Who is Responsible for the Current Mortgage Crisis?

When I was a kid living in a two-bedroom house with five adults and two siblings, it never occurred to me that I didn’t have any privacy. Privacy, overly cherished all over America, was not important to me: I wanted to be in the middle of things anyway. I was one of those kids who always had to say or do something to get some attention. At times that attention was unwelcome, when it came in the form of a belt or switch. But despite the whippings I earned, it was a treat to share a terribly uncomfortable sofa bed with my grandmother. She coddled me, mostly by encouraging me to relentlessly chat and show my behind. She enjoyed my displays of foolishness because she needed something to laugh about. I was her joy!

The house on Small
Street was full. Really full! Nevertheless, that little box of a house
was home; it was something we were proud to own. We cleaned it
religiously every Saturday morning before watching Soul Train. The
house was spotless, so fresh and so clean! After the weekly cleaning
session my brother and sister and I were allowed to escape from the
confines of that box. We were permitted to roam the neighborhoods
freely until the streetlights came on.

That was something we could count on: Illumination of the ‘hood. For a
few families down the street this was sometimes the only electric
lighting they could rely on: the notorious Duke Power would, from time
to time, turn off their power — and ours, too. But having no
electricity was of little consequence for us; at least for us kids,
life did not stop when we were blacked out, because we still had our
home. It was ours. No one could take it. Not even those banks that
people from my neighborhood did not trust. We didn’t need them; cash
money was safer in a shoe box or under a cheap mattress, and there was
no way in hell our house was going to be seized through a bank
foreclosure.

Part of the American Dream is to be a homeowner: to accomplish
marriage, kids, then a home with a white picket fence. This is what was
drilled into my head while in elementary, middle, and high school, and
even in college. The Dream permeates our culture. It is so powerfully
persuasive that many of us feel like losers if we never acquire
something we can call home sweet home — that structure that lets us
say, “I have to pay my mortgage this week” instead of “I have to pay my
RENT this week.”

I can honestly say what motivated me to purchase property was the fact
that my friends and colleagues were buying condos and houses to live
in. I didn’t feel any drive to own a home at the time — but feeling
left out and inadequate encouraged me to follow my friends’ example, so
I became a homeowner.

Apparently many of today’s homeowners did what I
did: succumbed to peer pressure. The only difference between us was
that I, thankfully, was able to afford the overpriced condo I selected.
It is estimated that thirty percent of American households will be
financially upside down with their mortgage loans by the end of 2008.
That’s a staggering 15 million people! These people will lose what the
American Dream describes as success. They listened to our government’s
exhortation to “Invest in a home. Become a homeowner,” but they soon
will become filers of bankruptcy. That was something our thoughtful
government touted as an “option” for individuals who would remain
financially stable when Chapter 13 was filed. Now, we have the average
Joe on a sinking ship, and feeling the pinch. A pinch that many say
could have been prevented if only Mr. and Mrs. Joe had made a sensible
decision to continue renting until they really could afford a home.

In retrospect, perhaps paying rent was the smart option. It was foolish
to expect people from all walks of life not to cave in after being told
repeatedly by Uncle Sam to buy a house — especially when they were
preyed upon by federally un- or under-regulated loan companies. Now
that the housing market has tanked, our government leaders are claiming
that they are concerned. Even the President is involved.

Coupled with
this level of “concern” from the highest authorities in the land,
well-to-do pundits and everyday judgmental citizens are placing all the
blame on the homeowners who are facing foreclosure.

Blaming home buyers
who a few years ago listened to these same elected officials urging
them to chase the American Dream, invest in real estate, buy a home.
Those people did, or they tried, often with no down payments and
adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) that made owning a home “cheaper than
paying rent.” And all they wanted was what I had on Small Street: a
place to call home.

So who really is responsible for the current mortgage crisis? Should
the government bail out Mr. and Mrs. Joe? Or will it bail out the banks
that pushed the ARMs on people who couldn’t afford the homes they
wanted to buy?

Inspired by black, brown, red, yellow, and white people, on the verge of becoming homeless.

– Brian Payne, Georgia