Simply Politics & News

[sarals]

I found this part particularly interesting...

A new mortgage industry grew in the mid-1990s, offering loans at higher interest rates to people who don't qualify for traditional loans. Such loans account for about 10% of all home purchase loans but result in at least 24% of local foreclosures, the Observer found. More than 40% of failed loans in Charlotte involved an arranged gift from a charity to cover the borrower's down payment. It's a practice the FHA is reviewing because such loans fail 76 percent more often. Further, more than 20% of foreclosures resulted from defaults on loans taken after the home purchase. The cash out financing was at such high interest rates that it pushed the families into economic problems.

nice to see it acknowledged that the mortgage industry encouraged these bad practices... the author cops out a bit in his next paragraph though.