Today I read two interesting posts: Don't Blame Homeowners for Today's Housing Crisis... by Margaret Woda and ?The McMansion Extra Value Package: Is it Really the Banks Fault You Can't Afford Your Home Now by Chris Ann Cleland. I have always appreciated an intelligent conversation/debate.
However I am one of "those people." I overextended, overbought and believed the hype. So I come to you with a different perspective.
A little background: I had been a single-parent most of my life, struggling financially to make ends meet. Shortly after my daughter's acceptance to college I met and married my husband. I was living the dream of my life and we purchased a brand new home in 2000. Property values began to escalate and my husband's best friend, who was a lender involved in a pyramid scheme, urged us to refinance using the "Pick-a-Payment" Mortgage. To reassure us he provided a trip to Las Vegas for a large presentation with thousands of people in the audience. I vividly remember one speaker promising the way to wealth was to use our equity with the best loan product on the market.
Jump forward three years, life was great, equity in our home increased everyday. We purchased a larger dream home with 100% financing. By this time I was a Realtor with a new home builder and was guided by the company's in-house lender. (It was not only minorities pushing the loans to other minorities.)
As a new Realtor I accepted the so called truth of sales. If a client was breathing they could get a loan. Gardeners, fast food workers, anyone. You see I didn't know any better. The pressure was on to meet the sales quota.
Well you can imagine the rest of the story. The large beautiful home is gone, the leased Mercedes was returned, credit card debt was strangling us -finally we declared bankruptcy.
I accept the consequences for my decisions. I realize ignorance is no excuse, nor misguided optimism, or naive belief in authority.
However I wanted to give a face to "those people." We are the people next door. Many of us are not evil or duplicitous or shiftless. You may call me naive and uninformed but I, and many people like me, are accepting the responsibility of our decisions. Learning how to pick up the pieces and move forward as responsible citizens.
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