February 20, 2008

Now that the HELOC and housing windfall money is gone, Americans are waking up to some cold hard reality

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yep, the reality that 7 years of Republican control destroyed the country and f*cked many other around the planet. Now the same Republicans want to pick our next president for us.

Anonymous said...

People who lived off fake money from HELOCs represent maybe 1% of the American population. Not all Americans were living in LA-LA land. Just that 1%.

Anonymous said...

The bandaid got ripped off and now it's just an open wound

Anonymous said...

Helocs from hell

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/31/real_estate/helocs_from_hell/index.htm

According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) whose member banks account for a great majority of the Helocs in effect in the United States, the dollar volume of these loans hit $531 billion in March, the last figure available, up 28 percent form $416 billion in June 2004.

According to David Barr, a spokesman for FDIC, homeowners had turned away from refinancing their primary mortgages recently because of higher interest rates. "But they keep turning to Helocs to extract cash from the equity in their homes," he says.

If the value of their house declines sharply, borrowers could wind up owing more than the house is worth. If they have to sell, they would have to pony up cash.

Unknown said...

Where did this maybe 1% number come from.

Anonymous said...

http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/benson/2006/0403.html

If you really needed to make ends meet while living in this so-called Housing Heaven, all you had to do was buy a vacation home, rental property, or second-home and proceed to “install your own ATM on the side of your financed house” with your bank’s help, of course. Who needs to work, when you can simply go to the bank and rob your own house? It’s easier than robbing the bank! Living this way is fine in Housing Heaven, but not down here on earth. Here’s why.

Consumer debt is up to $2 trillion (not including $440 billion of revolving home equity loans and $600 billion of second mortgages). Not only do consumers owe a whopping $9 trillion in mortgage debt, but home equity extraction has reached $600 billion annually. Homeowners have basically received, and spent, in excess of $2 trillion that they never earned.

Anonymous said...

this guy is called controlled opposition. otherwise if what he talked about , was not really wanted by whoever pays him, i can assure you , he would be out in the street in about two minutes.

Frank R said...

"Yep, the reality that 7 years of Republican control destroyed the country and f*cked many other around the planet. Now the same Republicans want to pick our next president for us."

Yep, you're right, Republicans put guns to everyone's heads and forced them to "buy" houses they knew they couldn't afford. They also forced them to "buy" H2s and Escalades on HELOCs.

Dope.

Frank R said...

"People who lived off fake money from HELOCs represent maybe 1% of the American population. "

I think it's higher than that. Maybe in your state nobody was doing it but then you go to places like Arizona, Nevada, San Diego, etc., and it seems that 100% of everyone was doing it. That's definitely skewing the total above 1% nationally.

Anonymous said...


Yep, you're right, Republicans put guns to everyone's heads and forced them to "buy" houses they knew they couldn't afford. They also forced them to "buy" H2s and Escalades on HELOCs.


People like that are stupid, that's why they want socialism. They need someone to control their lives because they are unable to control their own impulses and base instincts. Now they are flocking to Obama.

There are people who want freedom.

There are people who want to be controlled.

Anonymous said...

15M homes underwater......

Awesome.......

Imagine half of those "owners" just walking away.......

On top of the already 2M empty homes, we got 8-10M empty homes?

Anonymous said...

I think it's higher than that. Maybe in your state nobody was doing it but then you go to places like Arizona, Nevada, San Diego, etc., and it seems that 100% of everyone was doing it. That's definitely skewing the total above 1% nationally.

Perception vs. reality. National foreclosure rate is 1% of all homes. Yes, 50% of all homes on the market now seem to be pre-foreclosures, so that skews the perception that "everyone was doing it." But homes for sale still only represent a tiny fraction of ALL homes.

Historical national foreclosure rate is 0.5%. Now it's 1%. Hardly sounds like "everyone was doing it."

To say America is "waking up" is an exaggeration. Drops in consumer spending as a whole have numerous factors... the disappearance of HELOCs is probably a small one. It's over-simplifying a complex issue.... no different than simply saying "terrorists are against freedom."

Anonymous said...

DC area now has radio ads to train you on how to be a house flipper. Make millions.
Something like - I was $100k in debt then made millions, you can too.
I seem to remember the ads offering to teach me how to be a day trader back in the summer of 2001.

Anonymous said...

Keith,

Did you see how the market reacted to the inflation news today. They love it. The market was down in the morning and then reversed course to end up almost 1%.

They love inflation even when its made up.

Danny

Anonymous said...

"People who lived off fake money from HELOCs represent maybe 1% of the American population. "

I'm a banker and it's more than 50%. "Maybe 1%" oh you made my day. Thanks for the laugh - LOL.

Anonymous said...

Here in Wisconsin a private school is running radio ads. They will qualify you to be a construction site manager/supervisor.

The same private school will also teach you how to make a nice living by getting you Windows Certified.

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:51p said:
"People like that are stupid, that's why they want socialism. They need someone to control their lives because they are unable to control their own impulses and base instincts. Now they are flocking to Obama.

There are people who want freedom.

There are people who want to be controlled"

...and there are those that must control others. That would be the Republicans. We should start calling them what they are: The Controllers.

Anonymous said...

1%?!?!

You must be referring to Detroit.

Ain't no money coming out of those housing ATMs I'll bet.

You should visit L.A. sometime.

You can HELOC more out of a million $ falsely appreciated crapshack that would sell for 100k in flyover land on a good day.

Anonymous said...

I'm a banker and it's more than 50%.

Maybe 50% of your customers who bought in the past 3-4 years. That's consistent with the fact that 50% of homes on the maket now are distress sales. But take into account that national home ownership rate is 69%. There are a whole lot of people out there who aren't customers of your bank employer. There are a lot of home owners out their that we never talk about.

All the old farts in my family who have owned for decades haven't tapped their equity.

Anonymous said...

You're wrong about 1% living off HELOCs. ~$800 billion/yr in 2006 was taken out by owners.

Anonymous said...

I live in Phoenix and am highly educated with a degree in finance. Even I did the HELOC to finance cars. However I did with cars I could otherwise afford and really only for the lower interest rate.

However, at the end of the day, I probably did take out a little more than I should have and spent some extra dough.

If I spent $20k I shouldn't have, it tells me the average joe probably spent $80k they shouldn't have.

Heck, I would say at least 10% of the population was buying investment homes. I am sure HELOC were probably 50% of the population.