I have to get this off my chest !!!

[Hilary B]

Yes of course it is distressing for those concerned when they lose their home to repossession, but the lender who repossesses isn't MAKING money out of it, just recovering the money they loaned (and which in turn was loaned to them, and they pay interest to the actual owners of it).
With the current housing market, lenders who repossess property are often losing quite a lot of money, but by repossessing they hope to lose LESS!

[rainbowbrite]

i think that the banks are to blame, my fella and i got our first morgage on 125% which was the best thing we could have done and the only way we could have got on the property ladder however the banks just lend to anyone money and they couldn't afford it, i had the same thing happen with a credit card years ago they kept just giving me more credit until i was 7 grands worth of debt on one credit card - the banks should take resposibility and help those they have failed!

[Incy]

I'm a firm believer in only borrowing what you can afford and I think that the banks have been very, very foolish to lend so much to people. It used to be unusual to get a 100% mortgage and they would only lend 3 or 3.5 times your salary. By lending over 100% they are putting people into negative equity before they even start! This attitude also contributed to the price boom and meant people had to borrow more and more to even get on the property ladder.
Sadly, if you lose your job even more manageable levels of debt can become unmanageable (what you could afford with a salary, you can't without one.). I really feel for all these poor people who are finding themselves in this position but am so angry that greedy lending has contributed to this in the first place. Let's not forget that the greedy lenders got bailed out with tax payers money whilst the poor individuals losing their houses are pretty much left to fend for themselves!

[SlugLobber]

When we were applying for a mortgage, we were told we could borrow a £100,000 more than we actually did. We made sure that we only borrowed what we could afford at the 'Worst Case' interest rate being banded around at the time (12% I think it was), didn't allow for salary increases and we had the rate fixed. I did comment at the time that it was silly to try and push us to borrow more and the guy just shrugged.

[Hilary B]

When we were applying for a mortgage, we were told we could borrow a £100,000 more than we actually did. We made sure that we only borrowed what we could afford at the 'Worst Case' interest rate being banded around at the time (12% I think it was), didn't allow for salary increases and we had the rate fixed. I did comment at the time that it was silly to try and push us to borrow more and the guy just shrugged.

Yes, the current economic crisis has been aggravated by an attitude (from governments as well as financial institutions) that inflation is never ending and can cover the deficits. Then they started lending money that doesn't exist to people who they couldn't be sure would ever be able to repay.....
That doesn't change the fact that having landed here, we have to go from where we are, and so do the lenders......