A Housing Boom: the Opportunity to Create Fortunes

The late 1970's until 1988 was the housing boom decade.  The Vietnam war was over,  expanding families needed places to call their own, new terms like "software" & "hardware" confused almost everyone, and the economy was booming!  New housing developments popped up all over America!  

• Business people in this industry made fortunes ...
  
• Farmers (sold farm land) finally made good money ... 
• Thousands of young Americans took up the "trades" and rebuilt America ...
• Texas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Colorado:  Their oil powered American cars
• Pay increases had exceeded 9% annually, for 10 years, for most workers ...
• Students, housewives, engineers, and clerks: we all made money by investing in houses and commercial buildings ...

All was rosey!  Tax revenues to almost every government entity and school district increased and no one seemed to care.  Everyone who wanted a great paying job, could get it with an education.  

And then a few factors we overlooked for 10 years, now became common sites:  Housing sales slowed dramatically, some people were still paying 16% for mortgages, pay increases want back to 5% a year, the term "layoffs" became common, and this term became understood by the nation:

Foreclosure:   n.  to deny a person the right to redeem a mortgage due to not making payments  

Foreclose:  v.  to take away a person's house due to default by the borrower

1989.  It seems that about about one out of every 20 home owners would stop making their mortgages payment for various reasons.  Family pay increases were gone and adjustable rate mortgages were going up as scheduled.  Numerous working families purchased their homes with "no down payment", some people took out a loan for their down payment,  and many  had purchased these new, shinny houses at inflated prices and some ran to a new product called "negative amortization".  

2007:  1989 is being repeated.  With one new term:

Sub Prime:  1.  adj.   to choose a poor alternative that frequently that has undesirable consequences  2. 

What does GOD say about this?  Look at  Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave of the lender".

And Mr. Shakespeare said: "Neither borrower nor a lender be For loan oft loses itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." - Lord Polonius, Hamlet

I'm done!