By Ben Hallman and Jillian Berman | The Huffington Post
Housing and consumer activists warn that Wall Street is about to crash the housing market — again.
The activists said they are particularly concerned about the growing number of companies looking to issue bonds backed by rental properties — bonds that a coalition of groups described as “eerily like” those mortgage-backed securities that helped fuel the last housing bubble.
“We are poised to experience another crisis if federal regulators fail to recognize and take corrective action to address red flags that are all too familiar,” more than 75 housing and consumer groups wrote in a letter Tuesday to federal bank and housing regulators.
The 2008 housing crisis happened because banks were willing to give even risky borrowers a mortgage, driving home prices to unsustainable peaks. Those mortgages got sold into bonds that defaulted once homebuyers stopped making their monthly payments.
