anyone else smell Bushit ?

I think the mortgage lenders have a lot to do with this as well as politicians. When the real estate market was "hot" mortgage lenders were giving money away pretty easily. People were over-extending themselves because the lenders allowed people to take up to 125% of the appraised value of their property. We also had predatory lenders that were charging outrageous closing costs to uncanny individuals.

During the 90's politicians were accusing lenders of being discriminatory to lower income individuals. So people with lower incomes and lower credit scores were now given loans. This was facilitated by the government pressuring mortgage lenders to be more lax in their lending requirements.

It is just a vicious circle. One the biggest issue's is that some people are just giving up their houses without a fight. It is to easy now to give up your house. Some people are doing it to “get a fresh start”. That is a bunch of BS! I've known a few people who refinanced and refinanced again and refinanced a third time to squeeze out all of the equity in their house. Well now that the housing market has taken a dump they don’t want to pay for something that isn’t worth that much. So they just call the bank and say “I don’t want to pay for it anymore”.

Guess who gets to pay for all of these foreclosures because someone “wants a fresh start”. The rest of A-Holes who keep fighting to get by!

I'm sure things will get better.