Foreclosures and Debt

In spite of all the good intentions that the Banks and the Obama Administration had in mind when they initiated the Making Home Affordable loan modification program to stop foreclosure for home borrowers that were facing foreclosures, there were many borrowers unable to qualify for the program. Due to the inability of the “Making Home Affordable” program to help stop foreclosure for a large number of ineligible, willing applicants, foreclosures continued to spiral out of control. Many families despite their efforts to keep their homes, were unqualified for  foreclosure avoidance programs offered and had to give up their American Dream of home ownership that they worked so hard for.

Not so fast! Fannie Mae have come up with another option for slowing foreclosures, “Deed for Lease™ Program”. The Deed for Lease program announced by Fannie Mae in November, is a program designed to offer up another option for borrowers facing foreclosure who do not qualify for other stop foreclosure programs like loan modifications. The way it works is that qualifying homeowners facing foreclosure may be able to stay in their homes if they sign a lease and at the same time, voluntarily transfer the deed of the property back to the lender, also called “deed in lieu of foreclosure”. The primary aim of the Deed for Lease program is to help alleviate the problems associated with foreclosure, such as uprooting families, decaying neighborhoods and other harddships caused by foreclosures. According to the Vice President of Fannie Mae, Jay Ryan, Deed for Lease is another option for troubled borrowers facing foreclosures; [Read more →]

Tags: Foreclosure News, Stop Foreclosure by Jacky
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Exploding foreclosure rates have continued in 2009 in the U.S., especially in California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona. Under the Bush Administration there were programs initiated to help homeowners facing foreclosures starting in 2007, such as FHA Secure, Project Hope and others that did not appear to produce much fruit. Foreclosures continue to spiral out-of-control up until this day.

Now, President Obama and his Administration has rolled out what is sure to be a few of many programs to address the run away foreclosure rates and help about 9 million homeowners save and keep their homes. One such program launched this month is the “Making Home Affordable” Program. The “Making Home Affordable” program, is a two-prong approach for the foreclosure crisis that involves loan modification and refinancing programs for struggling homeowners. The loan modification approach is designed to bring lenders and borrowers together to modify the terms of their loan by lowering interest rates to as low as 2 percent for five years. After the five years, rates will rise to about five percent until the loan is repaid. For eligible borrowers, they will have to provide their most recent tax return and two pay stubs, as well as an “affidavit of financial hardship” to qualify for the loan modification program, which runs through 2012. Making Home Affordable modification program guidelines are as follows;

The home must be an owner occupied, single family 1-4 unit property (including condominium, cooperative, and manufactured home affixed to a foundation and treated as real property under state law). [Read more →]

Tags: Home Loans by Jacky
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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.

[Read more →]

Tags: Foreclosure News by Jacky
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In a bold move to try and slow down the foreclosure melt downs, JP Morgan Chase has put a stop to placing delinquent home loans into foreclosure for 90 days to try to help homeowners keep their homes. The Chase foreclosure plan will cease putting delinquent loans into the foreclosure process for 90 days as it puts a loan modification team together and implement their mortgage rescue plan. Their foreclosure prevention plan is intended to assist home loan borrowers at risk of foreclosure receive mortgage modifications. Loan modifications have been pretty hard to get in this mortgage crisis since many homeowners owe more on their home loans than their home is worth. A loan modification is the process by which the homeowner tries to get the terms of their loan modified to accommodate affordabilty. JP Morgan Chase plans to prevent unnecessary foreclosures with an independent review process to assist homeowners who may not need to be placed in foreclosure, and hire and train more staff for the caseload of loans.

Despite the fact that JP Morgan Chase is one of the largest banks affected by the foreclosure crisis, holding 1.5 Trillion dollars in mortgage loans, will be implement their plan on loans held by the bank which is only about 20% and the other 80% of loans are held by investors whose loans they service and are currently not figured into this plan, yet. According to Charlie Scharf, CEO of Retail Financial Services at Chase,

While Chase has helped many families already, we feel it is our responsibility to provide additional help to homeowners during these challenging times. We will work with families who want to save their homes but are struggling to make their payments.

One of the program’s first priorities, is to eliminate the negative amortization loans it services, most of which they inherited when they took over Washington Mutual Bank and EMC. This is a significant addition to its current foreclosure prevention program. [Read more →]

Tags: Foreclosure News by Jacky
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