Posts Tagged ‘foreclosure news’
Number of Foreclosure Homes Still Increasing
The number of foreclosure homes increased by more than five percent during the third quarter of 2009 when compared to the previous quarter. The increase occurred despite the presence of the Making Home Affordable program of the federal government that attempts to help borrowers undergoing financial hardships to get a loan modification to reduce their monthly payments. It appears that the government program has been overwhelmed by the large number of layoffs.
Approximately 48,000 homes were added to the number of foreclosure homes listed as of June 2009, thereby pushing up the number of foreclosed properties to 938,000 during the third quarter of 2009. If the statistics are extrapolated to the end of 2009, there would be a total of about 3.5 million foreclosure filings for the whole year, which is much larger than the 2.3 million filings recorded for 2008.
The primary reason for the rise in the foreclosure rate, in the spite of many economists claiming that the recession is over, has been the unemployment rate, which has attained a record level of 9.8 percent for last the 26 years. To make matters worse, the unemployment rate is predicted to continue to rise until it will reach its peak in the middle of 2010. Mortgage lenders are trying to help by permitting the homeowners to be delayed by three to six months in their payments as they look for work. Unfortunately, looking for work at a time when the unemployment rate has reached an all-time high is very tough.
The Administration of President Obama had recently reported that its initiative has attained an important milestone when more than 500,000 loan modifications have been granted. However, the rise in the number of people defaulting on their loans has been much faster than the increase in the number of people getting loan modifications.
Somehow, mortgage companies have been trying to reduce the impact of the housing crisis by slowing down the rate of foreclosures. They have been trying to examine whether the borrowers would be able to fulfill the requirements for the Making Home Affordable program of the Obama Administration. However, experts predict that a substantial number of those borrowers would not qualify and they forecast a new set of forecloser homes coming into the market in 2010. This is expected to pull down home market values further. Banks and other lenders are unable to find a loan modification plan that is suitable for the present income capabilities of the homeowners in view of the gravity of their financial hardships. For more foreclosure news stop by http://www.bestforeclosurenews.com
Has Barack Obama Foreclosure Program Made Inroads in Its Plan to Help Homeowners?
The core of the President’s foreclosure prevention program is to get billion from the funds that have been approved by Congress for the bailout of the financial services industry and apply it for the program to designed fight against the trend of increasing number of foreclosures. The three main goals of the Barack Obama foreclosure prevention program are refinancing, more loan modifications, and the provision of more home loans
The President wants to help borrowers who are underwater in the mortgage loans to obtain refinancing from the banks and in the process make their monthly payments more affordable. To be accepted under this initiative of the Barack Obama foreclosure avoidance program, the loan balance of the homeowner should not be more than 105 percent of the property’s present value. Meanwhile, the second component is geared towards encouraging the banks to give the go signal for loan modification applications to make the monthly payments more affordable by not exceeding 31 percent of the borrower’s monthly salary. Finally, the Barack Obama foreclosure prevention program has allocated 0 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to allow them to offer more home loans.
So far, the Making Home Affordable Program, which is the official title for the Barack Obama foreclosure prevention efforts, has had mixed results in its goal of helping homeowners avoid foreclosure and get back on track despite increasing unemployment and plunging home values. As of the last week of September 2009, it is believed that the President’s program has finally achieved some results. Some argue that the Barack Obama foreclosure avoidance plan has been instrumental in the slight improvement in the foreclosure rates in some states and in the fact that home prices have stopped declining in a number of states. Nevertheless, many people still point out that only a slight percentage of those who should have qualified for home loan modifications have gotten the approval of banks.
Some have criticized the Barack Obama foreclosure prevention initiative for it naivety and not being founded on sound economic principles. Nevertheless, the Obama Administration continues to have faith in the program and has been issuing reports on its progress. The government has proudly reported during the first week of October 2009 that the plan has accomplished a milestone that has been originally projected for the first week of November 2009. The program’s target of more than 500,000 homeowners getting home loan modifications has been reached almost one month early. Therefore, it is possible that the Barack Obama foreclosure prevention initiative may finally work after all. To learn more about the foreclosure process stop by http://rismedia.com
Help Is Underway with the Obama Foreclosure Prevention Plan
The Obama foreclosure prevention plan has the goals of increasing the number of refinanced home loans, boosting the number of available home loans for first-time home buyers, and motivating banks and lenders to agree to more loan modifications. The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act that was approved by President Barack Obama in May 2009 is the main foundation of the program. This law was created to add to the anti-foreclosure strategies of the Hope for Homeowners Act that was previously issued to help homeowners with remaining loan balances that were bigger than the current market value of their homes.
The Obama foreclosure prevention plan helps borrowers in getting the banks and other lending institutions to agree to their loan refinancing proposals to bring down their monthly installments to more affordable amounts. It should be noted, however, that a borrower must have a loan balance that is not more than 105 percent of the current market price of his home in order to qualify for the program. The initiative of the President also offers bonuses to banks and lenders if they agree to a loan modification that will decrease the monthly installments to a value that will not exceed 31 percent of the borrower’s monthly income. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will also be able to offer a greater number of home loans for first-time home buyers because the Obama foreclosure prevention plan has added to the funding of these two corporations.
Unfortunately, the critics of the Obama plan quickly grabbed the chance to pick apart the initiative when it failed to make a noticeable effect on the housing crisis in September 2009. But those who are in favor the Obama foreclosure prevention plan countered that it has started to have some positive effects. For example, the plan seems to have been the major cause of the reversal of the declining trend in home market prices and the rise in the number of foreclosure filings in a number of states. In response, critics of the President’s program countered that only a small number of the borrowers who should have been qualified to get their loans modified had benefited from the program. Some critics also observed that the Obama foreclosure prevention plan was not founded on sound economic theories. But members of the Obama Administration continue to support the plan and have revealed that a milestone had been attained in the number of loan modifications that pushed through. The members of the Obama Administration are positive that the President’s anti-foreclosure plan will succeed in the long run and continue to report to the public regarding its successes. Check out http://hardmoneylendersonline.com to view other methods of loan funding availeble