Monday, September 29, 2008
As of today, my 401K is worth 75 percent what it was about six months ago. I lost about eight percent in value just today. The average price of a home in Tucson has dropped from 228k to 185k so far (19 percent). I'm certainly glad I'm not planning on retiring for 25 years or so.
My mortgage is with Washington Mutual and of course that company had so many fucked up loans they sold themself to some other soon-to-go-bankrupt company. When I got my home equity loan in 2003 they claimed over and over again that it was fixed rate. As it turned out, they lied (it was fixed rate for only the first year). In teeny, tiny print on page 15 or so it stated that.
I'm a reasonably smart person, and I was fooled by crappy business practices. I can understand why so many other people are having problems with loans they can't afford due to hanky panky by lenders. I'm not a business wizard, but it seems that this mess would be at least partly fixed if Congress and the lenders could agree to reduce interest rates for a large number of people to at least a reasonable level, and hopefully reduce the number of foreclosures. Lenders would still make some money and home values would stabilize. Perhaps someone can tell me if I am completely idiotic (Palinesque!) about this.
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My mortgage is with Washington Mutual and of course that company had so many fucked up loans they sold themself to some other soon-to-go-bankrupt company. When I got my home equity loan in 2003 they claimed over and over again that it was fixed rate. As it turned out, they lied (it was fixed rate for only the first year). In teeny, tiny print on page 15 or so it stated that.
I'm a reasonably smart person, and I was fooled by crappy business practices. I can understand why so many other people are having problems with loans they can't afford due to hanky panky by lenders. I'm not a business wizard, but it seems that this mess would be at least partly fixed if Congress and the lenders could agree to reduce interest rates for a large number of people to at least a reasonable level, and hopefully reduce the number of foreclosures. Lenders would still make some money and home values would stabilize. Perhaps someone can tell me if I am completely idiotic (Palinesque!) about this.
