Here are some mighty strong words: “The subprime lending debacle has caused the greatest loss of wealth to people of color in modern U.S. history.” That is the conclusion of the lead author of a new report by United for a Fair Economy, Amaad Rivera, as quoted in an excellent article in the Christian Science Monitor.

The report, says the paper, also concludes that “Black/African-American borrowers will lose between $71 billion and $92 billion in the current foreclosure crisis…” Add another loss for Latino borrowers of another $75 billion to $98 billion, says the paper.

Why?

The paper reports that a little more than half of African-Americans and 4 in 10 Hispanics back in 2006 got subprime mortgage loans. And, as we all know, defaults on subprime loans were the spark that ignited this entire economic mess that now is taking down the banking system along with the real estate one.

When viewed in this light, it is apparent who is getting hit the hardest–as a group–by this awful downturn.

Says the paper, “There’s broad support on Capitol Hill for shoring up government-sponsored home-mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: They’re too big to fail, many say. But there’s much less consensus over what to do about people who are losing their homes,especially in poor, inner-city neighborhoods–or even over how to understand their plight.”

I interviewed earlier today an African-American woman who is an example of this very issue: She holds down one full time and two part time jobs, works seven days a week, is a widow, is supporting a live-in 17 year old niece, and, this week, will probably lose the home she long lived in with her husband in a “mixed” neighborhood, as she puts it, of Southern California.

To listen to her story, is to listen to all the stories out there of those suffering the worst housing downturn since the Great Depression: The value of her home dropped by nearly $100 thousand over a year and a half period, she says. She had to refinance several times to pay the bills. She tried in vain to get help from her lender. She started falling behind on her monthly mortgage payments. She has lost this battle!

Of course there are many white Americans who are in the very same place as this woman–also in dire need of a helping hand from the government…from somebody!

But she represents more…she represents a tidal wave of economic destruction that is tearing about entire neighborhoods in this country. Places where people who may have started on a lower rung of the ladder bought into the American dream only to get ripped off by greedy lenders who cared less about reinforcing the matrix of a community than about selling the loan to some other agency, some foreign bank perhaps, in the form of a repackaged security.

When the woman in question tried to extract an ounce of empathy from her lender — a lender now, itself, under government scrutiny for its home loan practices, she was told it no longer owned her mortgage…months later, she still hasn’t been able to find out exactly who does!

And so, this week, she will put pen to paper and leave behind for good a place she once came home to every night to eat dinner with her husband; a place she once watched her now fully grown son mature; a place she once took pride in; a place she once thought she’d live in till the day she retires; a place that, within days, will no longer belong to her.

She will visit it from time to time now that she has moved into a nearby rental unit. She will pass by it in her car but not turn into its driveway. She will keep on going because the American dream has now passed her by. Some dreams just don’t happen twice.

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Tags: foreclosure, lender, loan, mortgage, sub-prime, subprime

According to the man who has been touted as the greatest central banker we’ve ever had, Alan Greenspan revealed yesterday that he dropped the ball during the birth of the Sub-Prime Mess. According to Greenspan in a 60 Minutes interview, “While I was aware a lot of these practices were going on, I had no notion of how significant they had become until very late . . . I really didn’t get it until very late in 2005 and 2006.”

This deeply troubles me. I can’t fathom how I and others had an understanding that what was going on was sure to lead to a horrific economic crisis, but Greenspan was out in the dark. I wonder if the central banker simply had too much on his plate, or if his isolation in DC led to his lack of awareness.

I return to the example I’ve given dozens of times of a young policeman in LA who was able to purchase a million dollar home using an option ARM loan. While I was skeptical of things prior to learning of this man’s story, it really did put things into perspective for me. I knew then that we were in for some real troubles ahead. It is all about the math . . . the average policeman can’t afford $4,000+ or $5,000+ a month on a note, and whenever this guy’s mortgage was set to reset, he was going to lose his home. When everyone I knew back in 2003 was talking about how how much money they were going to make in real estate, I knew something was wrong. It just looked too much like the Dot-Com bubble.

This bubble seems to have much larger implications, however . . .

Knowing that Mr. Greenspan failed to recognize the obvious (along with millions of other frenzied investors, home-owners, real estate agents, lenders, etc.) has actually begun to ruin his reputation.

That said, many economists are finally saying that he should have been calling for increased regulation of the mortgage business, and that he left rates too low for too long. It is easy to come out as a Monday morning Quarterback and go after him now, but where were they when all of this was going on? Most of them were busy sowing the spoils we helped to create.

So where are we now?

Many of the same economists are now predicting that we are headed for a recession unlike any we’ve seen since WWII. I’m thinking that they might finally be on point with their predictions.

Thanks for everything Mr. Greenspan (and all others who could have done something about this, but were too busy getting fat off of the booming housing market at the time)!

Tags: Alan Greenspan, Economy, fed, fed-chairman-greenspan, Greenspan, Housing, mortgage crisis, sub-prime, subprime

In an attempt to improve their image problems (Note: all lenders have image problems thanks to a little thing called the real estate bubble), Wells Fargo has implemented a program that actually benefits consumers! They have targeted the sub-prime lending market, which has been a source of increased concern for consumer groups and now, politicians.

Wells Fargo’s program gives access to credit specialists, credit reports and information about automatic banking (such as automatic mortgage payments) to help subprime borrowers improve their credit. The company detailed the program in a news conference Tuesday, although it has been active since mid-October.

Wells Fargo and other lenders with big stakes in the subprime market have come under attack from consumer advocates who say they are putting home buyers into loans they can’t afford.

Source: Jacksonville.com

Tags: Credit, fargo, lenders, lending, loan, mortgage, report, sub-prime, wells