McCain Campaign Seeks Input From Public On "Homeowner Resurgence Plan"

But you are right about the guy who didn’t make his payments getting bailed out and you getting the shaft.

But how do you think this guy would feel. Two guys bought houses with subprime loans starting at 4%. They adjusted to 13%. One stopped paying while the other one took a second job, etc. and kept paying. The first guy gets a new deal lowering the principle and the interest rate while the second guy gets the shaft. Not quite fair, is it?

I put a bid in two days ago and have not received a response from the builder. Can you say what some of the delay might be? This is a sincere question.

This is EXACTLY what I’m talking about.

To Terry Mross: I know the Federal government has no control over property taxes. My point is that all governments are out of control and the people who try to do things the right way get ripped off. Until we have a real choice in elections and stop voting the same losers into office, nothing will ever change.

“Being in home sales, I’ve always told people to finance all they could and not put money in the home. The days of buying a home and reselling it for a huge profit ended years ago”.

Of course, if people actually had to put a down payment on a home to qualify for a mortgage, they might not be so eager to walk away from a mortgage when home prices drop, or the economy gets weak. We see how great that turned out.

I’m also of the old school that doesn’t like to pay mortgage interest. I realize that it’s not only the monthly payment but the total cost of the loan. I’m one of the dumb people that pays extra so I can reduce the total interest expense and pay down the principal. Otherwise, I would just rent and put the rest in savings, it’s cheaper.

Wayne Rogers said tonight on Geralso “Throw all of ‘em out!” I’d be willing to vote against my incumbent even if I liked what he was doing. Get rid of ‘em all!

And you’re right. The corruption starts at the smallest government and goes to the top.

Trapper John was right.

“Dont do anything until you have an investigation...starting now into who started this whole mess and make them pay!!”

Agreed. And how quickly so many of us have forgotten when it’s all right here...2002. In fact, I’ve yet to hear the media mention this....

.....” Now, we’ve got a problem here in America that we have to address. Too many American families, too many minorities do not own a home. There is a home ownership gap in America. The difference between Anglo America and African American and Hispanic home ownership is too big. And we’ve got to focus the attention on this nation to address this.

And it starts with setting a goal. And so by the year 2010, we must increase minority home owners by at least 5.5 million. In order to close the homeownership gap, we’ve got to set a big goal for America, and focus our attention and resources on that goal.

And I picked a good man to help realize that goal, in Mel Martinez. I don’t know if you know Mel’s story, but — it’s an interesting story. Mel was born in Cuba. Yes. Mel brought his cousins with him. All two of them, anyway......

.....My point is, Mel understands what it means to dream, and then to work to realize the dreams. I’ve also picked a fine friend of mine from Texas, named Alphonso Jackson, to serve as the Deputy of HUD. And where are you, Alphonso? There he is; I appreciate you. These are can-do people. So when we set a goal, they understand their job is to work toward that goal.”.....

..... I do believe in the American Dream. I believe there is such a thing as the American Dream. And I believe those of us who have been given positions of responsibility must do everything we can to spotlight the dream and to make sure the dream shines in all neighborhoods, all throughout our country. Owning a home is a part of that dream, it just is. Right here in America if you own your own home, you’re realizing the American Dream.

You know, today I went to the — to some of the home — met some of the homeowners in this newly built homes and all you’ve got to do is shake their hand and listen to their stories and watch the pride that they exhibit when they show you the kitchen and the stairs — so people like Ken Beatty, who is an environmentalist; or Al Smith, a probation officer; or Geary Jefferson a data base administrator; or Darrin West, an Atlanta police officer, Tamika Henry — Tomika Henry Cole.

These are all people that I’ve met; they’ve come over here today. They showed me their home. They didn’t show me somebody else’s home, they showed me their home. And they are so proud to own their home and I want to thank them for their hospitality, because it helps the American people really understand what it means.

And what we’ve got to do is to figure out how to make sure these stories are repeated over and over and over again in America. Three-quarters of white America owns their homes. Less than 50 percent of African Americans are part of the homeownership in America. And less than 50 percent of the Hispanics who live here in this country own their home. And that has got to change for the good of the country. It just does.

And so here are some of the ways to address the issue. First, the single greatest barrier to first time homeownership is a high downpayment. It is really hard for many, many, low income families to make the high downpayment. And so that’s why I propose and urge Congress to fully fund the American Dream Downpayment Fund. This will use money, taxpayers’ money to help a qualified, low income buyer make a downpayment. And that’s important.

One of the barriers to homeownership is the inability to make a downpayment. And if one of the goals is to increase homeownership, it makes sense to help people pay that downpayment. We believe that the amount of money in our budget, fully approved by Congress, will help 40,000 families every year realize the dream of owning a home. Part of the success of Park Place is that the city of Atlanta already does this. And we want to make the plan more robust. We want to make it more full all across America.

Secondly, there is a lack of affordable housing in certain neighborhoods. Too many neighborhoods, especially in inner city America, lack affordable housing units. How can you promote homeownership if people can’t afford a home?

And so what I’ve done is propose what we call a Single Family Affordable Housing Tax Credit, to encourage the development of affordable housing in neighborhoods where housing is scarce. Over five years, the initiative amounts to $2.4 billion in tax credits. And that will help. It will help a lot to build homes where people can — where when fully implemented, people will be able to say, I own my home.

A third major barrier is the complexity and difficulty of the home buying process. There’s a lot of fine print on these forms. And it bothers people, it makes them nervous. And so therefore, what Mel has agreed to do, and Alphonso Jackson has agreed to do is to streamline the process, make the rules simpler, so everybody understands what they are — makes the closing much less complicated.

We certainly don’t want there to be a fine print preventing people from owning their home. We can change the print, and we’ve got to. We’ve got to be wise about how we deal with the closing documents and all the regulations, but also wise about how we help people understand what it means to own their home and the obligations and the opportunities.

And so, therefore, education is a critical component of increasing ownership throughout America. Financial education, housing counseling, how to help people understand that there are unscrupulous lenders. And so one of the things we’re going to do is we’re going to promote education, the education of owning a home, the education of buying a home throughout our society. And we want to fully implement the Section 8 housing program, homeownership program. The program will provide vouchers that first-time home buyers can use to help pay their mortgage or apply to their downpayment.

Many of the partners today, many of the people here today, many of the business leaders here today are creating a market for the mortgages where Section 8 vouchers are a source of the payment. And that’s good — see, it’s an underpinning of capital. It helps move capital to where we want capital to go.

And so these are important initiatives that we can do at the federal government. And the federal government, obviously, has to play an important role, and we will. We will. I mean, when I lay out a goal, I mean it. But we also have got to bring others into the process, most particularly the real estate industry. After all, the real estate industry benefits when people are encouraged to buy homes. It’s in their self interest that we encourage people to buy homes.

And so one of the things that I’m going to talk about a little bit today is how to create a sustained commitment by the private sector that will have a powerful impact. First of all, we want to make sure that we help work to expand capital available to buyers, and as I mentioned, overcome the barriers that I’ve delineated, as well as provide the education component. In other words, this is not just a federal responsibility.

That’s why I’ve challenged the industry leaders all across the country to get after it for this goal, to stay focused, to make sure that we achieve a more secure America, by achieving the goal of 5.5 million new minority home owners. I call it America’s home ownership challenge.

And let me talk about some of the progress which we have made to date, as an example for others to follow. First of all, government sponsored corporations that help create our mortgage system — I introduced two of the leaders here today — they call those people Fannie May and Freddie Mac, as well as the federal home loan banks, will increase their commitment to minority markets by more than $440 billion. I want to thank Leland and Franklin for that commitment. It’s a commitment that conforms to their charters, as well, and also conforms to their hearts.

This means they will purchase more loans made by banks after Americans, Hispanics and other minorities, which will encourage homeownership. Freddie Mac will launch 25 initiatives to eliminate homeownership barriers. Under one of these, consumers with poor credit will be able to get a mortgage with an interest rate that automatically goes down after a period of consistent payments.

Fannie Mae will establish 100 partnerships with faith-based organizations that will provide home buyer education and help increase homeownership for their congregations. I love the partnership.

The Enterprise Foundation and the local initiative support corporation will increase efforts to build and rehabilitate more homes in inner cities at affordable prices by working with local community development corporations.

In my home state of Texas, Enterprise helped turn the once decaying ideal neighborhood of Dallas into a vibrant community, by building homes that were sold to residents at affordable prices. The National Association of Home Builders will team up with local officials, home builder associations and community groups in 20 of our nation’s largest housing markets, to focus on how to eliminate barriers, and encourage homeownership.

The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation will dramatically expand financial and home buyer education efforts to 380,000 minority families. The Neighborhood Housing Services of America will raise $750 million to promote homeownership initiatives in many communities. We’re beginning to use the Internet better, so that realtors all across the country will be able to call up programs all designed to help minority home buyers understand what’s available, what’s possible, and what to avoid. The National Realtors Association will create a central data bank of affordable housing programs, which will be made available to agents, real estate agents, to help people.

So these are some of the beginnings of a national effort. And I want to thank all those who are responsible for the organizations I just named for lending your talents to this important effort for America. You know, one of the things Presidents can do, is they can call the old conference. So I’m going to call one — just to make sure people understand, not only are we serious, but to let them check in. If they’ve signed up and said they’re going to help, this will give everybody a chance to say, here’s what I’ve done to help. It’s what we call accountability.

And so this fall, we’re going to have a White House conference. It is a White House conference specifically designed to address the homeownership gap. It is a White House conference that will not only say, what have you done to date, have you got any new ideas that we can share with others as well. I’m serious about this. This is a very important initiative for all of America. See, it is a chance for us to empower people. We’re not going to talk about empowering government, we’re talking about empowering people, so they have got choices over their lives.

I want to go back to where I started. I believe out of the evil done to America will come incredible good. I believe that as sure as I’m standing here. I believe we can achieve peace. I believe that we can address hopelessness and despair where hopelessness and despair exist. And listen, I understand that in this great country, there are too many people who say, this American Dream, what does that mean; my eyes are shut to the American Dream, I don’t see the dream. And we’d better make sure, for the good of the country, that the dream is vibrant and alive.

It starts with having great education systems for every single child. It means that we unleash the faith-based programs to help change people’s hearts, which will help change their lives. It means we use the mighty muscle of the federal government in combination with state and local governments to encourage owning your own home. That’s what that means. And it means — it means that each of us, each of us, have a responsibility in the great country to put something greater than ourselves — to promote something greater than ourselves.

And to me, that something greater than yourself is to love a neighbor like you’d like to be loved yourself. In order to change America and to make sure the great American Dream shines in every community, every community, we must unleash the compassion and kindness of the greatest nation on the face of the earth. “.....

GWBush

or to buy stock but the funds could not be touched for at least 5 years.

Concentrated infusions and withdrawals to/from the stock market are inefficient due to market friction.

The government should stop rewarding the irresponsible and saddling the responsible with the bill.

Good summary of the problems - not just on this issues, but many others (taxes, health care, etc)

If home values are declining, why are my property taxes still going up? And why does the state not down value my home?

Make it a law that if a home has been devalued, property taxes are adjusted accordingly.

In most states (perhaps all), it is up to the property owner to request a reevaluation of their home value. I know that in Texas and California, the instructions for doing so are on the back of the property tax bill. It's easy to do - and I've had my property taxes lowered many times after requesting a reevaluation.

“Why are just the losers that put nothing down going to get help??”

Because a large number of those ‘losers’ are also ILLEGAL ALIENS. Allowing those ILLEGAL ALIENS to maintain the homeownership that Bush’s 2002 “Ownership Society” intended, also makes it very difficult to deport and will continue to be an excuse for McCain’s giving them AMNESTY.

I agree this thing stinks, but just for the record, McCain’s Homeowner Resurgence Plan does state that eligible mortgage holders must prove “their creditworthiness at the time of the original loan (no falsifications and provided a down payment).”

I sent the following (don’t know how much good it’ll do):

First, an investigation needs to be done on all foreclosures. Why are the owners in foreclosure?

Was it due to loss of income? Divorce and division of property? Forced to move and couldn’t sell home? Maybe they need help. But, not a hand out.

Was it because they bought into too much house and debt? Playing get rich quick and it didn’t work? Then, these people should either get a second job to help out like so many people in the past have done or lose the house. Maybe they couldn’t really afford a home in the first place? Regardless, it is their responsibility for taking on more debt than they could afford. Are we in the business of rewarding bad behavior? Be careful that you don’t create a precedence for future home owners.

Second, if the banks/lenders had been willing to work with people BEFORE all this mess happened, the housing market would not be in this terrible mess. And, yet, here we are helping them when they would not help the homeowner.

I’ve heard stories of how the banks have put off the concerns of the home owners until three months had passed which automatically put the home in foreclosure.

Third, what about all the people who have already lost their homes and good credit? How is any of this helping them?

The government should stop rewarding the irresponsible and saddling the responsible with the bill.

But then, all our politicians would have to find other work.

Those are some great substantive points and suggestions you make. I don’t know how much good our input will do either, but it certainly can’t hurt.
Good job, they need to hear from us.

Yeah, let’s just hope the email when “somewhere.”