by Michael Burke

Created on: February 19, 2009

Yes there is a solution and that is to hold all parties involved in a foreclosure process accountable.

President Clinton demanded that all Americans be afforded the opportunity to own their own homes and the Treasurary Department lowered interest rates to accomadate this demand thus making housing more seeminlingly affordable. 9/11 happened and in attempt to "stimulate" the economy further reductions in interest rates were provided.

The economy appeared to be improving and everybody wanted to but a house. With the lower interest rates not only did people want to buy a house but they wanted to buy a "big" house and the madness started. As my wife and I would take a casual drive in and around our community we she started asking where all of these houuses were coming from and who could afford them. Not only were these new homes large but they al had at least two new cars and a boat in the driveway. where was the money coming from, she asked?

My answer to her was simple; people were buying them on credit that they could not afford to pay and the time would soon come when this "housing boom" would end and that everybody was going to lose and the ones that could afford to would have to pay for it. Had I been wiser I would have written a book about the impending housing market doom and I would have been rich. Perhaps with my insight and knowledge I could have become a presidential advisor fo Bush or O'Bama.

We had, as a couple, worked dilligently for years to be able to afford to make a down payment and purchase the home of our dreams. Though modest in nature it was attractive, and had enough room to accomodate our family of two adults and three children. We could have bought a bigger house but it wasn't necessary. We were, and remain comfortable and happy in our family dwelling. Actually, with the kids all grown and moved away. we have much more house than we need.

At any rate, beginning in about 2002, I noticed a tremendous increase in people purchasing items on credit cards. I was a restaurant general manager who was surprisingly shockedd by the growth in our business. I was further shocked by the decrease in actual cash receipts and amazed by the amount of credit receipts that we received daily. Early in 2003 I sounded the alarm to my wife. My bonus based income was growing astonimically and it was all based on cerdit card purchases. My assumption was that when people couldn't afford to pay cash for food that we were all in trouble. But, people kept buying on credit,

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