A fascinating tale of two countries: US compared to Denmark in the financial crisis

[MattH]

I should visit the excellent site of the Mortgage Professor more frequently, the excellent posting below appeared on his site a month ago and I only just noticed it!

Article

[Anonymous]

Nice post, MattH.

Several points made in the article:

1.There was no Danish equivalent of sub-prime loans to attract tenants into ownership who were not qualified to be owners.

2. (In Denmark) loans are not priced for risk, so borrowers who have poor credit or who cannot make a down payment of  20% are not served.

3. The US had a particularly toxic combination of features that Denmark lacked: a pair of partly-private/partly-public secondary market agencies -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and a political/social movement aimed at increasing the homeownership rate.

So, my question to anyone reading is this:  Do you consider the Danish system of granting mortgage loans fair, or is it unfair that some folks will get to own their own homes, while others will not?

[marty56]

100% fair.  Not everyone can aford to own a home or a BMW or a beach home.  Back on my subprime days, I was given a morage when common sense would have denied me since my  70k of CC debt and no money down showed me to be a bad risk.

Yes, I proved the stats wrong but I am an exception, not a rule.