this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2023
106 points (96.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27027 readers
654 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hear about how much debt everyone in the US has all the time, curious about some of your stories!

My bad debt is 10k left on a school loan from a for profit school that is now out of business.

Only other debt is house.

So how are you all doing with debt management?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The extremely (almost irresponsibly) abridged version of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis is that banks were giving out loans to people who could not afford to pay them.

This is the comparison I'm drawing, because it's what is happening again.

A 200K home mortgage isnroughly 2000/mo. It's not doable for median income, and the .median house price is like 380k right now. The math doesn't check out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. Today you'll hear people online talking about how mortgages are unaffordable. If they somehow decided to apply anyway the bank would reject them.

The difference between now and the years leading up to the 2008 crash is that loan officers would have given people those mortgages despite the payments not being doable as you said.

A lot of banks were offering variable rate mortgages that had lower interest for the first few years of the loan and advertised this lower monthly payments. This would get applicants in the door. When they asked about the later interest increases (that would bump the monthly payments higher than they'd be able to afford) they were assured that they'd be able to refinance their debt.

This and other shady sales practices are not happening today largely because federal regulations and oversight placed after the fact.

The TL;DR is that the math on mortgages doesn't check out for a lot of people. In the early 2000s banks were more than happy to give you a mortgage anyway. That simply isn't happening right now.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That simply isn't happening right now

It is, though. People are buying homes who cannot afford them all over the US right now. It's not as though home buying has ceased with the interest rates.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can you provide a reputable source that large numbers of people are taking mortgages they're likely to default on?

I have not heard any reporting saying that is happening. I do, however have a family member who works in banking and interfaces with federal regulators that enforce the laws passed to prevent future subprime mortgage crises.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. My source is basic arithmetic. The math just simply doesn't check out. Banking isn't rocket science.

A 200K home mortgage is roughly 2000/mo mortgage. It's not doable for median household income if about 75k, or about $4200/month after taxes, while grocery prices inflate over 10% year in end, and the median house price is like 380k right now. The math doesn't check out.

At this point I'm repeating myself.