by Theresa Michael

Created on: May 15, 2008

Starting in the late 90's and going all the way until 2003 our government allowed the housing industry to grow, unchecked, to get to the state it was in when the glass ceiling collapsed and we found ourselves in the current mortgage crisis. Now instead of offering real solutions to prevent this from happening, the want to offer bail outs. Bail outs will not prevent people from getting back in over their heads into a mortgage that they may not be able to repay. A Bailout will not help those who were affected at the start and have already lost their homes and credit rating to foreclosure. A Bailout won't teach the average consumer to read the contract before they sign on the dotted line.

You hear from those who were sold Sub-prime mortgages that they weren't told what they were getting into. Unless their lender didn't have them sign the contract to get their loan at closing, they were given a full disclosure of their interest rate and the fact that it would go up. If they didn't read it that is their fault. Those who are now in foreclosure because they have decided to 'walk away and mail the bank the keys" simply because their house is now worth a little less than it was when they purchased it should not only lose their house but be denied the right to buy a new house for 20 years. The "walk away" idea is so mired in stupidity that if someone suggests you do that I suggest you slap them as hard as possible just to see if there is a brain left in their head! Consumers knew when they purchased their house that there is always a chance that at some point your house will be worth less than you paid for it and that there is no guarantee that said house will increase in value. Just walking away is irresponsible. Yet these same people will be asking for a bailout, to have the federal government, the same entity that allowed this to happen, to make a band aid to make it all better. A Band aid is not going to fix this.

If there are any lawmakers reading this, local, state, or federal, please look into making changes to how you regulate the housing industry. Change the rules, make them work for the tax payer not for the big real estate companies who throw money at your re-election campaigns. Those of us who have done what we should have done, read our contract, made our payments and didn't get into a house we couldn't afford don't want to see money that should be going to help fund education of our nations youth or get comprehensive health care for the millions of uninsured children go to help out those who either didn't read their mortgage papers or those who made the choice to be irresponsible and walk away from their home. Do away with sub-prime mortgages. Regulate the industry. This will be a great way to make a first step towards fixing this mess that the Government got us into.

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