“Mortgage can make or
break you”
In my English for class at Chabot community
college the students are intensively developing ways on how to be physically,
mentally, and financially stable. This semester has introduced vital notions of
survival and well-being to me.
The questions that are raised in
our classroom environment all have extreme important knowledge behind them. The
Daraja communal legacy has enlightened me with knowledge that will allow me to
proceed in the right direction.
The students have powerful,
educated, voices in the Emoja family of scholars and I believe that is the exact
reason why the logo of this program is a stairway to success. “When a person is
able to speak out loud and proud articulately, they are considered to be less
stressed out than others, and are able to conquer life’s skirmishes with pride and
certainty.
Knowing all about how to do positive and influential
things that are necessary for one to be able to benefit and own land in the United
States of America is very important. Having a support group like Mr. Tom de Wit
fall English class of 2013, allows us to individually develop a sense of
belonging. This type of atmosphere is better than the normal classroom
environment. It seems as if we make up the class curriculum by dissecting deep
lectures and classroom discussions. This is how all teachers can relate their
syllabus to the students.
Unfortunately, my parents have never
owned a home and probably never will. The United States of America economy has
been scarce. There are criminals within our banking system that are currently
getting away with crimes equivalent to, or worse than bloody murder. The banks
are the reason why many people are homeless today.
During my research I came across
facts of life in real estate, I found that people were being swindled by our United
States banking system. And that everything usually goes hand-in-hand when it
comes to the economic system. There is no question why our government has
recently shut down.
The solutions to our problems are
found in the book titled “the rich and the rest of us” by (Tavis Smiley and professors
Cornel West.) Page 38 stated “to get out of this economic mess we must
thoroughly dissect the missing pieces that placed almost 50,000,000 of us in
this calamitous position. Greedy and gluttonous individuals and institutions
must be exposed and brought to justice”... With that said, the power is within the
people; therefore, we must have to learn how to effectively utilize it.
I was fortunate enough to be able
to explain the way I feel about notion of our recent government shutdown in our
Chabot college spectator newspaper article of Thursday, October 17, 2013. I
explained with concern that, “If we are supposed to be the leading and most
powerful country, how is it that we are so far in debt? It’s mind boggling to
me because we are supposed to be the richest country and we also have starving
children. I also feel that an investigation is necessary in order to put the ”banksters”
as we should call them on trial.”
Most people were cheated into homes
that they could not afford “It is up to our nation’s civilians, teachers, scholars
and professors to create the blueprint of success for all, and not the
blueprint of being poor and homeless for all.”
It was a beautiful Monday morning,
when our English class gathered vital questions raised during our daily classroom
discussion and lectures and made a list of them on the whiteboard.
These eleven important questions
were raw, and real, which were made up by the students of the class, yet
organized by our teacher asking the class about essential aspects of life. Questions
such as what is the meaning of dismantling one’s safety net? I learned from my classmates
on the day of our research data sharing discussion assignment, that this question
can be answered by the notion of question number three on our list which asked,
“How are our nation’s manufacturing jobs being converted into low income jobs?”
And as these essential things begin to intertwine with each other I can see and
feel myself and the class grow within.
By the end of the day each question
1 through 11 was assigned 3 to 4 members creating individual research groups. My
group was Analicia, Valerie, Kaylen and myself, Leo Evans, we were assigned
question number two. Question two asked us, “How do mortgages work?” We have to
collectively gather the information that will allow us to teach our peers the
proper way to successfully complete a mortgage with the banks. We all
contributed in the making of the main process.
Analicia quest was to do researched
to be able to Explain to us during our wed classroom discussion “what a
Mortgage is she established that, according to (CNN magazine article 2013 on Are
we still heading toward 5% mortgages?) “A mortgage is a loan procured by a
buyer to pay off the seller of a piece of property in full. The buyer then owes
the lender the total amount borrowed, plus interest and fees. As collateral or
guarantee of payment, the lender holds the deed or ownership of said property,
until the buyer pays the mortgage off. However, the buyer occupies the property
as if it were already their own.”
Kaylen Explained returned and researched
the procedures and requirements of a down payment; she taught us that according
to (GMAC mortgages magazine article 2013 )“the down payment on a mortgage is
the lump sum that you must pay upfront that which lessens the amount of money
you have to burrow. You can put as much down as you want but the normal amount
is 20% of the house cost.”
Example: If you and your spouse together make 60,000 a year
(which was the case for first -time
home buyers in 2009), you can probably buy a 180,000 home if you have moderate
debt (debt payments of 12% of your income ), and a 240,000 home if you have
little or no debt and can make 20% down payment.”
Valerie had the section on different
types of mortgages, “What is the difference between fixed- and adjustable-rate mortgages?”
She shared detailed data with us that Wednesday afternoon. Valerie found that according
to (mortgage.com) “a fixed rate mortgages offers an interest rate that will
never change over the entire life of the loan. Monthly mortgage payments remain
the same for 15, 20, or 30 years, depending on the length of your mortgage.”
The only numbers that might change are property taxes and any insurance
payments included in your monthly bill.
30 year fixed rate is the longest loan;
a person will pay the most in interest. That might not seem like a good thing,
it also allows you to deduct the most in interest payments from taxes. This
long-term loan locks in the lowest monthly payments.
20 year fixed rate are harder to find,
but the shorter term will allow a homebuyer to build up more equity in their
home sooner. Since they’ll be making larger monthly payments, the interest rate
is generally lower than a 30-year fixed mortgage. 15 year fixed rate has the
same benefits as the 20-year term meaning, (one will have a quicker payoff, and
will gain higher equity, and lower interest rates), but the homeowner will have
an even higher monthly payment. Adjustable mortgages are adjustable and are
subject to change under the refinancing notion. She also answered the sub
Question of “what would your monthly mortgage be for a $400,000 house?” your
mortgage would be $2,300 per month, and that is not including property taxes.
I Leo Evans receive the research on
common loans; I discovered according to the facts of (bank rank.com 2013) the process
of a 30 year loan vs. a 15 –year loan. The advantages of a 30 year loan are
that the monthly payments are low and with the 30 year mortgage you can qualify
for a much larger loan and by much larger or nicer house. The downside is that
you have to make payments for extra 15 years versus a 15 year loan you would
pay a lot more total interest over the life of the loan. Yet, in most cases you
will go with a 30 year loan. We then had Analicia type up all of our data so
that we were able to articulate our discoveries to our peers professionally.
We can’t get forget about closing costs you
will need to pay a closing costs from your savings (lowering the amount
available for a down payment), or qualify for a long that’s a little larger
than the house you want to buy, and have the closing costs added to the loan
(which is called “rolling the closing costs” into the mortgage).
Unfortunately, there is a higher
power that has a lot to do with the evolution of poverty. Apparently, I have
heard that in today’s economic challenges “the American dream can only become a
reality if you are in a deep sleep.” We have to annihilate all inhumanity in
order to have freedom, justice and housing for all. It is our job to promote
equality and to make the evolution of property solution, a top priority within
our government agendas.
