Predatory Lending Summary

In the article Predatory Lending and the Devouring of the American Dream, the article talks about how subprime mortgages were a booming success in the mid- nineties to the early two-thousands. It was a success because subprime mortgages offered an opportunity for people with bad credit history or people from the lower class of society to actually be able to purchase a home. The only consequences of doing subprime mortgages is that there is a high interest rate which makes paying off the home in a reasonable time impossible. More and more people started to apply for subprime mortgages, therefore, causing a crisis. The crisis was because people could not keep paying on their homes, so foreclosures happened. The percent of people applying and getting approved for subprime loans went up anywhere from seven to eight percent every year which also was a contributing factor in the crisis. The fact that the perfect home went up nine hundred square feet in four years, and eighteen years later was up by eighty-five hundred square feet is just an example of how the American Dream was going up in size but down in value.

Predatory lending was never heard of until 1991 when the words were written in an article quoting a man about illegal activity going on in the mortgage business.

The word did not start being used again until about the mid-nineties to the early two-thousands when predatory lending became a huge issue. Predatory lending became a huge issue because it was illegal; it was illegal because lending money at high interest rates to low income families or people with bad credit histories will result in foreclosures. The foreclosures result in the families being homeless and in even more debt than were they started. Predatory lending is like a scam because the lenders just want to take your money and the home. The metaphor for predatory lending is we are the prey and the lenders are the

predators.
The intended audience is anyone interested in learning about the American Dream, the people who are required to read the book but do not really want to, and the people who enjoy knowing about history of predatory lending and other things contributing the death of the American Dream. Also, the author is trying to include high school and older, to get the message out about how society and the world are always changing whether the change is good or bad. Some of the audience the author is trying to hook, also, is people researching about the American Dream. The author is also trying to targeting people in the United State so that the people can be more aware of the financial hardships and the up-coming of the nation.