Mortgage Modification Milestone
Today the US Treasury passed a benchmark in its efforts to help troubled homeowners. Half a million borrowers have had their mortgage payments modified under the Obama administration’s Making Home…
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New Mortgage Rules
Most of us have little trouble shopping for a car. When we compare mileage, horse power and options like power steering and transmissions, we get it. In fact teenage boys can…
New Short Sale Program
Not all distressed borrowers can save their homes. As mortgage relief triage, the Obama Administration has emphasized loan modification and refinance , yet the effort is falling far short of the…
FTC Seeks Ban on Upfront Loan Modification Fees
Yesterday the Federal Trade Commission, in a unanimous 4-0 vote sought to protect distressed mortgage borrowers from one of the biggest sources of fraud in the loan modification business, charging…
Slide in Home Values Threatens Loan Modification Pace
Despite a concerted effort by the Obama Administration with its Making Home Affordable Program to modify and refinance home loans, data released this week shows that only 9% of the…
Strategic Default?
One of the most significant factors in mortgage delinquency is whether or not a home is underwater. Some like University of Arizona law professor Roger Lowenstein in yesterday’s NY Times…
The 31% Solution for Mortgage Modification
When I first got a place of my own, I was told that a week of income should cover my housing expenses. Today, the US Department of Housing and Urban…
Foreclosure Increase Looms
In contrast to an optimistic administration assessment, a Congressional oversight panel paints a gloomy picture of US government foreclosure prevention efforts. A newly released white paper questions whether the Making…
What Constitutes Hardship for a Loan Modification?
Most programs developed by the Obama administration and mortgage lenders require the homeowner to demonstrate a ‘hardship’. A hardship is the term lenders use to differentiate between a homeowner whose…
Manage Your Other Debt Prior to a Loan Modification
The Obama Affordability Plan offers financial incentives to mortgage lenders to modify home loans until the Housing to Income Ratio (HTI) is down to 31% of a homeowner’s gross monthly…