Free Republic

The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good. Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes.

Current mortgage rates should be the answer to everyone's prayers--the chance to refinance at articificially low rates and enjoy artificially low payments into the hereafter. But, as David Streitfeld explains in the NYT, banks aren't refinancing all that many loans. Why not? They've raised lending standards to where they should have been on the first go-round, which makes many homeowners ineligible Many loans are underwater, and banks won't lend more than the house is worth (shocking, we know). Many loans have been securitized, so your current bank can't just modify them on its own. Some key stats: An estimated six...

Acorn has been helping illegal aliens receive home loans for years. Finally the media is catching on that the government is complicit in helping the loans to go through. Fox report- video at link

The Subprime home mortgage collapse...a Primer. It's ALL about the CRA of 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977 - This required banks to offer credit throughout their entire market area for “underserved” populations and small businesses. The CRA gave incentives to help low income borrowers become “home owners”. Liberals call this group “low income borrowers”. Conservatives call them a RISK!The CRA was passed by the Carter administration. In 1995 the Clinton administration authorized subprime loans under the CRA. Democrats added these provisions for the securitization of subprime loans and then ENFORCED the lending to high risk individuals. By 2000,...

Posit: Underwater mortgages hurt home sales and increase delinquencies and foreclosures. People who have to pay their mortgage holder to sell their homes are less likely to be sellers. A home sold for $200,000 when it has a $250,000 mortgage is a home that the owner may not be able to afford to sell.People living in homes with monthly mortgage payment that stretch their abilities to cover their living costs may stay in homes that they believe have a lot of equity and where a sale will eventually bring them a profit. That hope for a bonanza may encourage them to go through the agony of making large payments....

After virtually every disaster created by Beltway politicians you can hear the sound of feet scurrying for cover in Washington, see fingers pointing in every direction away from Washington, and watch all sorts of scapegoats hauled up before Congressional committees to be denounced on television for the disasters created by members of the committee who are lecturing them. The word repeated endlessly in these political charades is "deregulation." The idea is that it was a lack of government supervision which allowed "greed" in the private sector to lead the nation into crises that only our Beltway saviors can solve. What...

In the spirit of bipartisanship, my newest book— "The Housing Boom and Bust"— shows how both Democrats and Republicans ruined both the housing markets and the financial markets. Like so many disasters, the current economic crisis grew out of policies based on good intentions and mushy thinking. For far too long, too many people have regarded home ownership as "a good thing." It is certainly true that home ownership has its benefits. But, like everything else, it also has its costs and its risks. Weighing such trade-offs is something that each individual and each family can do for themselves. It...

SAN FRANCISCO - -- The NAACP filed lawsuits Friday against two banks, alleging they discriminated against African Americans by using racist practices in mortgage lending. The class actions against Wells Fargo, based in San Francisco, and Illinois-based HSBC claim that black home owners were more than 30 percent likely to be issued a higher interest rate than white borrowers with the same qualifications. They say the banks used institutionalized, systematic racism against African Americans. "These banks have a pattern of charging black people more, even though they have good credit, good assets and good incomes," NAACP President and CEO Benjamin...

Now that the federal government has decided to bail out homeowners in trouble, with mortgage loans up to $729,000, that raises some questions that ought to be asked, but are seldom being asked. Since the average American never took out a mortgage loan as big as seven hundred grand-- for the very good reason that he could not afford it-- why should he be forced as a taxpayer to subsidize someone else who apparently couldn't afford it either, but who got in over his head anyway? Why should taxpayers who live in apartments, perhaps because they did not feel that...

This short news report might have been a bit longer if it had been written a couple of weeks later than it was. This story is dated September 5th and deals with one of the key issues about immigration that virtually no one is willing to talk about - especially politicians and others who subscribe to the open borders philosophy and to the idea of providing the millions of illegal aliens who are in our country with a Guest Worker Amnesty Program and a "Pathway to United States Citizenship." It deals with illegal aliens using stolen Social Security numbers and...

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander hopes to raise awareness about a program that could help thousands of Tennesseans. He says roughly 67,000 Tennessee homeowners with overdue mortgages could use "Hope for Homeowners" to refinance their loans. “HOPE for Homeowners" is a way for homeowners to refinance delinquent mortgages if their lenders agree to participate. This program is a good step toward boosting confidence in the housing market and helping preserve the American dream for the millions of people facing possible foreclosure,” says Alexander. His office says "HOPE for Homeowners" is a voluntary initiative to help distressed borrowers refinance their mortgages. It...

... McCain's campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) fastened on a Wall Street Journal report that said that Jim Johnson, the mortgage executive leading Obama's vice presidential hunt, had received preferential home loans. ... the Republican's chief economic adviser Doug Holtz-Eakin said the reported loans to Johnson from Countrywide Financial raised troubling questions. "And I thought it was remarkable that Senator Obama could talk about housing, talk about ethics, and fail to mention that he entrusted the single most important decision in his campaign, the choice of the vice presidentil running mate, to a gentlemen, Mr. Johnson, who benifitted...

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The white bus rumbles into the quiet suburban neighborhood, heading toward a foreclosed home that sits empty. Neighbors, young and old, cock their heads in curiosity or point at the slow-moving coach. Once the vehicle stops, about 20 potential buyers file out and become detectives, opening and closing cabinets and drawers, knocking on walls and asking about the price, the previous owners and what repairs may be needed. Welcome to the Foreclosure Bus Tour, a six-hour expedition to show Orlando-area homes and educate potential buyers on the vagaries of snatching foreclosures in a state where the...

The National Association of Realtors testified today in Congress that the Veterans Home Loan Guaranty Program should continue to be a valuable asset in helping the nation's veterans achieve the dream of homeownership in a way that is safe, fair and affordable. "The VA Home Loan Guarantee Program is designed to provide favorable loan terms for veterans who are unable to qualify for a conventional loan," said Tony Agurs, a member of the NAR Board of Directors and Realtor from California who is a 21-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran. "The VA program offers unique and important benefits for helping our...

he hunt continues! A couple of weeks ago we discussed the various types of Realtors one is likely to come across. Now it is time for the loan officers to be exposed. Once again, this post is littered with stereotypes and generalizations, but we all know we have run across these folks at some point in our lending careers so don't get all politically correct on me. It would be wise for consumers to figure out which one they are dealing with. The Gangster: Maybe you haven't heard, gangs and street thugs have figured out that mortgage fraud is a...

They had small means and big hopes of owning a house. But African-Americans snared in the US mortgage crisis have seen the American dream turn into a nightmare many call "financial apartheid." The storm triggered by risky "subprime" loans has left many in ruins, forced out of their modest homes and furious at falling victim to financial dealings that have taken a particular toll on minority families. "People of color are more than three times more likely to have subprime loans," concluded the organization United for a Fair Economy in a recent report which estimated that minorities have seen between...

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Senator Barack Obama, vying for the Democratic presidential candidacy, vowed to change bankruptcy laws and cap interest rates during his campaign tour in Southern California, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. During what his campaign dubbed a "Roundtable on Economic Opportunity" there, Obama called for an exemption in the 2005 bankruptcy bill for people who can persuade a bankruptcy court that they filed for bankruptcy because of debts caused by medical expenses. His proposal also includes extending the 36-percent limit on payday loans to military members to all Americans; encouraging banks, credit unions and...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mortgage applications surged last week to their highest in nearly 2-1/2 years as interest rates plunged, an industry group said on Wednesday. The Mortgage Bankers Association said its seasonally adjusted index of mortgage applications for the week ended November 30 surged 22.5 to 791.8, its highest since July 2005. Borrowing costs on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, excluding fees, averaged 5.82 percent, down 0.27 percentage point from the previous week and its lowest since the week ended September 16, 2005. Last week's interest rates were also below year-ago levels, which then were 5.98 percent. Mortgage rates have fallen...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In May, Alvin Clavon received a foreclosure notice on the simple, Spanish-style house in South Los Angeles that he shares with his wife and three boys. Clavon bought the place in 2003 with a fixed-rate loan. They painted the walls, fixed the yard and made friends with the neighbors, who let the Clavon boys pick their basil. In 2005, he worked with a mortgage broker to refinance his home with another fixed-rate loan. But on the night before signing, the family was offered an interest-only, adjustable-rate mortgage. Clavon, a 35-year-old executive assistant at a bank, said...

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 It is remarkable how many political "solutions" today are dealing with problems created by previous political "solutions." Three examples that come to mind immediately are the housing market crisis, the wildfires in southern California, and the water shortages in the west. Congress and the Bush administration are currently vying with each other to come up with a solution to the housing crisis, brought on by widespread defaults on home mortgage loans -- especially defaults by those who took out risky "subprime" loans. Why were borrowers taking out risky loans in the first place? And why were...

Sheriff Leo McGuire presides over foreclosure auctions in Bergen County, New Jersey, where the bidding for a home reached $1.2 million last June — a record for one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. Homes sold on the auction block for as much as $852,000 this month — more than quadruple the median home price in the United States. County officials believe they are close to setting another record soon. In Troy, Michigan, Dorothy Guzek, a credit counselor since 1988, has also seen the changing face of foreclosure. Her clients, while predominantly poor and minorities, increasingly are neither. Nowadays,...

With home foreclosures surging, senators on Wednesday examined lending practices that especially hurt minorities and seniors and can heighten the risk of default. Sen. Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Banking Committee, said the mortgage industry has to take greater responsibility and federal regulators may have to intervene. "We are seeing increasing evidence that this important source of wealth for so many American families is under a grave threat from predatory, abusive and irresponsible lending practices undertaken by too many subprime lenders," Dodd, D-Conn., said at a hearing. "The industry has got to step up," he said....

EVERY day, Will Hertzberg owns a little less of his three-bedroom house in Corona. Like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners around the state, Hertzberg has a mortgage that lets him choose how much he pays each month. ADVERTISEMENT Like many of them, he always chooses to pay as little as possible. For the moment, this allows the 56-year-old Hertzberg to continue living in his tract home despite being only marginally employed. But his debt is swelling, and his mortgage company controls his fate. "I am rather screwed," he said.

SAN FRANCISCO — The University of California has awarded $702 million in low-interest home loans to executives, faculty and staffers, including some to employees who did not qualify under university policy. There are nearly 2,000 active university-issued loans, most carrying interest rates of 3% to 4%, but some with much lower rates, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. Officials with the 10-campus system refused to reveal who received the money, citing employee confidentiality. But they released some details, including an unidentified UC Berkeley professor who was given a $250,000 home loan with an interest rate of 0.5% a year. An...

Immigrants look at housing with caution Metro lenders, agents report drop in sales By TERESA BORDEN, BRIAN FEAGANS The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 06/04/06 Home buying among Latinos in metro Atlanta has slowed significantly in recent months amid jitters over immigration reform, say real estate agents and lenders who cater to the Spanish-speaking community. The cooldown is an early sign that a new Georgia law intended to reduce illegal immigration, enacted less than two months ago, could be having an effect. Many prospective buyers also are apparently waiting for a resolution to the pitched battle in Congress over what to...

AP) LOS ANGELES The city of Gardena has reached a tentative agreement with two banks to refinance about $18 million in unpaid debt tied largely to a disastrous insurance venture. Officials say the move will stave off the possibility of bankruptcy at City Hall. The agreement calls for the industrial city to repay about 85 percent of $25.5 million in outstanding obligations. Mayor Paul Tanaka says the city will not need to raise taxes to manage the restructured payments. The refinanced debt will be repaid over 30 years. Gardena was saddled with the huge bill -- equal to about three-quarters...

The San Diego housing market is one of the most expensive in the country and many first-time home buyers are simply priced out of the market. Even if you can somehow scrape together enough money for a down payment, rising interest rates and mortgage insurance make it exceedingly difficult to become a homeowner. That is, unless you happen to be an illegal alien. If you are in the country illegally, don’t have a valid social security number and use a taxpayer ID number instead, you’re in luck. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has persuaded Citibank, one...

We’ve all seen the Rube Goldberg apparatus where the money is dumped into a funnel at one end, goes round and round in a maze of gears, tubing and inter-connected steaming kettles, and bingo, out pops some sort of product at the other end

`If you are still making money selling drugs, you are an informant or about to be busted. A white-collar crime wave is raking Chicago's poorest communities, robbing vulnerable families of their homes and draining billions of dollars from the U.S. economy. During the last five years, as home loans became easier than ever to get and identity theft blossomed, mortgage fraud surged. FBI officials say it now threatens to become a national financial epidemic. Gang members call it "the new street hustle." "If you are still making money selling drugs, you are an informant or about to be busted. Mortgage...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The banking industry is opening its doors to a controversial new market: illegal immigrants. Despite heated political debate in Washington over illegal immigration in the United States, an increasing number of banks are seeing an untapped resource for growing their own revenue stream and contend that providing undocumented residents with mortgages will help revitalize local communities. It's a win-win situation, they say. But skeptics worry about the message these home loans send to illegal immigrants: break our laws and we'll reward you with a home. "It's institutionalizing illegality," said Marti Dinerstein, president of Immigration Matters, a...

Daley to ask for $250,000 for new program. Chicago public school teachers would be eligible to receive up to $7,500 toward a housing mortgage under a new program announced Tuesday. Mayor Richard Daley said he will ask the City Council to appropriate $250,000 for the program. Chicago Public Schools is expected to match that amount. An ordinance authorizing the program is expected to be introduced Wednesday in the City Council. The Teacher Homebuyer Assistance Program would provide grants of $7,500 to teachers buying homes in new mixed income developments intended to replace the Chicago Housing Authority’s low-income housing developments. Those...

WaMu cutting 2,500 jobs in closure of 100 offices Washington Mutual Inc. is closing about 100 lending and loan origination offices in 17 markets, resulting in the elimination of about 1,840 positions across the nation. Combined layoffs will total about 2,500 by the end of the year when the closure of a San Antonio processing center, announced Wednesday, is added to the list.The cuts are in addition to 7,700 layoffs announced earlier."We are going to focus even more attention on the high-growth markets where we can gain additional leverage from the company's overall branding efforts," Tony Meola, executive vice president...