Dafaxetentcy: foreclosure help

Two key data points in the ongoing foreclosure crisis were released this week on just one of the looming economic disasters we face: the ongoing mortgage crisis. One is new polling from CBS/NYT showing that most Americans still think home ownership is central to the American dream, but are less than confident about the wisdom of buying a home. Particularly signficant, "most also say the government should help homeowners in trouble with mortgage payments as a means of improving the market."

Overall, 45 percent would like to see government do more, but three in 10 say it's doing enough right now. Another 16 percent said the government should be doing less.
Pluralities of all partisans would prefer the government do more, though Republicans (at 31 percent) are the most likely to say government should do less.

More than half of Americans, 53 percent, say the federal government should provide help to people who are having trouble paying their mortgages, but 40 percent of Americans disagree. Most Democrats agree, while Republicans and independents are mixed.

The other data point on housing this week is a report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks.

The report said that some 19.7% of mortgages held in banks’ portfolios were delinquent at the end of March. By contrast, nearly 6.8% of mortgages backed by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were nonperforming, and 11.4% of all mortgages that are serviced by banks.
Nevertheless, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are more crippled than the biggest banks because their holdings of mortgages are so large, they held little capital, and they don’t have other business lines to offset mortgage losses. Fannie and Freddie guarantee more than $5 trillion in mortgages, double the amount held by all of the nation’s banks and thrifts.

While many subprime and other risky mortgages were packaged into securities and sold off to investors, banks chose to keep certain loans or were stuck with them after securitization markets froze in 2007. Loans held on bank balance sheets “in and of themselves are reflective of lesser quality loans” than those backed by Fannie, Freddie, or federal agencies, said Bruce Krueger, a senior OCC mortgage examiner....

Overall, mortgage delinquencies have declined for five straight quarters, but the share of loans in the foreclosure process remained at its highest level since the foreclosure crisis began and was unchanged in the first quarter from the fourth quarter, according to the OCC report. Banks have been forced to revamp their foreclosure processes after improper legal filings and other document-handling issues surfaced last fall.

Here's where the stories converge. One thing that could be done pretty easily for Fannie and Freddie, that wouldn't take congressional action? Institute a right to rent, something Dean Baker has been talking about for a while. The basics: "As part of the foreclosure process, homeowners would be offered the opportunity to stay in their home, paying the market rent, as determined by an independent appraiser."

It's as good a solution as any and allows families to stay in their homes. The GSEs could get at least some income from the property without having to carry it for months and months trying to get it sold, paying for the maintenance (if they bother with it) and creating neighborhood blight with another vacant home. The good part? "President Obama could unilaterally act to require Fannie and Freddie to go this route."

It's about damn time. "Implementation delays"? Doesn't sound like it was enough of a priority. Think of all the pain that could have been avoided:

Sandra Allwine has been pleading with her bank for more than two years to modify the mortgage on her Arlington County home. Despite exhausting all her savings and having her daughter move in to help with her $3,000 mortgage payment, Allwine, 65 and unable to find work, is struggling to save her home from foreclosure.

In June, a potential lifeline opened up. The newly launched $1 billion Emergency Homeowners’ Loan Program, or EHLP, is targeting homeowners who are among the most difficult to help: those who fell behind on their payments because of job loss or unexpected medical bills. For many of them, it might be the last chance to save their homes.

“We were normal middle-class Americans who had saved and lived very carefully and frugally . . . and still wound up getting kicked in the teeth,” Allwine said. She applied as soon as she heard about the program.

If she is approved, the government will subsidize Allwine’s mortgage payments for a maximum of $50,000 over two years. After that, the interest-free loan will be forgiven over five years if she stays in her home and stays current on her payments.

EHLP is the latest government program targeting the nearly 1.8 million homeowners like Allwine facing foreclosure. It is going to have to move fast: The program was supposed to start last year, but implementation delays mean that the Department of Housing and Urban Development must spend all its $1 billion by the end of the federal government’s fiscal year, Sept. 30.

That gives homeowners in 27 states, including Virginia, until July 22 to complete their applications. If demand outstrips available funds, HUD will run a lottery to pick successful applicants. Five additional states, including Maryland, are subject to slightly different rules, which gave them more time to spend the funds, because they started taking EHLP applications earlier under similar state-run programs.

Dafaxetentcy

Monday, August 1, 2011

foreclosure help

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