Comments on: I wonder why…

By: bob

bob — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:44:20 +0000

@paul
you are right, I was using the two as synonyms and I have shouldn’t have been – thanks for the clarification…

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:27:11 +0000

I’m not sure if you know this (your comment above seemed to indicate that maybe you didn’t?), but the lenders weren’t the ones tricking people. It was the mortgage brokers (not to cast too broad a net). They would “trick” someone into a loan and then sell the loan to someone else. The mortgage broker would collect origination fees, etc. and pass the risk on to someone else. That’s why people keep talking about the securitization of mortgages causing this meltdown. People would originate mortgages and package them up and sell them as bond securities. So in the end the person who loses is the person left holding the mortgage, not the original lender.

By: bob

bob — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:35:09 +0000

@Becky
I agree, we seem to have this irresistible urge to go after the big thing that everyone is buzzing about at the time – but yet the truly wise ones are getting fearful when everyone else is excited…

By: Becky@FamilyandFinances

Becky@FamilyandFinances — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:05:11 +0000

I think that if people don’t repeat the folly in real estate, they’ll repeat it somewhere else.
Remember when tech stocks were the big thing and then they went bust? Real estate came next, and suddenly you couldn’t lose by buying a house. I’m sure something else will come along soon to be the “next big thing”.
The best solution: diversify!