Home mortgage fiasco hurts more than homeowners
The financial minefields of the whimsical and oft unpredictable home mortgage industry have hurt more than the banks, lending companies and home buyers. Its victims are also of the innocent and concrete variety as this tale of home loss continues to spin in its downward spiral.
Daily news reports relay stories about how those, who drained their savings, robbed Peter to pay Paul, and believed the exaggerated assessments of the houses they bought, are now facing balloon payments and refinancing nightmares because they owe much more than the house is worth.
For most, a house is not only an investment but more importantly, the central theme of family life. Its four walls provide shelter from the blast of winter, a welcoming respite from the world, and are filled with memories made and memories yet to be made.
Recent events, however, reveal a nasty reality – the mortgage industry is in trouble. Foreclosures have skyrocketed and disheartened families have become inflicted with anger that matches the crippling interest rate.
The lending institutions’ CEO’s played key roles in creating this financial mess. Knowing that it was only a matter of time before what went sky high would eventually hit bottom with a thud, they employed cunning, one-of-a-kind real estate assessors who inflated home values to produce impressive bottom-line figures that, in the end, padded many a CEO’s bank account. Enron executives could take lessons from these guys.
Still the entire kit and caboodle can’t be blamed on the fortune-seeking lending institutions. We are, after all, a capitalistic economy and the caveat “buyers beware” is an essential part. But the home-buying public, eyes wide with delight like a kid on Christmas morning, ignored the “what goes up must come down” knowledge and are now immersed in financial doo-doo deeper than the snow berms gracing Spokane’s streets because there’s no refinancing shovel big enough to dig them out.
The pathetic upshot of this tragic fallout is the innocent victims left behind in its wake as common sense, responsibility and decency have taken a tumble by the wayside. The ripple effect is startling and devastating.
Instead of facing adversity with a touch of decorum and a heap of maturity, several foreclosed-on homeowners have opted to throw tantrums – big, adult size temper tantrums – that entail more than flailing hands and stamping feet.
In fact, to prove temper tantrums are not just for 2-year-olds anymore, they’ve taken a giant step forward leaving their once beloved homes in shambles. Holes punched in walls, pulled wires, broken fixtures, trashed garages, shorn porches, urine-soaked floors and furniture, and insect-infested walls await the arrival of those equipped with hazmat suits and a strong stomach.
And it gets worse as Fido and Fluffy, et al, are left behind. Although a house is a home, it’s also walls and concrete which, in the grand scheme of things, are materials; animals, however, are living, breathing bundles of fur and feathers who share this earth with us. Several of these peeved homeowners have proved that selfishness and irresponsibility know no bounds by leaving behind all creatures, great and small, to die along with their dreams of homeownership.
In a perfect world, the lending institutions’ CEOs and those one-of-a-kind real estate assessors would let loose of the billions made during their financial windfall and cover the costs for the victims of these creative mortgages.
As well, a perfect world would encourage the public to kick the rumps of these disgruntled homeowners until regret and maturity instill some semblance of responsibility.
But what the heck am I thinking? As we all know, today’s wayward societal behaviors are tomorrow’s reality series. No doubt some crafty television executives are fast at work concocting a wow-factor title such as “Haughty Homeowners Behaving Badly” to entice the masses to tune in.
And the prize for the nastiest of the lot? You got it – a new house.