so many people losing their homes

Ha Ha wrote:

Foreclosures in New Jersey are everywhere and growing fast! 5 out of the 8 homes we saw in Bergen County this past weekend were bank-owned!!!
A recent study by the Center for Reponsible Lending estimates that 2.2 million homeowners will lose their home via foreclosure. Based on what I’m seeing, that number seems grossly under-estimated.
And I also read about more mortgage companies closing down. A friend who works on the MBS desk of a large financial company tells me that his firm has started unloading it’s mortgage bonds.
I’m both excited and frightened about the coming housing collapse because it is going to be very big folks.

I couldn't be more happy, the overpriced homes here in NJ SUCK and NEED to come down to thier real worth!!!!!!!!!

Illegal Immigrants and the Housing Bubble
By Mark Thornton
Posted on 3/12/2007

http://www.mises.org/story/2503

The question remains: why all the recent immigration? I believe that the answer lies to a large degree with the housing bubble in the United States. The normal number of housing starts is about one million per year, but housing starts have exceeded one million every year since the early 1990s. The housing bubble appeared in the wake of the bursting of the technology stock bubble and only began to unravel in 2006. Housing starts have already returned to normal levels, but are soon likely to go below normal levels.

What does this have to do with illegal immigration? Immigrants, particularly illegal Mexican immigrants, have largely found jobs in industries associated with the housing bubble. Immigrants work at jobs in the construction, landscaping, and road construction industries. Employment in the construction industry alone is currently nearly two million jobs above trend (7.7 versus 5.9 million). Of course many of the illegal immigrants are not even counted in such statistics, but just take a look at residential, landscaping, and road construction sites and you are likely to find many non — English-speaking immigrants.

Therefore immigrants have a powerful economic incentive to move to America — lavish government benefits plus good paying jobs that are the result of the housing bubble. The boom phase of the business cycle and bubbles naturally misallocate labor from one industry to another, and in the case of the housing bubble it has been to allocate labor to the construction, mortgage, and real estate industries with immigrants helping to fill the gaps in the construction industry.

Of course all of this will have to be undone because all bubbles eventually burst to one extent or another and all booms eventually are followed by "corrections" that drive whole economies, regions, and industries into economic slumps. A slump in construction will lead to unemployment and bankruptcies. In terms of immigrants we will likely see many return home, or turn up on government welfare rolls — another legacy of the Greenspan Fed.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to solve these problems. We need to return to the sound monetary policy of the gold standard and an America where education and assistance to the needy are in the hands of the private sector, not government bureaucrats.

Yeah, you have a point about the prime rates. But I think that if your here to work hard, and get a tax I.D number- you have as many rights as any other person here in America. It's easy to bitch about minorities, and unskilled laborers, but is definitley ok to take the tax dollars. And for the 21,000 doctors who owe over 1 billion in tax dollars- there using your tax dollars to collect medicare benefits from their patients.($100k per patient). Whats up with that??

Mexican Border Launch wrote:

In Antioch California (An area east of San Francisco), There are some 850 homes for sell. I have never seen so many houses for sale at once. Talking to realitors, people and some research, I think alot of people are forclosing on their morgages. I knew the bubble was going to pop.
I feel something bad is about to happen to our economy. I honestly blame 3 things for this. The stupid decission for the Government to raise Interest Rate primes, For the over building of Homes and last, The number of Illegals taking jobs in America for less money. You might say "Hey, No one else will work these jobs" but the only Job I know of that no one is willing to do is Pick Fruit for 20 cents a box. Janitorial, Maid or other hotel Jobs and roofing can be done by many legal Americans. Many Americans who are legal citizens are willing to do any kind of work if it puts food on the table.
Another reason why the Government should at best have a rate freeze for a few years or a permanent cap on rates, and to escort our illegal friends out of the US.
Make tougher penalty laws for companies who hire illegals.
I know this isnt very popular with some of the small business who need illegal mexicans and other nationality of illegal workers who depend on paying these guys 4-5 bucks an hour. But they're part of their own demise.

Jen wrote:

<quoted text>
I am astounded that this is where this issue has gone. I am neither a home owner (let alone silver spoon fed) nor do I have a BMW (it's a '93 Toyota, thank you very much), a hot tub, or an MBA. Yes I do live in Serrano, but I'm a renter, as the El Dorado County Superior Court decided that after paying a mortgage for 10 years, that I needed to deed over the house to my non-working ex-husband. Oh, and I pay him alimony too, and recieve no child support for my two children. I had no educational opportunities, and with only a high school diploma, I do make a very good living, but it most certainly isn't handed to me. I have no control over who the home owners association hires to maintain the landscaping, nor whom the builders contracted work out to. Maybe your frustration is better placed with those who have allowed an industry to be handed over to non-citizens. In my case, I take issue with a 'judicial' system that is wildly corrupt, and functions without accountability to the people it was put in place to serve. This isn't about people with MBA's. It's about those who abuse their positions.

Read MEN IN BLACK, a book about the supreme court and you will understand that this group that is not elected, but appointed truly runs the country

Stop the Subprime Bailout
Can you spare a few thousand dollars to pay somebody else's mortgage?
Congress thinks you can, especially senators Christopher Dodd and Hillary Clinton. What's more, a lot of the people you're being asked to bail out lied on their loan applications or signed up for loans without reading the terms.
Here's what's going on, as explained by Caroline Baum of Bloomberg.com :
During the housing boom of the last five years, people with bad credit histories, many of whom lied about their income and nature of employment, got mortgage loans they weren't qualified for to buy houses they couldn't afford. Now that house prices have stopped rising, and the house can't be refinanced or sold at a profit, Congress wants the taxpayer to subsidize the mortgages so these folks can remain in their unaffordable houses.
The proposal to bail out subprime borrowers may seem humane, but it's wrong. The argument is that that borrowers who signed up for subprime loans had no idea what they were doing. They didn't understand the loan documents, or didn't read them. True, some were victims of predatory lenders. But it's not true for many more who gambled on risky loans in hopes of flipping property for big profits, or who knowingly lied about their income just to get a bigger house. Don't reward these irresponsible people with property, paid for by you and me!
How about requiring bailout participants to prove that they did not lie on their loan applications? We could start by reporting undocumented "stated income" on loan applications to the IRS.
Will the special aid package be indefinite? Can I go tomorrow and get a loan for a house I can't afford, and then in two years when the rates reset, will I also be eligible for free mortgage payments? Should speculators get preference above citizens who have been saving rather than borrowing? What message does that send about responsibility?
The proposed bailout is a moral hazard. It encourages the very behavior that got us into this mess, because the punishment for foolish borrowing is applied to you and not to the people who made the bad decision to borrow. Anyone who is in a house is not going to be out on the street. They are just going to be renting for a while.
Under proposed bailouts, responsible people lose and have to give their money to gamblers. It doesn't matter if you have been dutifully paying your monthly fixed-rate mortgage. It doesn't matter if you bought a smaller house based on what you could truly afford. And it doesn't matter if you're a renter who chose not to jump into the housing mania. Congress is proposing to make it your job to pay up for others' irresponsibility. Why don't they just tax you to cover Las Vegas gamblers' losses as well? That's pretty much what they're proposing.
But it's not too late. You can contact your representatives and ask them to stop this foolishness. Tell them to let the market correct itself. Tell them that it's okay for people to rent instead of owning. Tell them to punish predatory lenders, but not to punish you and me for things the lenders and borrowers did. Tell other people about this page and ask them to write their representatives too.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has called for a 'foreclosure time out' and for raising FHA loan limits to help more low-income home buyers (Reuters). Clinton is running for President in 2008. Call her office. If you can't get through, leave a message and let her know that her support for a federal bailout means you're voting for Obama.
http://patrick.net/housing/contrib/nobailout....

Haha@whatever in Fremont... i feel u.. u were probably talking about the guy in Rancho Santa Fe with the mexican housekeeper/babysitter/cook.. yeah they were definitely born with silver spoons in their mouth, the messg wasnt for u Jen.. trust me.. it was about a suburb of $$$$$ in San Diego..yeh he was probably posting his comment from his just purchased laptop in the leather seat of his BMW headed out to the Torrey Pines golf course......

Need a box?

I live in El Paso, Texas and it's a border town with Mexico. I think if you look up some stats on this city it will show that we are among the most underpaid cities in the nation. However, there are many super rich folks here because like someone else mentioned, they hire cheap labor and make killer profits. I am an american but not from anglo decent and while I do love my roots I love my well being and family more. I have two associate degrees in computer information systems (programming/networking) plus several certifications. Back in the good old days of the dot.com boom, I was making over 45K/year then came sept. 11 and 3 months later layed off. I had to take up a job in a warehouse to survive hoping to find another job in my field. I did find one but for half the salary I was making before, I am not working for a school district which pays me 34K plus I have a second part-time job and my wife works full time as well. We can't afford a home because the prices have skyrocketed and I blame outside investors for it. People from california, Arizona and other parts bought many homes here and were able to resell and make a huge profit. An average 18,000 sq ft home will sell for about 190K here so it's very affordable for people who come from other states or even Dallas or Austin but not affordable for us who work here. People here literally get paid the minimum wage and because of so many people looking for work it's hard to demand higher wages since there are hundreds in line waiting to take your job. I am glad the real estate bubble burst because maybe next year the prices will come down some and I'll be able to afford a home. I blame the business owners and companies who hire even professionals like engineers who live in Mexico but graduated from college here for less than what the position is worth.
I have thought about moving but states that once looked very attractive are now suffering layoffs as well plus the cost of living is much higher. I hope our president stops worrying so much about the war and start worrying about our problems here at home. why doesn't the governmnet make it harder for companies to open plants in India, China and other countries when the product will be sold to us. Our country is heading downhill and sadly many people still believe it can't happen, history shows that all great empires have fallen, except ours hasn't been around that long yet.

I have read through allot of the postings here, and also have been watching what the government has been doing. I think that if they want to decrees the foreclosures then they should start lowering the Mortgage rate tomorrow. So far in the last three weeks they have been raising it, which make NO SENSE!! If you want to help the American public rebound and the economy recover then lower rates back to at least 6% and keep it until December to allow people to refinance their homes and get out of the jam they are in. I am sure this will at least help a good portion of the problems. Also who is going to buy a home now if you keep raising rates. Resale’s are down for a reason.

chris wrote:

Isn't it a shame that greed is destroying our country? I worked in a place with the majority of workers illegal....the boss got them all cards and now he has his own slaves!!! I watched how the old fart got rid of his white and black workers to make room for the illegals.

Yes, I agree, greed is an American problem. But not the root of the problem. It is the symptom. America's greatest crime is "gutlessness." Americans can show amazing courage in combat and war, can achieve when so many others fail, but at the same time meow like a kitten, docile and meek when their own government screws them. Most of what is wrong with America is the direct result of the American people not telling their government what it needs to hear and having the morale courage the back it up with action.

I used to believe in American Democracy. That was when I was child, before military service, college, marriage, children and the highs and lows of middle class life in America. It was also before my decision to become politically active. Since then I've grown cynical of Washington DC. In my opinion, both Republicans and Democrats are the enemies of all that is good and true in America. If you want to do your patriotic duty, vote these two parties out of power and into the pages of history, a footnote best to be forgotten as a bad dream or an unpleasant odor.

i am currently doing modified mortgages pls contact me immediatly at mssnappy1982@hotmail.com

I don't think illegals are the ones causing forclosures. They are only here to work and put some bread in the table like everyone else. They have to put up with abuse and low pay jobs.
You should be blaming the Bush Administration and all the corporations that want the Big Bucks!!