99 homes

99 Homes is a movie that came out recently about the foreclosure crisis. If it is playing near you it is worth seeing. It does a good job of showing some of the realities and consequences of predatory loans and foreclosures. The US was not the only place to have a foreclosure crisis, European countries had a crisis as well with Latvia of all places having the only rate higher than the US for 2009.

Foreclosures occur when a homebuyer cannot make the payments and the bank takes the house back. The homebuyer is often stuck having to pay off the difference between the price they originally paid and the current value.

There have been two waves of the foreclosure crisis:
Wave 1 was largely predatory loans given to immigrants and minorities. This peaked in the late 2000s.
Wave 2 (still going on) is largely wealthier buyers who bought far more expensive homes than they could really afford

The county I teach in Prince William County, VA was Virginia's leader in foreclosures with 16% of the county's homes being foreclosed on in the last 10 years.

Check out these videos:

Get ready for another round of the foreclosure crisis
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/get-ready-another-round-foreclosure-crisis/

Subprime loans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXcfbxSnzP0