Monday, September 22, 2008

Washington Report: Snag for FHA Hope

Although Wall Street's woes got a lot of attention on Capitol Hill last week, so did the continuing crisis in home foreclosures.

Starting October 1, home owners who owe more on their mortgage than their property is worth may be able to qualify for new FHA "Hope" refinancings that cut their debt, lower their interest rates and help them start rebuilding equity.

Sounds like a great opportunity for hundreds of thousands of hard-pressed owners, but there's a huge potential snag: Their lenders and loan servicers have to agree to participate, and they may not.




Ivie's Article Review:

This sounds good, but at the same time, banks are not required to participate in the program. The reason is, lenders and bond market owners of mortgages will have to agree to write down the balances due on the loans below current market values for the house... meaning that lenders make need to AGREE to take a sizable loss in ADVANCE. However, the alterative might be that the banks still end up foreclosing. That's a loose... loose situation for everyone! When a bank forecloses on a house, normally they will only resell for a fraction of what it owed. At least, that's what I'm seeing in our market, up here in Gladwin County and surrounding areas.

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