Gretchen Morgenson: More Of The Unhelpful Same From Washington On Foreclosure Crisis

The New York Times:

Throughout the foreclosure crisis, Washington has done little to help people hang on to their homes. All those programs that were supposed to help -- HAMP, HARP, Hope for Homeowners -- have mostly failed.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

Comments

[OccupyYourHome]

07:53 AM on 12/27/2011

PLEASE read this article (http://exm.nr/v8VFLs) and then SIGN the petition (http://wh.gov/D3J) located on the White House's "WE the PEOPLE" website to stop foreclosures on mortgages made to individual homeowners belonging to the bottom 99%. Also, please help this go viral! It needs 150 signatures to be publicly visible on the site, and 25,000 by January 2, 2012 to be guaranteed a response.

Stopping foreclosures is not a bailout. It is a consumer protection. It can be structured in the form of a forbearance so people don't accrue massive fines, legal fees, and credit problems. Payment on existing debt and interest is postponed, extending the life of the mortgage, and resumed once the person is gainfully employed, or once the person decides for himself to sell (rather than having his home stolen by his mortgage holder). No good can come to a society that throws people hit by hard times on the street. This will make it ever more difficult for people and their families to recover, and then they will become a permanent welfare problem.

Stop foreclosures on mortgages made to individual homeowners belonging to the bottom 99%.

https://www.facebook.com/OccupyYourHome

[GetRealSoon]

07:47 PM on 12/26/2011

More of a deception is only allowing loans that were from National Association banks under the O.C.C. Private lenders such as American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. that also received bail out funds doesn't have to comply with this review.

[Collapsing House Price]

11:16 AM on 12/26/2011

The corrupt ReaItor Crime Syndicate created this, why should tax dollars be used to correct it?

[Earl Gray]

08:55 AM on 12/26/2011

If these properties are guaranteed by F&F, why aren't we limiting our exposure here by covering all or part of the payments, rather than paying off the entire loan, saving the lender at the expense of the homeowner, the neighborhood, the community and the nation?

When are the banks "writing off" these places? Is it when the sheriff removes the owners? Are these places sitting, vacant, on their books at "face value"?

How about the properties get an appraisal at the time of foreclosure, locking in the "guaranteed" exposure at that point. If the property value continues to fall due to excessive vacancies, scrappers stripping it, etc., shouldn't that be on the bank, which is supposed to be the one keeping the place up?

Would they be so quick to foreclose if they had to immediately take just a little responsibility?

[frank day]

10:10 AM on 12/26/2011

The whole system is a twisted mess that encourages bad behavior

and which favors the banks while doing nothing for the family involved.

[sharonsj]

10:45 AM on 12/26/2011

Right you are. The more I learn the more I'm convinced Congress is too corrupt to fix any of our problems. The only solution may be to spread the occupy movement to every city, especially Washington.

[Al Jolson]

10:15 PM on 12/25/2011

Socialize the bad debt, privatize the profits. Leave the taxpayer holding the bag, while also throwing him out in the street. And the Banksters all slap each other on the back and give themselves bonuses.

[demilieu]

02:53 PM on 12/25/2011

There's that snappy tune on TV 'I'm home...' MHA (making housing affordable). That's something, isn't it???

[Collapsing House Price]

02:22 PM on 12/25/2011

These are things that we WANT to fail. And thank God they did fail.

[demilieu]

02:54 PM on 12/25/2011

Not if you happen to live on either side of an abandoned house. Like mine :-)

[santacruzbluz]

07:43 AM on 12/26/2011

You bet, because millions of homeless people is a good thing!

[Collapsing House Price]

11:08 AM on 12/26/2011

They wouldn't be homeless if housing prices weren't grossly inflated.

Why do you have such a problem with low priced affordable housing?

[1oldhippie]

02:17 PM on 12/25/2011

Speaking from personal experience, the mortgage modification program helped us keep our home.
The constant resubmission of paperwork and delays were disheartening but in the end we kept the house (2 1/2 years and counting). The only reason its 'considered' a failure is not enough people took part, while refusing to take no for an answer!

[demilieu]

02:57 PM on 12/25/2011

The program was zero use to someone put out of work. No modifications went to unemployed folks trying to reduce their monthly. They (wisely) understood...the jobs weren't coming back anytime soon. But if one is working, it's the best time ever to buy a home.

[Countess]

01:17 PM on 12/25/2011

Let us put two and two together and we will be able to understand why every new program that Obama has put forward to fix the mortgage crisis has ended up only helping the biggest banks in America. We know for a fact that the banks give more money to the political campaigns of both corrupt parties than all the other important industries in America so we cannot expect the democratic party and the president who wants to collect a billion dollars for his re-election campaign to do anything that would put the bank's contribution at risk. This should be obvious to people willing to keep an open mind about the bipartisan corruption that is killing democracy in America.

[demilieu]

03:05 PM on 12/25/2011

Big busness...is supposed to be creating jobs. Here, not in India or China. When people here are too poor to buy their goods and services they'll finally target the domestic economy for repair. In the meantime, dollar stores are the fastest growing retail opportunity around.

[santacruzbluz]

07:48 AM on 12/26/2011

Actually, big business is not "supposed" to create jobs. They are in business to make money, not create jobs. It is our duty as a society to set up a system that is beneficial to everyone. Right now, our system is set up to reward those who put the pursuit of money above and morals, integrity, or compassion. We have to change the system. There is no reason in the world to allow such large businesses to exist. Small, local businesses, all working together, rather than competing with each other, is the way of the future.