Comments on: Option ARM Borrower Psychology: The Dirty Truth behind the Worst Mortgage Product and Those that Abuse Them. My Name is Bob and I use Option ARMs.

By: MDman420

MDman420 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 23:47:40 +0000

Hornet,

i am in the process of short sale on a townhouse in Grover Beach (SLO county). I remember over a year ago talking to a SLO assessor on the phone about lowering my taxes. After chatting a bit, I said I thought the market would be down (having read blogs like this one, patrick.net, etc). He said “they aren’t buildn’t any more land”. I did get my tax bill lowered from $4k to about $3.3k, which reminds me to submit yet another application to have taxes lowered. I did not make the Dec installment though, and hope the current offer under review by Countrywide will be accepted by the next installment date of April.

fyi, I am walking away from 20% down. 5% i had and 15% i borrowed from my parents. Any money I have I am paying my parents. I am hoping for some parental debt forgiveness because I owe them ~$60K on the house plus $22k in other debt.

By: Deadbeat

Deadbeat — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:33:08 +0000

I’m claiming only gullibility, not greed. I stick to my specialized area of knowledge and listen to the experts in their area. I’ve made an incredibly stupid decision but out of ignorance.

My mortgage was a gamble on both parts. But the only reason I was still willing to sign the papers after they were changed at the last minute, was the only thing I was gambling was my credit rating. Since it wasn’t very good to begin with, this wasn’t much of a gamble.

Don’t bail me out. I don’t need it. But don’t bail out the banks either. The banks gambled and lost, let them lose what they gambled with.

@Marcy-think maybe your 401K was as artificially inflated as the real estate market? You bought into the same thing, just a different facet of the same beast. Sounds like you managed to profit a little bit even.

By: Laura Louzader

Laura Louzader — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:02:03 +0000

“Career Girl” is a textbook example of everything that has gone wrong with this country morally and intellectually in the past 40 years, and she is a Poster Girl for the worst financial excesses and abuses of the past 10 years. She and people like her are the problem this country is having, and I fully expect that her demographic cohort, the tens of millions of soon-to-be-ex-upper-middle-and-middle-class folk to cause civil unrest and social upheaval that will make the insurrections Los Angeles experienced in the past few decades look like so many after-school brawls on Ashland Ave compared
For it will not be the ghetto poor or the dispossessed working and lower-middle classes who will be our most dangerous social problems in the coming rough years of economic deterioration in tandem with the decline of fossil fuel supplies. The poorer among us know how to cope with viccisitude and have never developed the outsized sense of entitlement that the people who took part in this boom have. Instead, it will be the folks who HELOCed their $750K houses to buy Benzes and boob jobs and vacations and boats, but who are now, like Career Girl, $150K under water, bankrupt, and unemployed or nearly so, and who are now confronted with the extreme gap between their inflated expectations and the bitter reality that we are now a broke, unproductive country with 3 generations of government debt, no productive capacity, and a population used to having their lives handed to them on gilt platters but who have no real productive or survival skills, for a huge percentage of our better earners ($100K plus income) have been people whose “skills” are now worthless in the post-Ponzi economy, and who probably will never be able to approach middle-class incomes or status again.
Look out below as the tens of millions of the former suburban middle class begin to act out their rage and disappointment, and attempt to hold on to their entitlements in an economy in which their “skills” are worthless, amidst growing resources shortages, and be prepared for unprecedented violence, crime, and disorder as their children fall in, or up against, those of the ghetto poor.
The next decade is NOT going to be pretty.

By: Asada

Asada — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:40:42 +0000

@ Susanna,

The last person I will blame are the consumers. Why, because I read and the writers I read had the good sense to tell me this.

This is not a new species, just a different animal. I know you did nothing wrong, other than believe what they told you. We don’t have a decent set up in place to put blame where it belongs. It happens when your part of a large group of ppl. You get lumped. Keep doing whatever you can and stay strong.

By: SEAN

SEAN — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:11:05 +0000

This article comes from The White Plains Citizens Net Reporter in New York.

Foreclosures Rate Slowed by August Legislation in County Posted on Thursday, January 22 @ 10:30:13 EST by jfbailey

WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. From The County Clerk. (EDITED) January 22, 2009: The rate of initiated foreclosure actions slowed over the last 12 months. Westchester County statistics released by the County Clerk’s Office today show the number of initiated foreclosure actions have been steady the last two years and have kept pace in 2008 numbering 2,166 in 2007 and rising 2% to 2,206 more foreclosure actions in 2008. The rate of foreclosures continued steady, but is down sharply from 2005, and 2006. Foreclosure proceedings in the county grew 50% from 2005 to 2006 and 40% from 2006 to 2007.

Contributing to Westchester foreclosures slowing were the foreclosure reform measures signed into law last August. One part of the new state legislation requires lenders to send pre-foreclosure notices to borrowers at least ninety days before an action is started. That notice encourages the homeowner to seek help and provides contact information for local government-approved housing counselors.

“The measure not only mandates lending reforms for the future,” began Idoni, “but also provides immediate help to residents in danger of losing their homes.” And while 2008 statistics show an overall increase in foreclosure filings, they also reveal a significant drop in foreclosure actions filed in the last four months of 2008:

Filings Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Total

2005 83 64 97 98 82 93 83 104 98 85 110 86 1083

2006 100 119 159 120 140 128 112 136 117 162 130 123 1546

2007 146 132 252 181 145 156 176 226 179 201 181 191 2166

2008 243 231 285 224 202 225 238 242 73 96 71 76 2206

“The slowing of foreclosure filings is good news, but Westchester residents are still losing their homes and need help,” warned Idoni. “Without proper counseling, this respite will only be temporary.” Idoni urged local residents at risk of foreclosure to contact Westchester Residential Opportunities (WRO), a non-profit housing agency with offices in White Plains and Mount Vernon.

A trained counselor can be reached at (914)428-4507 or visit http://www.wroinc.org for more information.

The Westchester County Clerk is the Clerk for the Supreme Court where foreclosure actions are heard. Please note that the commencement of a foreclosure action does not mean that a Westchester home will be lost to foreclosure. Filing a foreclosure action in the Westchester County Clerk’s office is the first step of a process which could result in the loss of a home or building.

If a foreclosure is granted, the home or building is sold at a foreclosure auction and the proceeds of the sale are used to pay off the loan. However, some homeowners enter into a repayment plan, secure a modified loan, refinance with another lender or sell their home on their own to avoid foreclosure. The office of the Westchester County Clerk is located at 110 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in White Plains and is open Monday through Friday (excluding holidays) from 8 a.m. until 5:45 p.m. For more information, please call 995-3070 or visit http://www.WestchesterClerk.com.