Home Loans for Sale

If there is one good thing that has come out of the economic crisis and crash of the housing market, it is that people are far more savvy about how home loans get made and also get sold. There was a time not so long ago when obtaining a home loan was as easy as catching the common cold, and like the common cold, those home loans often developed into something far worse than what they first appeared to be. As foreclosures rose in 2008, and lenders like Countrywide and Freddie Mac went under, home buyers began to grasp what those notices meant informing them that their home loan had been sold and why they now had to mail their mortgage payment to a different address and make the check payable to a different lender.

One of the big reasons why home loans are more difficult today is that with the collapse of the housing market, investors are not greedily buying up home loans from the banks as they once did, so banks are more careful about who they are lending to since whether a borrower repays the loan is no longer automatically an investor’s problem. As the public has been educated about the meaning of subprime loans and how the subprime market is a big contributor to our flailing economy, lenders have become more responsible about the loans they offer and the documentation they require to make sure a borrower can actually afford the loan they are being given.

There are different views about who is at fault for the rise in foreclosure rates and the deflation of the housing bubble. Some say the consumer is at fault for living beyond his or her means, and for taking out home loans for bigger and better houses without considering how they would pay for that bigger and better house if they suffered a job loss or equity loss. Some blame predatory lenders who place unknowledgeable borrowers in loans without fully explaining prepayment penalties, or adjustable rate mortgages, or the ramifications of interest-only payments. Others blame greedy CEO’s, past presidents, and even television executives who flooded the airwaves with shows about how to pull money out of home ownership.

It’s easy in hindsight to say it was greedy investors or real estate gurus — who promised  real estate would never be a bad investment — are to blame for the drop in home prices and the upside down status of many of today’s home loans. The reality is that we are all a little wiser, a little more cautious, and a little more scrutinizing of the loan industry and its practices. And wisdom is always a good thing.

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