Government announces new program to help ‘underwater’ homeowners

By artappraiser on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 3:24pm |

By Zachary A. Goldfarb, Washington Post, October 24, 11:32 AM

The federal government on Monday announced new rules that would allow many more struggling borrowers to refinance their mortgages at today’s ultra-low rates, reducing monthly payments for some homeowners and potentially providing a modest boost to the economy.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, working with the Obama administration, said that up to 1 million “underwater” borrowers might benefit from an expanded program that targets homeowners who owe more than their properties are worth....

For more see:

Administration Proposes Changes to Mortgage Refinancing Program
By Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times, ‎1 hour ago‎

WASHINGTON — The federal government said on Monday that it would overhaul a program that lets homeowners refinance mortgage loans at lower interest rates to address problems that have limited participation to less than a million.....

Obama's Refinance Plan is a Lifeline Everyone Should Grab
By Philip van Doorn, TheStreet.com, ‎1 hour ago‎

NEW YORK -- President Obama's expansion of the Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, is a winner all around, for "underwater" home borrowers looking to refinance at historically low rates....

Obama's Mortgage Refinancing Effort: This Time It's Different
By Daniel Indiviglio, ‎The Atlantic, 15 minutes ago‎

Up to now, the administration hasn't had a very successful program to help homeowners. Will its latest attempt fare any better? A few years ago, the Obama administration unveiled an effort to refinance millions of mortgages owned...

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/fhfa-announces-new-program-to-help-underwater-homeowners/2011/10/24/gIQAG1oUCM_story.html

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UDPATE: Obama Administration Unveils New Refinancing Program
By Nick Timiraos and Alan Zibel, Dow Jones Newswire, Oct. 24, 12:36pm

--Refinancing program to be extended through 2013

--Cap of 125% of home value to be eliminated

--Officials seek to encourage shorter-term mortgages (to increase equity)....

by artappraiser on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 3:40pm

Obama: 'We Can't Wait' for Housing Help
By George E. Condon Jr., National Journal via Atlantic.com, Oct 24 2011, 2:01 PM ET

The president unveils his new mantra, seeking to circumvent congressional Republicans with executive action on mortgages

When President Obama on Monday offers more assistance to homeowners who are under water on their mortgages, he will cloak it in a shot at the Republican House, declaring "we can't wait" for Congress to address the nation's housing crisis. That is the mantra being unveiled by the White House for a planned series of announcements to demonstrate that the president is ready to use executive actions wherever he can to make up for congressional inaction.

But for many members of his own party, anger is also directed at the administration and the latest actions being announced on Monday fall far short of what they are demanding. Some of that anger surfaced last week when Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) took the unusual step of blasting the president's housing policies in his announcement that he is retiring from Congress. "I am dismayed by the administration's failure to understand and effectively address the current housing foreclosure crisis," said Cardoza, whose district includes three cities particularly hard-hit by foreclosures - Modesto, Stockton and Merced. "Home foreclosures are destroying communities and crushing our economy and the administration's inaction is infuriating," he said.

In his speech in Nevada, the president hopes to rebut this charge....

by artappraiser on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 4:58pm

"We can't wait" is official White House messaging; from whitehouse.gov:

The White House Blog: We Can't Wait
Posted by Dan Pfeiffer on October 24, 2011 at 12:05 PM EDT
Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer explains the new series of executive actions planned by the President to boost the economy.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/24/we-cant-wait

The White House Blog: We Can't Wait To Help Homeowners Refinance Their Mortgages
Posted by Matt Compton on October 24, 2011 at 02:04 PM EDT
President Obama is taking action today

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/10/24/we-cant-wait-help-homeowners-r...

by artappraiser on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 5:13pm

So far it suggests a counterattack to this:

Karl Rove’s Blueprint for Stopping a Jobs Bill
By Jonathan Chait, Daily Intel @ New York Magazine, 10/24/11 at 4:51 PM

Karl Rove’s organization American Crossroads, which functions as a kind of privately run Republican Party organization, has a memo laying out how the party ought to oppose President Obama’s jobs bill. It’s a telling window into the contours of the jobs debate....

in that it appears it might be a tactical plan to address economic problem points one-by-one in more "understandable" bites. And then later say, "we wanted to do bigger on all these things, but they blocked us."

Edit to add: the opener of Al Sharpton's show today certainly seems to confirm this. He showed Mitch McConnell talking about policemen and fireman (along the lines of Rove's instructions above,) and he said next Obama plans to do student loans and then small business (?) loan assistance. Sharpton is also playing up Romney's statement about letting foreclosures run their course.

by artappraiser on Mon, 10/24/2011 - 6:09pm

Obama sets rules for student loan payments
USA Today, Oct 26, 2011

....As he has on other items this week, Obama said he is issuing executive orders because congressional Republicans are blocking his proposed $447 billion jobs plan....

...."I've told my administration, we're going to look every single day to figure out what we can do without Congress," Obama told the supportive crowd. "What can we do without them?"....

by artappraiser on Thu, 10/27/2011 - 10:40am

Government announces new program to help ‘underwater’ homeowners

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