Housing Industry Looks To Help Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

The goal of the housing industry is to help more homeowners before, or right after, they become delinquent on their payments, and organizations are starting to beef up their outreach efforts to meet that challenge.

On the morning of Jan. 10, a group of local real estate lawyers will offer free legal advice to worried homeowners as part of a foreclosure helpline. Attorneys' Title Guaranty Fund Inc. has offered a general legal assistance hotline in the past but decided it was time to dedicate one morning just to foreclosure issues, given the variety of rescue scams that have surfaced.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

The housing industry is toast. And they know it.

Banks have exactly two choices now: (1) they can watch loan after loan default, and chase homeless families out of the houses that they cannot re-sell; or (2) they can re-negotiate in good faith with the homeowners to try to keep the loans performing ... at something less than a TOTAL loss.

For many years, every pasture that anyone could find was scraped flat, a fancy entrance-way was built, and one or more "spec" homes and clubhouses were put in place. Banks happily financed the money used to buy the lot, build the entrance and so-on.

There will be no "Uncle Sugar guv'mint bailout." It's just not going to happen. "Uncle Sugar" happens to be broke too. So, ALL OR PART of your spanking new loan is WORTHLESS. Your question as a banker/businessman is: how much? ALL, or PART?

[Harrier]

Make no mistake about it, this is a far greater threat to the people of this country than 911 for sure. if the government ever wanted to help the middle class or people who have mortgages, it would have been done long ago. The goal is to give the small scraps to the few that are connected and throw everything and the kitchen sink to everyone who was rich-the middle class is shrinking and getting smaller and the rich are getting richer. Their will be a time very soon when the middle class will refuse to pay anything and this crisis will get worse. There will never be any relief for anyone with mortgage. Pieces of larger banks need to be sold to smaller banks who were responsible. Change the power structure to those who have proven themselves.

[djgonebad]

Received a letter from Chase Bank, raising our mortgage $200+. They based it on: A PERCEIVED ESTIMATE THAT OUR 2009 PROPERTY TAXES INCREASE $4,000. ¨¨IN DEARBORN MI?!!! YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING DOWN IN THE CAR CAPITAL OF THE UNITED STATES!!! GIVE ME A BREAK!!¨¨

So, my wife called the city tax office; they responded with AWE!!! Saying our taxes dropped $400+ last year and expect to drop this year.¨¨

Now, how can the mortgage people fabricate this hike in payments?!!! ¨¨I DON'T KNOW?!! BUT, THEY CAN!! AND WILL!!! ¨¨

IT'S ALL BASED ON THE MORTGAGE COMPANY'S OUTLOOK!!! THEY MAKE THEIR MONEY BY PEOPLE REMAINING PLACID!!! IT'S A SHELL GAME!!¨¨

PEOPLE MUST CATCH THEM AND CALL THEM ON IT; IF NOT MORTGAGE COMPANIES WIN!!!

[Sundialsvc4]

It's called "usury."

In ancient times, you'd get your hand cut off for it ... like the common thief that, of course, you were.

Today, "pay-day loans" are rampant, and the grease-tracks of Washington are thick with its purloined Dollars.

But... "impeachment is off the table" and "the SEC itself is facilitating a Ponzi scheme." Crime is crime, and we are all to be the victims until the lesson of Law Enforcement is realized.

[LeeCalif]

Don't give these bums a thing. They have been over building for YEARS !!!!

They are in line to try to con the Congress.

[Culturemaven]

Please tell me that photo is the front door of The White House!

[LeeCalif]

Ya Baby !!!

[leftLibertarian]

I pay my bills on time> I guess I don't qualify for a bailout.

[curiousasheck]

"Rescue Scams" . . . Scams away!

[lungfish]

All the tools are being pulled out of the box to see what we can do to preserve homeownership," said Ed Delgado, senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. "Early intervention is key."



Got a couple million jobs in that toolbox???

[curiousasheck]

$200,00 homes are selling on the auction black for $40,000. If you know where to look.

[FogBelter]

Whatever it takes, there must be extreme effort applied to staunch the foreclosure bleeding. I'm sick of the "Moral Hazard" argument of "they shouldn't have had the house to begin with if they couldn't afford it!" ... that point of view is absolutely meaningless now. The effect of wave after wave of foreclosures on the economy (even if you have no interest in the human aspect of foreclosure) has already proven to be devastating. There is no way to separate punishment for "those who shouldn't have had the house in the first place" from punishment for the rest of us. It is also extremely important to flush the notion we are a nation of individuals, who only tangentially come in contact with one another. There is a reason the term "We the People" is a concept so intimately associated with the United States ... "We" all have a foreclosure problem that "We" all need to fix ... there is no "I" associated with our current crisis only "We".

So "We" need to keep these people in their homes, whatever it takes. for the benefit of "We the People."

[LeeCalif]

No. Keeping people in homes that are upside down and having the govt. (us) buy over-priced mortgages is not the way to go.
People should not be going into debt to keep a house. They should walk away and rent.

Just the facts, mam.

[Merewen]

Your suggestion is unrealistic for a few reasons.

1. Walking away from a mortgage messes up your credit.
2. You need "good" credit to qualify to rent.
3. Rental prices are the same as if not more then a mortgage.

It's a d*** if you do, d*** if you don't situation. So, do you have any other suggestions?

[shekissesfrogs]

It is the answer. On Rachel Maddow, she shows that the supposed credit crisis did not exist.
The smaller banks failed because of naked short sales of stocks - which only investment banks can do. It's illegal and unprosecuted by the SEC. The final blow to the economy was the money grab. Banks want people to stay in their homes and pay those loans that are inflated 40% over the value of the home. If it's not government backed- walk out if you want to. It's the only thing that can sink the banks and end the hegemony over us. It's the WMD of finance. .

[hypnotoad72]

And offshoring too

[totaldisbelief]

do you remember the farm auctions where the neighbors and friends were the only ones to show up and bid a buck for everything , then gave it all back to the farmer?
If all the neighbors and friends showed up with the TV crews the sheriff doing the evicting might find himself in a tight spot.

[RRG64]

This is a good thing, the housing market is bad enough without more predators.
Texas is trying to pass the Foreclosure Rescue Fraud Prevention Act for this very reason.
http://mynurealtor.com/?p=575