The Over/ Under on the BIG GAME

While I am a big college football fan, as I know many of you are… this is not about football… and as my veins bleed Orange and Blue [cough] Go Gators [cough], the players in this ‘game’ have colors of their own.

The question is… who are the players?

Is it the Green Tycoons of Wall St vs. The “White-robed” Senators

[I use the color selection quite loosely.]

Or is it the  more simply the

Reds of Washington vs. their across the aisle rivals, the Blues of Washington?

Now that the Bailout Bill has passed and will soon be less of a front-page-news item, there is likely going to be many MORE articles as to who/what is to blame for all of this mess we find ourselves in.  The ‘righteous’ in Washington D.C. are saying that the free markets are to blame and that it was pure greed that drove us to the brink.  Well, like so many times that the stakes are big, the loudest seem to be the ones that need to looked at just a little deeper.

Is that the case?  Did ‘runaway free markets’ cause this?  Well the over/ under is more aptly called the over regulation/ under regulation argument.  Someone whom I personally follow as a forward thinker in the industry, Brian Brady, wrote a post on BloodHound Blog, Deregulation is the New Regulation.  Brian, I believe, summed it up quite succinctly in three bullet points.

1. Borrowers that can’t meet Prime…
2. When gov’t regulates private industry…
3. When you move down the…

Read the article here

In light of the already-heated political climate, I will not make this a political post and the only names I will point out are: Barney Frank, and Chris Dodd, both Senators.  Do your own research to determine their influence.

At the end of the day, I continue to remain bullish on America.  Americans have been down, but we have never been out… current circumstances notwithstanding.

We will survive.

Mortgage Chili – Is DPA… DOA? Should it be?

OMG! Now what.

First the gov’t takes away down-payment assistance and now it wants to give it back?

Honestly, I have mixed emotions about this.

One one hand, it could be the shot in the arm that the housing market needs. Right now the industry is teetering on the influx of the First-Time Home Buyers. Move up buyers can’t move until the FTHB buys their home and the Dream home buyers can’t move up until the move-up buyers buy their home.

In essence that first domino must fall… butttttttt, at what cost?

The downside of the DPA programs is that the default rate on those loans was over 300% higher… don’t fool yourself… this does effect everyone in the end and might have more to do with our current situation than may be able to be measured.

I guess, being intellectually honest, the reimmergence of DPA, if in fact it makes it through all the hoops, may be a mixed bag at best.

Sure, having the new folks enter into the marketplace is necessary, but what is the long-term cost??

My advice to those that are reading this and may personally benefit from the new DPA, please do not let some smooth-talking mortgage professional… uh person… get you in over your head.

The future rests on it, and only time will tell.