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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Mortgage Morass

Headlines: “Odds Are Growing For Economic Recession”

The underlying story is that blossoming mortgage failures will fuel an inevitable economic recession.

However, with 95% of mortgages being paid on time, are these headlines really closer to being a self fulfilling prophesy, wishful thinking or a sad attempt-by the Media-at manipulating public opinion.

Wouldn’t it be far more appropriate to headline: “America’s Largest Mortgage Company Near Bankruptcy”, with the underlying story being, “Bank of America attempts to prop up America’s greedy, perverse and usurious housing industry, who has a track record of ‘bait and switch’, fraudulent misrepresentation and bank fraud to otherwise enhance revenues.”

Someone needs to take a serious look at the five percent of mortgage applications that are now in trouble. Perhaps such a glimpse would reveal the real problems with the mortgage mess. Mortgage broker and agent misconduct probably fueled far more of this firestorm than either liberal lending or buyer misrepresentation.

Time to take a hard look how we got here rather than how the indebted should be helped to keep a house they couldn’t afford in the first place.

My own personal experience with a mortgage broker was that he first tried to destroy my credit rating with simultaneous applications to over a dozen lenders, then misrepresented the targeted interest rate offered. At closing, he crammed me into a 85 degree “closing” room where I was explained all the “fees and charges” I needed to pay at closing, while he barred the only exit with his body.

It far more resembled a fly-by-night used car operation than a home mortgage institution. Time to hang the blame where it belongs.

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