What the hell is Countrywide thinking?

[javasaurus]

A foreclosure story that will likely piss you off.

People complain about too much government regulation of industry -- but if we don't regulate industry the greedy get rich and the little guy loses his house. Unfortunately, the government has failed time and again to find the right balance of regulations, or they are focused more on business-oriented lobbying activities rather than protecting the people.

Comments

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

I think there is a lot of blame. The people bought the house believing that the lenders/agents were believable when they said that in a couple of years things could be dealt with. I gather that they could do the original payments but when interest rates went up they got into trouble.

If Countrywide was leading them along (and I admit to being perfectly willing to believe that) then they are at fault, the people could have tried to sell their house at the beginning of the market bust if they had known that they couldn't adjust the mortgage.

I also agree that fixed income people who have to sell their (often paid off) house because they can't pay the taxes are a true tragedy. The Beebe Ranch (Misty of Chincoteague) had a lot of it sold off for that very reason, the condos moved in next door and land value soared and social security didn't cover the new taxes.

I also HATE when a family who has a farm (esp. if it has been in the family for years) and developers move in on either side, values go up (and complaints from yuppies who want the pastoral scene but can't take the fact that once a year the calves get weaned and it gets noisy or whatever) and force the farmer (who was there first) out. Same with riding easements which get blocked by fences. Hmm, better get off the soapbox.

[cozit.livejournal.com]

The thing is that *they* signed the loan paper agreeing to the rise in rate... anything else they "might" do between that signing and the ballooning rate was purely guesswork on anyone's part - if they couldn't do it, they shouldn't have signed to do it, period. Gullible, maybe... more like wishful, probably... but also still their own fault.

The farm thing is a big problem... bigger than even the fixed income folks in general (as theirs tends not to be as adjustable an income as some).

For some reason I'd thought that the riding easements had been better...guess it's gotten worse again. I *know* I remember there was a professor at UMCP who was *very* active in an organization that worked to keep them open (among other things)... though he was well past retirement age (I'm pretty certain) even when I was riding there... and that's been 15 years or so now.