Lenders Continue To Target Consumers With Poor Credit In Spite Of Mortgage Woes

Washington Post:

"It's been a common feature of advertising," said Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "They offer their products not around interest rates but among monthly payments, ease of access, among 'you're more likely to get a yes with us than with others.' I don't think that has changed in this environment."

Even though dozens of lenders have shut down their mortgage operations or laid off employees, many others are trying to generate interest among potential borrowers even if the companies ultimately cannot qualify them for loans.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[geneven]

12:51 PM on 08/25/2007

Not related, but relevant to business. Remember the burning tower in Manhattan? Look at this sentence from today's NY Times:

"The John Galt Corporation was effectively fired this week by Bovis Lend Lease, the general contractor overseeing the work at the former bank building."

Something sounds familiar about that corporation name. Who is John Gault?

[MrMike513]

11:17 AM on 08/25/2007

Where do these people come from, these who worship the almighty dollar over everything else? Do these people have no sense of morality, and how does it happen that these greedy, uncaring, egocentric assholes fill our boardrooms and elected offices?
What happened to the people who understand that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, not just in physics but in society as well?

We in this country are SOOOOOOO screwed.

[olephart]

09:04 AM on 08/25/2007

Relax, chill, don't get excited, everything's going to be all right. All of those Free Market pundents who extol the virtues of noninterference in the Marketplace, a roll back of regulations and tax cuts on investment income have convinced the Fed to bail out their billionaire butts. While their profits may be privatized their losses will be socialized. Is this a great country or what! Like Leona said, “only little people pay taxes”. Ben Bernanke could say “only little people lose their investments”.

[buske]

06:24 AM on 08/25/2007

From what I have heard, there are millions of Americans that will end up in the streets because of their bad mortgages in the short term.

[NewsNag]

03:46 AM on 08/25/2007

Welcome to Bush's "Ownership Society", when the bank ends up owning your home, because you were seduced by sophisticated ads and fast-talking hustlers into ignoring the bottom line.

There may or may not be a sucker born every minute, but there definitely are amoral people in our elite political and financial leadership.

[Manx]

01:57 AM on 08/25/2007

The fellow who does those irritating TV ads for Countrywide on cable TV looks like he belongs in the cast for The Sopranos. It figures.

[Novista]

12:09 AM on 08/25/2007

What a crap WaPo article.

But not surprising, inasmuch as even now, the focus is (finally) on the sub-prime woes. Which it should have been at least in January, if not sooner.

The rot spread some time back, with Alt-A and now prime or jumbo mortgage problems surfacing. You won't see much of this in the MSM. Yet.

The housing bubble is a key factor behind the stock market fluctuations of late. It's going to get worse. A lot of commentators sneer at the sub-prime situation "greedy, stupid people ... let them rot." Well, bad news for some of them -- their pension funds likely were heavily invested into the 'asset securitization' market.

And that little scheme was brought to you by the Dept. of HUD in 1970.

When the Fed says, No need to prop up the market -- and then does so with several crutches, aided by the ECB, should you be scared? Yes. Be very scared. The house of cards is quivering.

[starrianna]

10:52 PM on 08/24/2007

********************
GREEDY GREEDY little piggies!

SHAME ON YOU:

AMERIQUEST - "we do the paperwork"
translation: we schmooze you so you won't read the fine print"

DITECH - "real life plan"
translation: we give you a semi-decent loan, but then give you a messed up home equity loan and a credit card so we can screw you over later.

Ameriquest = Bush donor bigtime
Ditech = bag of tricks bigger than Siegfried & Roy