mortgage modification

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Calif. City OK With Seizing Mortgages From Banks

Eminent domain would be used to help Richmond homeowners

(Newser) - Eminent domain is usually used to seize homes from people, but Richmond, California, in the early hours of this morning gave a tentative green light to a plan that would use it to keep people in their homes. In a contentious 4-3 vote, the city council voted to continue pursuing...

Staffers: Bank of America Gave Us Gift Cards for Lying

Lawsuit says company cheated homeowners

(Newser) - Bank of America told employees to lie to and cheat homeowners looking for help under the government's Home Affordable Modification Program , and rewarded those employees for kicking people out of their homes, staffers allege in sworn statements attached to a recently filed lawsuit. Here are some of the most...

Big Banks Had 800K Needless Foreclosures

Study says big banks reacted sluggishly to modification program

(Newser) - The big banks moved sluggishly to implement the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program, forcing hundreds of thousands of families out of their home unnecessarily, according to a new study. Office of the Comptroller of Currency data indicates that while many banks had sufficient staff and expertise to implement...

US May Let Millions Refinance at 4%

Proposal could save homeowners $85B annually

(Newser) - Help could be on the way for struggling homeowners with government-backed mortgages: The Obama administration is considering a proposal that would allow such homeowners to refinance their mortgages at today's interest rates, which hover around a low 4%. Many homeowners can’t currently refinance because they owe more than...

GOP Votes to Ax Foreclosure Aid Program

But bill is unlikely to clear Senate

(Newser) - The House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill that would kill off President Obama’s top foreclosure prevention program, in a 252-170 vote that broke mainly along partisan lines. Republicans said the Home Affordable Modification Program, which gives banks incentives to modify mortgages, had proven ineffective, helping less than 600,...

BofA Forgiving $3B in Mortgage Debt

45K 'underwater' borrowers to be offered reduction

(Newser) - Bank of America is offering to slash mortgage-loan balances by up to 30% for thousands of delinquent borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth. The plan—part of an agreement to settle a lending-abuse suit—is one of the most ambitious moves yet to ease the foreclosure crisis,...

Obama Weighs Foreclosure Ban

Proposal would require HAMP to review all delinquent mortgage loans

(Newser) - The Obama administration is considering kicking up the fight against foreclosures by banning any that haven't been reviewed by its Home Affordable Modification program. The move would prevent lenders from initiating foreclosure unless HAMP had screened the loan and found it unsalvageable. it would also require them to halt existing...

Millions Considering Walking Away From Mortgages

10% of mortgages expected to be underwater by June

(Newser) - The long slide in property values has left huge numbers of homeowners considering just walking away from their mortgages. People start thinking about jumping ship when their home value falls below 75% of what they paid for it, according to new research. Over 5 million Americans are expected to be...

Modified Mortgages May Do More Harm Than Good

Critics say they hurt homeowners by merely delaying foreclosure

(Newser) - The Obama program to rescue homeowners by modifying their mortgages comes under fire in the New York Times, where real estate experts say it has actually hurt rather than helped delinquent borrowers and impeded the country's economic recovery. Critics say that by raising false hopes in those who can't afford...

Mortgage Defaults Top 1M, Keep Rising

Even those with lowered payments are defaulting

(Newser) - The number of troubled home loans continued to rise in the third quarter, despite the Obama camp's efforts to stem the tide by mortgage modification. For the first quarter ever, the number of homes in foreclosure with mortgages serviced by US banks topped the 1 million mark, the Los Angeles ...

Watchdog: Feds Need to Expand Foreclosure Plan

$50B plan proving ineffective as more mortgage holders lose their jobs

(Newser) - The Treasury's $50 billion loan-modification program is in danger of being swamped as the foreclosure crisis accelerates, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in a report yesterday. The Home Affordable Modification Program has met its target of 500,000 trial mortgage modifications started by November 1, but the watchdog warned that...

Sleazy Middlemen Stiff Homeowners Trying to Refi
 Sleazy Middlemen 
 Stiff Homeowners 
 Trying to Refi 
mortgage meltdown
Oct 4, 2009 3:31 PM CDT

Sleazy Middlemen Stiff Homeowners Trying to Refi

Foot-dragging 'mortgage servicers' step into role of fox in henhouse

(Newser) - The federal mortgage modification program is mired in trouble, with just 12% of the 3 million eligible loans in the process of modification, the "servicers" that helped create the problem tasked with helping to untangle it, and the Treasury Department falling down on the oversight job. In one...

Treasury's Secret Formula Slows Loan Modifications

But one thing's clear: it favors banks, not homeowners

(Newser) - The Obama administration’s mortgage modification program has been a big disappointment, and part of the reason could lie in the invisible hurdle troubled homeowners have to clear to get their mortgages renegotiated: the NPV test. Devised by the Treasury, the secret formula is designed to determine if modification is...

Bad Loan Fees Too Juicy to Give Homeowners a Break

(Newser) - The government's foreclosure prevention program is failing largely because of mortgage companies who can make more money when loans go delinquent, industry insiders tell the New York Times. Companies servicing mortgage loans charge many lucrative fees as loans go bad—recoverable, if necessary, out of the proceeds when the foreclosed...

Despite Obama Push, Banks Often Prefer Foreclosing

(Newser) - There’s a big problem with government efforts to keep delinquents in their homes by modifying mortgages: Banks would usually rather foreclose, economists tell the Washington Post. Lenders are only interested in modification for the small group of borrowers who will keep paying only if they get help. For those...

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