The LaGarde Family

So, I, April, was blog tagged! yup Blog Tagged (I’m it)… The photographer, Jennifer Breton, who photographed our family at the beginning of the summer, loved me enough (either that or she hates me- but I like to think that I am loved as much as I love her) to blog tag me- guess its the new thing… She is an amazing photographer, check out her blog and see, but, if you do set up an appointment- get her card from us, I think you might get something for turning it in- NOT positive though… BUT you should think about setting up an appointment soon if you are thinking about doing it for Christmas gifts FUN FUN!! Seriously though- We are her biggest fans- at least we try to be, we know there are plenty of other fans out there too… (you can find the link to her blog over on the right side with all of our other “friend” links)

So, I thought it seems fun, so I am playing along…  My poor friends who I tag at the end- they might hate me, but be sure to know my tagging is out of love so the rules are as follows:

The rules:
“7 Things About Me”
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 7 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post.
4. Pass on the tag.

Ok, so I am not a random type of person- yes I might ramble sometimes and yes I do random things, but 7 random thoughts- yeah you’d be bored in a matter of seconds… So you know the email questionnaire’s that  most people hate- I LOVE them- well, I don’t ever fill them out and send them back- BUT, I LOVE getting them- I love reading about the other people, the craziness of their thoughts and what their daily lives consist of- LOVE IT!! So I decided to pick 7 questions from them for you and be done with it

1. Where’s your favorite place to be?
Canada is one of my most favorite places on earth… It is so quiet and peaceful I can just feel God around me- I can see him in the nature and his creation… I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT… But, if you asked me on an ordinary day where I would like to be- HOME would be my answer- I LOVE being at home, I love being snowed in I love the feeling that I can’t go anywhere and neither can any one else (that way I am not missing something- cause you know I don’t like to miss things- anything!!!!) I love being able to feel comfortable, I love being where I am surrounded by my things and the things I love the people I love- pictures of those I love… Home is defiantly for me where the heart is

2. Favorite children’s book?
This is a hard one for me, as a child I think it would have to be our Dr. Seuss book with multiple lesser known Dr. Seuss stories, OR our Peter Pan book which had the original story of Peter Pan… but NOW as a parent, my favorite children’s book is- Guess How Much I Love You and/ or Good Night Moon- Logan knows where the mouse is in EVERY page, even if you cover it- he knows its there, he’ll peel your finger off and point it out- we will say “where is the Mouse?” and he says “right there” in a sing song sort of way- its so cute.. I love it!!!

3. Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Receptionist at Engineering Solutions Inc. (well really I was 4 peoples jobs by the end, but that is besides the point)
2. Deli Worker and Waitress at Dutchway Super Market in Gap right off Rt 41
3. Line worker at Pepperidge Farm  in Downingtown- ick I came home smelling like garlic bread Eeewww
4. Nanny, for a family in West Chester ( This was by far my most favorites job besides being a mom) and now my most recent job is a full time mommy plus I work at Calvary Fellowship Church I run the Nursery- I even have a title-CFC Small Wonders Nursery Specialist, how cool am I,  I’ve never felt so important

4. If you could have one super power, what would it be?
There are sooo many- how cool would it be to fly- but I’m scared of heights so that wouldn’t work- super human strength- thats fine, but what if they shoot you, not being able to die, well I don’t really want to live forever, I mean I can’t imagine out living all those I love, so I am going to have to go with Super human speed or elasticity- like the mom on the Incredibles- it would be so nice to be able to stand in one place and be able to stop Logan from doing one thing while stopping Grayson in a whole other room… OR super human speed can you imagine how fast I could have this place cleaned- that would be SOO awesome… I am leaning towards the speed one though- since as my family and friends know with the speed on my side, I would finally MAYBE be able to make things on time

5. One thing only close friends and relatives might know about you?
I am sure I told people about this, but its the only thing I could think of- I repeated 1st grade- I was home schooled for Kindergarten and 1st grade then went to West Fallowfield Christian School for 2nd grade but in the middle of the year I wasn’t keeping up with my reading and I had to go back to 1st grade- it STUNK big time, but in the end it was better for me- I didn’t struggle like I would have if they had kept me in 2nd grade and in the end school was pretty easy for me- it was nice… BUT as most of you can tell, I am a spelling flunk out- no one can help me when it comes to spelling- even spell check doesn’t know what I am trying to spell this explains it all doesn’t it- haha!!!

6. Movies I would watch over and over.
1. 10 things I hate about you
2. You’ve got mail
3. National Lampoons Christmas Vac. – but this I have to watch with my mom- she is the one who makes it the most funny!!!
4. Princess Bride- my sisters and I, quote this all the time, oh and I know this is queer, but we love Clue the movie, a childhood favorite (aren’t we strange?)
5. Miss Congeniality
6. Tommy Boy – who wouldn’t watch this over and over – its the BEST!!!
7. Robinhood Men in Tights – again another funny one- my sisters and I quote this one too-  we are so weird!
8. The Holiday
9. & 10. My new favorite’s: I AM Legend and 27 Dresses

7. What’s your least favorite household chore?
How weird is this- cleaning out the dishwasher AND/ OR vacuuming- I hate cleaning out the dishwasher- i don’t know why- what is hard about cleaning it out- I load it, but once I run it, I leave it for as long as I can stand, and by the time I clean it out (or Chris does) there are so many dishes to put in that I need to run it again and the process starts over… Vacuuming- luckily we mostly have hard wood floors so I can get away with as little vacuuming as possible, but the upstairs is all carpet and I admit- it hasn’t been vacuumed in a while- PLUS I hate our vacuum cleaner so that makes it worse…

Wow, that was actually longer than I thought it would be- SORRY!!!

So the 7 people I am blog tagging are: Sarah Peeler (friend, at least I hope so after this ), Missy O’Malley (same as Sarah), Jen McLaughlin (same as Sarah), Matt and Annika Chiodi (same as Sarah), Angie Weldon (same as Sarah), Kristen Windle (cousin, so she can’t hate me- but now she can update her blog:) just kidding!!!), and Sarah and Levi Cole (also cousins, they can’t hate me either, but I thought it would be fun for them- they always have creative things on their blog, and they have new friends they can blog tag)… You can find links to all of their blogs to the right- Remember I love you!

Who needs a double stroller when you can get your two year old to sit in the basket???

Dear friends,
Pardon me for taking a break from the updates on our beautiful family, but I feel this is extremely important. It is no secret that our nation and the world is currently facing a very grave situation from a financial perspective. I have not heard anyone really telling you the full truth about what caused this and what is coming.

Why am I qualified to say any of this? I am no more qualified than my next door neighbor, except that I am very concerned about this and want to try and foster some understanding of what has happened and what is coming. In addition, by being in the real estate industry, I am privy to information that is not being broadcast to the population at large. After spending time researching this issue, I feel that I have an understanding of this issue from a fairly broad perspective, and while all the research I found is saying the exact same things, there are some fundamental themes and names that continue to resurface.
I also have to say this, (with it being a very bitter election year) – personally am sick of the media, both the liberal and conservative sides, spitting insults at each other and twisting facts to benefit their respective sides. It has become virtually impossible to find the Truth. Believe me when I say that BOTH sides, republican and democrat, are to blame.
I also believe that this comes down to the basic erosion of values, both in this country and world wide – GREED & SELFISHNESS is the sickness that has led us to where we are now, and NO ONE – Banks, politicians and the general public – trusts a thing the other side says.
My goal is to help foster a better, more complete understanding of what my research has lead to understand, as well as point you to where you can get this info for yourself.
I especially want to highlight a series of three letters that Glenn Beck has put together, originally intended for his family, but he is now publishing it on his website. Most of what he says is dead on, not to mention the facts and figures about who has benefited from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Lastly, this is by no means comprehensive, but I hope this helps you to be more informed and really seek to understand what is truly going on, and what you and your family need to do going forward. PLEASE DO ME TWO FAVORS!  ONE – comment, let me know what you think and what you know. TWO – pass this on to your friends, family, co-workers, etc. PLEASE.

Gary Keller, Chairman of the Board of Keller Williams Realty, about the two major reasons:

1) The Federal governments extreme pursuit to raise the nation percentage of home ownership and the aggressive lending that went on to make this happen.
Around year 2000 – Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac – were mandated by the government to aggressively pursue more low income/unqualified borrowers, in order to raise the national percentage of ownership up from 64% to 70%. That extra percentage is made up of low income borrowers, those who typically don’t qualify for loans. But due to the modification and loosening of qualifying standards, those borrowers now qualified. The Housing Finance Regulatory Improvement act was also introduced to bring greater ability to FNMA and FM to pursue this end. Peter Wallison said “Fannie and freddie, now and in the future, will represent the classic case of privatizing the profits but socializing the risk. Their management and shareholders are benefiting now from the government support but if these companies ever stop growing or assume too much risk, their losses will fall to the tax payer.”

2) Repackaging of those loans as financial investment instruments and then being sold in multiple layers in the financial communities.

Time Line
1977 -
Community Reinvestment Act created by Jimmy Carter made law. This was a very well intended peice of legislation, and arguably it worked for the first part of its existance. Its goal was to make homeownership available to those in our country who were just out of reach of home ownership. Either because of extenuating circumstances or low income. Again, the idea is good – allow those who previously were not vested in their community to become vest through homeownership, which hopefully will improve those neighborhoods. Unfortunately, various groups and politicians began to take this to the extreme.
1995 -
The white house updated the CRA to have stiffen the regulations and to more aggressively target lower income areas for loans.

1999 -
Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac: Congress passes a law that loosens credit standards, aimed at growing the percentage of homeownership in the US by targeting those with lesser credit scores, enabling those who arguably shouldn’t have gotten loans, to get loans.

Previously credit was ALWAYS based on the borrowers ability to repay. Between 2000 – 2007  it was based on the lenders ability to securitize and repackage what was the basis of making mortgages. It also allowed Commercial and Financial banks to combine forces- a security separation that had been in place since the stock market crash of 1929 to prevent that from happening again.
2001 -
Following the 9/11 attacks, Greenspan and the Fed lowers interest rates to make money cheaper and stimulate the economy. This sparks a real estate surge driving up prices over several years,  dramatically reducing the affordability of housing. In addition, due to the lax lending standards created over the previous several years, banks became less interested in whether the borrowers could actually pay back the loans, since they would be repackaged and sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie mac, and then in turn resold to the financial markets, further driving up prices and reducing affordability.

2003 – 2004:
It was uncovered that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were involved in an accounting scandle where they were scrubbing their books to show phantom profits. A bill was almost pushed through to reform how these institutions operated but both companies were able to cut a deal that allowed them to refocus on expanding mortgages for low-income borrowers, as long as the feds kept out of their operations. This was agreed upon by a majority of congress and the reform effort failed. (http://www.reason.com/news/show/129158.html)

2004 -
(Leverage Disaster) 5 major firms – Morgan Stanely, Goldman Sachs, Lehman bros, Bear Sterns, Meryll lynch (all of which are now either out of business or no longer exist in the same form) – went to the SEC and asked for lower standards on borrowing requirements, and were allow to borrow $40 for every dollar they borrowed, compared to only $12 previously, which meant much much greater risk.

2005- 2007:
Everything worked as long as housing prices continued to rise. Unfortunately real estate is a cyclical market – what goes up must come down or at least level out, and as the pool of even scarcely qualified buyers dried up at around 70% nationwide homeownership, prices began to stall and then decline – in some places dramatically, which would have a domino effect on everything else that depended on the Mortgage Backed Securities that were being sold to the investor world.
As more and more people defaulted on their loans, resulting in foreclosure and short sales of real estate, banks were increasingly left “holding the buck”, which was really worth close to nothing.

One note that I would like to throw in – currently only 9% of homeowners with mortgage are currently late on payments. That is not a huge number of course, but when banks are leveraged 40 to 1, that creates huge problems for them. The majority of home owners in this country stayed within their means to purchase a house when the bought it and have stayed current with their payments. I estimate that a good 50% of those that are not current with their payments have either had some sort of extenuating circumstance happen, such as a health issue or loss of a job, or they were convinced that getting an unconventional loan product, such as a 5/1 ARM, would be good for them. Unfortunately for them, those loans either had a HUGE pre payment penalty, and/or the rates went to the point that they weren’t anticipating and they got crunched.

Links regarding the Current Crisis
Saving Our Economy – How we got to this crisis – Fox Business
Who’s responsible for the Frannie/Freddie Mess?

Fast Money/CNBC – How’d we get here?

Reason.com – The roots of the Crisis: How did wall street get into this mess?

NY times article 9/30/1999  – Fannie Mae eases credit to aide mortgage lending (very prophetic)