Come on now it's not like WAMU forced people to buy houses for more than market value they simply provided the loans for stupid people that wanted to pay to much for a house. The buyers of these houses were and are just as greedy as any bank and now both are being punished in the marketpplace, as they should.

The real fraud here is the selling of these knowingly bad loans to investors...

Contrary to Colleen - I do blame the appraisers and I have been one for over 20 years. WAMU would not assign me any business because I would not "push" their values ... too many appraisers are corupt and greedy just like banks, mortgage brokers, and, the buyers themselves as appropriately noted by Mike.

I bought a house before the crash - and now am stuck with an over valued house with a bunch of foreclosures hanging around keeping house rates low. The home inspector didnt find many things that we are now dealing with and should be held accountable - as well as these other companies. Likely I will lose money - the banks will keep the money they made and the government will slap them on the wrist - and the machine will continue to take it out on hard working Americans

It seems like America has become a nation of greed. There is nothing wrong with gaining wealth but how about accomplishing it by doing something useful. Sitting on your butts while your house appreciates to unsustainable levels and then crying and blaming others when reality sets shouldn't garner any sympathy from anyone.

Congress could do more on this but they seem to be too busy in planning their four day work week next year and the fifth workday partying with Lobbists from the Banking Industry. Everyone should know that if they vote in an incumbent chances are that person has some Lobbists they are affiliated with. Many promises are made by these Politicians behind the publics back.

If you have a WAMU mortgage from 2005-2007, pull out your appraisal. If you feel it was over-valued contact an attorney. They should be circling about now from this sub-prime fall out. Not reading the small print and being mislead by a fraudulent appraisal that the bank coerced are two different things. STand up and Fight back.

Enough with trying to blame this all on Republicans. I've been a real estate appraiser for 17 years, and can tell you that pressure from lenders to inflate values so that they can make their loans goes back way before the current administration. The practice of finding and using only appraisers who will "hit the number" that will allow the loan to close, regardless of actual value is rampant. It's so bad that it's difficult for many honest appraisers to stay in business, because if they fail to "hit the number", they won't get any more business from many mortgage brokers. It's a matter of greed from the mortgage broker/lender side, and a matter of survival for many appraisers who cave in to the pressure in order to keep food on the table.

I was a real estate agent for three years and fought to no avail to stop these fraudulent appraisals. Homeowners need to pull out those appraisals and contact an attorney. These appraisers need to be held responsible--they are just as bad as the banks pushing the ARMs! And if you're buying, demand the appraiser not see the price on the purchase agreement. They are there to do an independent appraisal, not hit a number. If they can't do an appraisal without a pre-set number, they shouldn't be doing appraisals in the first place.

Some of you people really amaze me! This has nothing to do with Republicians or Democrats! It has to do with GREEDY AMERICANS! YES, GREEDY! Greedy people who don't have proper credit, and the good sense to buy within their budget, go to Greedy WAMU and apply for a loan and get QUALIFIED for an price-inflated house that Greedy e-AppraiseIT pumped up in value, and Greedy First American Title gets to charge over-inflated prices on title and escrow! It's not about Bush or Clinton it's about Greed Monsters from all sides wanting MORE! Now the truth is coming out about how these Greed Monsters broke the law and caused this real estate mess!

Don't gamble what you can't afford to lose, don't bite off more than you can chew, and do not borrow more then you can pay back. Know the rules of the game before you play, and then expect all parties to follow them.

To Sherry's comment above that it's all the homebuyers fault, there's one big difference that she overlooks. Overextending themselves was not illegal. What the bank, title company, and appraisal company are alleged to have done probably is illegal.

I find it hard to believe that a company doing 50,000 apprsaisals a month would need to cave in to anybody.Washington Mutual forced Anthony Merlo to risk his entire national company to commit bank fraud and he said yes? He has to be very greedy and shouldn't have been in the position to make decisions. I can't even believe his excuse. It is absolutely ridiculous.
I am a loan consultant at Washington Mutual. We have no contact with the appraiser at all. We don't order the appraisal and we don't pick the appraisal company. An opener orders the appraisal. The opener is a person in another state that the loan consultant doesn't have contact with. Why would a clerk in a bank ask an appraisal company to inflate an appraisal. They don't even understand that part of the loan process, the opener would for sure lose their job if they did that.The only person who has immediate contact with the appraiser is the homeowner It would be not in Washington Mutual's best interest to inflate an appriasal. They need to have collateral to lend mortgage money. Inflated colllateral(home appraisals) would hurt Washington Mutual. Prior to working with Washington Mutual I worked in other mortgage banks. I did order my own appraisal. I worked with small appraisal companies. There is no way these small companies would inflate an appraisal.Risk losing there licenses for one loan consultant for one appraisal order. These are companies that maybe do 20 appraisals a month. I found it hard to believe that Anthony Merlo can even say he caved to the pressure of Wamu. I don't believe Wamu ever forced him to do anything. Doesn't he have any morals. What about ethics. He would risk his entire company and everyone who works for him. Inflating an appraisal, is bank fraud. I am very tired of the media and government officials for always trying to blame a big company. Is Andrew Cuomo kidding? Is Chase paying him? Where is the proof. Wamu's statement about this accusation was way too polite. There are bad people in every industry. When a Police Officer takes a bribe do we blacken the entire department? When a priest is accused of molesting a paritioner, does everyone stop going to church. There is a real need for mortgage banks.Don't blacken an entire industry and a large lender like Washington Mutual because eappraiseit decided to do bad appraisals. I personally hated using eappriaseit,if you read the loan consultant blog at Washington mutual you will see how the loan officers felt about eappraisit. We hated using them. I thought Wamu was using them becuase they were cheaper. The appriasals I have gotten from them aren't inflated. The appraisals are sloppy, they use appraisers for areas that don't know the area, they take forever to schedule the appraisal and get them back to us. They are the worst appraisal company ever. I am glad we won't be using them. They do horrible work. I do loans for people that take them out of high rate adjustables, save them 100's of dollars per month and help them keep their homes. What is up with this nonsence.

Although most banks will try their best to suck every last dollar out of you, its the middle and lower class who end up paying the most. Don't trust them! But I also bought a house I knew I could afford being a single mom, got with a great mortgage broker, and have no problems. I refinanced when the rates went even lower and am now very happy with my mortgage broker. I actually have payments lower than when I first bought my house. I finance for a lower home rate, I did not include all my bills and being paying those for 30 yrs. It's not a $300,000 home, but it's mine.

People need to think about the consequences before they jump at an unrealistic "deal".

Shame on WAMU. But also shame on the government auditors and others in charge of tracking compliacne issues for allowing the appraisal process to continue the way it did. Shame on an industry that allowed a bank doing mortgage loans to own its own appraisal company.

This credit crisis has been a long time in the making and there will be no easy fix. Back in the 80's I was selling real estate and even then there was pressure on appraisers/lenders/listing agents to inflate the price of homes. The good ones stood firm, said "no" and lost business to unethical people who would do anything to get the transaction. Also, the criteria for purchasing a home used to be that the payment could not be more than 33.3% of your gross monthly wage, and you needed to have good credit. Now the qualifying factors have changed and even if you don't have good credit, you can still get a loan, just with higher interest.......Now does it make sense that an individual who did not handle money in the first place (at normal interest rates) and acquired a bad credit rating....is now going to magically going to pay their bills on time....with a much higher interest rate??? People should buy what they can afford, but everyone now thinks that because they exist they are entitled to everything they want....instant gratification.

There are many good appraisers providing valuation services in a professional manner. It is unfortunate that numerous lenders and mortgage bankers utilize appraisal management companies which do not consider quality of the appraisal report top priority but rather select appraisers by the lowest fee and fastest delivery time.The quality of the appraisal report appears to be inconsequential.

When Enron, the power company, price gouged and cost California billions in extra payments for electricity and it came out later that the employees were laughing on tape about burning people...I see the same pattern here and with the oil ocmpanies and with a lot of industries and with the government wasting money and with the War in Iraq: blatant price gouging and no conscience on the part of those doing it. Yes, borrowers oculd be more prudent, but the American public is over a barrel in many cases to take what is offered them. We have a government and a business structure that maximizes personal greed and minimizes personal responsibility. Now we have a Congress that is in league with a corrupt White House and we are getting the shaft coming from every direction: from banks to Blackwater to you name it.

The Government and big coorperations are clearly in bed together the American Citizens are being victimized by fee after fee after fee, bogas inflation,and tax increases with a ton of bologny excuses They don't give a damn about our troops over in Iraq They didn't give a damn about our troops in Vietnam either, And they don't give a damn about the vertrans either! All they care about is Money And the American Citizens are sitting in a warm pot of water getting ready to boil over. I think we need to stand up and do something about it! It's everywhere. For every nine dollars you make in an hour you make your company just think what they make thousands! It's nothing short of slavery, you just get nine bucks instead of slop on a plate which ends up being the same thing and if you make more you just give it right back to them in fees and taxes and instead of being locked up physically your locked up financially and you can't even go out and enjoy yourself cause its to expensive. Maybe we should call for a Strike Nation wide evryone stay at home for a day a week and stage a protest and demand that this crap be stopped! We need another civil rights movement except with peoople of all races from Middle Class down to the homeless or we will all end up homeless slaves Its only going to get worse. I mean my God they now want to make pumpkins to be considered a food so they can add taxes to that! Whats next Water oh yeah they already got that too.The Air we breath? I'm shure their working on that too. And do you really think you own your house or land? You got to pay taxes on that forever and where do you think thats going to? It's going to the big corperations in Iraq who are charging 50 dollars for a six pack of coke and giving diseases to our troops. If we stop working stop buying what ever would they do? We are being held captive by our own greed.

CAPITALISM = The rich screw the poor

Shades of "Atlas Shrugged". Just because you exist does not mean you are ENTITLED to have everything you want. "Big Business does not exist to give you a job....the individual who started that company did so to make money!!! If the company does not make money, why shoud they open their doors??