Bail Me Out Too!

Transcript

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School bus driver and mother of two, Minta Garcia got the letter every homeowner dreads, your mortgage is in jeopardy of going into foreclosure.

MINTA GARCIA, DISTRESSED HOMEOWNER: We're going to be losing the house. We're going to lose everything.

ACOSTA (on camera): You think you're going to lose everything?

GARCIA: Yes.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Her message to the president...

GARCIA: Stop with the foreclosure.

ACOSTA (on camera): Stop the foreclosures?

GARCIA: Yes. Right now, because if people are losing houses, losing jobs, what are we going to do?

...

ACOSTA: Like countless other Americans, Garcia admits she and her husband bought more house than they could afford, but she says the lender made the purchase all too easy. Now her mortgage is worth more than her house.

(on camera): How much was the house when you bought it?

GARCIA: Eight hundred.

ACOSTA: Eight hundred thousand dollars?. And how much is the house worth?

GARCIA: Right now, it's like $675,000 on the market.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Foreclosure experts say America's home buying culture must change the president's plan to work.

PHILLIP ROBINSON, FORECLOSURE ATTORNEY: We lived in a culture in the last ten years where mortgage originators said that you could use your house as a credit card to pay off your cars, to pay your credit card bills. Well, that doesn't exist anymore.

Wow. I think I make more than a bus driver and I can't afford an $800k house. What is wrong with renting and apartment? Does this woman think she is entitled to a $800k house? Sorry, I have no sympathy for her; I want a house with a huge kitchen and a granite countertop too.

They probably took out an ARM where they can barely afford the initial low payments but fully expecting to refinance when the monthly payments start increasing. This only works if the value of your house keeps rising. If it drops as your mortgage payments start increasing beyond your ability to pay, you can't refinance the full amount of the current loan, and the Ponzi scheme crashes. At least she admits that she made a mistake but quickly blames someone else and asks for a handout. As if the bank held a gun to her head and made her buy a house she can't afford. I'm down almost 40% on my investment account... is Obama going to bail me out too? I probably won't even get an useful tax deduction out of it.

There is absolutely no reason to stop the foreclosure; they gambled and lost the house, which they should not have bought in the first place. If her family is going to become homeless because she lost her job, then I agree that the government should provide some kind of short-term assistance. However, it pisses me off greatly that she wants the government to force other people to pay so she can stay in her huge house. She needs to sell all the stuff in her house that she can't afford either and go rent an apartment. Consider it a life lesson: don't let other people talk you into buying things you can't afford, especially if they're working on commission.