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LETTERS
Mortgage deal is a boon to deadbeats
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To the editor:
There seems to be a never-ending story about all the homeowners who have walked away from overpriced mortgages or have filed for bankruptcy so they wouldn't have to meet their obligations. Now the current administration has supposedly convinced the large banks principally involved in the high-risk mortgages to agree to some $25 billion in restitution.
Obviously, the banks agreed to this settlement because they figured it was cheaper than going to court. The banks should have made the government make its case.
So now people who filed bankruptcy and walked away from mortgages may receive a $1,500 to $2,000 one-time payment. Or if you're still within the guidelines, the fund will somehow get the mortgage holder to reduce the principal on your loan.
Consequently, everyone who didn't feel like paying the mortgage because it wasn't "fair" and was foreclosed will get some money to offset their dilemma.
What about those people, like me, who actually have paid for their mortgages but are still under water? If I sold my home now I'd lose more than $150,000.
If I need to sell my home to move halfway across the country to take care of aging/sick parents, how could I afford to do so?
Where is the justice in any of the above ideas?
If the government can help out anyone who has a problem or had a problem with the value of his home investment, where is the equitable solution to those of us who suffer, as well? Who has stepped up and said all property owners should be treated the same?
No one, that's who.
Carl Munger
Las Vegas
Tricky issue
To the editor:
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., thinks the president "should be credited for his handling of the tricky issue" of mandating under ObamaCare birth control and abortion coverage for Catholic institutions.
If ObamaCare also mandated eating pork once a week for its unique nutritional benefits -- don't laugh, this administration is capable of anything -- perhaps Rep. Berkley, an observant Jew, would better understand what the president asked Catholics to do.
Richard Laird
Las Vegas
Crackdown
To the editor:
I applaud Las Vegas police for setting up stings to catch people who are talking on cellphones while driving, but such tactics must continue. I still see a lot of people on phones while behind the wheel.
Also, I have seen a lot of people punching addresses into their GPS systems while driving. This is just as bad as talking on a phone while driving.
Metro, please keep up the good work and continue to crack down. It will help save lives.
Henry W. Hertel
Las Vegas
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Bob, It would appear that we are in agreement.
Jon, I cannot argue with what you've said. The problem is that the very people we have elected to represent us have sold both their souls and their votes to the highest special interest bidders in exchange for ongoing campaign contributions. The members of both national parties are guilty of foreswearing the country's and their constituebnnts' best interest. When the banks needed a bailout our elected masters were like Pavlov's dog at the ring of a bell. Frankly, I am astounded that there has not yet been bloodshed over the fundamental injustice involved in this entire cesspool of crony capitalism and outright corruption. Eventually, the riots we now see in Greece are going to flower here across our fruited plain. The fundamental difference in thye people of Greece and the citizens of the United States is that we are extremely well armed, by virtue of that pesky, old Second Amendment.
The ONLY Borrowers with damages (lost money) are those who: (1) obtained conservative mortgages (<80% LTV) and (2) stayed current (never defaulted) despite being increasingly upside down due to the Borrowers who defaulted. Yet, the damaged borrowers are ignored and mocked. REFINANCING? Even with refinancing of debt that exceeds property value, the borrowers who defaulted may still win in the end as they are not upside down! To make matters worse, Government refinancing programs, such as HARP1, is financially HARMFUL to borrowers who must pay upfront FEES (non-refundable) and pay tens of thousands of dollars to resolve any gap btwn existing loan balance and refinance amount. HARP2 removes refinance limit, but the honorable borrower is still upside down (loan > property value)! GOVERNMENT GETTING RICH. In regard to the AG settlements, the States keep most of the shakedown money for themselves. REAL SOLUTION IGNORED. Years ago, Govt programs should have reduced Principal in phases to borrowers who stayed Current (never defaulted) on mortgages obtained from 2004-2007 (high point of boom). That would have avoided most or all defaults and real estate values would have been more stable and thus the economy. ADS. radio ads now offer "credit restoration" to those with foreclosure or short sale on record. So the FICO system has no integrity? TV ads say STOP paying your mortgage if upside down. Those who pay their mortgages are mocked as fools.
Bob Glover, you are speaking of the inaction of a government who has not bothered to declare war since WWII in violation of the Constitution. Are we are speaking of the very same government who now routinely murders its citizens, while protecting its own agents from prosecution, by way of administrative training, process and law. Is this the same government who by act and deed planted the “progressive” seeds of our current economic plight? And now you speak of a moral compass that should be naturally held and used by those persons . . . persons who by in large simply do not know the meaning of right or wrong.
It apparently makes no difference to some among us that the banks acted illegally, that is broke criminal laws by some of their actions, for example forgery [signing the name Linda Green, Vice President, B of A] to documents attesting that the lender could demonstrate they had a signed note and a deed in order to foreclose on property. Does it make no difference that these affidavits were then presented to a court to obtain a foreclosure order, which elevated the stakes to perjury? Are we willing to pass these crimes off as "Oh, maybe they cut a few corners here and there?" If this entire financial debacle does not raise questions in your mind about the legality and fundamental fairness in the American system of jurispudence then your moral compass is so irredeemably flawed that I am surprised that you can find your way home.
A large step in correcting all this would be to allow the Mortgage Debt Relief Act of 2007 expire (as it is scheduled to on 31 Dec 2012).
Underwater homeowners have had 5 years to work this out (under this Act) and either short-sale or pursue some type of foreclosure process without tax penalty.
Allowing the expiration of this act would force people to either pursue resolution of their circumstance or suffer from their self-made consequences.
Agreed that there would be an initial surge of inventory but this would help clear the inventory from weaker hand into stronger hand.
If the Act is not extended and these homeowners continue to "hold out" --- the tax liabilities on the "forgiven" amount will fall squarely on their shoulders.
Clock is ticking, folks ...
To bad for you Mr. Munger. I'm getting my money. Quit whining just because you're not getting any. If you want some money just walk away from your house. Oh wait. It's too late. Go cry to someone else.
Show me one, just one mortgage that was foreclosed on while the payments were current. You can't find one, because it doesn't exist. Kind of like when The Black Avenger Ken Hamblin said show me one city that has prospered under a black, liberal mayor. Doesn't exist, either.
Mr. Hertel will doubtless be happy when our local constabulary is able to "set up stings" to catch those dastardly in-car eaters wolfing down a quick #1 In N Out burger on their lunch hours, those awful radio-station-changers and all those people who have the unmitigated audacity to talk to passengers riding with them. Perhaps we could mandate that all drivers wear blinders and ear plugs to ensure that they look at nothing but the road ahead and are not distracted by either the devil's music or conversation. Perhaps we could also mandate that each and every driver wear a gag when he climbs behind the steering wheel of a car to make sure he is not tempted to actually speak to anyone whilst performing the all-important functions of driving. Moreover, I think it might be a better idea to mandate that everyone simply stay home; thataway, think of all the gas we'd save.
The bank executives who used the Gramm Leach Bliley Act that tore down the wall of separation between investment and commercial put in place by the depression ear, Glass Stegall Act to use their depositors' money to build portfolios of heavily leveraged and risky mortgage backed securities are being let off the hook. They were the main contributor to the financial meltdown of 2008 that resulted in the almost $1 trillion bailout, advocated by both the Bush and the Obama administrations. We [you, I and every other American taxpayer] were forced to shelter these people from the consequences of their own bad financial decisions, [e. g. B of A's purchase of Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Home Loans]. These banks paid back the U. S. Treasury, in part by intransigently refusing to modify their borrowers' interest rates or write down their principal amounts. It is now more profitable for them, as well as for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue to refuse any modification and to foreclose on these homes. The $25 billion national settlements as well as the additional $800 million from the separate Nevada lawsuit will, from what I understand help about 10,000 homeowners in the Silver State. Currently, seven out of ten Nevada homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their property is worth. My wife and I find ourselves in the same situation as Carl Munger, current on our loan and having never missed or been late on a payment. The real tragedy of this debacle is that there are people who were forced from their homes simply because they lost jobs when the local economy tanked. I've been advised to buy a second house as an income producing property and short sell our home in what the financial advisers are calling a "strategic default." I suppose that it speaks to my stubborn nature and my stupidity that, up until now I've been unwilling to even consider such an option. But, as Scarlet O'Hara said, "Tomorrow's another day."