Housing rescue: All in the details
The Obama administration offers details of its housing bailout plan and provides a scorecard of its efforts as of February.
Housing rescue: All in the details
I spent part of this morning at a summit on housing and related matters at Penn's Annenberg Center.
There is a story in Saturday’s Inquirer summarizing aspects of the Obama administration’s efforts to get the real estate market on course.
The White House, which sponsored Friday’s summit, provided a list of the key aspects of the administration’s plan, which you can read at http://goo.gl/SMaJT
Coincidentally, the administration published its February housing scorecard Friday. It includes an appeal to Congress to approve measures needed to refinance "underwater loans" of three million Americans through FHA, as well as the $15 billion Project Rebuild, designed to fund rehabbing of houses abandoned through foreclosure and rescue commercial enterprises.
You can check out the scorecard at http://goo.gl/8soKd.
The administration said more than 5.7 million modification arrangements were started between April 2009 and January, including nearly 1.8 million trial modification starts through the Home Affordable Modification Program.
As of January, more than 950,000 homeowners received a permanent HAMP modification, saving more than $530 on their mortgage payments each month. Homeowners in HAMP permanent modifications have saved about $11 billion to date.
A couple of weeks back, I reported that Pennsylvania’s attorney general would receive $70 million as the state's share of the $25 billion settlement over questionable foreclosure processing.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan mentioned it again Friday, and I asked him if he’d heard if the state would use some of it to resurrect the state’s Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, which has not been in the budget this year or last.
The secretary didn’t know, but it has been brought up in budget hearings, there is some legislative support for it and a number of advocacy groups are backing it as well.
Meanwhile, forebearance on mortgages for unemployed borrowers is up to 12 months for Fannie, Freddie and FHA loans, and Bank of America and Wells Fargo has followed suit, Donovan said.
"$15 billion Project Rebuild, designed to fund rehabbing of houses abandoned through foreclosure and rescue commercial enterprises" - Please tell us where THIS $15 BILLION is coming from. China again? Half of the US is unemployed, and BILLIONS of OUR dollars go overseas to support other countries. And, being that we are $16TRILLION+ in debt, technically, we don't even HAVE $15 Billion to spend. And, not addressed is how this money will be recouped, if at all. The government will spend the money, because that is what they are good at, and some lucky banks or investors will reap the rewards. Obamanomics at its finest.
— dee99999- Anyone who wants to know the credibility of this columnist just has to read the columns from the halcyon days of housing, and the columns during the housing decline. This writer was a shill for the NAR during the bubble, "...you need to buy NOW..." and in denial during the decline, saying that housing would rebound, that the rising number of foreclosures was a clerical mistake, and so forth. This ex-newspaper lacks a clue. Now he is touting more government interference (at taxpayer expense) in getting the market cleared. You believe this irresponsible writer at your peril.
- Government intervention created the housing bubble and the damaging burst that came with it. It is beyond INSANE to think that government intervention is the answer to "fixing" the problem.
The only way for the real estate market to heal is to let the foreclosures happen, allow the market to reset itself to the natural levels of supply & demand and than move forward with the government totally out of the real estate and mortgage game.
As usual and always, government IS the problem and is NEVER the answer.— kelprod2 - But it makes the author feel so good to attend conferences, and have meetings, and discuss solutions. He feels so important.
"I reported that Pennsylvania’s attorney general would receive $70 million as the state's share of the $25 billion settlement over questionable foreclosure processing." That's scary! The money our government is constantly asking taxpayers to fund has grown beyond capacity.
"Homeowners in HAMP permanent modifications have saved about $11 billion to date.
Thats 11 billion that the people who were and have been responsible for their mortgages will have to pay in some way. How liberals like to spend everyone else's money like its their right to do so is something missing in myself as a human being.— jeffcap -
When interest rates drop, homeowners take notice. If rates dip lower than your current rate, refinancing may allow you to lower your monthly payment, potentially reducing the interest expenses you’ll pay over the life of the loan. Shop around use sources like 123 Refinance to compare rates
— inezfelts 
For the 3rd time in 75 years, the engines of capitalism stalled. The banking system has had 3 major heart attacks, only to be revived each time by the visionary policies of the Federal Government. First it was FDR, now it is Obama. When will the American public learn that the choice is between a free people living in a Democracy using the mechanism of the Federal Government as the sword and the shield of prosperity and human rights or the failure of the discredited bankers and their capitalistic boom and bust cycles of destruction? Democracy or capitalism, you can not have both.- Inflation for Dummies. Every economic reporter here at the Pinky should be required to wtch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8WReKlUFP4&feature=related— Phishface
