Posted on 02/06/2012 3:53:30 PM PST by whitedog57
According to real estate data firm CoreLogic, about 11 million American homeowners are underwater, and half of all U.S. mortgages are owned by non-government lenders. On Wednesday, President Obama announced plans to help homeowners facing foreclosure. Obama is seeking to make interests rates for borrowers lower, and he plans to pay for the estimated $5 billion to $10 billion cost with a fee on the nations largest banks.
It is wrong for anyone to suggest that the only option for struggling, responsible homeowners is to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom, Obama said. I refuse to accept that, and so do the American people.
Opponents of the presidents new plan vehemently disagree. House Speaker John Boehner explained that the market needs to correct itself, saying, All it does is delay the clearing of the market. As soon as the market clears and we understand where the prices really are[that] will be the most important thing we can do in order to improve home values around the country.
Obamas plan would save the average underwater American about $3,000 per year and would apply only to borrowers who have been current on their payments for at least six months. Still, many are skeptical of further help for Americans facing foreclosure, as even the president acknowledges that his previous attempts to tackle underwater debts have failed.
Should the government help homeowners with underwater mortgages? Heres the Debate Clubs take:
Not no, but hell no. They should get out of our lives except for national defense. No more bail outs for anything. The dust must be allowed to settle and free market principles must be allowed to work. If left alone the thing will correct itself. If they keep applying “Stimulus” and bailouts it will never reach equilibrium and steady state.
...and after that they’ll compensate me for every security I ever bought and sold at a loss, right?
Vote out Democrats. Vote in constitutional conservatives.
Problem solved !!!
* Punish lenders, and they’ll avoid lending for a long time.
* The market’s answer to the hysterical policy of refinancing with government funding will be “No sale.”
* There will be fewer able to buy, as the de-industrialization and debt regime continues.
* My fellow Baby Boomers and I will be dying and/or “downsizing” over the 20 years or so to come.
* Who would be fool enough to give more than 10-20% of listing for that hovel, when the end of the economic world as we know it looms before us?
So, you trust the people who caused the problem to fix the problem by doing more of the same thing they did to get us here?
I have one of those Underwater Mortgages, and no I don’t need the Government’s help.
When people who are underwater $100,000 dollars refinance their homes, they are still $100,000 dollars underwater.
They may save some money with cheaper rates, and they may get their time extended to 40 years instead of 30, but they are still underwater.
Low Interest rates are why my CD’s are earning .10%. While the govt. tells everyone to save for their retirement.I am sorry Hoss but unless you save up a helluva lot of money so that you can live off the declining principal you are fugged.Same way with Money markets and Bonds.
Open wound, apply salt
More mistake to follow
Put politicians in charge of stuff and see what happens.
The money system....you get this stupid experiment in social engineering, totally against any sort of common sense.
The borders....dag....Leading Your Country 101 and look they done let all of Mexico waltz in.
Wars....if it weren’t for the soldiers provided by we the citizenry God knows we’d probably lose them. As it is we always end up walking away without any kind of secure victory cause like I said....the politicians get involved and it all goes to hell.
Obviously they shouldn’t be bailing out these people with underwater mortgages. How the hell did they get underwater mortgages anyway?
So they have a house worth $300,000 but the mortgage on it is like $450,000? How did this happen?
I must suppose the house depreciated in value to the tune of $150,000 since its purchase but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense if the market were working right.
I’ve bought three houses in my life. For each the bank had appraisals done. I had to have at least 10% down and none of that down payment could be a loan from somewhere else. Banks running like they were supposed to would never be loaning over a hundred grand past the home’s value.
Before able to get a mortgage on one house, they found out that I had been late with ONE car payment. I had to write a big long letter about how that happened and promising first born that it would not happen again.
My in-laws gave us, as a gift, a thousand dollars on the first home. they had to write a letter stating the money was a gift and would not have to be repaid.
We did get home equity lines of credit on our various homes but our line of credit never exceeded 80% of the appraised value of the house (and we HAD to get it appraised again), less the current mortgage.
It ain’t rocket science. But you had to have a job, you had to have some money put down so your sweat is in the house, you had to pay your mortgage, insurance and property tax every month.
But you got voters with no jobs, unable to save down payments for the drugs, and, if able to buy a house, immediately take out big home equity loans and use up all that money.....
Like I said....a politician’s job is to get votes...NOT to legislate for a greater good.
It’s because we forget this that everything gets messed up.
As far as I can tell, ain’t no such critters.
Yes, that includes Loon Paul.
Do what Romney does....open an account in the Caymans. Many more advantages as well.
All true. But there's plenty of folks out there willing to stick it out. One of the provisions of the HAMP/HMA program is to forebear up to 30% of the principle. That allows for lower interest on a lower amount. Now call me overly optimistic, but I believe in some 30 years values will probably recover.
Pay your mortgage or get booted out, no bailouts!!!!!
All well and good - but that must truly be the end of it.
The banks cannot be allowed to get a "deficiency judgement" against you when they sell that foreclosed property for pennies on the dollar. They must eat the losses on an underwater mortgage when they take back a property.
And the banks had better have very solid proof of valid title when they forclose and try to re-sell properties.
“The banks cannot be allowed to get a “deficiency judgement” against you when they sell that foreclosed property for pennies on the dollar. They must eat the losses on an underwater mortgage when they take back a property.”
Only on a first, if it’s a second or a refinance you eat the difference!
You signed a contract, live up to it or go live under a bush!!
Oh, heck no!
You're right, but I keep hoping that we have a few somewhere. I'm one, and I bet you are too so we have a chance.
I’m the ultimate fiscal conservative and have been that way not for years but for decades. I’m for fiscal responsibility and putting the USA first and most importantly putting average responsible Americans first. But that is not happening. Instead the corrupt bankers who continue to rob us are being taken care of, and not us.
My bills and farm have been paid off for a number of years, and my bank CDs are paying relatively nothing thanks to the thieving corrupt NYC Federal Reserve. They wish first to force most of us to invest in the casino bubble of Wall St. Invest in you own real estate and not thieves.
I’ve lived my life as a fiscal conservative taking care not to get into any debt and to delay purchases until I could afford them, while the alleged conservatives in Congress took care of their thieving interest taking banker buddies. Bernanke and Greenspan took very good care of Wall St too, and they handed them not just billions but trillions of our US dollars, tax and interest free. They even gave their banker wives a hand off too.
So no I don’t look at one side or the other of politics as being bad, but instead I look at the corruption that pervades through our country and politicians that are rewarded to scrxw us for taking care of their donors, instead of average responsible Americans.
I no longer buy just the Party stuff unless it makes sense as being pro-USA and not just pro-money for a few.
Rubbish! The bank takes back the property, which is exactly the recourse allowed by the contract. The former owner may indeed live under a bush afterwards, but more likely will rent an apartment.
In most states that is how the story ends.
In slightly fewer than half of the states, an unlimited deficiency judgement is available to banks. With the housing market falling as it will for the next twenty years, people who lose their homes in foreclosure may be still be left with debts that exceed their lifetime earnings potential.
A "contract" that results in a lifetime of indentured servitude to a bank should be disallowed by public policy. This in fact is what the bankruptcy laws are supposed to prevent.
Corporate executives have no problem with "strategic default" on loans secured by real-estate - which the banks generally reposess without further recourse. It is folly to supposed that individuals should be held to a harsher standard.
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