Epic fail - no help on foreclosures

[katkat]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/nyregion/30foreclose.html?hp

"Ten months ago President Obama announced a $75 billion program to keep as many as four million Americans in their homes by persuading banks to renegotiate their mortgages. Lenders have accepted more than one million applications and cut three-month trial deals with 759,000 homeowners. But they have converted just 31,000 of those to the permanent new mortgages that are the plan’s goal.

In New York City, where 20,000 homeowners faced foreclosure this year, a recent study by the Center for NYC Neighborhoods found that lenders have offered new or trial mortgages to just 3 percent of the homeowners who have sought help.

Big mortgage companies — servicers, in the parlance of the industry — stand at the heart of this program. Many of the servicers that have agreed to participate are subsidiaries of the nation’s largest banks — Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase."

[shadesofgray]

1. "Administration officials have vowed to shame servicers into action."

Yeah. Like they have shame.

Obama's failure on this is inexcusable.

[truedelphi]

2. A related post here on DU explained how part of this legislation

Took away the rights of anyone who signed on for a mortgage remodification to have notifications sent to them.

So in return for possibly getting help keeping your home, you won't be notified if your check is lost in the mail and they then get to foreclose.

[xiamiam]

3. what?...please explain this

I've got my own stories..a pretty extraordinary one which just happened today but I think I'll do a thread about it..its just so outrageous...could you direct me to this thread?

[truedelphi]

7. google and some luck got me that thread

I thought it might not be possible to find.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7264712

And PM me when you have your OP up. I will be sure to read it.

[katkat]

11. I think it said that also in the original link n/t

[truedelphi]

18. it says in the original article that you may lose the right to sue

Should you get accepted for the re-mod program. I cannot find any part of the article that says anything about losing the right to be notified. (Even on a second reading of it.) But these fifty eight yr old eyes are not all they used to be (Jes celebrated that last milestone B-day!)

In any case, it is a great article. Thank you for posting it.

[JoeyT]

8. Or, you know,

if it doesn't get lost and happens to get filed in the round cabinet in the corner, you're still SOL and get foreclosed on.

[leftstreet]

4. K&R

[Imagevision]

5. More foreclosures this month then a year ago and they claim the economy is turning around?

[sabrina 1]

6. It really is a disgrace how the big banks, like Wells Fargo

took huge bailouts and then refuse to even talk to people who need a loan re-modification. I wrote about it a few months ago, but one of my friends tried to get them to respond to her letters, phone calls etc. when she realized she would be in trouble if she didn't get her mortgage payment reduced. Had they been willing to do that, she could have stayed in her home. Instead, they ignored her and gave her a run around every time she called. She sent reduced payments when they didn't answer, and had them returned to her. Then they started fore-closure proceedings.

Sh finally got a lawyer and they ignored his efforts to contact them. By then I had learned about the securitizing of mortgages and found that hers was among them. She wrote and asked to see the note, they ignored that request too. She now has three weeks to leave her home. We are planning to sue them as soon as she is settled as the stress of just trying to save her home, has taken all of her energy.

They treat people like dirt, not even acknowledging them as human beings. Wells Fargo was supposed to help people stay in their homes as part of their bailout agreement. But in reality, it was just a promise. Congress never put pressure on them, just saying basically 'it would be nice' if they did so.

There were One Million more foreclosures in the last quarter. I don't understand how it benefits the banks to not work with people and to be stuck with all these properties. Neighborhoods around the country are devasted by this. But people are beginning to fight back and my friend's situation has definitly angered a lot of people who are willing to help her go after them. She documented everything so we'll see. But a jury in California recently awarded a couple whose house was foreclosed on, the value of their house and over two million dollars in punitive damages. People are not very sympathic to banks these days. I hope they are sued and lose every case as this kind of greed should never be rewarded.

[SoCalDem]

9. Basically, when someone is in or near foreclosure, their finances are pretty much in a shambles

It's not JUST the mortgage they are having trouble with.. especially when someone has lost a job. Even with the few re-do mortgages that have been done, the default rate is still high ..even after the re-do.

Without an across-the-board policy to help mortgage holders..like a reduction in rates, or even "coupons" redeemable with lenders/accompanied by a percentage "cram-down" of principle, a helter-skelter plan like this was doomed to fail.

It gave all the power to the lenders, who were the ones who made wacky loans in the first place, often to people who had no down payment, and who then set out on a equity binge..taking money out that was never really "theirs"....Had the market stayed up, and they sold in time, they might have "won"..but that did not happen.

Instead, people lost jobs, had hours cut, and fell behind..and once you are behind, it's almost impossible to catch up... and many people bought houses they could not afford.

There's a reason why 30-yr mortgages exist.. That was the amount of time needed to pay off a home, so that by the time someone was ready to retire, they would own their home free and clear, but once the crazy-loan scenario started up and the equity-snatchers came on the scene, people no longer even plan on paying off their homes..or even could.. I mean, really.. if you are 45-50 and are taking out a 30 yr loan, you better be planning on moving to cheap rental in your golden years, or hoping you can maintain your current salary, and work until you are 80 yrs old..or try to pay that mortgage from your retirement..

[katkat]

14. more or less true

However, there are plenty of people in the mess because they did the right stuff but lost their jobs. Good luck getting a comparable job in the economic mess Gov and BogCorps have created.

I took out a fixed 30 year mortgage when I was in my thirties and managed to pay it ahead enough so that I paid it off, I forget exactly, when, I think in 20 years. (Compound interest is a killer, so, conversely, making extra payments is a win.) But that was back when a competent, responsible person could always find a job. So I was lucky.

[uponit7771]

10. Don't forget refies, the builder in my subdivision DEVISTATED home prices KNOWINGLY

[asdjrocky]

12. I came back to my home town a little over a year ago.

So far, two of my favorite neighbors have been foreclosed on.

There's no help for the poor or the struggling.

[AllentownJake]

13. When the bailouts are over

The US Treasury could have paid off every single mortgage and credit card in the country. Obama has adopted a tactic of handing out borrowed money from China to sociopathic gamblers, giving the tax breaks, and questioning why things haven't gotten better for ordinary people.

It is the most shameful aspect of his Presidency and one he's getting to a point he will have no recourse to reverse the longer it goes on.

[truedelphi]

15. That is why I personally will never apologize to

The cheerleaders.

You either like what is going down in this country and realize who is a very big part of it, or you don't like what is going down.

The notion that this President, who came in with a 62% mandate, and 76% of us wanting real change that could be believed in, has had his hands tied by Rahm or the experts (or whomever) is not a historical reality.

Look at LBJ. No One tied his hands. And FDR was smart enough to say that it was better to be friends with families of organized crime than organized banking, while Obama proudly refers to Geithner as his good buddy.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

16. This thread offers a sickening reason.

You have to ask yourself why so little effort on the part of the banks?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=7193152

[dysfunctional press]

17. i have a friend who owes about $120K on his house(family of 4)...

2br/1 bath. the 3br/2bath foreclosed house across the street from him recently sold for $40K.
he figures that the bank is waiting for him to get a job agin(out of work for a year, unemployment running out, wife works two jobs) and get the payments back up to date, or else they'll have to take a huge bath on the place.