Obama's Visit to Arizona Brings Hope to Foreclosure Alley

MESA, ARIZONA -- In Mesa, where home values have dropped by nearly 45 percent, it is not hard to find people whose mortgage is in trouble. At today's event, every attendee I spoke with was either close to foreclosure or in foreclosure or had a close friend or relative facing foreclosure. Eyes brimmed with tears, attendees described the bleak outlook of being uprooted from their homes, a common fate in the Valley of the Sun. Besides the obvious transition from pre-election rallies to stately policy talks, today's topic -- the foreclosure crisis -- was sobering for the Mesa crowd.

A local resident who asked not to be named said her mortgage company denied all of her requests to modify her home loan after she was laid off from the local power company. She filed for bankruptcy in October in what she calls "a desperate attempt" to save her home, but just days ago, a judge lifted the stay on the foreclosure at the request of her lender. He told her simply, "Start removing her things from the premises."

Marva from Chandler is worried that her daughter, a single mother who was laid off in December from Arizona State University, could soon lose her home to foreclosure. She hopes the administration's abatement plan will be available soon to keep a roof over her grandchildren. She believes that the stimulus plan and the foreclosure prevention program will eventually pay for themselves. "They've been cutting, cutting, cutting taxes all along, but it hasn't done a thing," she intoned sadly.

Another resident lost her home to foreclosure less than a year ago and is worried that she may be evicted from the home she now rents as the property owner slips into foreclosure. With a bitter edge to her voice, she says, "All I want is a stable home for my kids. That's all. We're anxious, but they should feel safe."

Arizona currently has the third highest foreclosure rate in the nation, and Mesa has been one of the hardest hit cities in the entire country. Around the edges of the valley, entire neighborhoods and communities have been devastated. In neighborhoods where large numbers of houses have been abandoned, it has become common for neighbors to organize groups to care for the lawn and facade of empty homes so that new homebuyers are not discouraged from buying in their neighborhoods.

According to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who spoke to the press before the event, about 6 percent of Arizona mortgages either are in foreclosure or are more than 90 days behind today. Across the country, nearly 10 percent of mortgages are behind, and in December, close to half of home sales across the country were "distressed" sales. Donovan says he expects about 6 million more foreclosures over the next 3 years.

To stop the downward spiral of the real estate market, the Obama administration believes that most of those 6 million foreclosures must be avoided. The plan, as unveiled today, would:

(1) Allow 4-5 million mortgage holders of owner occupied homes to refinance their loans to take advantage of lower interest rates.

(2) Make it easier for (and provide incentives to) lenders to modify 3-4 million distressed loans that have not yet reached 60-90 days delinquency by writing down the principle or interest or both. Incentives would also be provided to borrowers whose participation is successful over time.

(3) The administration is supporting legislation that, if passed, would allow judges to write down the principle and/or interest of mortgages when mortgage holders file for bankruptcy.

(4) The administration will also be releasing new mortgage guidelines, which go into effect in 2 weeks that will standardize the mortgage loan process, including the appraisal process.

All institutions receiving TARP funding would be required to participate in these programs (1 and 2, above) and will be required to adhere to the new guidelines (3, above).

The timing of Obama's foreclosure plan comes just one day before Democratic Arizona lawmakers are scheduled to hold a press conference to discuss foreclosure abatement plans in the state legislature. State Representative Daniel Patterson (LD29-Tucson) is sponsoring a foreclosure relief plan that would grant a 60 day stay to homeowners facing foreclosure. Several other bills related to predatory lending or foreclosures are also under consideration by the legislature.

Several hundred local residents camped out overnight Sunday hoping to get tickets Monday morning for the speech. While 500 tickets were handed out, 200 still went home empty-handed. Several attendees proudly proclaimed their number in the ticket line, "I was number 64!"

Tuesday night, ticket holders camped out again hoping to grab the best seats Wednesday morning.

The atmosphere was more rancorous among non-ticketholders. Dueling groups of anti-Obama protesters and pro-Obama counter-protesters were setup in several "free speech zones" near the high school, and smaller groups were scattered across sidewalks and street corners for several blocks.

While many of the anti-Obama protesters waved signs at passersby expressing disapproval of the Obama administration's economic policy, handfuls of others brandished bizarre or offensive signs. One lone protester stood on a nearby freeway exit ramp with a sign that read, "Gimme 40 acres and a mule." (Two other protesters near the school had the same sign.)

A group of conspiracy theorists handed out bumper stickers to other protesters that said, "Impeach Obama." Adherents of the fake-birth-certificate conspiracy theory, they believe Obama is not a citizen of the United States. One person passing out the "Impeach Obama" stickers said, "You can't go to school in a Muslim country and then become president. That's illegal!"

Many of the protesters had their own agenda, unrelated to the subject of Obama's speech. Somos America ("we are America") staged a protest hoping to bring attention to the controversial immigration enforcement efforts of local Sheriff Joe "Tent City" Arpaio. In response, former Republican Congressman J. D. Hayworth organized several hundred counter-protesters on the opposite side of the street to display support for Arpaio.

Obama's visit also comes on the heels of a difficult and chaotic couple of months for Democrats in Arizona. Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano left to accept a presidential appointment as Homeland Security Secretary and was replaced by Republican Secretary of State Jan Brewer, giving Republicans a lock on all three branches of Arizona government.

Arizona also recently faced the second largest budget shortfall in the country for the 2009 fiscal year, which ends in June. Arizona still faces a budget crisis for the 2010 fiscal year. With the support of the new governor, the Republican-led legislature cut the university system by 35 percent, cut K-12 education across the board, and cut services for Arizona's most vulnerable populations.

Grassroots leaders of the Arizona Democratic Party, unhappy with the results of recent elections and budget decisions, ousted long-time party insider, Don Bivens, at a recent reorganization meeting, and voted in Paul Eckerstrom as Arizona Democratic Party Chair, a passionate grassroots activist, as his replacement. Two weeks later, when Eckerstrom resigned, citing personal reasons, conspiracy theories abounded. The state party is currently operating without a chair until March 7 when a new election will be held.

Janet Higgins, a local Democratic state committeeperson and well-known activist, launched a grassroots campaign several weeks ago hoping to get Obama to visit Arizona. She urged local Democrats and progressive activists to call the White House to make them aware of the fiscal, economic, and political crises faced by Arizonans. Higgins also called the White House herself every day, reminding them that Obama "took our governor and gave Republicans a lock on all three branches of the state government." Higgins hoped a visit by Obama would re-energize the party and re-united activists who have become divided and entrenched in intra-party politics.

Comments

[PeaceAZ]

Thanks Dawn for keeping AZ in peoples' minds during these times. More on AZ issues and Obama's visit here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/randall-amster/lines-in-the-sand-the-sub_b_168127.html

Check the link to the legislature gutting public systems for the numbers and programs being cut, it's shocking and awful....

[azartist]

Great article Dawn, one thing though, I arrived there (outside) at 6:30am, I am one of the anti-Arpaio protesters, however we were all very PRO-Obama, we were there to ask him to please look at what is happening here, the horrible violations of civil and human rights by Arpaio- separation of families (of which most members are US citizens), whole communities living in fear, not calling the police when victims of crime. IE: two young boys were beaten to death by a mentally ill man before Christmas, this could have been avoided as that man had been seen in the neighborhood, threatening people with his bat- had the police been called on him when these incidents occurred, he may have been taken away and not killed the children. This was a Latino community in which nobody calls the authorities because of the TERROR that Arpaio has brought on with his raids and racial profiling.

JD Hayward had announced on the radio to come out and protest our President, (pretty UN-AMERICAN of Hayward). While there he yelled racial insults to us from his loud speaker. JD's supporters mingled among us, shoving us and calling people "beaners" as they would shove to stand in front with their anti-Obama signs. These were "soccer mom" looking woman, Palin-like, extremely vulgar and rude. After 8 years of putting up with Bush, I was on my wits end but would have never been as rude to my "neighbors" as they were

[bdaved]

Ivan Denisovich asked "How can you expect a man who's warm to understand a man who's cold?"

[Henryk A. Kowalczyk - Huffpost Blogger]

I arrived with a plan that is better than the one presented by the government.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/henryk-a-kowalczyk/the-simplest-plan-for-hel_b_167642.html

Comparing with the plan proposed by President Obama, with the implementation of this concept, the government would put banks in the position such that speedy finding a mortgage option that the house owner can afford is in the best financial interest of the lending bank.

[bkca]

So what do we do, Dawn? Just start paying everyone's mortgage for them?

[sloLes]

This is the typical gut reaction of the Antis. but let's do the math,
A person/family that bought a $100,000 house and put 20% down has a $80 thousand loan on a hose now worth $55 thousand. If the bank foreclose, it has expenses to take title, and then it will list the house on the market for sale at the current value and probably get less, because it's bank-owned. With selling expense, the bank will do well to clear somewhere in the mid-forty thousands.

Wouldn't everyone be better, if the bank took it's loss and kept the current owner in the house at it's current value? The bank might even be able to negotiate a full value $55 thousand mortgage with the current owner, without any foredlosure and subsequent sales expenses.

Add morality, ethics, or whatever you want to call forcing someone to pay more than current market value for their house, and it isn't working! And these foreclosures are driving house prices lower and hurting those people who did everyything'right' and pay their mortgage, because they still have a job.

Insist upon keeping the mortgages at the inflated face value when originally written during the bubble, and people will have no choice,except to default. And then the banks will actually recover even less than if they negotiate. So, forcing people to honor these mortgages just won't work. It never does.

[SammyD]

This will not help many in Arizona. What you neglected to report was that 40% of homes in Arizona during the boom time were to investors, mostly from California. The remainder are 99% of people who could not afford the home in the first place. Local news interviewed a woman with 8 children, carrying a mortgage in excess of $3000 per month. Unless she is in the top 1% of wage earners and with 8 children, she can't afford her mortgage and never could. also, check the number of second home and intenational investors in Phoenix. Also, check the amount of building that continued by the builders long after the downward spiral began. The model was repeated in Vegas, Florida and California. Also, for those talking negatively about the new Governor, may I point out that Arizona wa always fiscally repsonsible until Janet N. took over. She ran to Washington and left us with the largest debt Arizona has seen since WWII. So if local Democrats don't like that Arizonans enjoy fiscal responsibility, move back to where you came from.

[MikeSinAZ]

Brilliant article Dawn! Informative and enlightening, especially your coverage of the various groups demonstrating outside the event.

To add to the coverage of home foreclosures I started noticing a number of store front closings, Mom and Pop operations no longer open, and chain store outlets closing around the Valley. The Circuit City and Linens and Things closings made national news, but, the small businesses beginning to close is the where the real pain of the early stages of the U.S. economy in depression is being felt.

Yesterday, traveling west on Dunlap Avenue from 7th Street to the 101I began to notice the number of strip mall shops closed. Also closed were such chains as a Jiffy Lube, a China Buffet, non-chain convenience stores. Strip malls that had just months ago had full occupancy were now three-quarters vacant! It was really quite "jaw dropping" to see so many previously lit stores filled with inventory now dark with leasing agent signs across the windows. Parking lots are mostly empty and devoid of cars or customers.

The pain of this depression is just now being actually felt. By this time next year the rape of America by Cheney/Bush and the Republican ideologues will be causing devastation, degradation, and unnecessary pain for working class Americans of Old Testament proportions. As President Obama moves to try to reverse these trends let's hope Republicans will leave their flawed ideologies behind and favor the pragmatic problem solving that President Obama is exemplifying.

[guyinAZ]

Yes, the devastation in Phoenix is becoming more and more obvious. Obama will insure that things get way worse, and if he doesn't change course things aren't going to get better.

Unfortunately there is no difference between Obama, Bush, Cheney, and Biden. I know you think there is a difference, but eventually you will wake up to reality and you will understand that Obama is just a better packaged stooge than Bush. All of these guys are puppets to their masters who run the banks. They will sell you down the river but they will give you slightly different rhetoric while they are doing it. You will smile and worship Obama while he destroys this country, just as the neo-cons did during the Bush regime.

You guys are being suckered. Wake up before it's too late.

Obama is doing the exact same Bush was doing -- they are stealing whatever wealth we have left to give to the robber barons and crooks who caused the problem. Bush opened the vault, and now Obama and his henchmen are taking the money.

[autoprt]

all the repubs do is whine and complain but offer no choices but cut taxes.
i lost my home last year not due to the fact that i borrowed against but lost a high paying job and now work as a security job because i cannot find work in my former field.
at least Obama is trying to do something positive with the mess he was given, none of the Repubs were was complaining when Bush was spending almost a Billion a day on war that could have waited in Iraq.

we're in a mess and it looks like all the finger pointing and blaming is not helping anything.

[SotallyTober]

autoprt: You're right on the money in your comment. The GOP have moved from the "Party of NO" to the "Grand Obstructionist Party."
We had an economy that was flourishing with minimal tax cuts in the 90s.....so what do the smart republicans do when they take over after Clinton? They scream "tax cuts" and the economy begins to tumble. Reeeeeaaallll smart!!

[guyinAZ]

Somebody has to obstruct the wackos in our government. The Democrats led by Obama are going to spend us into oblivion before the year is over. Unfortunately there aren't enough Republicans to stop these Democratic tyrants from bankrupting the country, so all those of us with a brain can do is to sit back and watch you guys ruin the USA.

[guyinAZ]

Both sides are unwilling to compromise. The reality is that states and the federal government are going to have to raise taxes and cut spending. In Arizona the Dems and Reps are stalemated on the issue.

At the federal level, Obama is cutting taxes and raising spending. It's a total disaster that few Democrats seem capable of understanding. His reckless behavior shows no compromise at all, but of course the Democrats now have the power to shove anything through they want. They will get the blame for the disaster but that will be little consolation for those of us that warned everyone. We will be flushed down the same toilet.

Another painful reality is that interest rates must be increased. Bush kept them unnaturally low which led to the housing boom ponzi scheme. Obama wants to reduce interest rates, so he shows that he learned nothing about Japan's debacle.

So, who else cut taxes and increased spending? Bush of course. Obama is looking more and more like a neo-con.

[SotallyTober]

Part II
After eight long years of deceit, we're yearning for what we believe to be our last shot at living our last days in a peaceful nation. President Obama's brings us that peace within ourselves and a hope that we can do more to save this country. He can't do it alone. Those acid-tongued naysayers continue to spew their filth in blogs and emails. After seeing the cartoon in the NY Post today, it's very apparent that racism is alive and well in America. I don't care how many excuses the editor comes up with......it's the worst reference to supposed humor on an American president EVER. No need for any more crippling apologies. The NY Post has succeeded in continuing their fight to divide. Shame on you Rupert Murdoch!! What's even more troubling is the fact that J.D. Hayworth who was knee deep in the Jack Abramoff scandal would incite other's to protest today. This man is vile and contemptible. He took advantage of the Native American tribes in his greed to line his own pockets. Hayworth is among Capitol Hill's worst offenders of extreme partisanship.He's a bully and has an overbearing attempt at intimidation. Your own party defected from you Mr. Hayworth. That speaks volumes in my book.

[guyinAZ]

In defense of JD Hayworth, he gave all the money that Abramoff gave him to charity. He also apologized for accepting the money, which is at least as much as Bill Clinton did for having so much fun in the White House.

Hayworth didn't lose because conservatives deserted him -- he lost because the neo-cons in the Republican party deserted him. They aren't the same, you know.

You are also wrong about Hayworth being partisan, but of course the only truth you know if probably from the liberal media. If you don't believe me, go to the KFYI website and listen to his podcasts where he attacks McCain and Bush.

I'll grant you one point -- Hayworth is a bully. That's the nature of talk radio. If you find that offensive, listen to NPR instead.

[Clavis]

Yeah, you just can't trust that "liberal media". After all, partisan conservatives are easily able to be objective and professional if they work in the media, but partisan liberals aren't! How do I know this? Because I say so, and because it has "truthiness"! Republicans never lie or slant their words to favor their side, no sir! They're as honest and pure as the day is long! Only liberals lie and cheat -- Republicans are like friggin' Boy Scouts!

God, you people are annoying...

[Coopforobama]

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN and I could keep going. You said it "President Obama's brings us that peace within ourselves and a hope that we can do more to save this country. He can't do it alone. " EVERYONE can count on my TOTAL support......

[SotallyTober]

Part I
My compliments to Ms. Teo for such an excellent and non-partisan article. I hope to read more of your work in the coming days. I'm a seventh generation Arizona native and I'm so troubled by this once vibrant and reliant melting pot state. The vitriolic statements coming out of a protest has turned citizens into something out of the twilight zone. The hatred spewed for President Obama and his supporters is ugly and sounds like a prison yard fight. Who knows where this country would be if there was no "Obama." Why deny us the hope he brings?
CONT.....

[bdaved]

J. D. Hayworth and Joe Arpaio-- what a happy couple they'd make.
Maybe the good that this ill wind will blow our way is that fewer people in Arizona will continue to vote for Republans against their own interest. I think the current legislature is going to do a fine job of increasing opposition to the Republans in this state.

[guyinAZ]

First off, don’t count on Arpaio’s support going away anytime soon. Obama was supposed to create a Democratic sweep of radical liberals in Arizona but it didn’t happen. Arpaio is very popular by most moderate Democrats and Republicans, which is why he keeps winning.

If patriots like Arpaio had their way, the housing crisis in Arizona wouldn’t be nearly as severe. That’s because a large part of our crisis was caused by Bush, who pushed the idea of universal home ownership. Karl Rove forced banks to give loans to illegal aliens, which goes against all common sense. If Arpaio could he would have arrested the illegal aliens before they received home loans, and deported them back to their home countries.

Obama's speech in Arizona demonstrated that he will continue Bush’s disastrous home policies, which of course includes home loans to illegals. That’s a change many of us in Arizona don’t believe in.

Don’t fret about Arpaio and Hayworth. Communists in the Democratic Party will get Hayworth off the air by imposing the Fairness Doctrine. Power mad globalists like Napolitano hate Arpaio and will do whatever it takes to put him out of office so that corporations can exploit cheap migrant labor and to speed up the construction of Arizona’s portion of the NAFTA superhighway.

You guys will win the battle against these two but you will also have to live in the sewer you create in Arizona. Don’t count on the voters of Arizona to do your dirty work though.

[bdaved]

Your comments on this post started out sounding pretty reasonable, and now you're all over the "radical liberals", "Communists", and "Power mad globalists", and Karl Rove forcing "banks to give loans to illegal aliens". I agree there are "patriots like Arpaio", and some of them are genuine patriots, but thank goodness there are plenty of patriots unlike him as well. I disagree with you about a lot of things, but I bet there's even more we could agree on. It doesn't look to me like you're very happy with anybody, and I kind of like that.

[guyinAZ]

Let's quit playing games here -- what Obama is suggesting is that responsible home owners will have to sacrifice their financial future so that their greedy and irresponsible neighbors can continue to enjoy their lavish lifestyles. The fix will only be temporary because people that get bailouts won't change, and money doesn't grow on trees. Somebody has to pay and it shouldn't be me.

I know this idea won't be popular on Huffington since they are the voice of socialism -- but here goes: There are people that should never have been allowed to buy homes. This all came about because of President Bush's policy of universal home ownership. Most of the people who gave the sob stories today can rent apartments like everyone else that can't buy a home. The vacancy rate is very low in Phoenix and rents are down so these people shouldn't expect to keep their homes.

Bush and his cronies came up with the idea of universal home ownership. Now Obama is trying to be just like Bush. I thought people voted for somebody for a change, but now we are hearing that it's going to be business as usual until this country produces so much fiat money we have hyper inflation. Maybe that's the change we can believe in -- we can be like one of those banana republics in South America.

[BCubedReg]

You're so lost in the sauce you don't even understand what is going on. Obama is not concerned with Universal Home Ownership. He is concerned with averting the continued meltdown of the U.S. economy which is firmly rooted in home ownership as a foundation of personal wealth.

You act like this is not affecting the upstanding citizen that is continuing to do the right thing. Many people over the last 2 years have bought homes that are now less value than when they purchased them and are continuing to make the payments despite the decreased value. But really, that is like throwing your money in a whole as you are paying for something that is worth less than the money you are holding in your hand.

WAKE UP! This finacial crisis is affecting more than your proverbial "these people" that you feel whould not have been allowed to purchase homes.

[guyinAZ]

In this crisis I will be screwed no matter what Obama does. My home has gone down in value by 35%, so is Obama going to give me a check to make up some of the difference? The answer is no!

The ones who will be rewarded are the ones who paid too much money on their house and are having trouble making payments.

So what we are really talking about is that people like me who have lived austerely and with responsibility, will have to pay for the deadbeats that had no business buying homes.

[Coopforobama]

guyinAZ it is obvious that you didn't listen to who the President said the monies WOULD NOT help and that certainly included people who brought homes they KNEW they COULD NOT afford.

[jaglon]

You may be sitting fat and happy in your house but all your neighbors may not be. What will you do when your neighborhood empties out and your house is worth nothing even though you made all your payments? This is not a situation that affects just certain people, it touches us all and will continue to do so unless something is done. It is like a snowball and as one business shuts down, that other businesses are dependent on, then those businesses begin laying off employees or shutting down. It could be the business you work for or own could be affected.

The people who have their heads in the sand are the republican politicians who know nothing about economics and their loyal, knee jerk followers who just listen to the republican tallking points and are too lazy to read the newspapers or look around them.

[guyinAZ]

If Obama is going to throw money around, why doesn't he reward responsible people who did the right thing? Every one of those 4 suggestions Dawn listed will cost money -- which we will either borrow from China or even worse we will print fiat. Better yet, he could use the money to pay off our expanding deficit so that we can avoid hyper inflation.

The idea that the government can manipulate the market to stop this crisis is just an illusion. Sooner or later Americans are going to have to face the fact that they must pay a price for the buying binge they have indulged in.

[guyinAZ]

Through great sacrifice my wife and I paid off our home mortgage. We didn't buy more house than we could afford and we haven't been living in the lap of luxury like all our neighbors that bought their houses for way too much, and then used home equity loans to buy big screen TVs, big SUVs, and plush furniture.

Just drive the streets of Mesa and Chandler and see how many new cars there are on the roads, and how many homes have wide screen TV movie rooms, and you will see what I mean. Wages in Arizona are low so how did so many people buy all these luxuries? Answer: They took out home equity loans so that they could live way above their means. Others were not capable of understanding what creative financing meant or the consequences of liar loans, so they signed contracts they had no business signing. People like this shouldn’t have been allowed to buy homes. They now need to face the consequences of their carelessness and greed.

Now they are in trouble and Obama wants to bail them out. That makes me very angry!

[Awakenedcitizen]

guy, congratulations for owning your home free and clear, sorry you are angy; but you are lucky that you are not in the boat of young families and you did not buy a home in the past few years that was appraised for, say, $300,000 when you bought it, you put 10% down and have a mortgage of $270,000; then the bottom fell out of the market and the NEW value of your home is $240,000; THEN you lost your job and your wife works part-time because you have kids in school. Can't sell it, dont want to lose it, it will be months before you get a new job based on the current market, and as far as neighbors are concerned, every foreclosed home on the block brings down the value of every other property.

[guyinAZ]

It's not my fault that a bunch of stupid young homeowners bought houses at inflated prices.

Tell me something Awaken: If the neighbor down your street buys a Bentley or a Mercedes, and then finds he can't make the payment, are you going to help him make his payments?

[maumeeone]

You think you're angry now? Let's just say that, due to some unforseen circumstances, you need to suddenly sell your home. Now let's just see if you can sell it for even half of what you think it's worth. I say that because you might get an offer that you think sounds great, but just wait and see what the buyer's appraisal says. You might be in for a very rude awakening. Anything can happen.

[guyinAZ]

I have no illusions about the difficulty of selling my home -- but only if I'm as greedy as all the other homeowners that want to make huge profits when they sale. I bought my home at a reasonable price and therefore can sell it much lower than my stupid neighbors that bought similar homes for 2-3 times what I did. The problem with most home buyers is that they see houses as an easy money machine. I bought mine as a place to live.

The housing crash is a good thing if the market is allowed to force houses to sell for realistic prices. Instead Obama wants to distort the market by trying to keep prices arbitrarily high and interest rates far too low. It's the same method the Japanese used to screw up their economy, and apparently Obama hasn't learned a thing from their mistakes.

It won't work folks! You lived high on the hog for a very long time, now just face the music and get over your hangover.

[guyinAZ]

Those stories you have are sad, but there is another side to the story that Obama is just blowing off, and I'm getting angry about it.

First off, I live just a few miles from where Obama gave his speech, and there are a lot of foreclosures in that area. There are many places in the Phoenix metro area that are far worse, like Maricopa or Queen Creek, so I don't know why the speech was made at Dobson High School. That's a weird choice but that's not why I'm angry.

Dobson Ranch, which is just across the street from the high school. The neighborhood is deteriorating because greedy investors bought these homes as investment property to make a fast buck by flipping them. Now they are whining because they can no longer break even with their mortgages by charging exorbitant rents. Keep in mind that most of these investors are just average homeowners that used equity loans on their primary house in places like California to buy up Dobson Ranch property, and now they are whining that they are going to lose both of their homes. Boo! Hoo!

[Awakenedcitizen]

guy, those speculators will no be bailed out. read the plan: recovery.gov.

[guyinAZ]

I have read the plan, and it's downright naive. Speculators will find ways to get bailed out, especially as the people who rent their houses come up with lots of sob stories.

I also think it's grossly unfair for people that used their houses as an ATM machine to get bailed out, but Obama's plan will do that also.

The people who are really upside down will not be helped, and they are the ones in the most trouble of foreclosure. Merely doing things like changing their interest rates by 2% isn't going to save their homes because they are too far under.

[jaglon]

And these are the people who should not be getting any money from this mortage bailout. But this kind of rampant, unplanned development is allowed to proliferate because of greedy, shortsighted politicians. Florida is having the same kind of problem.

[guyinAZ]

The greed was on all sides -- home buyers, mortgage companies, and the politicians who allowed this to happen.

[Kiku]

For a long time, I've felt the government needed to step in an help rewrite mortgages so that people can afford them. I'm glad to see Obama stepping what. What a contrast with McCain! I'm praying for you guys, and the rest of the US too, and I'm an atheist. We can do this if we work together.