The home loan problem was directly caused by laws that Congress passed, and were signed into law by William Jefferson Clinton. They mandated that federally insured home loans had to be given to minorities, and other groups that traditionally could not obtain a mortgage because of low income, a poor credit history, etc.
The news media is so leftist, that they will not even consider doing an investigation of this. Only Fox news even mentions this subject.
Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac are 100% controlled by, and owned by, the United States Government. Their policies are dictated by the laws of the USA. They can't do anything, ANYTHING, without direction by Congress.
When Congress mandated that poor people had to be allowed to get home mortgages, those two agencies facilitated those mortgages.
I sold my 1750 square foot home on 1/8th of an acre of land in October, 2006. That home was a typical Southern California tract house, with a few nicer upgrades that we had done over the 20 years that we lived there.
The minority couple that purchased the home put no money down at all, and they (their bank really) paid us $525,000 for that home. He was a restaurant manager, his wife did not work but stayed at home taking care of their severely disabled son. He earned approximately $40,000 a year, before taxes, etc.
I asked the company that was handling the closing of the sale, "How can anyone approve a mortgage for over half a million dollars, for a man who only earns $40,000 a year?" I was told that this was a government program., and not to question it.
My wife and I purchased a new 3,250 square foot home, on 5 acres of land, just outside of Bowling Green Kentucky for $209,000.00. We paid cash for that property, and put the rest into conservative investments for our retirement
In June 2007, my old home was repossessed. The couple that had purchased it could not make the payments. The bank resold it in May 2009 for $300,000.00., plus they had to pay out almost $50,000 to repair vandalism that had occurred while the house sat vacant.
It was exactly that kind of a situation that caused the financial meltdown in the US. There is no possible way that people that simply do not have the income can pay for a home. But, some "social engineer" types decided that EVERYONE is entitled to own their home, and they passed laws mandating that the government had to require that Banks and Thrifts had to advance mortgages to such people. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae bought those lousy mortgages from banks, bundled them into packages and guaranteed a portion of the loan amount, and resold those bundles to banks and other major investors.
When those loans went bad, the banks got a portion of their money back from the government guarantee, but not enough to make up for the losses.
That is what directly caused the financial collapse in the USA. Congress (and the ultra leftist press) want to blame the Bush administration, but the laws that caused it were passed by a Democrat controlled Congress and signed into law by a Democrat President.
I worked hard, and did not own my own home until I was in my mid 30's. I put down 20% of the purchase price, and I had to show that I had more than adequate income to make the monthly payments. The ONLY time I was NOT required to do this was when we purchased our current home. BUT, I did have to demonstrate that those funds were from a legitimate source.
