Mini Skirts And Hope For Homeowners - Part One

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No girls! Hope for homeowners is not about squeezing into mini skirts. But it is about mortgage affordability.

A Tribute To Dad's 90th Birthday

I was one of those kids who asked too many questions at the dinner table. The need for logic overrode my concern for dinner manners. Good thing I wasn't Queen Victoria's offspring with her "better to be seen than heard" attitude. Surely, I would have gone to bed with an empty stomach.

Little did I know due to Dad's talks, I'd eventually discover the correlation between ongoing hope for homeowners and the mini skirt.

The Great Depression And Skirt Hems

Dad wasn't always retired. When I was in grade school, his career in banking was taking off. So I acquired a healthy respect for capitalism and free enterprise at a very young age. By seventh grade I was asking him questions like, "If there is less money during a recession, where did the money go?"

One of Dad's favorite "isms" compared The Great Depression to skirt hems. Of course the golden age of adolescence dictated I challenge the connection because it did not make sense to me.

Mini Skirts Affect On Hope For Homeowners

Now here is what Dad claimed. During economic prosperity, expect shorter skirts. Lots of leg. But sorry guys, brace yourself when you see the economy slowing. It means longer skirts are coming back into style.

Now I was just a junior high kid and did not know too much. But the need for logic was already showing its signs in my personality. And I didn't buy my father's theory.

Being the youngest, I tagged along with Mom to fabric stores where the smell of dye was so thick it stung my eyes. And I listened to stories of rising costs for fabric.

You see Mom's full time purpose in life was to clothe my three older siblings and myself. She hunted down fabric stores for deals and imitated current fashion by the hour sitting at her sewing machine.

So, I debated whether Dad knew what he was talking about because at the wise age of 14, I could put two and two together.

Longer skirts required more fabric. More fabric equaled greater expense.

Could Flappers Diminish Hope For Homeowners

Remember the Flappers? Think back to the 1920's when optimism reigned and prosperity ruled. Throwing off traditional values, skirt hems rose exposing the knees in an attempt to bury the haunting memories of World War One.

I was beginning to understand what Dad was saying. During times of prosperity, once traditional standards tend to diminish.

Take for instance what I heard a Freddie Mac representative say in 1998. To paraphrase the speaker who attended our conference, "We are seeing little correlation between debt ratios and foreclosure statistics."

Sustaining Hope For Homeowners And Homeownership

Just as traditional values were discarded in the 1920's, long recognized debt ratio qualifiers of traditional mortgage lending were becoming old fashioned and cumbersome in the 1990's. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and even FHA were gradually raising their hemlines that had become too modest.

By 2001, we were reading it in the paper, hearing it over the radio and seeing it on TV. "Lots of income but lacking cash? NO problem! In spite of your debt ratios, we want to help you buy a house."

In fact, Fannie ran an ad that ended something like, "Yes, buying a house is just THAT easy."

Who Was Addressing Joe's Mortgage Affordability

But who was addressing Joe The Homeowner's mortgage affordability? What would sustain hope for homeowners and the future of homeownership? Where was the balance between traditional standards and changing economic attitudes?

The speculation of the Roaring 20's eventually humbled the mighty Bull. Panic on Wall Street ushered in The Great Depression. And down came hemlines.

Would the current economy of the 21st Century follow the fate of 1929? Would economic hemlines fall once again?

And most importantly, who was watching out for the hope of homeowners and mortgage affordability?

Continue here to discover how a game of musical chairs affected mortgage affordability at Mini Skirts And Mortgage Affordability - Part Two

The intriguing saga of Joe The Homeowner preventing another mortgage debacle concludes at Mini Skirts And Affording A Mortgage - Part Three

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