Posts Tagged ‘mortgage relief’

There is hope for your loan

Thursday, August 13, 2009

We are seeing weekly, if not daily, changes in the way the government and lenders are dealing with the housing crisis. What was true yesterday may not be true today.Spring Daffodoils 

If you contacted your lender about a loan modification in the past, try again. And again a month or so later. You may find that the rules have changed to fit your circumstances. Or your loan servicer may have changed to one with completely different guidelines.

Check  this blog often, and I will post changes as I hear about them.

Guidelines aim to help struggling borrowers

The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently announced that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has implemented changes to its loan modification program to ensure consistency with the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable Modification Program.

By August 15, FHA borrowers will be able to reduce their monthly mortgage payments by seeking a loan modification through their current mortgage company or loan servicer under the new FHA-Home Affordable Modification Program (FHA-HAMP).

The program will allow HUD to bring a borrower’s payment down to an affordable level. Under the plan, mortgage servicers can reduce the amount of principal on which the borrower must make loan payments by as much as 30 percent to get monthly payments to affordable levels. The borrower makes the reduced payments for the life of the loan, but is responsible for paying off the loan in full when the home is sold or the loan is refinanced.

FHA borrowers can receive a loan modification after they have missed one loan payment, rather than waiting until they are at least three payments behind, as in the past. This differs from the Making Home Affordable Program in that borrowers who are current, but are at risk of default can qualify for assistance.

HUD does not have an estimate on the number of borrowers that will be assisted. According to LPS Applied Analytics, 14.2 percent of FHA loans are at least 30 days past due and not yet in foreclosure.

To read the full story, please click here

 

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Foreclosure, Home Mortgage, Housing Market, Short Sales by Debbie Brodie Add a comment

City gets involved in foreclosure relief

Monday, May 18, 2009

In Los Angeles,  their community redevelopment agency will be making silent second loans to help negotiate reduced balances on faltering mortgages.

I have long believed that the answer to California’s foreclosure problem lies in silent second loans.  I will be interested in monitoring the success of this program.

 The Los Angeles Daily News reports that the Los Angeles City Council has unanimously approved a $1 million program it hopes will lead banks to lower mortgages to current market values.   The pilot program would make loans of up to $75,000 available to homeowners from the Community Redevelopment Agency as “silent second mortgages” that supporters hope would encourage financial institutions to modify home loans.

The council authorized the CRA to launch the $1 million program in the next few months. The CRA is expected to approve the million-dollar expenditure some time in June.

Under the plan, the CRA would lend as much as $75,000 to troubled homeowners, who would not have to make payments on that city loan until they sold their home.  The city loan money would be paid directly to lenders, who would have to agree to reduce the principal of the loan to the homeowner to the current market value.  That write-down, said officials, could be as much as $100,000.   In turn, the city and the lenders would get a fair share of any appreciation in the home’s value at the time of its sale.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in General by Debbie Brodie 2 comments