[hesscl34]

Originally Posted by mheisig

Exactly.

The pattern for decades has been you may a substantial down payment on a house (20% at least). Generations before us you waited to buy a house and you put a big chunk down. All of a sudden people get greedy, want more house than they can afford, and we end up with shit like 5/1 ARMs and interest-only mortgages. People somehow feel entitled to the house of their dreams at the age of 25 and figure, "Screw down payments, screw paying the principle and all that, this is the NEW generation! We're living the American dream!"

If people weren't so damned greedy and impatient (the lenders and the borrowers) we wouldn't be in this mess.

1) Don't buy more house than you can afford.
2) That means that you can afford the house now AND 5 years from now.

Sorry, it's not the "people" that created these loans and sold them to the buyers telling them "I'll get you into a house no matter what". You want to blame someone?.. then you blame the banks and loan processors. They should go to jail for giving people those options and letting them believe they could afford it. Most home buyers are clueless when it comes to the loan process. They depend solely on their real-estate agent and loan processor for advice. They took the "good faith" out of the estimate and just made it bullshit.