Quote:
Originally Posted by randolph
The big problem hanging over real estate is the home equity loans (home ATM machines) that were so popular here recently.
Some homeowners had skimmed over $800,000 out of their homes before losing it.   |
Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin actually did a great series in her blog about this very thing, spotlighting two offenders who actually made the national news. Yet, as Malkin points out, most of today's news organizations refused to tell the REAL truth about the shenanigans that these people pulled. Which totally baffles me. Is this responsible journalism in today's world? There's no question that the economy is in turmoil. There's no question that many hard-working, honest people are in trouble and are being hammered. But what I hate is shitty reporting by the so-called main stream media which wants to play up how catastrophic things are to support Obama, which means they're also more than willing to turn their heads and look the other way and not even do the most basic homework or background research anymore...
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/25...osure-victims/
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/02/23...-poster-child/
Earlier this week, ACORN activists broke into a foreclosed home in Baltimore. With a mob cheering and camera crew taping, ACORN leader Louis Beverly busted a padlock and jimmied the door open at 315 South Ellwood Ave. The home once belonged to restaurant worker Donna Hanks, who assailed her evil bank for raising her mortgage by $300 and leaving her on the street. "This is our house now," Beverly declared with Hanks by his side at the break-in.
What ACORN didn't tell you: Hanks' house was sold in June 2008 for $192,000. She bought the two-story home in the summer of 2001 for $87,000. At some point during the next five years, she re-financed the original home loan for $270,000. Where did all that money go? (Hint: Think house-sized ATM.)
* * * * * *
The paper also shilled for ubiquitous ACORN foreclosure "victim" Veronica Peterson of Columbia, Md., recycling uncritically her accusation that she had been tricked into buying a $545,000 home by a broker who inflated her income and misrepresented her assets. "These loans were weapons of mass destruction," the single mom of three and home daycare provider who couldn't keep up with her mortgage bills told the Post reporter. "They destroyed our credit, our lives, and they blew up in our face.'"
But a look at court and real estate records exposed the truth. Edward Ericcson, Jr., a reporter for the independent Baltimore City Paper discovered that the "victim" - who took out a full mortgage with no down payment on a house she couldn't afford -
looks more like a predatory borrower.
And amazingly, Peterson lived in the home more than year without paying rent or mortgage.
The foreclosure was filed in July 2007. "The balance on the main note then was $435,735.86," Ericcson reporters, plus unpaid interest and late fees - suggesting
she made at most one payment on the house. "Had she made all of her payments, Peterson would have spent about $64,335 so far. Had she rented a similar place, she would have been charged around $2,500 per month-a total of $47,500 - since January 2007.
Instead, she apparently paid nothing."
And yet THESE are examples of people the media is crying a river for and saying we need to bail them out with OUR money.