House of cards House of cards

House of cards
End of a dream:
about a million
Americans have
lost their homes
Aus der Traum: Viele Amerikaner haben durch die Kreditkrise Haus und Hof und oft auch ihre
Zukunft verloren. LISA FOSTER beschreibt, wie es dazu kommen konnte, fragte Betroffene, wie
sie damit umgehen, und Experten, wie es weitergehen wird.
eep in the psyche of nearly every American is the
dream of home ownership. Ideally, it should be a
ten-room house with a large backyard and a twocar garage. But actually any home will do — a
home in which you feel safe, secure, and free to do
what you want. No one should be able to tell you what to do
or take anything away from you.
It’s a dream that young couples can’t wait to fulfill.
Once they’ve saved some money and found a way to borrow the rest of what they need, they’re off to the realtor to
see what they can afford.
A generation ago, a house could be bought with a 20 percent down payment and regular payments over 30 years. A
fixed rate of interest kept everything predictable. In the
early 1990s, however, banks began to make special offers.
A small down payment and low interest rates suddenly
D
26 Spotlight
difficult
US
made it possible for millions of people who didn’t qualify
for credit to buy a house.
There was just one catch: the mortgages had an adjustable
rate, which would start off very low, then increase to a standard amount after three years. They might even go up after that, depending on economic factors; but they could also
go down, the buyers were told.
“The media loves to vilify the mortgage industry and
claim that people had no idea their payments were going
to double after three years,” says Dan Pinto, communications director of Youwalkaway.com, a company that advises
customers affected by the housing situation. “I’ll tell you
what: that is hogwash. There were so many documents people had to sign, and it was stated everywhere,” he says.
The Californian bought a home himself in 2006. “My real
estate agent continually showed me homes that were 20 to
11/08
30 percent higher in price, and I kept telling her no. She kept
saying that the interest rate was locked in for three years,
but I wanted a classic 30-year [fixed-rate] mortgage. Most
people who got into this [adjustable-rate mortgage] believed
that they would be able to pay their bills on time and that
real estate would continue to appreciate. Many also believed
they would be able to refinance and get into a conventional mortgage.
“Two problems: real estate didn’t continue to appreciate, and people didn’t keep paying their bills. The other side
of the coin is that no one talks about the role of investors
in this situation. They did it to earn money, of course, but
did they ever stop to think, ‘Can this person make house
payments when the rates go up?’ This was a disaster waiting to happen,” Pinto says.
Some homes ceased to be affordable — just as suddenly
as they had become affordable in the first place. The buyers
backed out, and the banks foreclosed, taking the houses
back. Now there are 18 million empty homes across the
country — one million more than a year ago. In August, one
in every 464 homes was reported to be in foreclosure.
accountant [əkaυntənt]
adjustable rate [ədstəbəl reit] US
affected [əfektid]
appreciate [əpriʃieit]
assigned [əsaind]
attorney [ətni] US
back out [bk aυt]
backyard [bkjɑrd] N. Am.
catch [ktʃ]
counseling [kaυnsəliŋ]
credit repair system
[kredət ripeər sistəm]
credit report [kredət ripɔrt]
delegate [deliət]
down payment [daυn peimənt]
eligible: be ~ for sth. [elidəbəl]
foreclose [fɔrkloυz]
Steuerberater(in)
variabler Zinsatz
betroffen
hier: im Wert steigen
zuständig
Rechtsanwalt, -anwältin
einen Rückzieher machen
Garten
hier: Haken
Beratung
Möglichkeit, seine Kreditwürdigkeit wiederzuerlangen
etwa: Schufa-Auskunft
Sachbearbeiter(in)
Anzahlung, Eigenkapital
zu etw. berechtigt sein
eine Hypothek vorzeitig
kündigen
from all walks of life
aus allen gesellschaftlichen
[frm ɔl wɔks əv laif]
Schichten/Berufen
generate sth. [denəreit]
etw. erstellen
get caught up in sth.
in eine Sache verstrickt
[et kɔt p in]
werden
get sucked into sth. [et skt intə] in etw. hineingezogen werden
hogwash [hɔwɑʃ] ifml.
Quatsch
house in order: get one’s ~
seine Angelegenheiten in
[haυs in ɔrdər]
Ordnung bringen
locked in [lɑkt in]
fest(gelegt)
mortgage [mɔrid]
Hypothek
multitude [mltitud]
Vielzahl
on time [ɑn taim]
fristgerecht
predictable [pridiktəbəl]
vorhersehbar
qualify for credit
kreditwürdig sein
[kwɑlifai fər kredət]
rate of interest [reit əv intrəst]
Zinssatz
real estate agent
Immobilienmakler(in)
[riəl isteit eidənt] US
realtor [riəltər] US
Immobilienmakler(in)
refer sb. to sth. [rif tə]
jmdn. an etw. verweisen
restore sth. [ristɔr]
wiederherstellen
sign sth. [sain]
etw. unterschreiben
step in [step in]
einschreiten, eingreifen
the other side of the coin
die Kehrseite der Medaille
[ði ðər said əv ðə kɔin]
timeline [taimlain]
Zeitplan
vilify sb. [vilifai]
jmdn. verleumden
waiting to happen: be ~
nur eine Frage der Zeit
[weitiŋ tə hpən]
sein
11/08
One of these homes belonged to Linda, a 44-year-old
mother from Tampa, Florida, who asked that her last name
not be used. Typical of those who got caught up in the housing boom, she and her family put no money down and
bought a larger, more expensive house than they could afford. When the bank called them earlier this year to tell
Just walk away
Dan Pinto of Youwalkaway.com describes the options of home
owners facing foreclosure.
What does your company do to help people who are about
to lose their homes?
We offer counseling to people at various stages of foreclosure.
We’ve also just started giving seminars on loan modification
programs, and we’re touring across America. People from all
walks of life and income levels are affected by foreclosure,
and this is a very traumatic time for them. Many of these people had no intention of being in the position they’re in right now.
We step in and generate a timeline for them to tell them just
how much time they have — days, weeks, or months — until
they have to leave their homes.
What happens then?
Once we establish the timeline, we offer consultations with realestate attorneys and accountants. They [the home owners foreclosed upon] also have an assigned delegate — a member of
our staff — on their case. This person is able to guide them and
answer questions during the process of foreclosure, which usually takes between six months to a year. We also refer them to
a credit repair system so that they can immediately get to work
on restoring their credit and can get back in the housing market at a later point in time.
How soon can those in foreclosure realistically become
home owners again?
We don’t guarantee anything, but we give them the counsel
they need to get their financial house in order so that in two
years they could be eligible. With the multitude of foreclosures
we’ve got going on nationwide right now, there are good people who at any other time in history would not have to deal with
this; they simply got sucked into the boom of the housing
market. Usually, anywhere from two to five years is what it
takes, depending on the situation of the family. Bad credit stays
with someone anywhere from three to ten years; but there are
legitimate credit repair companies that can legally have things
removed from a credit report in a matter of months.
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UNITED STATES
R. Galbraith/Reuters
SOCIETY