As the song goes "what a difference a day makes." On Wednesday President Obama unveiled his $275 billion housing plan to help stem the tide of foreclosures. By the next day, mortgage lenders' phones were ringing off the hook. Lending Tree, the online mortgage lender had the highest loan request volume day for the month. Traffic at Zillow.com was up 56% on Wednesday.
While the program announced on Wednesday will help the foreclosure problem, it does not contain a provision for servicers to modify mortgages. Professor Chris Mayer, senior vice dean at Columbia University said that 50% of mortgage servicers have some kind of restriction on loan modification which can only be changed through legislation.
Under the Obama plan, up to five million homeowners who are still making payments but cannot obtain conventional mortgage financing, could refinance through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Separately, up to four million homeowners in danger of foreclosure could get their payments reduced through modification jointly paid for by the lender and the U.S. Treasury.
The plan would give mortgage servicers a $1000 fee and give homeowners up to $1000 to reduce their loan principal each year as long as they stay current.
The key to all of this is stabilization of the home market. Yes, there are skeptics. There will always be skeptics, but again doing nothing is not an option.
What are your feeling about this plan?











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-20-2009 @ 12:49PM
Iridium said...
Wow another unconstrained Obamagasm.
Wonderful, if you are current and actually struggling to pay all of your bills you really get nothing.
If you bought more house than you can afford you can get a goverment subsidy to reduce your mohthly payment so you can stay in your McMansion.
This plan is a croc, it does nothing to help good responsible middle class people. It is nothing more than a extented welfare plan to help low incom eindividuals who went out and bought giant houses on interest only mortages.
Sorry but if you can't pay for your house you should lose it. The point is that housing is too expensive and overshot the viable market by 200% in some cases.
This plan will only prevent the housing market from falling to the acceptable level it needs to be. If that is another 40% off current prices then that is where it needs to be.
The massive runup in housing cost is what planted the seeds of the crisis. We really aren't that bad off, it just seems that way because we lost so much fake paper wealth.
Housing never should have skyrocketed that far just like oil never should have gone up to $147. The fault lies with Wall Street and the speculators that we're getting rich off it. Nobody stopped to think that maybe just maybe we were overextending the wallets of every person living in America.
2-20-2009 @ 1:23PM
marie said...
Doing nothing should have been the right thing to do. Whatever the admin is doing now is like a chicken with it's head cut off.There needed to be a correction, with people spending out of control without any limits whatsoever. Unfortunately for the responsible people this is doomsday as we all have to pay for the irresponsible greedy bastards.
2-20-2009 @ 1:28PM
Leslie said...
Does this mean that if a family's new refinanced house loan is with Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (which are now controlled by the federal government) and they cannot make their payments, that the house will go back to the government? Sure sounds like it to me. Sounds like this was ultimately the Barry Obama plan.....the govenment will soon own and control a lot of houses. What happens then? Sounds like Russia to me !!!
2-20-2009 @ 1:36PM
mmdysert said...
Iridium is exactly right on. Politicians and wall st. alike payed no mind as prices and profits were rising. Citizens of this great country struggled as politicians and wall st. made a killing at the citizens expense and now they want our tax money to bail them out. We pay our bills on time and this is the treatment we get. The country is being run by morally inept swindlers. Let them fail, and the american people will pick up the pieces and the rebuilding of the country will happen.
2-20-2009 @ 1:38PM
Hoss said...
The Dow is down to a 6 year low...Thanks Mr. Obama. Keep giving away free money and see how far it can fall.
2-20-2009 @ 2:12PM
Robert Bigelow said...
Show me a case where subsidies really benefit the middle 65% of consumers/ Americans? Where is the bailout for people that sold properties in the past 2 years and just accepted the fact that there would be a loss associated with a bad investment? That is how the market works! The correction has to take place and on its' own terms not through a manipulation. Our government is famous for making the playing field un level. I took my $30,000 real estate loss like a Christian man ought to do. And, I'm prepared to accept any further loss in equity of my primary house until the market corrects. What I'm not prepared to do is have my government use the little money I have left to reward people who made bad decisions or lied on their loan apps. Oh, and by the way, I've paid more money in interest these past 5 years because honest responsible people who look out for the security of their offspring know that adjustable rate mortgages eventually rise (oh, actually, I thought everyone probably knows that) So, let's reward the people who have been paying less all of these year and then they play dumb when their payment increases. "Oh, they never told me my payment might actually go up some day...I thought my interest rate was 1 or 2% lower because I am such a good liar on my loan app"
2-20-2009 @ 3:25PM
Patrick Collins said...
I was just waiting for the Obajournalists to start trying to pass out "positive" news as soon as he had committed our next two generations to unyielding debt. Every analysis of this "stimulus" bill has given it a thumbs down - If you are "stimulated" by $72 a month more out of your payroll taxes, then we are well on our way to a recovery.
2-20-2009 @ 3:32PM
Patrick Collins said...
For 1 TRILLION dollars, the Federal Government could have suspended Income Taxes or Payroll Taxes for one year, given the money back to the people that earned it and watched the economy of this country and the world rebound in record time - think about it. People would catch up on their mortgages, payoff bills, save some money, and add the spending element we need to bolster local businesses.
No, let's send it to Washington to be wasted, stolen and misused - reading the bill there is very little to be categorized and targeted and temporary - just massive.
2-21-2009 @ 5:32AM
BELLCORD said...
NICE COMMENTS GUY'S...YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD'S ON FIRE AND YOU'RE THROWIN' ROCKS AT THE FIREMAN..
2-21-2009 @ 5:36AM
Lawrence Phoenix said...
YOU DIMBULBS MAY NOT HAVE SMELLED THE SMOKE YET BUT YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD'S ON FIRE SO QUIT THROWIN' ROCKS AT THE FIREMAN...
2-21-2009 @ 5:48AM
Lawrence Phoenix said...
AS A PRACTICAL MATTER, MOST OF THE 'LIAR'S LOANS' THAT LET TOTALLY UNQUALIFIED PEOPLE INTO A HOME WERE FORECLOSED 2 YEARS AGO..WHAT'S TRYING TO HELP IS JOE AND JANE HOMEOWNER WHOSE HOUSE TOOK A HIT IN VALUE AND THEY CAN'T REFI TO A LOWER RATE UNDER THE PRESENT STRUCTURE... IF THAT MAKES ME A 'OBAMA LOVER' WELL, BEIN' FROM THE SOUTH THAT'S NOT THE FIRST TIME BIGOT'S HAVE CALLED ME A 'SUMTHIN' LOVER '...