"Dear John: Who twisted your arm and made you sign those documents?"
His wife. "Suzanne RESEARCHED this." (That commercial made me want to vomit.)
His family. "Buy now or be priced out forever!"
His freinds. "Real estate never goes down!"
The media. "Flip that house!"
The government. "Everyone should own a home, and here's a few more percentage points off the rate to help you!"
The mortgage brokers. "Just sign here! No docs? No problem? Don't make enough? Just state your income, nobody gets caught! Wink wink!"
The real estate agents. "It's the BEST time to buy, ever!"
Posters here. "It's FREE money!"
His coworkers. "They're not making any more land!"
The National Real Estate Professional Organizations. "It's different where you are. Trust us."
You have NO IDEA what kid of pressures were put on people in the last couple of years to join this mania. The pressure was EVERYWHERE - and is still out there. Even here. Everyone pooh poohed the idea that someone who makes 45K a year buying a 500K condo or house was a BAD idea - and still are.
I felt it personally. I was denigrated, made fun of and called a fool to rent - and that was just this website. I was lectured by self-styled real estate tycoons who'd sold into a rising market and thought they knew it all. I was offered large, vast sums of money to buy overpriced sheetrock McMansions with no stated income and no docs. I ALMOST drank the Koolaid, but I woke up just in time.
Yes, John can blame himself for signing. But the media, the industry, and society can also take a LOT of the blame for making people think they had to buy, and buy now, and buy a LOT more than they could afford.
This was a national mania that has crept into almost every single state and city. It did'nt just grow on it's own, and people were not demanding IOs and HELOCs and negam mortgages to buy 2 or 3 suburban sheetrock boxes as investements.
In fact, a year ago, if someone had suggested the terms he signed for, and the property he bought, a lot of people here and in the country would have applauded him, and called him crazy or a fool or stupid if he did'nt.
Thank goodness you came to your senses and stuck to your guns. How very conservative of you! (and you will be a lot better off because of it)
Wrong Grasshopper. We recently sold our house this spring, moved back to Alabama. We are in the house buying searching mode now. So, I am VERY familiar with what to do and not what to do. YOU STATED many different people putting pressure on him. Well, it is up to HIM to show a bit of back bone and not give into their pressures and made the decision on the house using his own mind, knowing his own means, and income and ability to PAY THE MORTGAGE!
Thank you for the reasoned response.
No less then the Chairman Of the Federal Reserve Board also advised people to take out a ARM.
I agree with many folks here that these people were careless for getting into a situation like that. How ever many of these folks are self proclaimed christians (read their profiles and taglines) and all they do is belittle others and brag about how great they are. I see little compassion but I see plenty of "i am much to good to get myself in trouble"
Pride comes before the fall. I pray that all those who think they will be able to make payments on their homes no matter what will always be able to. I also pray for my neighborhood.