Congresswoman tells foreclosed victims ’stay in your homes’
By: Diane Tuman, Zillow Content Manager | February 2, 2009
If you like anarchy, you’ll like this: U.S. News & World Report reports that Ohio Representative (D) Marcy Kaptur is telling her constituents to “stay in your house” if you’re at risk of foreclosure.
I say to the American people, you be squatters in your own homes. Don’t you leave,” she said during a speech in Congress earlier this month.
Go, Marcy, go!
We have been seeing an uptick in the blog post “Produce the Note,” which has prompted many comments, among them a link to the Livinglies blog by Neil Garfield, who is a former investment banker, radio talk show host, trial lawyer, and board member of several financial institutions, who “has come out of retirement with a bang and financial institutions should take note. ” He writes he “can’t watch this meltdown without lending a helping hand to those in distress.”
Ooh, I like all of this. People getting mad at how Wall Street greedmeisters (John Thain and Bernie Madoff, to name two) have done unscrupulous things, but they’re still living the life. Civil disobedience is starting to rear its head — it’s about time.
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Foreclosures
Comments
13 Comments so far
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DebtFree on February 3, 2009 1:50 pm
re: “be squatters in your own homes”
Actually, they are the bank’s homes. A contract was signed, and mortgage payments are due, or the bank takes possession of the property.
No one was forced to sign a contract to buy an overpriced home.
We stood by in amazement as we were outbid by 100,000 and more over asking prices. People were racing like idiots off the cliff. So we took ourselves out of the market.
Recently spoke to some folks who last summer paid $800,000 for what is by all accounts a starter home — small, no property, an old house that needs work and maintenance. They look suicidal. Clearly they have an ARM or some other toxic form of financing to “afford” the property.
No one forced them to sign on the dotted line. They are adults, responsible for their actions. And they’re in deep doo doo.
Jose Lopez on February 3, 2009 8:53 pm
OH, is that the best that the congresswoman can come up with?? Be squaters in your own home? Unbelieveable.
Hey, Debtfree, are you a banker? I think what should happen is to put together a class action lawsuit against all lenders. Sue them for manipulating the appraisals which justified the homes that they were making. Many of these lenders were shopping around for an appraiser to “hit the number” so they could make the loan. If they had been ethical, many of these people would not be in the positions that they are in right now.
Sarasota Florida Foreclosures
Marina Martin on February 3, 2009 9:04 pm
@Jose I have yet to hear a story of any lender holding a gun to someone’s head forcing them to accept a loan they could not afford. Rather, many greedy people who apparently think nothing of spending hundreds of thousands on a home but won’t invest $2 in a calculator signed contracts they knowingly could not honor.
If a business investor offered me a $50,000 loan for my business and I knowingly lied to obtain it, and/or knew full well I wouldn’t be able to repay it, that wouldn’t be his fault — it’d be mine.
Brian Brady on February 3, 2009 9:39 pm
“Civil disobedience is starting to rear its head — it’s about time.”
Diane, are you comparing this sort of behavior to something as noble as civil disobedience? Thoreau favored civil disobedience to protest against unjust laws, made by the State not to retaliate against a failed business transaction, entered into with free will.
Diane Tuman on February 3, 2009 10:28 pm
Oh, this not as noble as Rosa Parks, or Ghandi, or Thoreau or Mandela; but I’m just glad that people have put down their remote controls long enough to observe there is an injustice happening. Wall Street screws the little people and then they get rewarded with bailouts and millions in bonuses while people (yes, some foolish and undeserving people who are way over their heads) are forced out of their homes due their own mistakes, plus the mistakes of a loose, greedy, slipshod system. Why do Wall Street types get to walk free while the little guy loses the house? Both were complicit. Why does one walk and the other suffer?
ted on February 3, 2009 11:23 pm
So how much future does zillow have in a world where there is no contract law? A world every agreement is based upon whim, greed and self-righteousness. I was greedy, but now I’m moral because my negative equity house is “mine”.
Landon on February 4, 2009 8:13 am
@ Marina No guns just blatant Dishonesty. When was the last time a closer went through the loan docs except for what is required like the truth in lending. If it wasn’t for the condo market these banks would not have these problems. Here is Orlando FL 50% of the bank owned homes are condos that people bought to flip. No one has ever lived in these homes once a few sold for cash the appraisers had a comp to work with and there it went. An arm loan was never meant to be used as a home owner loan. It was an investor or rehab loan and it was a great tool for those people. Opening up this kind of financing to predatory lenders never should have happened. As a Realtor with morals I had buyers walk from the closing table one I found out what the lender was charging them up front for there loans these A-holes were charging tens of thousands of dollars to write these notes. I had lenders telling me “who gave me the right to say what they could charge there clients” I would just tell them my brokerage disclosure. Something about Dealing Honesty and fairly, using skill and care. Or you can just stick with the golden rule. True it is the bank that owns the home, but it as the lender that took advantage of the buyers and sold the bad paper to the bank. Landon Thomas Jr. http://www.LandOnFlorida.com
DebtFree on February 4, 2009 3:18 pm
But the property “owners” are getting taxpayer handouts, Diane.
The prudent home buyers (i.e., ones who didn’t buy an over-inflated home) are the ones getting screwed.
Every federal “stimulus” scheme to come down the pike in the last year has been designed to keep home prices artificially inflated. It’s pure folly.
The solution to excess debt and leverage these past years is a govt plan fueling more debt? Not going to work.
At the end of the day, INCOMES need to support home prices, not DEBT.
And how can people earn INCOME when we have become a country that doesn’t produce anything — TVs, automobiles, toys, textiles, etc, etc. All our industries are shipped overseas.
An economy designed solely around “consumer spending” (i.e., debt) is utterly doomed.
Brian Brady on February 6, 2009 4:01 pm
“Why do Wall Street types get to walk free while the little guy loses the house?”
Tu Quoque.
“Wall Street screws the little people”
How did offering people a chance to own a home, when they otherwise wouldn’t qualify, “screwing them”? The government’s been mandating a program just like the this, since 1977. Is the Government then a co-conspirator with these “Wall Street crooks”?
I think your proletarian message is aimed at the wrong king, Diane.
NO MORE EQUITY on February 19, 2009 12:49 pm
I did not buy a home I could not afford, I put down $200,000 this is my 3rd home since being married for 20 years. I moved from a different state and was told without proof of income, even though we owned our own business, the only loan we could have was an ARMS, we also had great credit!! We were told by the realtors, mortgage broker, etc. that this was all they could do. I did not ask the appraiser to over-value my home $110,000!! He took it upon him self to totally ignore the most comparable homes to mine and go for the better larger homes in my community. I did not ask him to lie on the appraisal report, by comparing my homes gross sq ft to these home living sq ft!! He made everything look great on on paper. He didn’t even include pictures of his comps and he used a home that was 10 years newer and 4 miles away!! I did not ask for any of this, there are people out there that were just plain ripped off, other peoples greed, you can not just blame homeowners, blame the dam industry!! Why the heck do we even use these people, please tell me for what!! Funny thing is they are so protected by their own, that this will always go on and never go away, they are too smart and will always get away with murder and your money!! The realtors I used just sat there and watched all this happened, why??? They made more money and got them a little closer to being a top seller, all by lying and cheating at the expense of others!!
Robert Paul on February 21, 2009 8:28 am
Marcy Kaptur should step down! She is unfit to serve America. How can she live with herself, advising people to break the law?
I bought a home myself three years ago. I looked for many months before deciding on one which I can afford, and I took the measures neccessary to make certain that I could afford it before entering into an agreement with a mortgage company. I did not let any smooth talking realtor, agent or broker try to convince me I could buy more house than I can afford.
It is not that difficult to get it right.
So, I do NOT feel empathy for the idiots who got themselves into these horrible mortgages they can no longer afford. It is unconscionable that we have a U.S. Congressman telling these fools to stay in the houses they should never have gotten into in the first place!
I think everyone in the entire nation should call for the resignation of Marcy Kaptur!!!
Prince William Homes on March 1, 2009 7:31 pm
She should. Congress knowingly caused this mess. No regulations, no oversight… no-duh!
Loan Modification on May 6, 2009 3:04 pm
It appears Congresswoman Kaptur is pulling a modern day Marie Antoinette - pray tell Mrs. Kaptur what should the homeowners do when the sheriff shows up to forcefully evict them? Lock arms and chant? I would hope she is working proactively to solve the problem, and speaking more with lenders and getting them to stop foreclosures, actually help people, and do SOMETHING about the horrendous wait times - e.g.- two hours on the phone with your lender, 60 days waiting just to get a negotiator assigned… Grr..