The top 20 meanest cities were chosen based on the number of anti-homeless laws in the city, the enforcement of those laws and severities of penalties, the general political climate toward homeless people in the city, local advocate support for the meanest designation, the city’s history of criminalization measures, and criminalization legislation.
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The same media that sold us the “certainty” of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has redefined homelessness so that low-income individuals, not powerful Presidents, Senators and Congresspersons, are to blame. It’s no wonder the public feels hopeless about solving homelessness, and blames local mayors rather than the federal government.
After the Nixon Administration stopped the construction of new public housing in the United States, the country was left with fewer low-cost units for families than would be required to meet future demand.
Within a decade, homeless families became visible on the nation’s streets. No subsequent President has addressed the shortage of low-cost housing for families by increasing the nation’s public housing supply, and the number of such units has steadily declined.
As young professionals returned to major cities in the late 1970’s, upward pressure on rents left urban areas increasingly unaffordable for low-income people.
The Reagan Administration responded to this emerging affordability crisis by sharply cutting federal housing funding in 1981. This denied low-income residents the subsidies necessary for them to stay housed.
Widespread homelessness resulted, and it was not until 1999--after Bill Clinton had eliminated any new Section 8 vouchers--- that the federal government began meaningfully increasing the numbers served by federal housing subsidies.
Bush then stopped this progress in its tracks.
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It's hard to avoid negative news about the mortgage lending business. Defaults are rising, subprime lenders are closing shop, and fortunes could be lost as mortgage-backed securities go up in smoke. Sounds ominous, but how will these trends impact someone who's trying to buy or sell a home?
The first thing to understand is that lenders are moving back to basics. No- and very low-down-payment mortgages are available only to buyers with high credit scores. This means no more 100 percent and 95 percent mortgages for subprime borrowers.
Lenders are also backing away from low-documentation and stated-income mortgages. Many lenders now require buyers to have a cash down payment, good credit and the ability to verify income.
For years, home buyers stretched the price they could pay by using adjustable-rate and interest-only mortgages. Not long ago, lenders qualified buyers for these loan products based on the lower initial rates and on interest-only payments. Now, borrowers must qualify based on the fully indexed rate and amortized payment. In other words, qualifying for a home mortgage is more difficult.
Appraisals are also being scrutinized more carefully. If home prices have dropped in your neighborhood, the lender's underwriter might knock the appraised value down 5 percent and require you to increase your down payment accordingly. Some lenders now require two appraisals. Before the credit crisis, this was required only for loan amounts above $1 million. If your contract includes a contingency for the property to appraise for the purchase price, make sure that you have underwriting approval before you remove the contingency.
After signing the ‘American Dream Downpayment Act of 2003’ Bush added, “We want people to be fully aware of what it means to buy a home and what it takes”. The contradiction, if otherwise unclear, was that the President was signing a law that gave free money to those who could not afford to buy a home, and then he planned to educate.about the hard work, savings, and planning that is required to buy a home.
With Wall Street packaging and selling mortgage reset time bombs, rating agencies dolling out A's first and asking questions never, and many homeowners essentially signing future default notices before their new home purchases were finalized.
Bush's efforts at expanding homeownership since 2003 have gone unnoticed as the subprime debacle widens. Unfortunately, so have the costs of funding Bush's homeownership initiatives.
What should not remain unnoticed is the irony of it all: near the height of the housing boom Bush wanted to do everything he could to boost already record high homeownership rates, but now, as the boom turns to bust, Bush is eying a plethora of emergency policy moves to simply try and keep ownership rates stable.
You can not help but wonder whether or not many Americans would have been better off if Bush simply left the mortgage market alone.
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If you've been following the daily headlines about the subprime crisis and the deflation of the housing bubble, you know that you would have to be completely out of your mind to invest in real estate.
And that may be the best reason for giving it a look.
Thanks! Zac Bissonnette i admire and appreciate you. Pune Real Estate Market values REIT very much.
The total Assets under Management (AUM) of 32 fund houses have decreased to Rs4,67,623 crore from Rs 4,86,129 crore in July, latest data from Association of Mutual Funds in India showed.
Analysts, believe the decline in the assets of fund house may be due to the redemptions by investors on concerns of a market meltdown and utilisation of cash pile of mutual funds for making purchases in the bearish markets.
The BSE benchmark index Sensex had witnessed a sharp volatility during the past month on concerns related to the US subprime mortgage crisis.
It is a scene being repeated in cities and towns across America as loans that were made to borrowers with little or no credit history, many of whom could not even afford a down payment, fail in ever-growing numbers.
Indeed, what was once a problem confined mostly to economically struggling areas is quickly becoming a national phenomenon. Last year, there were 1.2 million foreclosure filings in the United States, up 42 percent from 2005, according to RealtyTrac, a firm that analyzes such data. At current rates so far this year, RealtyTrac expects foreclosure filings to hit two million in 2007, or roughly one per 62 American households — a rate approaching heights not seen since the Great Depression.
Analysts also say that the fallout from mortgages gone bad is spreading well beyond borrowers now in default. It has begun to engulf middle-class communities like Maple Heights, where nearly 10 percent of the houses — or 910 properties — have been seized by banks in the last two years.
And it foreshadows what could lie in store if mortgage holders default on what the Federal Reserve conservatively estimates to be $100 billion in risky subprime loans.
Many of these loans were made in 2005 and early 2006, when standards were at their most lax and cities like this were blanketed with aggressive pitches from mortgage providers.
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