Report to Congress On Foreclosure Crisis

A detailed report has been submitted to Congress outlining how our housing meltdown occurred and what steps should be taken to ensure that this doesn't happen again in the future. It's a lengthy document and although some of it is rather dry reading, it's extremely informative. This document is likely to be quoted as our lawmakers look into regulating the financial community. Something I think we should all be interested in.

Not a surprise to most, one of the key factors in this whole meltdown was the availability of credit - even in situations where that credit should never have been extended. For awhile the word on the street was if you could fog a mirror you could get a loan to buy the house of your dreams. This wasn't just subprime mortgages, it also relates to the Option Arms and more esoteric loan types that are fueling our new spate of foreclosures.

Lenders also overleveraged themselves and took extreme risks with the securitization of mortgages. This situation could only continue as long as credit was freely available. When that began to dry up, the house of cards began to collapse.

To see the report in it's entirety, follow this link;

http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0Bzo_OMhj37jnNTU3MGMwNDEtODczMy00MzVhLWE5NGYtZWQxZjE0MTU1ZDM4&hl=en