On Jul 15, 10:37*pm, Chris Hill
wrote:
On Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:20:53 -0700 (PDT), Cindy Hamilton

wrote:

Typically, it's the same thing. *Not so much lately, but it's always
been
the case that banks only lend money to people who have money.

I have a mortgage. *It is the same money (and more) out of my own
pocket.
We were quite careful each time we bought a house. *(If only everyone
were.)

Not the same thing at all. *Let's take a car example to make the
point. *If you were paying cash for a car, would you pay $1000 for a
great stereo or would you say no way, the crummy am/fm will do just
fine? *When people can look at a feature as x dollars per month they
get stupid.

It's the same thing. Suppose I'm looking at two different houses to
buy.
One is in a place where the taxes are 5 mills and the other 10 mills.
I would not be able to afford as much house in the second place.

If taxes were to jump suddenly while I was in the process of finding a
house,
then I wouldn't be able to afford as much house, either. I'd have to
start
looking at cheaper houses.

Or, maybe people are just stupid. The bank was willing to lend me
about twice
what I felt comfortable borrowing. I'm sure many people would have
taken the
money and gotten into the McMansion instead of the 1200 square foot
ranch.