Have the Predators, in the bank loan departments, stopped sucking people into bad loans?I've noticed a lot of empty, brand new homes, in the Valley where I live. There are also areas, like the one just down the hill from us, that have streets, curbs, sidewalks and lights but just tumbleweeds where new homes should be. It's been like that for quite some time now. Construction stopped. Any... | |
Maybe a year. Last summer I got about 3 calls every evening from someone pushing a loan. Some were call centers in India. Then it all went silent when things hit the fan. But, now, I am getting one a week or so. We are looking into a pretty good recession toward the end of the year, so I would not expect housing to pick up substantially until 2009.
The barometer is that when things hit the fan, everybody said that it would have no effects outside of the cheap loans. Then the govt. started saying that there might be a "slowdown". Now they are talking about plans to prevent the recession (nobody said that word until very recently) from getting bad.
Bottom line is that the economy is a tightly interwoven process and you can't hurt a big part of it without it being felt everywhere.
When there is a demand, and the money to fund the building, that is when such activity can be expected to resume. So far as the "predators" are concerned, the victims are only victims when they place themselves in that position. Both parties are to blame, not just those who made the loans. Those who sought the loans to begin with should have taken into account what they could afford, and the terms of the loan. It is as much the fault of the buyers as it is the fault of the lenders. Both sides are to blame, if and only if people are willing to be fair about that issue. Lust and greed can be laid on both parties, not just on the lenders.
