A Second Mortgage Disaster On The Horizon?
By Michael on Dec 19, 2008 in Videos
So far all the videos you have seen on this blog have been done by yours truly and have offered what I hope to be good content mixed with some entertaining humor.
This interview is one that I wish I could say is mine also … but there is nothing funny about it.
It comes from the 60 Minutes web site and was a story that aired a week or so ago.
It literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up because of the severe message and prediction it makes about the not so distant housing market.
Just when we thought that the sub-prime melt down was behind us and a hopeful light was dimly burning at the end of this economic dark tunnel … this story about Alt A’s and Option Arms appears.
This is a must watch video.
All Good Wishes,
michael krisa
Popularity: 26%
4 Comment(s)
By Prof. Samuel D. Bornstein on Dec 20, 2008 | Reply
The 2nd Wave of Foreclosures has finally made it to the mainstream Media. CBS’s 60 Minutes had a segment on 12/14/08, but they missed a very important point. Here is a post which may have merit for your blog…….
I would like to bring a very important bit of information to your attention that relates to this economic crisis that was overlooked until now.
On Sunday, 12/14/08, CBS 60 Minutes aired a segment “The Mortgage Meltdown”.
Scott Pelley’s piece on the 2nd Wave of Foreclosures overlooked a critical fact.
The segment missed the fact that this next wave of Foreclosures in 2009 Will Take Self-Employed and Smaller Businesses who have these TOXIC mortgages. In fact, ALT-A, Option ARMS, Interest-Only, the TOXIC Mortgages that are considered the “Troubled” assets in TARP were specifically marketed to the self-employed who fell prey to them.
The upcoming defaults on these risky “Toxic Mortgages” will result in an increase in foreclosures. But worse, once these small businesses fail, the resulting loss of jobs will cause millions to add to the ranks of the unemployed. Note that self-employed business owners (16.2 million according to the SBA) employ between 1-10 employees.
An NASE survey at http://www.nase.org , was the first to provide compelling evidence of small business involvement in the upcoming toxic mortgage crisis. The survey was created by Prof. Samuel D. Bornstein and Jung I. Song, CPA of BornsteinSong Consultants in Oakhurst,NJ,and was conducted by the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE) which issued a Press Release on November 21, 2008.
According to this survey, it is estimated that 3,709,800 small business owners hold Alt-A and other toxic mortgages, and 1,279,800 are already delinquent as they have missed one to three or more monthly mortgage payments at mid-November, before the expected Resets that are scheduled to begin in 4th Quarter 2008 through 2012.
These small business owners will be at-risk of payment shock and default as their monthly mortgage payments skyrocket. Small business owners were especially targeted for these Alt-A loans which required little or no documentation of income which appealed to many small business owners who previously were unable to qualify.
The resulting defaults will be the cause of the upcoming second tsunami wave of foreclosures that will dwarf the subprime crisis and will take many homeowners, small business owners, and their employees at this critical time when our economy can ill afford it.
Thank you,
Samuel D. Bornstein
Professor of Accounting & Taxation
Kean University, School of Business, Union, NJ
By Ben Roberts | EXIT Real Estate 540 on Dec 23, 2008 | Reply
I saw the 60 minutes special last week and have heard about the large number of Alt-A and Option ARMS that are expected to default in the next few years. I haven’t heard any good suggestions about how to deal with this mess though. The ramifications are mind boggling – especially as a real estate professional in this market. It seems we should have educated the general public long before now on the dangers of exotic mortgage options. While the subprime problem isn’t quite so directly our fault, this one seems to be.
By Michael on Dec 23, 2008 | Reply
Ben,
When this next toxic wave hits 2010-2012 there will be enough blame to go around. The challenge is what do we do now to prepare for it and more importantly prevent it from happening again.
Option Arms were aggressively marketed to micro business owners – self employed with an average 0f 1 – 10 employees and the majority of them used their principle residence as security.
To give you some perspective there were approximately 3.7 million of these loans taken and 1.3 million are already 1-3 months behind in payments.
Within the next few weeks I’ll be posting an audio interview I just did with Professor Samuel Bornstein and dig deeper into this mess.
All Good Wishes,
michael
By Max Munzer on May 24, 2009 | Reply
I’m just getting into blogs and checking out what realtors are talking about.
To suggest that 5,000,000 business owners all fell prey to the ALt-A, Option Arms, and IO is rediculous. You expect anyone to believe that no one knew what they were signing.
These mortgage products were created to allow more home ownership and borrowers have to take responsibilty for what they sign.
I am a mortgage loan officer and not one of my buyers defaulted on a loan.