The Senate Judiciary Committee this week entertained discussion on reviving a Bill to allow the modification of mortgages by the judge in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. Once again, Senator Durbin (Democrat from Illinois) championed this cause, arguing that such a law would allow hundreds of homeowners to keep their homes. Similar laws were defeated in [...]
Posts from ‘July, 2009’
Mortgage payments and underwater homes
National real estate columnist Kenneth Harney wrote about the decision to default on affordable mortgage payments when the loan is larger than the value of the home. Is default a viable strategy?
What grabbed me was not the ethical question, but the factoid that homes purchased in 2006 in Salinas are on average $214,000 underwater! [...]
How Could HAMP be Better?
The Home Affordable Modification Program (a.k.a. HAMP) may be doing some good for a handful of people. But, if there is something that everyone agrees with, it is that the program needs some changes.
Alys Cohen and Diane Thompson of the National Consumer Law Center released a list of recommendations on July 6th that recommends greater [...]
Current Mortgage Modifications Aren’t Working.
Current Mortgage Modifications Aren’t Working.
Recently, the government relaxed the standards for receiving a mortgage modification to include homeowners whose loans exceeded the value of their homes by up to 25%. As home values continue to decline, more people can now qualify. But is the system doing anyone any real good?
First of all, it’s not easy [...]
Behind in Your House Payment (Part 2)
In part 1, we discussed what you can do to keep your home. Here, we will look at your choices if you are willing to leave the house.
If you aren’t going to keep the house; you can either sell or abandon it. Selling property in this day and age usually means a short sale – [...]
Mortgage Modifications Just Got Tougher
New legislation introduced, allegedly at the request of California Governor, Schwarzenegger, will make it tougher to get a mortgage modification. This legislation, California Senate Bill 94, includes language that says that attorneys can’t be paid for helping a homeowner apply for a modification until the process is completed!
Frankly, attorneys aren’t used to working that way. [...]
Banks lose big when they foreclose
Modifications are down in the second quarter of this year, and foreclosures are on the rise, reports New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson in a piece entitled So Many Foreclosures, So Little Logic.
My experience in the San Francisco Bay Area is consistent with the theme that modification are few and the degree of change in [...]
Behind in Your House Payment? (Part 1)
There are basically four choices for a homeowner who is behind in his mortgage payment.
1. You can get caught up by paying the arrearage. Most mortgage companies want you to do this all at once, but if you can’t afford to come up with that much in cash, you can seek bankruptcy protection (typically a [...]
Refinancing Limits Raised: Happy 4th of July!
Remember when you were a kid and the simplest things intrigued you? When you parroted the reaction of those around you because you were learning how to react to something new, something you had never seen or experienced before.
That is how a lot of American’s must have felt when the most recent expansion to the [...]