Brad Miller: Politician Wants To Level The Playing Field For Homeowners

The New York Times:

[Rep. Brad Miller] is worth getting to know, not only because of his deep concern about the foreclosure epidemic, but also because he has made a compelling recommendation to level an exceedingly tilted playing field in mortgage finance.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[randlethor]

05:58 AM on 08/17/2010

I got a mortgage modification through Citi-Bank, for some reason they said, we can give you one but you dont qualify for the govenment mod. So we had to take It, It's still an adjustable, like the one we could not get refied, when the housing crash came. After doing some investigating i found out Citi mistaited our income about 3300.00 more dollars than what we bring in. They admitted the mistake atleast the rep I talked to did thats how I found out. So seams to me that It was purposely done so I could not get the government loan. They won't fix it so, and told us thatwe were stuck in our mod for 9mos.I checked our DTI and this mod is at 41% after I corrected the math. We have decided to retain an lawyer, I will get them one way or the other, Citi just disgust's me.

[Main Street Blues]

01:39 PM on 08/16/2010

You want to level the playing field? You want the economy to recover? Principal Reduction on mortgages will have to happen. We could have stopped this economic collapse months/years ago. Look, even if it's a 5 year plan for reduction...you have to get peoples mortgages lowered to the value of their homes...otherwise we continue to spiral down with no bottom. We can re-evaluate in 5 years...but it has to happen. Consumer confidence and spending will recover..otherwise...we plummett!

[sandiegoconservative]

02:34 PM on 08/16/2010

And when the market bottoms out again, are you going to suggest lowering the principal again?

How about a compromise? If someone took a second out or a line of credit against their home, they pay that back in its entirety, then we discuss lowering the principal.

[karen1p]

09:03 PM on 08/16/2010

Mr Conservative,
The only compromise should be the one proposed below. Otherwise, the banks win.

[karen1p]

09:02 PM on 08/16/2010

The compromise should be the banks need to open their books to the regulators and the FBI. We need to uncover the accounting. That would be a first. Show the fraud. By opening the books that they want to remain uncovered, we will see the perp walks that everyone has been clamoring for.

BTW, did you realize the homeowners that have won against the banks have been placed with gag orders so the homeowners cannot go to the media and release their story??? This is a fact.

[JXJASON]

05:32 AM on 08/17/2010

I live in Pennsylvania. I saw a sign recently that said 125% financing available. It is not illegal to do this.

The person who buys the house with no money down can walk away from the property AND GET AWAY WITH CHEATING THE LENDER. Who is at fault if the borrower defaults? Me? Am I at fault? The US taxpayer? You?

The answer is THE BORROWER AND THE LENDER ARE AT FAULT... BUT the borrower did not have to sign a loan for 125% financing.

Just like the John did not have to hire the prostitute.

I am against principal reduction. Letting the borrower and the lender work it out with a 40 year mortgage at 5% interest would be my solution.

[Lorianne]

12:02 PM on 08/16/2010

Mortgage buoy sinks some homeowners in Hampton Roads
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/08/mortgage-buoy-sinks-some-homeowners-hampton-roads?cid=mc

Moral of the story: These government schemes are NOT to help you. They are designed specificaly to pump more money into political benefactors pockets.

Borrower beware.

[JXJASON]

05:43 AM on 08/17/2010

Get it all in writing or don't sign the papers!

Also, do not borrow anything if you cannot pay the money back.

Some borrowers are in trouble because they made bad decisions.

[karen1p]

10:14 AM on 08/16/2010

The concerns about fraud “today” is a symptom of the culture developed over the past 100 years.

To this day, few can see the deja vu of what traspired in the 1930s, when the Fed purposely tightened money, bringing about the collapse of the stock market, leading to the “taking” of farms.

Gee, didn’t the market just undergo a near collapse, starting in 2007, and isn’t the Fed once again leading the way in meddling into what used to be a capitalistic system, and instead of farms, now it is homes?

Yep, deal with the fraud of today. Surely it is not related to the past in any way, shape, or form.

[Lorianne]

10:50 AM on 08/16/2010

No, Karen, you are sadly misinformed. You perhaps are not reading enough. You need to go and find out a little more about an issue prior to spewing falsehoods.

:)

[floodmfx]

01:57 PM on 08/16/2010

How is she misinformed?
You should back up tough talk with at least some fact

[karen1p]

10:03 AM on 08/16/2010

Countrywide just settled. I am getting pretty sick of seeing "settlements." This just means that the borrowers are still not getting to discovery.....and discovery will start uncovering the FRAUD.

[floodberg]

10:24 AM on 08/16/2010

Another 'sweetheart' negotiated settlement that doesn't cover the damage, just like GS got and BP is looking forward to.

BP clearly has the best scenario - its action destroyed the other top 3 gulf industries Shipping, Fishing and Tourism ($111 billion/yr revenue) for at least a decade, so the gulf is now a one-horse Oil Drilling town. Clearly $20 billion (if they pay it all before a carefully executed bankruptcy is done) is a very cheap bill, and most of it will undoubtedly go to the 'costs of cleanup' (like coreexit and friendly new 'cleanup companies' like that of the ineffective Whale), fellow oil companies showing losses due to the temporary moratorium because their business records are in the best shape, and of course the drillers because their loss of income is very easy to prove, all handled by a friendly lawyer under a secret fee agreement. Now BP will 'negotiate' a settlement, and enjoy the fruits of their labors for at least a decade, with a controlled media, very friendly (and greedy) US government and a captive desperate population.

Sounds like the Afghanistan scenario, doesn't it? Except that Afghanistan got public health in order to avoid pesky UN intervention for denying essential human 'rights.'

[Figerre]

09:54 AM on 08/16/2010

my daughter owns a 2nd morgage with Wells Fargo - she has already paid off the $13,000 once, they won't work with her, as they show only $2,000 of it on the principle, and she still has to make the payments. So it is as much a scam as anything else - WF won't give her a payoff amount - probably because it is already paid off.

[karen1p]

09:56 AM on 08/16/2010

Yes, I'm sure it is.

[Lorianne]

11:56 AM on 08/16/2010

Huh? What was her interest rate and term?

[karen1p]

09:35 AM on 08/16/2010

The simple question that needs to be posed to anyone who looks at the borrower as anything other than a victim is: Which is more likely? Did the owners of 20 million homes enter into a conspiracy to defraud the financial system, half society and our taxpayers? Did these people have the sophistication, education, knowledge, experience or training to pull off such a caper? Or is it more likely that the Wall Street titans stepped over the line and instead of increasing liquidity for the benefit of consumers and small businesses, used their position to deplete the resources of unsuspecting citizens, pension funds, financial institutions and governmental units from the top federal levels down to the smallest local geographical areas?

[Lorianne]

10:53 AM on 08/16/2010

Yes, everyone is a victim.
Let's bail out everyone.
How about we ask the Chinese to bail us out of our own stupidity?
Think they are game for that?
Someone has to bail us out, right? Waaaaaa Waaaaa Waaaaa

[karen1p]

01:11 PM on 08/16/2010

Did the owners of 20 million homes enter into a conspiracy to defraud the financial system, half society and our taxpayers? Did these people have the sophistication, education, knowledge, experience or training to pull off such a caper?

[karen1p]

01:17 PM on 08/16/2010

Lorianne,
You are so blind you cannot see that this is the biggest land grab we will ever be witness to see. Open your eyes, I do believe you are intelligent, I just think you have the wrong eyeglass prescription on.

[MrMaus]

12:29 PM on 08/16/2010

The developer is Stockton who bought 10 houses with 1% down mortgages (first and second) and hoped to flip them was a victim? So my neighbor who refinanced 3 times in 5 years and bought a boat and a new car and had great vacations was a victim? The couple who got a FHA loan to buy their dream house with less than 5% down and has not made a payment in 12 months (basically living rent free) is a victim.

No, the end victim are the people who saved or put 40% down on a house. The value of the investments have fallen or they are earning next to nothing on their savings because many people thought they could get something for nothing.

Now the government, but holding rates down, is trying to get the spenders to spend again, while the savers, would spend if rates were higher.

[karen1p]

01:11 PM on 08/16/2010

Did the owners of 20 million homes enter into a conspiracy to defraud the financial system, half society and our taxpayers? Did these people have the sophistication, education, knowledge, experience or training to pull off such a caper?

[karen1p]

01:22 PM on 08/16/2010

If the banks were doing their "due diligence" these loans would never have been funded. Do you ask yourself WHY WOULD BANKING INSTITUTIONS CLOSE LOANS DESIGNED TO FAIL??? Does this even make sense? In the past, to obtain a loan, you almost had to sign over your first born child to obtain the money. Why was money finding borrowers and not the other way around. Think people!!!

[floodberg]

09:27 AM on 08/16/2010

MILLER'S CAMPAIGN FINANCING IS STRONG ON INSURANCE, REAL ESTATE, LAW FIRMS AND LOBBYISTS.

Miller's 2010 combined pac/campaign industry profile shows his #1 sector to be finance/insurance/real estate with $102K, and #3 lobbyists at $72K. His 100 individual donor list includes lots of insurance, real estate, lobbyists and law firms. Miller's campaign finance lies with the industries his bill could hurt. You might want to visit his opensecret.org donor file. http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00025093&cycle=2010&type=C&newMem=N&recs=100 If you do, check out his career 'top industries' list and chart.

This bothers me when his name is being touted as a 'reformer' on the side of the people. Simultaneously Dodd has been successfully sidelining Warren to head the new independent consumer agency, and I believe he'll be the winner of the job - hand picked by Wall Street themselves to make sure it benefits them, not us. Most of Obama's key appointees have been - shockingly - graduates of GS.

Very few Americans believed that Dodd, IMHO a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, was suddenly a advocate for the people. I think Miller should be looked at with a cautious eye in this current political maelstrom.

[karen1p]

09:58 AM on 08/16/2010

That's probably very true.

BTW, I HATE Dodd....he is ending his career in shame.

[floodberg]

10:28 AM on 08/16/2010

I've got money riding that he gets the new Consumer Protection position, but I may lose that. Just like Wall Street, I hedged my bet; I also bet that Warren won't get it.

Dodd didn't back 'reform' for his or Wall Street's health or out of concern for us. This is the ultimate dream job for him, putting him right in Federal Reserve and in the best position to make this agency work against us and in Wall Street's favor. If he gets the job, he'll be even more rich and powerful - this time, truly worldwide

[dtmfman]

10:01 AM on 08/16/2010

BINGO!
There was something about this headline that IMMEDIATLY made me think...ok...WTF is going on here...suddenly we have dems with backbones?...suddenly we have dems who care about main street?...mneeehhh...nah....it's an "optical delusion"...

[floodberg]

10:42 AM on 08/16/2010

I'm rather surprised, DTMFman, that you still use the misleading party labels. Obama's bipartisanship truly changed that - all of them united behind Wall Street and big business, for personal gain and in total disregard of the very real personal and physical suffering of the 99%. All 'our' elected legislators are more than willing to cut our benefits and raise taxes, spend trillions on military left in Iraq after the touted 'withdrawal', fund Afghanistan until Wall Street is sated with its own control over that puppet government and its population, send 46 warships and 7,000 marines to Costa Rica for 'drug interdiction'*, put forth more USAID programs so taxpayers foot the bill to train cheap foreign labor to fill skilled positions for US companies, ignore Obama's promise to renegotiate NAFTA, and watch more FTAs with poorer countries be negotiated to create more pressure on US workers to accept 'competitive wages.'

*Panama, Colombia and Mexico were our other big 'interdictions', but look at the relative 'load' of illegal drugs and the very heavy military presence, and this becomes nonsensical. I'd say 'follow the US personal and corporate money to Costa Rica,' but those figures are amazingly no where to be found.)

[Lorianne]

10:54 AM on 08/16/2010

No, they are protecting the banks ... with more taxpayer money.

[nothingchanges]

09:26 AM on 08/16/2010

Reading this article actually made me sad.

Lets face it, stories are only "newsworthy" when they report something out of the ordinary.

"Dog bites man" is not a headliner, "man bites dog" is.

A congressman working for his constituency over the interests of big business is "newsworthy".

ALL of Congress should be working for the voters, instead of being a rare exception. How sad is that?

How far this country has fallen.

[JXJASON]

05:01 AM on 08/16/2010

Can't pay your second mortgage? Who told you that having a second mortgage or a home equity line of credit was a good idea?

In 1974 I bought my first home with a 20 % down payment. The loan was paid off in 20 years and I was personally liable for paying it. I was advised by many people in the real estate business "NEVER take out a second mortgage".

I just read an article that reported that the FHA ( Federal Housing Authority) had a second mortgage on a hotel business (Extended Stay Hotels) that went bankrupt and the FHA wrote off over 700 million dollars.

I guess it pays for some people to blame others for the debts they have incurred.

The lack of trust is ruining our financial system and our society.

[floodmfx]

07:51 AM on 08/16/2010

Yeah, like when the Banks went begging for tax-payers dollars, and they were making all these claims about how they behaved responsibly in giving out loans, and that it was the tax-payers who are failing to hold up their side.

The banks are the experts in loans, right?
Aren't wise consumers expected to consult with experts before buying something?

When a woman goes to aplastic surgeon, and gets unneccessary surgery - we all say that the surgeon should have known better, the surgeon has a professional responsiblity to tell such a woman she does not need this, and we often demand the surgeon's medical license.

When banks give out bad loans, and fail to use any professional responsiblity like telling the person is a bad idea - well, nothing happens to the bank, because no one actually expects a banker to have any ethics anyway.

[DragonFly]

08:11 AM on 08/16/2010

Touche'

[mikey09]

09:52 AM on 08/16/2010

First you said, why wouldn't consumers listen to the bank experts, then you say we all know banks have no ethics....if we all know banks have no ethics why would we want to listen to their advise?

[karen1p]

10:01 AM on 08/16/2010

The simple question that needs to be posed to anyone who looks at the borrower as anything other than a victim is: Which is more likely? Did the owners of 20 million homes enter into a conspiracy to defraud the financial system, half society and our taxpayers? Did these people have the sophistication, education, knowledge, experience or training to pull off such a caper? Or is it more likely that the Wall Street titans stepped over the line and instead of increasing liquidity for the benefit of consumers and small businesses, used their position to deplete the resources of unsuspecting citizens, pension funds, financial institutions and governmental units from the top federal levels down to the smallest local geographical areas?

PLEASE ANSWER.....I WILL WAIT ALL DAY, IF NECESSARY

[floodberg]

11:02 AM on 08/16/2010

Karen1p, Don't hold your breath on this one - no one's going to defend it. Wall Street insiders now occupy most of the key administration positions - and I think Dodd designed this for himself as his 'retirement' position. I think he'll get it, too, or perhaps Miller ('the new Dodd?'), but not Warren. Fave #1.

[sandiegoconservative]

02:42 PM on 08/16/2010

I answered it above.

[atomic]

04:08 AM on 08/16/2010

Bank of America is openly engaged in fraudulent communications with it customers who are trying in good faith to modify their home loans. It's deceptive practices include giving customers false information about the status of negotiations in progress, stalling and loosing paperwork, as well as providing conflicting instructions that prove to complicate and thwart all progress towards a modification solution.

Customers are mistreated in this manner for a full year or more and then abruptly foreclosed upon ... many receiving foreclosure sale notices on the same day they were informed their modification was accepted. Bank of America has made every excuse but the truth is it is lying to the American people.

Bank of America has no intention of modifying your loan. They would rather foreclose, list it as a loss and sell it for a fraction of what it's worth many time less what the modification would have been.

The bottom line is they are not complying with the mandate to help homeowners. To the contrary they are stealing from us all over again by claiming them as a loss and getting huge tax breaks and then selling them after having put people out of their homes. It's criminal.

[DragonFly]

07:43 AM on 08/16/2010

Bank of America is a very shifty player - that's why I completely stopped doing business with them a while back.
I'm strictly community banking now, and happier for it.

[karen1p]

10:06 AM on 08/16/2010

BoA released a press release that said they were going to modify 40,000 loans.....the same press release failed to say that they are foreclosing on 30,000 loans each month.

[OBroadhurst]

12:41 AM on 08/16/2010

A very good start, Congressman. All should write their very own Congressmen to make sure this is passed into law. Yet, there needs to be more done.

Foreclosure moratorium, and principal forgiveness on all underwater loans.

[mikey09]

09:55 AM on 08/16/2010

How will you reward those who are paying their mortgage or those who paid their mortgage off this year?

[Lorianne]

10:58 AM on 08/16/2010

They won't
Those people witll get a certificate that giveS them the title of OFFICIAL SCHMUCK.

[PhilipTaylor]

12:35 AM on 08/16/2010

His Bill BARS Servicers of first loans from holding any other mortgages on the same property and therefore preventing equity line loans from being downgraded!

STOPS THE CR00KS FROM MAKING SURE CR00KS WIN and PEOPLE LOSE!

[mackiemary]

12:30 AM on 08/16/2010

Dylan Ratigan knows his stuff when it comes to anything financial. Very smart, he used to be on NBC's financial network but now has a show on MSNBC. Catch it.

[PhilipTaylor]

12:36 AM on 08/16/2010

He is a masterful HERO in the WAR ON THE BANKSTERS!

[PhilipTaylor]

12:30 AM on 08/16/2010

These companies — the biggest are Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citibank — operate as the back office for the mortgage lending industry. In good times, their tasks are fairly simple: they take in monthly mortgage payments and distribute them to whoever owns the loans. In many cases, large institutions like pension funds or mutual funds own the mortgages, and servicers are obligated to act in their interests at all times.