very young age that if I have the means and the ability to help someone who needs it, it is my responsibility, my duty if you will, as a human to help.

    You may think the following hypocritical but here it is: This does NOT apply to the greedy who are now upside down/foreclosed upon. They in no way need my or anyone else's help. However, those who were genuinely hornswaggled (I love that word ahaha!), and there are too many, do deserve assistance.

    After all, isn't "home ownership" the big American Dream? In fact, I just heard a radio ad this morning for one of those big box "home improvement" stores that claimed just that.

    Yes, buyer beware; but when the seller is patently dishonest, how can you possibly blame the buyer in toto? (Did I spell that correctly?) And on this thread anyway I've seen entirely too many curt nods to "oh yeah the sellers are dishonest". Why is this tolerated?

  43. "The criteria for an illegal to qualify for a mortgage is different then the natural born citizen, or the legal immigrant."

    So were/are the sellers asking, "Are you an illegal" and then proceeding per your post?

  44. I don't have the money for a down-payment but I do know that if I could get a home loan with a payment of $1200 or less I would be able to make it just as I have for the past almost 10yrs without being so much as 1 day late. Ideally anything less than $1200 would be less than what I pay in rent - so all this talk about down-payments do not necessarily determine if a person is a good 'risk' or not when it comes to getting a mortgage. I would love to have a down-payment to plop down, of course I would, but expenses being what they are, salaries being what they are, I can meet my monthly financial obligations with little to nothing to spare - and I spend zero dollars on any form of entertainment at all - so where to make the cut in order to save for the elusive down-payment? As it stands I'm sure I'll continue to make my landlord a very happy person - hell, I've just about paid off his 15 yr mortgage already and he's not had one minute of having to sweat it out as to whether or not he was gonna get his rent payment. I AM one of the good guys who pays their bills ON TIME but alas with little to spare for savings I am forever destined to be a GREAT renter.

  45. henderson

    "Unless you are a complete idiot, you check the credit and background of potential tenants before you let them take residency on your property".

    Did I offend you that you have to say what you said.

    I have military folks who I rent to, and I don't check their history just knowing they are in the military, past or present is fine for me.

    I guess you just don't get it. I was not trying to call you out, just chewing the fat, then you go and get into an up-roar. Perhaps a good ol-Bit..-slapping" will do, but for the life of me why we need to degrade to your level is not something beyond my limits, just something beyond my understanding of your nature.

    To infer or say something of that order towards me is not the point here unless you are an idiot and don't understand what happen to the ecconomy.

    Shall I try again, loans even have co-signatures, becuase of the name. I don't know if you have ever understood what or how people are discriminated against, do you.

    Now, given a household budget of $5,500. a month and a home expense of lets say $1,500. at 6% interest (ARM); You have $4,000. left for fuel ($1,000. = $1.oo a gallon) food ($1,000.) and entertainment/disposable income ($1,000.).

    If your Ajustable Rate Morgage (ARM) even goes to 12% or 24%, it will not impact your ability to pay as much as if gas goes to $2.00, $3.00, $4.00 a gallon. At $4.00 a gallon it translates your fuel expense to $4,000. a month.

    For many Americans it was better to quit their jobs than to drive/commute at $4.00 a gallon, not to mention they still had to buy food, my bad.

    I'm not done yet.

  46. The loans (interest rates)in and of themselves were not the problem, it was the cost of fuel, then inflation of everything that followed.

    I would have spoon feed you, but I thought you were old enough to know better, then again idiots don't know any better than what is told to them by their elders/media.

    Back to the point of this article, read it with an open mind and show me where it says illegal immigrants are the reason for a high forclosure rate.

    Legal residents/immigrants yes, but do you read most immigrants were less likely to fail, about .5%. Why, becuase they will do whatever they must not to fail, even if that means going hungry or not buying new shoes.

    More to the point, The report shows that Hispanics, blacks and minorities in general entered subprime mortgages at higher rates than the rest of the population. Nationwide, for example, 27.6 percent of home loans to Hispanics in 2007 were high-priced and a third of loans to blacks were in the same category. Only 1 in 10 loans to whites were high-priced. Can you say discrimination?

    Also, the statement saying "areas with higher shares of minorities tend to have higher numbers of homeowners with loans at risk of entering foreclosure. Why did they fail to mention homeqwners who rented those homes in those areas had a high incedence of failure as well.

    What agenda is at hand here, the PEW trying to link immigration with the sub-prime loan failure. When we all know that the spike in oil prices caused the ecconomic mess we are in now.

    Bush would have driven the price to $200. a barrel by pumping the excess market oil into the Stratigic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) if not for the house and Pelosi making him a "Lame Duck". Then, still at the end of his term in office he took all the remaining executive budget at the end of 2008 and put it on oil. Go figure.

    By-the-way, I am not looking for a following here or your politcal support in any fashion, so you saying "I don't believe a word you say anymore". Well, my intention here on this thread is to exchange ideas, not clikas, how shallow thinking your statement would hurt my feelings.

  47. READ IT IF YOU CAN, READ BETWEEN THE LINES, DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25643936/wid...

    Then with all the talk of oil shortages Brazil announces they found oil reserves which will rank them #3 as oil producers. Oh the shame, the shame of it all.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7086...

    Like cattle.

    Now is it all starting to clear up for you.

    So the Pres. in South America, oh I am blinded by my lack of insight.

  48. PatriciaLV -

    I do not in any way feel personally responsible for helping people keep a home they can't afford and haven't earned or paid for. I am extremely compelled and donate generously to help feed the poor and hungry, organizations that assist battered women and children, contribute to abused and neglected animals, spay & neuter clinics, clean drinking water wells in 3rd world countries, and the prevention of Malaria in Africa. I am not even remotely interested in helping someone keep a home when they can easily rent. I don't think we "owe" it to anyone to be a homeowner. It's something people are supposed to work hard for and save for. I don't consider someone "poor" because they don't own a home. You're not needy because you want to own a home instead of rent one. I'd rather spend my time/money/charity on people and creatures who truly need it and whose lives depend on it. I won't lose a wink of sleep over someone else's horrible financial decisions. People losing homes they never earned, didn't pay for, and can't afford isn't my problem. Like I said before, the worst case scenario is they get several months living rent-free without any deposits, and they'll go back to renting. Someday, when they have worked hard and saved money they can have the chance again. I saved for 8 years to buy my first house, a somewhat fixer-upper. It took me another 5 years of saving before I could afford a nice house in a decent neighborhood. That's the way life is. Nobody owes you a house, you have to earn it and pay for it.

  49. Hey PatriciaLV....you stated:

    "BTW, ACORN does NOT issue loans. Please get your information from fact-based sources instead of hate radio & a right wing "news" channel."

    LOL..practice what you preach..go to this website and you will see ACORN does issue home loans.
    http://acornhousing.org/TEXT/homebuying1...

    Educate yourselves before you go spouting off...just makes you all look like fools.

  50. Why don't YOU read the link you posted? THEY DO NOT ISSUE LOANS. They are NOT a financial institution; they are an ADVOCACY GROUP.

    Why is this so difficult for you to understand??

  51. henderson, we'll have to agree to disagree. I believe the quality of everyone's lives increases when more can share in "the dream". I also believe society and subsequently the nation is a much better place for it.

  52. for "its2hot" :

    You think for one moment all this happened "because" Obama is in office. So you blame him for all this? The bubble burst....the greed,lies and coruption came to a head.The system is broken...and by far this man was dealt a hand unlike any other at any time except perhaps for the Great Depression.I gather from your remarks...your man didn't get voted in.

  53. Simply recognize that California is a---SANCTUARY STATE---and by removing millions of illegal immigrants and their families will assist on balancing the budget. So vote---NO--on all propositions as you are supporting parasite businesses that hire illegal cheap labor. Taxpayers are unknowingly paying billions of dollars in State benefits to underwrite education, health care, housing and other benefits. Demand a permanent E-Verify workplace extraction tool now. Learn more at NUMBERSUSA, JUDICIALWATCH.

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