10-28-2008, 06:15 PM
AlphaDog wrote:
[quote=Seacrest]I am particularly calling out the older generation -- those who had already paid off their first mortgages decades ago and decided (I'll concede a few were 'coerced') to double-down at the home equity craps table.
I think I resent that. This house was purchased 17 years ago on a 30 year mortgage that also happened to be an ARM. It was refinanced once, back in the mid 90s, when we could get a good fixed rate and a 15 year loan for less than we'd been paying. It's now paid off and actually has been for a while, because virtually every penny of each of my paychecks went to the mortgage payment. No, we did not take out equity when we refinanced, and there never was a second on it.
But you are not one of the ones I was talking about.
I am only calling out older people who took on the pick-a-payment, adjustable rate loans (why get an adjustable loan when rates are at, basically the lowest they will EVER possibly be? there is only one way for the rate to adjust -- UP), not ALL older people.
AlphaDog wrote:
I keep hearing people want to place blame in just one spot, and I don't think it's that simple.
Trust me, I DO NOT place blame in any 'one spot'.
If you care to seek out my older posts on this topic, you'd know I pretty much blame EVERYBODY -- banks, borrowers, Wall Street, Main Street, rich people, poor people, Democrats, Republicans, Al Queda, Al Greenspan, Joe the Plumber, Nick the Pig, Freddie Mac, Bernie Mac, the Chinese, Mac 'n' Cheese, Standard and Poors, Big and Rich...