Anybody interested in seeing a great movie on the mortgage meltdown should watch the 2011 film, Margin Call, written and directed by J.C. Chandor. The film is a fictional characterization of a boutique Wall Street firm that figures out that the trading algorithms most of Wall Street was depending on to gauge the risk of their mortgage backed securities business was flawed and that a complete collapse of the system was only days away. The entire story takes place in a span of less than 24 hours and includes a brilliant 3AM boardroom scene, where the company’s CEO, played by Jeremy Irons, contemplates the most draconian decisions any CEO will ever make. Irons utters one of my all-time favorite movie lines, “There are three ways to succeed in this business: cheat, be smarter, or be first. Well I don’t cheat, and while I think we have some pretty smart people, it’s a lot easier just to be first”. The film which was made for less than 4 million dollars features an all star cast including: Irons, Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker and Zachary Quinto. There are about a thousand stories that could be written about America’s greatest financial crisis, but this is definitely one of my favorites.
Realtors help families navigate the largest and most intimidating financial transaction of their lifetime. They serve as guides, counselors, cheerleaders, and protectors. Many of them remain friends of their clients for life. America is at its best when its citizens are stakeholders.
The usual solutions will not solve the current housing affordability crisis. Any solution that does not begin and end with a sustainable plan to radically increase housing supply is just noise. The barriers to increasing housing supply are complex and require the crucial cooperation of both public and private sectors, and more education.
It has been long understood that a nation of stakeholders makes for a strong union, and for that reason, closing the minority homeownership gap has been a goal and a topic of discussion for decades.