Examiner Editorial: Obama chases AIG bonuses as mortgage fraud metastasizes
Examiner Editorial
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March 16, 2009
Many cancers become untreatable once they metastasize - spread throughout the human body. Something not unlike that appears to be happening in the mortgage industry even as President Barack Obama is off chasing AIG executive bonuses he deems as excessive. To see what is wrong with this picture, one need look no further than the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association on mortgage delinquencies, covering the fourth quarter of 2008. Nationally, a little more than 92 percent of all mortgage loans were current, while 6.30 percent were seriously delinquent (i.e. more than 90 days past due). For sub-prime mortgages, which make up 11 percent of all mortgages, however, the overall delinquency percentage is 23.11 percent, and 33 percent for those with adjustable rates (ARMs). California’s ARM delinquency percentage is 39 percent and Florida’s a staggering 47 percent. In other words, one of every four sub-primes is seriously delinquent nationwide, as is one of every three ARMs. It’s much worse in the two states thought to be havens for speculators. National delinquency rates like that simply cannot happen without extensive speculation and mortgage fraud, especially loan officers and applicants using false income, debt and other data.
