DOGE (4 Viewers)

[Thales750]

Are you disputing the fact that if home borrowers wouldn't have made stupid decisions buying homes they couldn't afford, we wouldn't have had a problem? I push on this not to be argumentative, but to pull out an interesting point, the different perspectives people can have on cause and effect. Many problems are like this, too. They can be seen at the most basest root cause - someone made a bad decision of their own personally - or they can be seen as something 'down the line' - like, The government should have had a regulation to save them from making that stupid decision.

I just think we should get back to a society that emphasizes the former, not the least because 1) that's actually the truest and most right, but 2) it saves us from having to need a nanny government. You only need the babysitter to the extent the kids have not matured. And some of us are observing a society where the "kids" (citizens) are getting less and less mature.

I have to work now, but this deserves some rational responses. Maybe later.

 

[Isaac]

Liberals were pushing for lack of regulation, their constituents were demanding access to a market they were unqualified to be in.

And their other solutions, like re-defining Suburbs by prohibiting Zoning, are even scarier.
Just let people live where they can truly afford and if they want to get out of a bad neighborhood, work and make it happen!

 

[Thales750]

Liberals were pushing for lack of regulation, their constituents were demanding access to a market they were unqualified to be in.

That is amazing, your ability to make a small part look like a big part. Cool Aid class 101.

 

[AccessBlaster]

That is amazing, your ability to make a small part look like a big part. Cool Aid class 101.

This was common knowledge, it wasn't even controversial back then.

 

[Mike Krailo]

The question was rhetorical. And, as usual, your answer is straight out of the cool aid bin.
If we didn't provide them with loans, which they paid back, we would have had a worse situation than the Great Depression. Is there no subject that you don't post the party brainwashed line?

No, the question was somewhat open ended and could have been answered in a myriad of different ways. Maybe use a rhetorical emoji next time.

 

[Pat Hartman]

she was an early sounder of the coming disaster.

So was I but nobody listened to me either. People were paying stupid prices for houses and banks were lending more than purchase price among other seriously poor lending practices like not even checking to see if the borrower could fog a mirror. Two stupid actions make a real catastrophe when the you know what hits the fan. Put on top of that the crazy derivatives and you have a meltdown waiting to happen. And then the President and Congress decide to reward some of the worst actors in the fiasco that was the collapse. This action ensures a similar crisis will occur again. It's just a matter of time.

Clinton revoking Glass-Steagall sure didn't help.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Actually, wasn't it inter-city folks who couldn't qualify and congress stepped in?

Congress lowered the standards so that you needed less money down and a lower income or no income since you were allowed to lie on your application.

 

[AccessBlaster]

Congress lowered the standards so that you needed less money down and a lower income or no income since you were allowed to lie on your application.

That's how I misremember it

 

[Pat Hartman]

For too many years, we had red-lining that made mortgages difficult to obtain inside the line and kept kept "white" people out of inner city neighborhoods. Both were bad practices. They were not official government policy. They were implemented informally by real estate agents and bankers trying to protect property values in bordering neighborhoods. Bending over backwards the other way doesn't help anyone. Yes, lending on inner city properties is much more risky in general than lending on suburban properties. Doesn't mean that local banks shouldn't do it. They just need to be more careful vetting properties and borrowers. Part of that has been solved by government policies that help new home buyers. My granddaughter benefited from one of the programs since she only needed to put 5% down. Her income qualified, she had money in the bank, a long job history (6 years. 2 high school/4 college) going back to age 16 where she worked part time in the winter and full time in the summer for the same two companies. Limiting her down payment, for her, meant that she could upgrade the house before she moved in and put in a new kitchen, paint, flooring and a new half bath. She's been in the condo for 3 years, makes at least 1 extra mortgage payment per year by adding principal only amounts to each monthly payment and just upgraded the full bath last year. She's increased her equity substantially and is well on her way to paying off her mortgage in 15 years.

Unlike rental properties where you want a mortgage to increase your leverage, you never want a mortgage on your primary residence. My friends who live in McMansions are in their 70's and still have mortgages they have to worry about. Too late to worry about it now. As long as the banks are willing and rates aren't too high, they should just continue to remortgage and take out equity to live on. Let the kids worry about the mortgage when they die.

 

[moke123]

I just looked on zillow at my old house on Long Island. It just sold for over $700,000. This was a small 1800 sq ft 4 bedroom cape on a 1/4 acre. That's 7 times what I paid for it and double what I got for it.
The house my parents had built for $35,000 is now almost $2,000,000. That's insane.

How do young people just starting out manage to buy a house these days?

 

[Steve R.]

How do young people just starting out manage to buy a house these days?

They can't. I would say that housing prices are distorted by factors external to supply & demand plus the proverbial location, location, location.
The external factors are:

• Inflation.
• We no longer save (to buy). Instead we pursue immediate buying gratification through spending. In many cases we fund the spending with credit that incurs interest charges. That becomes a financial drag.
• Programs designed to "help" the home buyer actually make housing more expensive to buy as the seller simply raises the price of the house. In the end, these programs do not help the buyer at all.

 

[Steve R.]

 

[Isaac]

How do young people just starting out manage to buy a house these days?

I feel the same way, very disappointed in the fact that my standard advice to a young person is often still not quite enough to buy very much of house in my area. I moved here in part because "Phoenix is cheap" - now the decent, mid-sized homes in the nice suburbs are 6-700k. We got our newly-built home for $590k in 2023 because we were willing to go to a crappy part of town, but Gilbert/Chandler suburbs, a 2000 SF home is anywhere from 500 to 850, especially if built new (a big aspect here as Phoenix just constantly grows outwards).

And it's true whether they rent or buy, the rental rules are pretty strict - if you want a 2 bedroom apartment at $2200/mo, you have to make 6600 in income to qualify, that's almost $80k.

So now I'm turning to my next advice, which is telling my kids, unfortunately - don't be afraid to move to a cheap part of the country if you need to to live well.

Fortunately my son is graduating in 2 mo. with a master's degree in robotics engineering. I don't see HOW that can land a job less than 6 figures, but it probably will....at least at first. The good thing is he's a saver - a real miser, so he will be fine. My daughter, not so much. She's probably going to have to go straight from Dad's home to Marriage in order to stay off the streets, unless she finds a better paying job or moves out of state. My standard reminder to my family is, "If you aren't satisfied with what we have in Arizona, we can always move to St Louis". So far they have declined the offer.

 

[Pat Hartman]

How do young people just starting out manage to buy a house these days?

It's not easy. That is also why young people are putting off getting married and having children. My daughter can barely afford to live in the town she was raised in and we are probably the second cheapest town in Fairfield County. I think only Bridgeport has lower house prices but their property tax is almost twice what ours is given the combination of assessment percentage and mil rate. But my daughter is good, she's bought needy houses and improved them and moved up the property ladder.

I even had my granddaughter looking for a three family. Problem was, we never found one she could afford in a neighborhood where she felt safe living.

 

[Isaac]

But my daughter is good, she's bought needy houses and improved them and moved up the property ladder.

Wow good for her! That's smart and takes plenty of thinking, planning, and learning to accomplish. I've always been secretly jealous of house flippers, but then again I'm not totally sure I'd be OK putting in the time on the myriad of details needed to make a profit doing it.

But I do know how to move into a house as primary, then get a lease to rent it out, then move into another house as primary - and thus never be required to do the usual 20% down for a rental property. Was pretty tickled when I realized that could be done!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Another part of that equation is that buying a house on credit (as who doesn't, these days?) means you have to include insurance, and in some parts of south Louisiana and other Gulf Coast areas, insurance payments are higher than the mortgage payments. THAT is unsustainable.

 

[Isaac]

Yeah, totally. I'm lucky & thankful to live in an area with zero natural disasters and relatively 'normal' home insurance - I think my landlord's policy is about 1000

 

[Steve R.]

See the video embedded in the article below. Steven Miller gives the press a "civic lesson". "Miller says that the president is the expression of the will of the entire American public. ... He is removing federal bureaucrats who are defying democracy by failing to implement his lawful orders, which are the will of the whole American people." Wish more conservatives when responding to the press would respond in this assertive manner.

VIDEO: Stephen Miller torches media with 'civics lesson' at White House press conference | Blaze Media

Miller says that the president is the expression of the will of the entire American public.

www.theblaze.com

 

[Steve R.]

More appropriate tough talk.

Trump, Maine's governor clash at White House over executive order compliance: 'We'll see you in court'

President Donald Trump sparred with Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday over compliance with an executive order about transgender women in sports.

www.foxnews.com

"I'm complying with state and federal laws," she responded, before Trump said "Well, we are the federal law" and "you better do it, you better do it because you're not going to get any federal funding at all if you don't.

Trump:

"Good, I'll see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one. And enjoy your life after governor because I don't think you'll be in elected politics," Trump concluded.