The Housing Crisis Of 2008

The Great Recession of 2007-2009 was one of the most economically disastrous events in American history. The housing market took a significant downturn during this period. People were not cautious when it came to their money and loans. Larger loans were given out to people, even to those with bad credit and low incomes. These large loans caused many homes to go through foreclosure since people were unable to pay off their mortgage debts. These debts were created by banks increasing the interest rates on the loans significantly in a short period. In 2008, foreclosures were up by eighty-two percent. This increase is significant because the previous percentage of foreclosures was at fifty-one percent from 2007. Unemployment skyrocketed, and people

For decades Americans couldn’t help but rejoice when they were able to own their very own home. The image of holding the keys and to quickly step foot into their home provided Americans with visons of prosperity. Many Americans whether poor, middle-class, or wealthy could now dream of endless possibilities when owning their very own home, as well as embracing a sense of accomplishment. These accomplishments or feelings were great at first; however, the realty for some Americans was that behind the glitz and glamor was a ticking time bomb. Now imagine the United States of America flourishing in the real estate sector and the US economy from Wall Street to individuals benefiting from the booming housing market. However, while all this was

The following essay will thoroughly examine the severe economic downturn of 2008, formerly known as the housing bubble collapse. We will mainly focus our discussion on the effects the financial crisis had on Canada and the U.S and examine why both countries were affected differently. Although the collapse of the housing bubble is the most identifiable cause, it is extremely difficult to pinpoint one specific defining moment or event triggering the global financial collapse. There are many factors involved, due to the complex nature of the financial systems across the world, and this paper will delve in the key contributing variables that led to this financial crises.

In the period between the years 2005 to 2009 the demand for housing changed drastically. Financial institutions were involved in some more deceitful lending practices. They began offering what are known as adjustable-rate subprime mortgages, which is when an institution gives out a loan to someone with a lower credit score and are thus a higher risk. With the low-interest rates being offered, an ever increasing amount of people took out loans in hopes to purchase a home to make a profit. This caused the demand for houses to skyrocket, which in turn increased the prices. With prices increasing, more and more people were speculating that the costs of houses would increase indefinitely, and with ease of access to these mortgage loans

The lessons we should have learned should include the fact that we were warned and paid no attention.

were reaping the rewards while taxpayers were inheriting the risk. In 1993 Congress met the opposition half way by slowly incorporating direct federal loans but still keeping guarantees in place for the banks. After the financial crisis of 2008, President Obama completely eliminated the middleman and fully implemented direct student loans (Kingkade). Although this stopped large banks from profiting off of government backed loans, it still didn’t reduce the supply of loans or the ease of obtaining them.

Our society seems to doing well since the financial crisis of 2008. The country is recovering from the Great Recession, unemployment is down and the global domestic product is up. People have jobs and are paying taxes. President Obama lowered our budget deficit and promised to make healthcare more available to all. On average, America is well on its way to recovery. But what about the people that slipped through the cracks of the financial stimulus plan? These are the people that lost their jobs, and subsequently their homes. These are America’s impoverished and homeless.

It has been 7 years since the housing bubble burst and the financial systems collapsed back in 2008. Since then, some will say that the housing market, as a majority, has healed and regained footing but is that entirely accurate? It has been an up and down rollercoaster since the collapse of 2008, however the housing market has only started to recover within the past 2 years. “Right now, I would say we are 64% back to normal and a lot of what is driving the housing market’s strength is existing home sales, but prices have also helped push the recovery” (Jed Kolko, Trulia). As stated in the first paper, the housing bubble burst because of the increase in interest rates that put homeownership out of reach for some buyers. This ultimately caused homes to become unaffordable, leading to defaults, foreclosures, and short sales. More so, on December 30, 2008, the home price index reported the largest dip in home prices ever recorded, losing 33% from its 2006 peak to 2012. This financial crisis, unanticipated by most, caused the United States to go into a recession and has been known to be most significant risk to our economy. It was the beginning of last decade, 2000, when real estate prices rose at an unprecedented rate, subsequently leading to the bursting of the housing bubble starting in 2006.

2007, that was the year that everyone knew the world was about to change. Many analysts studying the markets knew that this day would come to surface. Among the citizens, few actually knew the problems the housing market was having while many of them just noticed that they were now able to purchase their dream home. Many Americans that knew that background however, were not aware of what exactly sparked this issue, nor what was in store for them (Natl. GPO .2) At the time, many citizens were not aware of what was going on in the housing market. The financial crisis would impact several people for many years to come (Yanis.6). While many researchers may argue that large financial issues in the United States have already

Frontline producer Michael Kirk tries to explain how the economy went so bad so fast. Why emergency measures by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernake and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson couldn't manage to prevent the worst economic crisis in a generation. It was 2007 when the housing bubble began to burst and Wall Street started to panic. By spring of the following year, rumors began to swirl that prominent investment bank Bear Stearns was about to go bankrupt due to billions of dollars in bad mortgages. In the world of finance rumors can be the difference between success and failure. It was the beginning of a bad chain reaction, someone quoted in the clip “it was like a disease spreading quickly”

The turmoil in the financial markets also known as the financial crisis of 2008 was considered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Many areas of the United States suffered. The housing market plummeted and as a result of that, many evictions occurred, as well as foreclosures and unemployment. Leading up to the financial crash, most of the money that was made by investors was based on people speculating on investments like real estate, stocks, debt buying, and complex investment tools instead of actual tangible products that people purchased or needed. There are a number of dangers that arise when investors make large sums of money that are not tied to the actual value of a product and investors should not be able to make substantial profits off of the misfortune and poor choices of others. Those practices are very unethical and there should have been an increase in government intervention after the financial crash of 2008. The financial crash of 2008 was result of deregulation and male dominance in the financial services industry.

The years preceding the market melt down, homeownerships were painted as an American dream in a hyped fashion instead of a responsible investment. The demand for homeownership and immediate profit drove up prices in an unhealthy rate, and fueled a competition among buyers to use real estate as a vehicle to make quick money. That silently destroyed the American dream of homeownership. The competition spread to financial institutions to creatively fit unqualified borrowers into homes and finance over leveraged investors. The biggest debt an individual ever taken on their life time came with the least amount of information, if any. The entire real estate became a pure transaction number, from how much will the buyer able to sell the home they have yet to purchase to how much can real estate professionals make on the deal, to how quickly it can be closed. We saw an enormous amount of buyers not knowing what type of loan programs they just obtained and how it’ll play out through the life of the loan. We heard buyers fascinated in how easy it is to obtain a mortgage loan and the expectation that no one should be denied. The other interesting component is the lack of qualified professional involved in the

The U.S. subprime mortgage crisis was a set of events and conditions that led to the late-2000s financial crisis, characterized by a rise in subprime mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures, and the resulting decline of securities backed by said mortgages. After U.S. housing sales prices peaked in mid-2006 and began their steep decline, refinancing became more difficult. As adjustable-rate mortgages began to reset at higher interest rates, mortgage delinquencies soared. Securities backed with mortgages, including subprime mortgages, widely held by financial firms, lost most of their value. Global investors also drastically reduced purchases of mortgage-backed debt and other securities as part of a decline in the capacity and willingness of the private financial system to support lending. Concerns about the soundness of U.S. credit and financial markets led to tightening credit around the world and slowing economic growth in the U.S. and Europe.

A financial history well known for centuries’, financial institutes and analytical agencies all over the world spent millions dollars each year to research and prevent economic problems such as recession, inflation and the worst one, worldwide crisis. The United States has the strongest economy in the world with the well-developed financial sector and probably the strongest analytical center. However, it was not enough to prevent a financial crisis in 2008. For the last decades US economy consistently increased housing price on the market thus by the end of 2005 early 2006 prices reached the highest point ever in US history which pushed default rates up. Within few months’ price boom was over and US economy slightly turn over toward long term mortgage crisis which coincided with national recession between 2007-2009 and aggravated the situation. There were many causes of the crisis such as shortcomings of financial institutions, political situation in the country and so on, but there are only three main proximate causes, the mortgage crisis in US was triggered by house bubble on the property market, unsustainable risk increase and unstable system in financial sector.

“The events triggered the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression” (Yeager 2). The early 2000’s economic crisis raised many legitimate questions about the failure of foreseeing the housing bubble and it’s collapse. Although there were many signs of the impending to come, the excitement of rising home prices caused a disregard. After the foreclosure crisis studies evaluated where the fault began and should be placed and determined that consumers, lenders, and government has an equal blame. Even though the real estate market collapse was a lesson in learning to adapt , predatory lending, overreaching, and failure of government policy is the main emphasis from the housing collapse because Wall Street banks took advantage of