Just Trying to Make a Buck Any Way We Can

For everyone who thinks the housing bubble and subsequent crash was caused by irresponsible borrowers, and not predatory lenders, here's another similar story that shows responsible lenders just doing what they do, this time with reverse mortgages, which are a perfectly valid and useful transaction for senior in certain situations.

To be fair, in this case the big players like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and MetLife have got out of the reverse mortgage business, and let's say they all got out for the valid reasons cited by Wells Fargo, i.e. "falling housing prices and difficulty assessing borrowers' ability to repay the loans.". But there is never a shortage of small sleaze bag operators ready to step in and fill the void with misleading and outright false representation of their services, sort of the reverse mortgage equivalent of Countrywide Finance.

A few states on their own are taking action, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (fought tooth and nail by congressional Republicans, it should be pointed out, even to the point of trying to prevent the confirmation of its director) is playing catch up. In the meanwhile elderly people are being screwed out of their homes because of unconscionable predators, who will get away with it, we can be almost certain.