by Silicon Valley Blogger on 2008-03-04 39

Ive seen the enemy and the enemy is us.

Ive been following the subprime mortgage debacle for a while now, giving it a lot of coverage. This bust has left us with some tragic results, as homeowners far and wide are left holding the bag and in ruins, after losing their homes and whatever else theyve got.

Its common knowledge how much fraud has become a big part of this crisis, but in their own defense, insiders from the real estate industry have claimed that this crime is actually victimless. Is that so? Well you know what mainstream articles on this subject would like to have you think, since theyve done a good job with putting a face on this crisis, profiling the many who have fallen victim to the trend.

Israel Medina admits he got too gung ho about the idea of getting rich by flipping Bay Area real estate.

Medina, a Concord resident who ran a limousine company before wading neck-deep into the housing market, has seen not one, but 11, of his Northern California properties move into foreclosure in the past year, he said.

I was a real estate tycoon; I had everything, said Medina. Now I have nothing.

There are many participants caught in this sordid financial drama but it seems that weve already made up our mind about whos really at fault here.

The Accused

So who or whats to blame for all this?

• The slimy real estate agent? These are the guys who give you cold calls and bug you to no end with the promise that you can buy houses without having to give up a single cent.

Im sure you can tell (at least I hope) that my tone here is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. In reality, theres not one element here that is solely to blame; what weve got is a cornucopia of reasons and factors and a clustering of events that have come together to conjure this disaster.

And one thing we shouldnt leave out: the personal responsibility that homeowners have to take as participants in this predicament. It doesnt help that victims themselves have made it easy for the bad guys to prey upon them, as evidenced by the following survey results.

Check out the results of this homeowner survey done by Bankrate, where people were asked several questions pertaining to their mortgage: