An Interesting look at Interest Rates
A good infographic on the history of interest rates.
My Final Analysis
Will this ever happen again? Despite what you hear on the news or what our politicians are saying, reality is this is never going to happen again regardless of whether the government does anything or not. People tend to remember really big mistakes.
The Role of the In-house Lender
Unfortunately, I also know of several lenders who had knots in their stomachs every time they went to work (for builder-owned mortgage companies) because they were forced to do what they knew was wrong in order to keep the money coming in for their families. Could this explain why there are subdivisions that are only a few years old with a huge percentage of vacant and vandalized homes?
Different Loans for Different Needs
These are just a few examples of different loan programs and - most of which are not now avaible now. This is either because there are no investors willing to buy these loans as investments, or because the have been effectively or actually outlawed by the government.
The Role of the Mortgage Broker
At the end of the day all the brokers did was match-up the borrower with the loan product they wanted. During that time borrowers didn't care about the loans they got, investors didn't care if the loan file was a complete work of fiction, and rating companies just cashed the checks. Everybody got what they wanted, but nobody understood what they got.