|
History
of
Mortgage
Loan
Modifications,
Part 1
- July 30, 2008 'Hope For Homeowners' was
passed
by the US Congress. In the six months before it was absorbed into the
Home Affordable Mortgage Plan, it accomplished one modification.
- March 4, 2009 the US Treasury issued Uniform Guidance for
President
Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” plan which is the Administration’s
stimulus strategy to get the housing market corrected. This included
the Home Affordable Mortgage Plan.
- May 20, 2009 President Obama signed the 'Helping Families
Save Their Homes Act', and
the 'Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act' (FERA)
On
May 20, 2009 President
Obama
signed
the
Helping
Families Save Their Homes Act, and
the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act (FERA):
The Helping Families Save
Their Homes Act is aimed at helping
homeowners by making mortgages more affordable and preventing
"avoidable" foreclosures. As many as 9 million homeowners could benefit
from this legislation. Obama, before signing the bill, said the bill
"expands the reach of our existing housing plan for homeowners with FHA
or USDA rural housing loans, providing them with new opportunities to
modify or refinance their mortgages to more affordable levels." The
original bill was criticized for the "cram down" provision, which
according to critics would encourage borrowers to abdicate their
responsibility towards loan repayment. The legislation, however, was
ultimately passed without the cram down provision.
FERA is a bid to revamp the
outdated and ineffective laws governing
mortgage fraud. The number of investigations pertaining to mortgage
fraud, initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has
doubled over the past three years. The legislation, in addition to
providing $331 million to agencies such as the FBI and the Securities
and Exchange Commission, expands the authority of the Department of
Justice "to prosecute fraud that takes place in many of the private
institutions not covered under current federal bank fraud criminal
statutes," according to President Obama.
Around the first of August,
the media was replete with reports that 235,000 mortgages had been
modified since the passage of "Making Home Affordable" in March. That
came to 9% of the estimated 4 million that the US Treasury estimated as
eligible. Much was made of the Treasury's intent to raise that number
to 250,000 by November. That computes to 13% of the same eligible 4
million. Those same reports focused on homeowner's difficulty in
getting any satisfaction from their lenders. Meanwhile, US national
attorneys are quietly getting 95% of their application negotiations
completed. The reader is asked to use a calculator and simple math to
figure what is happening to the others.
Foreclosure?
Hell, I'm gonna shoot something! 
Foreclosure
Timer
|
