Your name saw this post on The ActiveRain Real Estate Network and thought it might be of interest to you. Please see the link below to review the post.

Who Caused the Housing Crisis?
 Most blame for today's housing market is rightly assigned to lenders. It's true, their low standards and poor qualification practices contributed mightily to where we are today.   Yes, they could not have lowered standards on government secured loans without political complicity but lobbyists worked hard to create a wider market for lending. Further, there were unscrupulous firms offering loan products that made no sense. Recently I read a homeowners deed of trust several times attempting to understand their Option Arm mortgage. I gave up and cursed the mess we're in today.
But, being the thoughtful and curious type, I keep coming back to questions. Why, if they couldn't understand what they were being asked to commit to, did so many buyers sign these documents?  How did so many homeowners go so quickly from closing date to foreclosure date?
It's complicated but a piece of it was the loan qualification process. Part of the problem is buyers equating "afford" and "qualify" as one and the same. Au Contraire! For many buyers, what they could "afford" was very different from what they could "qualify" to borrow
Buyers who understood what they could "afford" understood their take-home pay - what they needed for food, medical expense, clothing, entertainment ... more

__________________________________________________
Are you on The Rain? Grow Your Network!