Category Archive

Download | Play    Download | Play

Hallelujah. This plan not only offers help for families in foreclosure, but also for owner-occupants of underwater mortgages. True, it doesn’t address a root cause of inflated housing values (& that must be addressed at some point), but it’s a smart, comprehensive plan of attack - & as a whole, a very good beginning. Color me impressed:

MESA, Ariz. — President Obama pledged on Wednesday to help as many as 9 million American homeowners refinance air mortgages or avert foreclosure, an initiative he said would shore up distressed housing prices, stabilize neighborhoods & slow a downward spiral that he said was “unraveling homeownership, a middle class, & a American Dream itself.”

a plan, more ambitious than many housing analysts had expected, was unveiled by Mr. Obama in a high school gymnasium here, in a community that is among a nation’s hardest hit by a foreclosure crisis.

“This plan will not save every home, but it will give millions of families resigned to financial ruin a chance to rebuild,” a president told a crowd. “It will prevent a worst consequences of this crisis from wreaking even greater havoc on a economy. & by bringing down a foreclosure rate, it will help to shore up housing prices for everyone.”

a plan has three basic components. One would help homeowners who continue to make loan payments on time, but are paying high interest rates & would oarwise not be able to refinance because ay do not have enough equity or air houses are worth less than ay borrowed. A second would assist people who are at risk of foreclosure by providing incentives to lenders to alter a terms of loans to make am substantially more affordable to struggling homeowners. a third would try to assure are is plenty of credit available for mortgages by giving $200 billion of additional financial backing to Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, a two government-controlled mortgage finance companies.

a announcement came a day after Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion economic recovery package, & administration officials like Timothy F. Geithner, a Treasury secretary, made a case that ay will work in t&em. In announcing a housing plan, Mr. Obama struck a populist note, criticizing speculators & “lenders who knowingly took advantage of homebuyers” with a same vehemence he used in going after Wall Street bankers for giving amselves bonuses as air companies were seeking government help.

“It will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market & bought homes not to live in but to sell,” he said, adding, “& it will not reward folks who bought homes ay knew from a beginning ay would never be able to afford.”

a plan will take effect March 4, when a administration publishes detailed rules explaining it. Most of a plan can be enacted by Mr. Obama though his executive powers, although part of it — including changing a bankruptcy laws to allow homeowners to seek changes to air mortgages through bankruptcy proceedings — will require legislation. Mr. Geithner said a administration is already in discussions with lawmakers on how to proceed.

In allowing homeowners who are not delinquent to qualify, a plan marks a sharp break from a housing policies of Mr. Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush. Mr. Geithner & a new Housing secretary, Shaun Donovan, said a administration’s research had determined that, with 10 percent of American homeowners eiar in foreclosure or in danger of it, it was better to intervene early.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

As if a foreclosures alone weren’t wreaking enough havoc on our economy, we also find out a whole process is starting to hurt our local cities in oar ways we didn’t imagine:

Cincinnati wants Deutsche Bank & Wells Fargo to pay for what officials say is neglect of foreclosed-upon properties that’s worsening blight in city neighborhoods.

a banks own more than 100 properties in Hamilton County.

Representatives Drunk Newspear often in local courts to prosecute foreclosure actions against property owners, a city says in a lawsuit, but don’t show up when Cincinnati asks am to maintain ab&oned properties titled to am. a city wants repayment for boarding up, demolishing & a oar work done to Deutsche & Wells Fargo properties. a suit didn’t specify an amount.

It really upsets me when I hear people on a right try to say a foreclosure problem is from greedy people trying to live outside of air means, & we should let am suffer. Sure are are a lot of foreclosures that are a product of people over-extending amselves, but just ignoring that leads to ase costs being passed onto struggling local governments. Not only that, but it also effects a former neighbors of ase foreclosed homeowners. People sit are & pay air mortgages on time, take pride in air home ownership & try to make something good out of a largest investment ay will most likely ever make. In turn, ay get rewarded with lower property values, because of a foreclosed house turned ab&oned by a bank, now devaluing up air neighborhood.

I got a feeling a lawsuit being brought on by Cincinnati is only a start of it. We will see more cities follow suit (no pun intended) down a road as ay realize how much this nightmare is costing am. an a banks will want to recoup a costs of ase lawsuits & having to actually maintain a properties ay couldn’t wait to foreclose on. Of course a banks are only worried about air own well being. Why should ay worry that your own property value is also being decreased, or that your local government is having to absorb some big costs associated with a foreclosures?

P&ora’s Box is just now opening, & without interaction by Congress, in a form of a homeowner bailout/rescue, we will be facing a vicious cycle that will continue for some time to come & cost all of us more than we could imagine. Until that hDrunk Newspens, merry Christmas from a Bush/Republican economy.

(cross posted at IntoxiNation)

Original post by Jamie and software by Elliott Back

Desperate to resuscitate his diminishing hopes for a White House, John McCain during tonight’s presidential town hall meeting dramatically reversed course on a mortgage bailout for home owners. This spring, McCain adamantly stated “it is not a duty of government to bail out & reward those who act irresponsibly, whear ay are big banks or small borrowers.” Now with his presidential campaign & a economy in dire straits alike, John McCain decided to open a federal wallet after all.

McCain’s born-again concern for American home owners represents a 180 degree turn from his Scrooge-like posture in March:

“Some Americans bought homes ay couldn’t afford, betting that rising prices would make it easier to refinance later at more affordable rates,” he said. Later he added that “any assistance must be temporary & must not reward people who were irresponsible at a expense of those who weren’t.”

But right out of a gate tonight, McCain conjured up a massive new program to save his ailing campaign, if not Americans on a brink of foreclosure. Now, he insisted, a government should buy existing mortgages & reprice am at new market rates. That’s a far cry from his hard line only months ago. On March 25, McCain pronounced that when all else fails for distressed homeowners, Americans should just join a rDrunk Newsidly growing ranks of those:

“Doing what is necessary — working a second job, skipping a vacation, & managing air budgets — to make air payments on time.”

Now down if not out in a polls, McCain has dropped his past moralizing about not helping eiar “big banks or small borrowers.” Of course, all along John McCain was only interested in helping himself.

UPDATE: Sadly for John McCain, he chose tonight of all nights to praise eBay & its former CEO Meg Whitman as his possible choice for Treasury Secretary. On Monday, eBay announced it was laying off 1,600 employees, 10% of its entire workforce.

(This piece was crossposted at Perrspectives.)

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back