Mortgage Holders Doom Obama Foreclosure Plan to Failure

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

President Barack Obama’s $75 billion plan to keep millions of Americans from losing their homes to foreclosure may be doomed to fail because banks simply don’t want to refinance mortgages. That is the conclusion of a study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, which found only 3% of seriously delinquent borrowers (those more than 60 days behind in their payments) had their loans restructured by lenders.

 
“Loan modification is not profitable for lenders,” Boston Fed senior economist Paul S. Willen told The Boston Globe. “If it were profitable, they would go out and hire staff.”
 
Instead of giving the $75 billion to banks, Willen and others believe the administration should distribute the money directly to homeowners. Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, agrees with Willen, and is holding a hearing on his plan to provide government loans to homeowners who have lost their jobs and don’t qualify for loan modifications and other assistance.
 
“The problem is worse than we thought,” Frank said. “The failure to do these modifications means the whole situation stays bad longer,” which has huge implications for the nation’s recovery.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
 
Lenders Avoid Redoing Loans, Fed Concludes (by Jenifer McKim, Boston Globe)

Comments

loispoor 15 years ago
I own a condo and have an outstanding balance of $140k, consisting of $104k primary and $36k secondary. I took the home equity to consolidate debts. At the time the property was valued at $163k but now it is valued at $134k. I'm looking to sell because i am engaged and will be moving into my fiancee's home. Check http://obamamortgage2009.blogspot.com/2009/03/obamas-mortgage-modification-do-you.html If I have a buyer who offers me within say $5-7k of the outstanding, can i agree to assume a loan on the residual and pay the bank the difference over time with interest? The same bank holds both mortgages.
John Lynch 15 years ago
Dear Sir: We have trying to refinance our home because our interest rate is at 6% and our payment have jumped to over 4000.00 a month. We are both retired and we are at our ropes end. We have tried Bank of America and they took over 2 months to let us know that our house was worth less than the amount of the loan. They would not even talk with us after the house value was set. So than we tried Wells Fargo, we have our loan with them on our home at the present time. They also have denied us a refinance loan. Their reason was that we do not make enough income to qualify for a lower rate and a lower payment to them. This makes no sense because we are now paying a monthly payment of over $4000.00 to them at 6%. We have never been late on any payment and we never have had a second on the home. We do not understand their reasoning it makes no sense. How can we not qualify for a lower rate and lower payments when we are paying a higher rate and higher payment to them with no problems for them. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do help solve our problem. We do not want to loose our home. Thank you, John W Lynch

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