Posted on 11/18/2012 10:05:57 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
After two foreclosures and two bankruptcies, Hermes Maldonado is as surprised as anyone that he's getting a third shot at homeownership.
The 61-year-old machine operator at a plastics factory bought a $170,000 house in Moreno Valley, Calif., this summer that boasts laminate-wood floors and squeaky clean appliances. He got the four-bedroom, two-story house despite a pockmarked credit history.
The last time he owned a home, Maldonado refinanced four times and took on a second mortgage. He put a Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz C300W in the driveway and racked up about $45,000 in credit card bills and other debts. His debt-fueled lifestyle ended only when he was forced into bankruptcy.
His re-entry into homeownership three years later came courtesy of the Federal Housing Administration. The agency has become a major source of cash for so-called rebound buyers - a burgeoning crop of homeowners with past defaults who otherwise would be shut out of the market.
"After everything that happened, thank God I was able to buy another house," Maldonado said in Spanish. "Now, it's good because the interest rates are low and there are lots of homes."
The FHA, which backs nearly 8 million loans, is helping rebound buyers recapture the American dream, boosting the housing market in the process. But that's touched off a fierce debate about the financial and ethical wisdom of bankrolling borrowers who contributed to the last housing bubble - and the potential cost to taxpayers...
(Excerpt) Read more at pressofatlanticcity.com ...
Compliments of the American taxpayer! Because EVERYONE deserves what you've actually worked your arss off for. /s
Is Hermes illegal?
Don’t you mean undocumented? [rolls eyes]
Actually, nevermind...I already knew the answer.
I am going to surrender my 401K the last week of December and put the cash into Simmons Mattress National Bank and Trust. I’ll take the income tax hit on it now instead of next year when Obama lets the capital gains taxes go up.
That money will be gone out of the economy and disappeared. I’m then gonna change my name to Jose Eduardo Conseco Esteves and then forget how to speak English.
I’ll be in a position to start looking for some new credit cards and a brand new house, I think.
The FHA is at it again. Why help somebody that pulled all the equity out of their home and blew it on a Benz and an Escalade? He’s 61, he isn’t going to pay off this loan. Why does he need a 4 bedroom house? This is a guaranteed loser for the FHA. They must be getting financial help from the Energy Department.
Live large, declare bankruptcy, lay low for a bit, repeat. He needs the extra bedrooms for sublets and extended family. And what about those of us who the right financial thing? The best we get is a nice form letter from the bank.
Is’nt this what caused the housing bubble and financial meltdown that got us into this recession?
You know I’d be out on the street if my mortgage check was a day late. But no, I scrimped and saved and sacrificed to pay off two homes without any help from anyone. Boy, how dumb am I.
Sure I believe it.
The couple behind me have been living in their house for almost a year waiting for it to be foreclosed.
She told me they haven’t made a payment in months because they are underwater on the house and they are saving the mortgage money to buy another home after this one is foreclosed.She figures it will take them until next June to get them out, and this house was in her husbands name so she will apply for the new home in her name which is debt free.
Not a bad scam.
No, it isn't. The FHA can't lose a thing.
You and I, on the other hand...
Did you see this?
FHA May Get Taxpayer Bailout for First Time in 78-Year History
The Democrats win either way. If a lot of people cash out their 401k accounts and pay the tax, there is an instant windfall to the treasury. They don’t care how they get our money, they just intend to get it.
There’s a difference between a short-term windfall under old tax guidelines, and a more egregious tax next year.
The key is to take the principal out of the volatile market equation and empty their potential coffers.
I intend to be invisible when it comes to future taxes. For all intents and purposes, I just might be an Obama voter.
Bump for later.
I’ve suspected it. My suspicion is the government is buying foreclosures and “selling” them for less than they paid for them.
We know two families who lost their homes after losing their jobs and now are in small rentals with their children. But their name wasn’t Maldonado and they can speak English. Obviously, that makes a difference in how much help one gets in this country.
BTTT
Dont you love heart-warming stories about how immigrant grifters get another chance to screw their creditors thanks to US taxpayer dollars? Another hapless victim of yankee dog predatory lending smiles all the way to the bank to pick up his new housekeys.
How do you say “Thanks, suckers” in spanish?
sniff sniff
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