It seems to me that people are not hearing very much about renters in terms of the mortgage crises, but renters are also being hurt. It seems that every day we hear about how people are having to move out of there houses because they defaulted on the loan for their house. However, I do not think we hear about what happens to renters if they pay their rent on time and the company or person who owns their apartment complex defaults on the loan for the complex.
Today, I read about how the mortage crises is affecting renters. It appears that all across the country companies are defautling on the loans they used to buy apartment complexes. If and when these companies default on the loans the property can be bought by investment firms like Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York, or mortage loan trusts set up by groups like Citigroup. Some of these groups seem to be know as investment pools. Since these groups do not want to be landlords they decided to evict all the tenants and then sell the building. The groups think vancant building are easier to sell.
Rep. Barney Frank either has introduced legialation meant to help in this situation or will introduce the legislation soon. The links below will give more information about the issue.
http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2007/10/21/default_crisis_is_evicting_renters/http://www.jimhightower.com/node/6308http://www.startribune.com/business/11245186.html