the housing crisis - who's not getting blamed

my partner and i have been talking recently about the housing crisis and, if groups must be blamed, who's deserving of the blame. clearly, no one factor led to the bubble bursting - lenders flowed money like water gushing from an open spigot, builders constructed more new housing on spec than could ever be purchased, individuals borrowed more money than they could ever pay back, and the government regulators sat back and watched it all happen.

however, one key piece of the equation that is rarely mentioned - the realtors. unscrupulous realtors preyed on uninformed, or just plain stupid, consumers. case in point - we bought our house at the tail end of the housing boom. with good credit scores and a solid employment history, we were easily approved and given the opportunity to borrow more money than we were capable of paying back. but, we were informed consumers, knew our limits, and signed on for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage that was within our budget. while noble, and certainly the correct decision, it severely limited our housing options ... and the number of realtors that were willing to work with us. we were clear on what we wanted (a house - row house was fine - in the city, with a yard) and how much we were willing and able to spend, but that did not stop one realtor from telling us that we just weren't looking at the "right" mortgage. she informed us that she could get us into a $750,000 house (the amount for which we had been approved) with manageable monthly payments. what she didn't mention was that we would have multiple mortgages, each with a varying rate, and each with payments that would balloon after the initial low introductory rate. simply put, our manageable mortgage payment would last for a limited amount of time and then we would be faced with a payment that we could not afford - stop me if you've heard this story before ...

all that got me to thinking, what are those realtors doing to keep their profession out of the mix, out of the media. i haven't been able to deconstruct it all quite yet, but i'm thinking advertising dollars and political contributions have something to with it. opensecrets.org shows that the national association of realtors has donated in excess of $32 million dollars in the past 18 years to a variety of candidates and political parties. i realize that $32 million may not be that much, but it would be interesting to research the exact recipients of those dollars. something tells me there are a few key committee chairpersons in that group. it would also be interesting to see how much this group spends annually on advertising on television and in newspapers - surely in excess of $32 million. i think i might consider keeping my journalist mouth shut if a potential investigative target was contributing to my salary.

those are my initial thoughts and now i'm hoping that kristin, with her highly analytical and far superior mind, will pick up the baton and run with the rest of the thought in one of her blog posts on the center of concern website.