[wodinoneeye]

"
Unfamiliar with the U.S. mortgage market, unable to speak or read English well....

This is what happens when diversity over assimilation is encouraged.


Instead, Azimi, a cashier at Giant who makes $2,400 a month, found herself strapped into a no-down-payment loan with payments of $3,800 a month.


Hard to be sympathetic. Even if you don't fully understand English, numbers don't lie. 3800 is more than 2400 in any language.
"

Dont banks check to see if you have sufficient income to pay the mortgage any more ????

(Or has that gone the way of the credit card companies and so dont care and will slap on enough penalties to take any/all the equity that the borrower could have built up and have them still owing more even after they foreclose????)

[Leatherneck_MT]

"Dont banks check to see if you have sufficient income to pay the mortgage any more ????"

Not if you look at them like you don't understand and say "Que?"

[oldbill]

"Instead, Azimi, a cashier at Giant who makes $2,400 a month, found herself strapped into a no-down-payment loan with payments of $3,800 a month.

Hard to be sympathetic. Even if you don't fully understand English, numbers don't lie. 3800 is more than 2400 in any language."

Actually, the math does work out - here's how:

The Post reporterette (they really hate that!) didn't tell you the rest of the story. In the Washington area, and everywhere else, the owner will rent out rooms to a lot of other illegals at exhorbiant rents, like $300-400 a month for a bedroom with two or more bunked in. Put 10 illegals in that house and you get a $3000-4000 revenue stream to clear the mortgage and even make a pretty profit. In the Washington suburbs, the standard scenario is an immigrant buys a house - the bigger the better - and the next thing you see is a truck pulling up with a load of 2x4s and wallboard and mattresses to start divvying up the house into multiple rental bunks.

It all worked out well the first year or two (the wave of illegals really took off in 2004) until these subprime mortgages either ballooned or had a huge ARM rate increase. Because these lenders built in huge pre-payment penalties, the immigrant could not re-finance. And with the construction business drying up, the renters had to check out.

But not to worry - Hillary and Dodd are already working on legislation to help the borrower and save the lenders.

Suckers!