Re: Immigration Contributing to Economic Crisis, Experts Say
wis...@yahoo.com
<jpas...@nettaxi.com> wrote:
>From FAIR:
>
>Immigration Contributing to Economic Crisis, Experts Say
>
>With American financial markets facing severe crises meriting
>intervention from the federal government, several experts have
>recently argued that granting subprime mortgages to immigrants - both
>legal and illegal - have played a role in bringing about the current
>economic decline. During "the boom years," many immigrants took out
>high-interest fixed-rate loans or subprime mortgages with a low entry
>rate that later rose sharply in order to buy homes in the United
>States that they could barely afford. (Reuters, January 30, 3008)
>
>The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) pointed out in April of last
>year that recent immigrants often turn to subprime lenders for several
>reasons. (USA Today, April 25, 2007) According to NCLR, 35% of
>Hispanic families do not have checking accounts. Furthermore, recent
>immigrants typically do not have credit histories and are more likely
>to have undocumented income. This in turn causes immigrants to seek
>out lenders who do not require income verification. Additionally,
>subprime lenders have been supported by politicians and community
>organizations wishing to promote minority homeownership. The subprime
>crisis led NCLR last year to call for a moratorium on subprime home
>foreclosures. (Id.)
>
>Subprime loans have been instrumental in bringing about a recent
>fourfold increase in home foreclosures in Barnstable County,
>Massachusetts. (Cape Cod Online, July 3, 2007) Pam Parker, a mortgage
>prevention counselor at the Housing Assistance Corporation in
>Barnstable County, observed that many immigrants had taken these loans
>"because they don't know our language and they don't know our
>culture." (Id.) In 15 San Diego County, California zip codes - where
>home values have fallen as much as 40% - roughly 45% of home loans
>granted in 2005 and 2006 were subprime. (The San Diego Union-Tribune,
>July 20, 2008) According to Gabe del Rio, vice president of lending
>and homeownership at San Diego-based Community HousingWorks, many of
>the individuals who come to his agency for financial counseling are
>recent immigrants who spoke little English and did not understand the
>terms of their subprime loans. (Id.)
Anything for the quick buck and to hell with America's future!
ted
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