Posted on 08/08/2005 1:11:41 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The banking industry is opening its doors to a controversial new market: illegal immigrants.
Despite heated political debate in Washington over illegal immigration in the United States, an increasing number of banks are seeing an untapped resource for growing their own revenue stream and contend that providing undocumented residents with mortgages will help revitalize local communities.
It's a win-win situation, they say.
But skeptics worry about the message these home loans send to illegal immigrants: break our laws and we'll reward you with a home.
"It's institutionalizing illegality," said Marti Dinerstein, president of Immigration Matters, a New York-based think tank. "Now there's no distinction being made between the people that follow all the rules and those who break our laws by entering the country or overstaying their visas."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Terrible precedent to set.
"What a country!"
"It's a win-win situation, they say."
It is for the bank. Our taxes will more than cover thier losses.
I was really surprised to read about this. Who is paying for defaulted loans if the illegal is deported? I am guessing this is not good news for the rest of us.
Willing to do anything for the almighty dollar - ping.
Must be nice - I'm trying to get a home improvement loan so I can put a full roof (instead of a flattop) and a new heating and air system on the house, and I'm having to jump through every hoop and circle on earth.
My LEGAL immigrant husband couldn't get a mortgage without me as a cosigner, even though I made less than half of what he made at the time. Heck, credit card companies won't even give him his own CC until he gets his green card. I'm guessing that this is not a widespread thing. I'd bet that the editors over at CNN would like for it to be, which is why they are making this report to begin with.
Great. Then when they default on their loans, we, the taxpayers, can all bail the banks out. Again.
Another reason to hate the bank.
Can't these ILLEGALS just grab the money and run?
this is a silly sort of thing - it looks like the lenders may hope for a default via other laws and they get to sell an asset with inflated value. How else can you explain how difficult loans once had been and how lenders are making it easy, not for working class people, but for people outside the law.
ping
No. When you buy a house, if any money is due, it is payable to the Title company who then in turn makes sure that the lender and all other 3rd parties involved. If there is an overage, the buy never receives any cash at the table.
Furthermore, The Patriot Act makes it a criminal act to sell real estate to undocumented buyers.
First off, if there is a default, the bank has to foreclose, and thats a pain for them becaause they have to auction it off, and that usually means some kind of hit.
That said, there (well at least in NYC) is a whole hodge podge of laws to get through and the closing.
Where the heck if the illegal getting the money for down payments plus the other costs?
There are to many questions here, I'd be interested in how they register their nice new houses.
Discussed at length here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1456021/posts
As I posted on that thread, banks are required by a number of laws and regulations to obtain a lot of information on customers and we will not lend to extremely high risk borrowers, including illegals.
Names...we need names...
I guess if they figured out a way to sell the house for cash in an all cash deal without the buyer getting title insurance.
The illegal could also try to figure out a way to screw the payoff bank at the closing.
Makes me sick.
How are these other banks lending mortgage $ to illegals then? I know B of A is very aggressive about getting them to do business with their bank......all against federal law of course.
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