Foreclosures and Debt

Religious leaders and community activists and others gathered in Washington D.C. to meet with Federal officials, Congress and members of the Barack Obama transition team for a solution, such as more loan modifications and the like, to slow down the ever-growing foreclosure crisis that is affecting millions of homeowners. The religious leaders and prayerful were also there in Washington, D.C. to pray for some relief to homeowners facing foreclosure and eviction. Their prayers may have been answered, somewhat.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two of the largest home loan lenders in the U.S.,  have agreed to stop foreclosure and evictions for about six weeks beginning Nov 26, 2008 through January 9, 2009, just in time for the holidays. The suspension of foreclosures and evictions during this time period is designed to allow time for loan servicers to put in a place an efficient loan modification program to assist struggling homeowners.

According to Fannie Chief Executive Officer Herb Allison,

we felt it was in the best interest of both borrowers and Fannie Mae to take this extra step to ensure that homeowners with the desire and ability to prevent foreclosure have an opportunity to stay in their homes.

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Tags: Foreclosure News by Jacky
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After several weeks of billion dollar lifelines being thrown to Big Business and Wall Street, there appears to be a growing consensus that the mortgage crisis was caused by low-income home buyers.  Many people believe that because low to moderate income home-buyers received SUBPRIME mortgage loans to buy their homes from banks and brokers who turned around and sold investments backed by those SUBPRIME loans on Wall Street, that these home-buyers are responsible for the financial crisis we are currently experiencing in the United States and around the globe. Many are pointing directly at the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which was created to prevent redlining and discrimination in certain geographic neighborhoods by banks and lenders.

Just to name a few of the people blaming low income homeowners for “wanting the American Dream” are as follows from the Washington Post’s Clarence Page;

Neil Cavuto of Fox News opined last month that if banks hadn’t been forced to make loans to “minorities and risky folks,” the Wall Street disaster would not have happened.

Ann Coulter blamed “affirmative action lending policies” that loaded banks up with mortgages that eventually defaulted and brought the financial system to its knees.

George Will on ABC’s “This Week” blamed “regulation, in effect, with legislation, which would criminalize as racism and discrimination if you didn’t lend to unproductive borrowers,” because “the market would not have put people into homes they could not afford.”

And there’s Rep. Michele Bachmann, a conservative Minnesota Republican, who caused a stir in Congress by quoting an Investor’s Business Daily article that accused the CRA and President Bill Clinton of forcing banks to give out loans “on the basis of race and often little else.”

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Tags: Foreclosure Horrors by Jacky
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