Occupied Owner: Our Lot, by Alyssa Katz
For decades, the United States government, pushed by its business partners in the financial and real estate world, “marched the nation into a delusion.” The fantasy is that we can create wealth for millions of homeowners by enriching investors, brokerage and mortgage companies and Wall Street bankers “to the fullest extent possible with few boundaries.”
Our economy, driven by a culture that values debt, anxiety, and greed, results in a delusion, Alyssa Katz shows in her new book, Our Lot: How Real Estate Came to Own Us (Bloomsbury USA, 2009), that inevitably led to a real estate mania and the collapse of the global economy.
To help the reader navigate this complex story, Katz, a journalism professor at New York University, and a former editor of City Limits, has found vivid, outrageous, and sympathetic characters for us to follow. My favorite character is Gale Cincotta, a Chicago housewife and activist, who in the 1970s, helped turn the community organizing group, National People’s Action, into a powerful force that led to the passage of the federal Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977. The CRA, a brilliantly innovative affordable housing law, forced banks to meet the credit needs of all neighborhoods. It would become one of the most successful government policies to promote homeownership. At the outset of her story, Katz follows Cincotta, one of the few heroes of the book, to help explain how housing is financed in America.
Katz counterbalances Cincotta with another great character, Lewis Ranieri. Ranieri, a fierce, a trader for Salomon Brothers and a fierce pioneer of financial services deregulation, had no use for (or knowledge of) regulations like the CRA, or or even of the successful housing programs such as public housing. He certainly was not interested in improving the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) as a way of extending credit to previously discriminated urban households. Instead, Ranieri, partnering with President Ronald Reagans “brain trust,” devised an unfettered free market program to promote homeownership. Ranieri and the Reaganites plan would, according to Katz, “dismantle the regulations of a previous generation—cautious Depression-era strictures on securities trading that were preventing pension funds, insurance companies and other institutionsresponsible for investing billions of dollars in other peoples cash, from poring their wealth into the places where we live.” Ranieri’s program would turn homes into commodities as tradable as stocks and bonds. He called it securitization.
Soon, Salomon Brothers and the rest of the financial services industry convinced a Democratically-controlled Congress and Republican-controlled Senate that the combination of securitized mortgages and deregulation was the route to expanding homeownership: everyone would be a winner!
John Atlas, a former public interest lawyer, is a journalist and president of the New Jersey-based National Housing Institute and author of Seeds of Change, a history of Acorn that Vanderbilt University Press will publish in 2010..
National Housing Institute
some sharks are actually going into these neighborhoods, selling houses to each other at inflated prices (thus driving up the market value of these homes, artificially) and then selling them off when the speculation skyrockets! unbelievable forex trading
Same old story - the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but there’s a reason for that. Too many people try to live way beyond their means and spend every penny they earn and then some.Then the next recession comes along they find themselves in trouble. toy drum
Some estate agents are actually heading into neighborhoods and sell houses to each other at inflated prices! Unternehmensberatung Ulm Suchmaschinenoptimierung Coaching
Nice article - indeed debt and greed are to blame for the current crisis. However, even in these struggling times, if you need something extra, try <a >selling a timeshare</a> through our trusted network of timeshare brokers.
Nice article - indeed greed is to blame for the current crisis. However, even in these struggling times, if you need something extra selling a timeshare might help.
Katz counterbalances Cincotta with addition abundant character, Lewis Ranieri. Ranieri, a fierce, a banker for Salomon Brothers and a angry avant-garde of banking casework deregulation, had no use for (or ability of) regulations like the CRA, or or even of the acknowledged apartment programs such as accessible housing. He absolutely was not absorbed in convalescent the Federal Apartment Administration (FHA) as a way of extending acclaim to ahead discriminated burghal households. Instead, Ranieri, partnering with President Ronald Reagans “brain trust,” devised an able chargeless bazaar affairs to advance homeownership. Ranieri and the Reaganites plan would, according to Katz, “dismantle the regulations of a antecedent generation—cautious Depression-era strictures on balance trading that were preventing alimony funds, allowance companies and added institutionsresponsible for advance billions of dollars in added peoples cash, from poring their abundance into the places area we live.” Ranieri’s affairs would about-face homes into bolt as tradable as stocks and bonds pass4sure. He alleged it securitization.
Really though - what else are we expected to see from the housing industry? With such big dollars to be made, and at stake, it’s no wonder that these sorts of practices were/are common place!
free web icons
The real estate was the first to fall in the crisis but the motives of the crisis are not only in the real estate field.
Russian Bear 5000
It’s not greed. It’s social status that’s really to blame, and the human desire to one-up your neighbor… the human will isn’t to survive, it’s to expand, flourish and dominate others, and it’s really sad. It does come through in real estate. Perhaps it keeps the economy going. A necessary evil? Maybe. I’m happy in Dallas. Super cheap housing (I think we made a list of most affordable housing in the US hehe) and a nice atmosphere and culture. We’re all friendly down here. Save up 220k and come down here to retire in your early 30s. I’ll own this property in a year or two and then work part-time. Forget the hustle and bustle. Matt, proud Dallas resident!
Nice article - indeed debt and greed are to blame for the current crisis.
Paul from bwin
LOGIN register new account