Download or read book Underwater written by Ryan Dezember and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2020-07-14 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Bruss Real Estate Book Award His assignment was to write about a real-estate frenzy lighting up the Redneck Riviera. So Ryan Dezember settled in and bought a home nearby himself. Then the market crashed, and he became one of the millions of Americans who suddenly owed more on their homes than they were worth. A flood of foreclosures made it impossible to sell. It didn't help that his quaint neighborhood fell into disrepair and drug-induced despair. He had no choice but to become a reluctant and wildly unprofitable landlord to move on. Meanwhile, his reporting showed how the speculative mania that caused the crash opened the U.S. housing market to a much larger breed of investors. In this deeply personal story, Dezember shows how decisions on Wall Street and in Washington played out on his street in a corner of the Sunbelt that was convulsed by the foreclosure crisis. Readers will witness the housing market collapse from Dezember’s perch as a newspaper reporter. First he’s in the boom-to-bust South where a hot-air balloonist named Bob Shallow becomes one of the world’s top selling real-estate agents arranging condo flips, developers flop in spectacular fashion and the law catches up with a beach-town mayor on the take. Later he’s in New York, among financiers like Blackstone’s Stephen Schwarzman who are building rental empires out of foreclosures, staking claim to the bastion of middle-class wealth: the single-family home. Through it all, Dezember is an underwater homeowner caught up in the mess. A cautionary tale of Wall Street's push to turn homes into assets, Underwater is a powerful, incisive story that chronicles the crash and its aftermath from a fresh perspective—the forgotten, middle-class homeowner.

Download or read book It Was All a Dream written by Reniqua Allen and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young Black Americans have been trying to realize the promise of the American Dream for centuries and coping with the reality of its limitations for just as long. Now, a new generation is pursuing success, happiness, and freedom -- on their own terms. In It Was All a Dream, Reniqua Allen tells the stories of Black millennials searching for a better future in spite of racist policies that have closed off traditional versions of success. Many watched their parents and grandparents play by the rules, only to sink deeper and deeper into debt. They witnessed their elders fight to escape cycles of oppression for more promising prospects, largely to no avail. Today, in this post-Obama era, they face a critical turning point. Interweaving her own experience with those of young Black Americans in cities and towns from New York to Los Angeles and Bluefield, West Virginia to Chicago, Allen shares surprising stories of hope and ingenuity. Instead of accepting downward mobility, Black millennials are flipping the script and rejecting White America's standards. Whether it means moving away from cities and heading South, hustling in the entertainment industry, challenging ideas about gender and sexuality, or building activist networks, they are determined to forge their own path. Compassionate and deeply reported, It Was All a Dream is a celebration of a generation's doggedness against all odds, as they fight for a country in which their dreams can become a reality.

Download or read book The Mortgage Wars Inside Fannie Mae Big Money Politics and the Collapse of the American Dream written by Timothy Howard and published by McGraw Hill Professional. This book was released on 2013-11-29 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The former Fannie Mae CFO's inside look at the war between the financial giants and government regulators A provocative true-life thriller about the all-out fight for dominance of the mortgage industry—and how it nearly destroyed the global financial system Many books have been written about the 2008 financial crisis, but they miss the biggest story of the meltdown: the battle between giant financial companies to dominate the $11 trillion mortgage market that almost destroyed the global financial system. For more than twenty years, until 2004, Timothy Howard was a senior executive at the best known of those companies, Fannie Mae, and he was in the middle of that fight. In The Mortgage Wars, Howard explains how seemingly unrelated developments in banking regulation, housing policy, Wall Street financial innovation, and political lobbying all combined to wreak havoc on the American housing market and the world economy. Timothy Howard was Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer of Fannie Mae until 2004. Prior to this, he was senior financial economist at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco.

Download or read book NeighborWorks Works written by Anne Davis Burns and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 650 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "...[A] collection of insights and stories from across the country. It showcases the power of the NeighborWorks network - a group of strong, diversified nonprofits that deliver innovative solutions in affordable housing and community development - and makes the case for sharing strategies and best practices. These organizations are doing work that not only gets results, but can serve as a model for other organizations facing similar issues and challenges. NeighborWorks works to make all communities places of opportunity." -- back cover,

Download or read book Who Stole the American Dream written by Hedrick Smith and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas. In his bestselling The Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today. This is a book full of surprises and revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth. This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists. Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined. This magnificent work of history and reportage is filled with the penetrating insights, provocative discoveries, and the great empathy of a master journalist. Finally, Smith offers ideas for restoring America’s great promise and reclaiming the American Dream. Praise for Who Stole the American Dream? “[A] sweeping, authoritative examination of the last four decades of the American economic experience.”—The Huffington Post “Some fine work has been done in explaining the mess we’re in. . . . But no book goes to the headwaters with the precision, detail and accessibility of Smith.”—The Seattle Times “Sweeping in scope . . . [Smith] posits some steps that could alleviate the problems of the United States.”—USA Today “Brilliant . . . [a] remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Smith enlivens his narrative with portraits of the people caught up in events, humanizing complex subjects often rendered sterile in economic analysis. . . . The human face of the story is inseparable from the history.”—Reuters

Download or read book Homewreckers written by Aaron Glantz and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[I] can’t recommend this joint enough. ... An illuminating and discomfiting read.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates "Essential reading." —New York Review of Books A shocking, heart-wrenching investigation into America’s housing crisis and the modern-day robber barons who are making a fortune off the backs of the disenfranchised working and middle class—among them, Donald Trump and his inner circle. Two years before the housing market collapsed in 2008, Donald Trump looked forward to a crash: “I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy,” he said. But our future president wasn’t alone. While millions of Americans suffered financial loss, tycoons pounced to heartlessly seize thousands of homes—their profiteering made even easier because, as prize-winning investigative reporter Aaron Glantz reveals in Homewreckers, they often used taxpayer money—and the Obama administration’s promise to cover their losses. In Homewreckers, Glantz recounts the transformation of straightforward lending into a morass of slivered and combined mortgage “products” that could be bought and sold, accompanied by a shift in priorities and a loosening of regulations and laws that made it good business to lend money to those who wouldn’t be able to repay. Among the men who laughed their way to the bank: Trump cabinet members Steve Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, Trump pal and confidant Tom Barrack, and billionaire Republican cash cow Steve Schwarzman. Homewreckers also brilliantly weaves together the stories of those most ravaged by the housing crisis. The result is an eye-opening expose of the greed that decimated millions and enriched a gluttonous few.

Download or read book American Dream Or Mortgage Nightmare written by Michelle Pettway and published by iUniverse. This book was released on 2008 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We cannot change what has happened with the mortgage industry in our country, but we can change our outcome. I truly believe that we were not put here to live in poverty, but to be prosperous, to have homes for our children and our children's children. We should not have to choose between making a mortgage payments and purchasing food, clothes or even prescriptions for our families. Learn the practical and biblical techniques that can change your future and help you to achieve your American dream and the dreams that the Lord has for all his children.

Download or read book Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac written by Oonagh McDonald and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book demonstrates how politicians and federal agencies dominated Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and took just thirteen years to wreck the American dream of home ownership.

Download or read book Chasing the American Dream written by William M. Rohe and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing decent, safe, and affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families has been an important public policy goal for more than a century. In recent years there has been a clear shift of emphasis among policymakers from a focus on providing affordable rental units to providing affordable homeownership opportunities. Due in part to programs introduced by the Clinton and Bush administrations, the nation's homeownership rate is currently at an all-time high. Does a house become a home only when it comes with a deed attached? Is participation in the real-estate market a precondition to engaged citizenship or wealth creation? The real estate industry's marketing efforts and government policy initiatives might lead one to believe so. The shift in emphasis from rental subsidies to affordable homeownership opportunities has been justified in many ways. Claims for the benefits of homeownership have been largely accepted without close scrutiny. But is homeownership always beneficial for low-income Americans, or are its benefits undermined by the difficulties caused by unfavorable mortgage terms and by the poor condition or location of the homes bought? Chasing the American Dream provides a critical assessment of affordable homeownership policies and goals. Its contributors represent a variety of disciplinary perspectives and offer a thorough understanding of the economic, social, political, architectural, and cultural effects of homeownership programs, as well as their history. The editors draw together the assessments included in this book to prescribe a plan of action that lays out what must be done to make homeownership policy both effective and equitable.

Download or read book Brave New Home written by Diana Lind and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This smart, provocative look at how the American Dream of single-family homes, white picket fences, and two-car garages became a lonely, overpriced nightmare explores how new trends in housing can help us live better. Over the past century, American demographics and social norms have shifted dramatically. More people are living alone, marrying later in life, and having smaller families. At the same time, their lifestyles are changing, whether by choice or by force, to become more virtual, more mobile, and less stable. But despite the ways that today's America is different and more diverse, housing still looks stuck in the 1950s. In Brave New Home, Diana Lind shows why a country full of single-family houses is bad for us and our planet, and details the new efforts underway that better reflect the way we live now, to ensure that the way we live next is both less lonely and more affordable. Lind takes readers into the homes and communities that are seeking alternatives to the American norm, from multi-generational living, in-law suites, and co-living to microapartments, tiny houses, and new rural communities. Drawing on Lind's expertise and the stories of Americans caught in or forging their own paths outside of our cookie-cutter housing trap, Brave New Home offers a diagnosis of the current American housing crisis and a radical re-imagining of future possibilities.

Download or read book Cashing in on the American Dream written by Paul Terhorst and published by Bantam. This book was released on 1988 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant and practical five year plan for all who dream of retiring while they're young and healthy enough to enjoy it. Provides clear advice on how to overcome the personal, financial and psychological obstacles.

Download or read book The Money Class written by Suze Orman and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The #1 New York Times bestseller, now revised and updated, filled with tools and advice that can take you from a place of financial fear to a place of financial security. WHAT WILL YOU LEARN IN THE MONEY CLASS? How to find the courage to stand in your truth and why it is a place of power. What daily actions will restore the word “hope” to your vocabulary. Everything you need to know about taking care of your family, your home, your career, and planning for retirement—no matter where you are in your life or where the economy is heading. In nine electrifying, empowering classes, Suze Orman teaches us how to navigate these unprecedented financial times. With her trademark directness, she shows us how to tackle the complicated mix of money and family, how to avoid making costly mistakes in real estate, and how to get traction in your career or rebuild after a professional setback. And in what is the most comprehensive retirement resource available today, Suze presents an attainable strategy, for every reader, at every age. In The Money Class you will learn what you need to know in order to feel hopeful, once again, about your future.

Download or read book Inflated written by R. Christopher Whalen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-12-07 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans as a whole view themselves as reasonably prudent and sober people when it comes to matters of money, reflecting the puritan roots of the earliest European settlers. Yet as a community, we also seem to believe that we are entitled to a lifestyle that is well-beyond our current income, a tendency that goes back to the earliest days of the United States and particularly to get rich quick experiences ranging from the Gold Rush of the 1840s to the real estate bubble of the early 21st Century. Inflated examines this apparent conflict and makes the argument that such a world view is so ingrained in us that to expect the United States to live in a "deflated" world is simply unrealistic. It skillfully seeks to tell the story of, money inflation and public debt as enduring (and perhaps endearing) features of American life, rather than something we can one day overcome as our policy makers constantly promise. Features interviews with today's top financial industry leaders and insiders. Offer a glimpse into the future of the Federal Reserve and the role it will play in the coming years Examines what the future may hold for the value of the U.S. dollar and the real incomes of future generations of Americans The gradual result of the situation we find ourselves in will inevitably lead to inflation, loss of economic opportunity, and a decline in the value of the dollar. This book will show you why, and reveal how we might be able to deal with it.

Download or read book You Can Achieve the American Dream with the Right Keys written by James N. Rivers and published by Dog Ear Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In today's tighten lending environment many people believe that their hopes and dreams of home ownership must be deferred or forgotten. It seems as if the doors to obtaining mortgage financing have been locked shut. But with the right keys you can open any door, that's why You Can Achieve The American Dream...With the Right Keys is a must read for anyone wanting to purchase a home, become a real estate investor, refinance their current home or modify the terms of their mortgage to avoid foreclosure or to simply lower their monthly mortgage payment. Are you one of the millions of people who have put your dream of buying a home on hold due to the belief that mortgage lenders are not approving anyone, unless they have a 700 plus credit score? Do you need to refinance your home to a lower interest rate or before your adjustable rate mortgage increases, but you feel that the value of your home may have decreased? Or is your family one of the millions of families that are struggling to pay their mortgage or ever several months behind on your mortgage, and you're wondering what can you do to avoid foreclosure and save your home? Wonder and search no more, the keys to getting your mortgage company to say yes, are in your hands. Over the past 20 years James Rivers has assisted in making the dreams of thousands of families a reality. His clients range from families on fixed incomes who needed a mortgage to purchase a $40,000 home to professional athletes and entertainers in need of financing to purchase multi-million dollar homes. James often recounts assisting one of his first families with buying their very first home. It was the home that the family had driven by and dreamed of one day owning. Their dream came true. Although, the economic climate and the mortgage industry has changed over the years, James Rivers' passion for helping people obtain the mortgage financing that best fits their needs has not. In his book You Can Achieve The American Dream...With The Right Keys he shares his wealth of knowledge and insight in a very straight forward and honest approach. His book provides a clear step-by-step road map to anyone wanting to purchase a home, become a real estate investor, refinance their current home, or modify the terms of their mortgage to avoid foreclosure or to simply reduce their monthly mortgage payment. To find out more visit his website www.Achieve-The-American-Dream.com

Download or read book The Great American Housing Bubble written by Robert M. Hardaway and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-02-18 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This meticulously documented work sets forth the major causes of the greatest asset bubble in world economic history—the American housing bubble, which began in 1940 and collapsed in 2007. In the aftermath of the American housing collapse in 2007, many ask why. The Great American Housing Bubble: The Road to Collapse asks a different and more fundamental question—how the bubble was created in the first place. To answer that question, it examines the causes, both political and economic, of the American housing bubble, created between 1940 and 2007. Those causes encompass everything from federal income tax subsidies for housing to local exclusionary policies, banking, accounting, real estate appraisal, and credit agency rating practices and policies. The book also takes into account the impact of greed, government regulation, speculation, and psychology—including blind faith in investment advisors—on the creation of the greatest asset bubble in the economic history of the world. The author takes a comparative historical approach, examining the current crisis in the light of notorious bubbles of the past. In the end, he concludes that the events precipitating the most recent collapse can be traced, at least in part, not to too little government regulation, but to too much.

Download or read book Dream Hoarders written by Richard V. Reeves and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dream Hoarders sparked a national conversation on the dangerous separation between the upper middle class and everyone else. Now in paperback and newly updated for the age of Trump, Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard Reeves is continuing to challenge the class system in America. In America, everyone knows that the top 1 percent are the villains. The rest of us, the 99 percent—we are the good guys. Not so, argues Reeves. The real class divide is not between the upper class and the upper middle class: it is between the upper middle class and everyone else. The separation of the upper middle class from everyone else is both economic and social, and the practice of “opportunity hoarding”—gaining exclusive access to scarce resources—is especially prevalent among parents who want to perpetuate privilege to the benefit of their children. While many families believe this is just good parenting, it is actually hurting others by reducing their chances of securing these opportunities. There is a glass floor created for each affluent child helped by his or her wealthy, stable family. That glass floor is a glass ceiling for another child. Throughout Dream Hoarders, Reeves explores the creation and perpetuation of opportunity hoarding, and what should be done to stop it, including controversial solutions such as ending legacy admissions to school. He offers specific steps toward reducing inequality and asks the upper middle class to pay for it. Convinced of their merit, members of the upper middle class believes they are entitled to those tax breaks and hoarded opportunities. After all, they aren't the 1 percent. The national obsession with the super rich allows the upper middle class to convince themselves that they are just like the rest of America. In Dream Hoarders, Reeves argues that in many ways, they are worse, and that changes in policy and social conscience are the only way to fix the broken system.

Download or read book Predatory Lending and the Destruction of the African American Dream written by Janis Sarra and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-09 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines predatory practices in mortgage markets to provide invaluable insight into the racial wealth gap between black and white Americans.