There are some who have posted on this news item that truly do not have a clue, like piznat. Blackhawk has never had a reputation of risky lending nor do they have sub-prime mortgage products. Having worked in the financial field my entire life, one realizes that lending is a gamble on the odds of all of life's circumstances. Lending too tight will cause an institution to lose a lot of good business, too loose and there can be tremendous losses. That is what we see now with the entire economy. The non financial people in DC decided to delve into an arena they knew nothing about which brought about a field day for the sub-prime originators. This "loose lending" finally caught up with those who delved into that market. Problem is it spiraled into the morass we see with the whole economy and affected quality lenders like Blackhawk. The loans were good but the economy and things like the closing of GM which has affected the whole Rock county area take some of the good people down. The article and the news item on NBC 15 from Madison explained that this moratorium probably just helped less than a dozen families right now. For an institution like Blackhawk who boasts over 30000 members and has served the Janesville area for over 40 years, a few foreclosures mentioned in the news story does not constitute "delving into risky mortgages" (piznat)or blaming it on an underwriter again shows no clue by piznat. If underwriters had crystal balls and could foresee every event that is going to happen to people, there would be no problems but then again a lot fewer people would own homes nor investments to allow others to rent them. I agree with chazzy that what has happened does not paint the individual nor the underwriter as irresponsible nor neglectful. Life altering events like death, divorce or loss of job or income are events that are unpredictable. These things are part of the gamble that financial institutions factor into their decision making but it is not factored into an individual decision but rather in the pricing of the product knowing that a certain percentage will go bad. I have to take my hat off to Blackhawk for wanting to work with those who might still have enough ability to perform on some type of an altered program. For the rest of us who pay our mortgage on time, yes, we may not get the same new terms but we benefit when fewer homes do not go on the market as bank owned and drag down the value of our investments.

Read the last line of the story.
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"The credit union is trying to help those homeowners stay in their homes while exploring different financial options."
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Nothing more...nothing less.

Darn, I should have purchased my home through Blackhawk a year ago. I could have save myself around $1,000 that I was paying for a mortgage for some nice toys. I'm just too responsible or dumb by paying my mortgage on time every month.

Why does everyone think that this is the lenders irresponsible lending practice?
Don't you know of someone that has either had a life threatening illness that has had a great paying job and are now unable to work?
These days it take 2 incomes to support a family and then some. People have lost jobs due to the economy who have been working for years and now suddenly find themselves fallen in hard times. Try to have some compassion, not all foreclosures are due to the fact that these people are irresponsible or are neglectful.

getabike....you have described a risky individual, at least in my opinion. I partly agree with you about the credit reporting system, but the underwriter should have been a little more attentive to the financial situation to the borrower. It is still risky!

Well, I suppose that we can all hope.

Superdave, I hope that was sarcasm.

People can be responsible borrowers, but lose their job and not be able to keep up with their bills.

Can't wait until January 20th when this will all be fixed!

The reason for all of this mess isn't because a "risky" mortgage. It's because a flawed credit reporting system. Your credit score isn't based on how much you owe - it's how it's allocated. During the refi boom - it was easy for anyone to obtain a high 700 credit score. Which made them appear as a VERY good borrower. In reality, they had maxed out all of their cards only months before but had paid them off by doing a refi. So even though they still had the same amount of debt - it showed a ton of unused credit lines - which popped up their scores dramatically. The other scary thing is that they still have the same amount of debt PLUS a large amount of unused lines that they can charge up again. This default situation is only beginning.

But, all the financial institutions that are getting billions of our taxpayer dollars are doing no such thing. Why this money couldn't go to bailing out the real estate money rather than bailing out banks, who went in big for risky mortgages and securities, I don't know.

I'm SURE the economy will turn around in 6 weeks. Get real!

They may not have been going for risky mortgages. I would probably say that in these circumstances, it is a result of the homeowners. If less than a dozen people are going to be affected by this, I have to say those are pretty good odds at most financial institutions.

I am surprised that a member owned institution delved into risky mortgages. What do the members think about this? The board may have put this institution into a risky position.