Posted on 10/18/2008 1:45:28 PM PDT by reaganaut1
SAN ANTONIO — A grandson of Mexican immigrants and this city’s first Hispanic mayor, Henry G. Cisneros has spent years trying to make the dream of homeownership come true for low-income families.
As the Clinton administration’s top housing official in the mid-1990s, Mr. Cisneros loosened mortgage restrictions so first-time buyers could qualify for loans they could never get before.
Then, capitalizing on a housing expansion he helped unleash, he joined the boards of a major builder, KB Home, and the largest mortgage lender in the nation, Countrywide Financial — two companies that rode the housing boom, drawing criticism along the way for abusive business practices.
...
Homeownership has deep roots in the American soul. But until recently getting a mortgage was a challenge for low-income families. Many of these families were minorities, which naturally made the subject of special interest to Mr. Cisneros, who, in 1993, became the first Hispanic head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
He had President Clinton’s ear, an easy charisma, and a determination to increase a homeownership rate that had been stagnant for nearly three decades.
Thus was born the National Homeownership Strategy, which promoted ownership as patriotic and an easy win for all. “We were trying to be creative,” Mr. Cisneros recalls.
Under Mr. Cisneros, there were small and big changes at HUD, an agency that greased the mortgage wheel for first-time buyers by insuring billions of dollars in loans. Families no longer had to prove that their incomes would remain stable for five years; three years sufficed.
And in another change championed by the mortgage industry, lenders were allowed to hire their own appraisers rather than rely on a government-selected panel. This saved borrowers money but opened the door for inflated appraisals.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I didn’t know Henry C was in the middle of this mess, but it doesn’t surprise me to learn it.
.. Cisneros has spent years trying to make the dream of homeownership come true for low-income families.
Maybe he should have taught them how to be..
responsible.
I don’t believe this.
The NY Slimes are lying through their teeth again.
I’m gonna get ‘hold of them and demand a major retraction on this story.
Everybody know the Republicans, and ONLY the Republicans, are responsible for the current financial meltdown.
Thank goodness the Democrats had the foresight and cojones to pass that one trillion dollar bailout. Without that our country would surely have gone bankrupt.
From the dusty South Texas political archives...
The Spanish language quiz:
Q: How do you say Gary Hart in Spanish???
A: Henry Cisneros
Flash Update!!!
How do you say Frank Raines in Spanish???
A:___________
Or educated the illegals so they earn honest money.
I doubt the Obama middle class supporters know what is going to happen to THEM.
This story REALLY needs wider play.
HUD secretary to honcho at KB Homes? Sweet.
Maybe he should have taught them how to work for a living, how to sacrifice and how to save for a respectable down-payment! Maybe he should have told them that there is no free ride anywhere in the world! Maybe he should have held himself up as an example of honest hard work? Ooops, no, guess he couldn’t do that! lol
If Obama wins, you can expect Hillary to run to the middle in the Senate and sit and wait until 2012 to take Obama on.
This is the Slimes way of letting them Clintonistas know they are still done.
The question remains: Why didn’t the Slimes bother to report this in the last decade? Oh, right. They don’t do actual reporting - they only print press releases.
Affirmative action mortgages from an Affirmative Action Kind of Guy.
“Henry did everything he could for homebuilders while he was at HUD,” said Janet Ahmad, president of Homeowners for Better Building, an advocacy group in San Antonio, who has known Cisneros since he was a City Council member. “That laid the groundwork for where we are now.”
I agree. I heard it mentioned on the radio this morning but didn't see a current thread running so here's a BUMP
He wasn't the only one. This goes much deeper and crosses both parties, including McCain and his campaign manager, Davis. Home selling pandering to hispanics was all the rage from 2002-2007. We still don't know the full impact of illegals and low income chain migrants have had to the sub-prime meltdown. We may never know.
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