The news just keeps getting better and better, who would of thought they would be offering more free handouts.
More propping for housing, tomorrow new announcements being made for those unemployed who can't afford to make payments along with a few more free handouts. This is creating such a false bottom in housing, prices continue to be propped up, when does it fucking end? Enough is enough, stop with the handouts. Housing prices are still inflated by at least 25%. Funny how they didn't do anything when housing prices surged year over year, now that there is continued trouble in real estate they will do anything and everything to keep it from collapsing.
White House to Announce Housing Aid Friday
CNBC.com | March 25, 2010 | 10:05 PM EDT
The Obama administration plans to implement new measures to slow the pace of home foreclosures, even as concern grows about the effectiveness of the federal governmentâs expensive intervention program.
CNBC.com has learned that the White House on Friday will announce changes to its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which include financial aid for unemployed homeowners, a new emphasis on writing down the principal of troubled loans, incentives for the holders of second mortgages and greater opportunity to refinance under the Federal Housing Administration.
Once again, funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, will be used to help borrowers and lenders in the program. Itâs unclear how much, although some $50 billion in TARP funds were previously committed to the $85-billion program when first outlined by the White House early last year.
Treasury officials will outline the changes â a summary of which was described to CNBC.com âon Friday morning.
The new measures come one day after administration officials received a tough grilling at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee. In addition, a report earlier this week by the General Accountability Officeâs Special Inspector General for TARP, Sigtarp Neil Barofsky, questioned the near year-old programâs effectiveness.
Barofsky, who testified at the Congressional hearing, said not only is the HAMP unlikely to help many homeowners, it would also prolong the foreclosure crisis and cost taxpayers a lot of money.
The program, which was launched with the expectation of averting 3-4 million foreclosures over four years, has fallen well short of that goal.
Thus far, according to the Treasury Department, some 1.4 million borrowers have received a modification offer, with 1.1 million of them entering into a trial modification. As of February, 822,000 had been in the program three or more months, making them eligible for conversion to a permanent status. About one-third have qualified, which is well below whatâs considered an acceptable success rate.
Herbert Allison, assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability, admitted as much to the House panel, saying âthe process of converting trial modifications to permanent has been much more challenging than officials originally anticipated.â
He cited a variety of reasons, including difficulties with both servicers and borrowers, as well as the program itself, which was âmore complex administratively than originally conceived.â (Click here for Allison's full testimony)
The changes to be announced tomorrow donât appear aimed at reducing complexity, but they do address the changing dynamic of the foreclosure crisis.
With the jobless rate still near 10 percent, more people are falling behind on payments and heading into delinquency, unlike the earlier stage of the crisis when many foreclosures were the result of bad lending in the subprime mortgage market.
A new measure would attack that problem by giving unemployed homeowners three months of forbearance; essentially buying time.
A write-down in the principal of the loan, as opposed to a simple reduction in the mortgage rate, will now be given serious consideration; loan servicers will receive additional incentives the longer the loan stays current.
More incentives will also be provided to second-mortgage holders to write down the value of those loans.
The FHA will be utilized to refinance mortgages otherwise ineligible in the past and consider lower FICO scores.
More propping for housing, tomorrow new announcements being made for those unemployed who can't afford to make payments along with a few more free handouts. This is creating such a false bottom in housing, prices continue to be propped up, when does it fucking end? Enough is enough, stop with the handouts. Housing prices are still inflated by at least 25%. Funny how they didn't do anything when housing prices surged year over year, now that there is continued trouble in real estate they will do anything and everything to keep it from collapsing.
White House to Announce Housing Aid Friday
CNBC.com | March 25, 2010 | 10:05 PM EDT
The Obama administration plans to implement new measures to slow the pace of home foreclosures, even as concern grows about the effectiveness of the federal governmentâs expensive intervention program.
CNBC.com has learned that the White House on Friday will announce changes to its Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which include financial aid for unemployed homeowners, a new emphasis on writing down the principal of troubled loans, incentives for the holders of second mortgages and greater opportunity to refinance under the Federal Housing Administration.
Once again, funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, TARP, will be used to help borrowers and lenders in the program. Itâs unclear how much, although some $50 billion in TARP funds were previously committed to the $85-billion program when first outlined by the White House early last year.
Treasury officials will outline the changes â a summary of which was described to CNBC.com âon Friday morning.
The new measures come one day after administration officials received a tough grilling at a hearing of the House Oversight Committee. In addition, a report earlier this week by the General Accountability Officeâs Special Inspector General for TARP, Sigtarp Neil Barofsky, questioned the near year-old programâs effectiveness.
Barofsky, who testified at the Congressional hearing, said not only is the HAMP unlikely to help many homeowners, it would also prolong the foreclosure crisis and cost taxpayers a lot of money.
The program, which was launched with the expectation of averting 3-4 million foreclosures over four years, has fallen well short of that goal.
Thus far, according to the Treasury Department, some 1.4 million borrowers have received a modification offer, with 1.1 million of them entering into a trial modification. As of February, 822,000 had been in the program three or more months, making them eligible for conversion to a permanent status. About one-third have qualified, which is well below whatâs considered an acceptable success rate.
Herbert Allison, assistant Treasury secretary for financial stability, admitted as much to the House panel, saying âthe process of converting trial modifications to permanent has been much more challenging than officials originally anticipated.â
He cited a variety of reasons, including difficulties with both servicers and borrowers, as well as the program itself, which was âmore complex administratively than originally conceived.â (Click here for Allison's full testimony)
The changes to be announced tomorrow donât appear aimed at reducing complexity, but they do address the changing dynamic of the foreclosure crisis.
With the jobless rate still near 10 percent, more people are falling behind on payments and heading into delinquency, unlike the earlier stage of the crisis when many foreclosures were the result of bad lending in the subprime mortgage market.
A new measure would attack that problem by giving unemployed homeowners three months of forbearance; essentially buying time.
A write-down in the principal of the loan, as opposed to a simple reduction in the mortgage rate, will now be given serious consideration; loan servicers will receive additional incentives the longer the loan stays current.
More incentives will also be provided to second-mortgage holders to write down the value of those loans.
The FHA will be utilized to refinance mortgages otherwise ineligible in the past and consider lower FICO scores.
