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Rally Is on to Stem Foreclosure Epidemic
Just yesterday, Countrywide Financial Corp. announced that it was partnering with the community advocate group, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to expand relief for its borrowers who are facing foreclosure. Today, the Bush administration followed up with its own foreclosure relief expansion plan — “Project Lifeline” — giving distressed homeowners an additional 30 days to work out more affordable payment options with their lenders.
The new program is designed to help all homeowners who are having trouble making their monthly mortgage payments, instead of restricting assistance to those with high-interest, subprime loans. Project Lifeline was developed through the collaborative efforts of six of the largest lending institutions in the United States, which collectively service nearly half the mortgages in the U.S. The banks that have agreed to participate in the program so far are:
- Citigroup
- Countrywide
- Bank of America
- JPMorgan Chase
- Washington Mutual
- Wells Fargo
According to this new program, lenders will contact homeowners who are more than 90 days delinquent in their mortgage payments and offer them the option of delaying the foreclosure for 30 days while they explore options for making the mortgage more affordable.
Who does not qualify?
- Homeowners already in foreclosure.
- Those who have a foreclosure date within the next 30 days.
- Investors who took out the mortgage loan to purchase an investment property or vacation home.
Both of these expanded relief programs are steps in the right direction, both for homeowners and for neighborhoods and communities. Hopefully, more mortgage lenders will follow suit to cover 100% of those who are in jeopardy of losing their homes and their equity as a result of foreclosure. It is only right that the lenders who contributed to creating the current crises do their part to fix it.
Filed under: Countrywide,Foreclosure,Mortgage Meltdown
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What about someone who went thru a 6 wk unemployment period, no income, managed to keep their Mortgage and Auto current, but did not have means to kleep other Debits current?
The Cr Card Companies take full control, will not work out any condition to get the Account(s) to a reasonable monthly payment. Instead they want an unreasonable amt to get back to a manageable monthly pymt once again. The Government needs to take control of these Scam artists, when someone thought they were doing the right thing to keep the Mortgage and Auto current and that it would work out in the end. Now my Cr Score is poor, yet I am current on Mortgage and Auto. Yet, I’m stuck in a position to do what next? You go to a Credit Counsel Service this causes your Credit Score to be worse.
Comment by Sherry — February 19, 2008 @ 3:57 pm
I hear you. Credit card companies can basically do whatever they want. But I have to applaud you for making the high priority payments. Unless you are applying for credit sometime soon I wouldn’t worry about your credit score at this time. Go to credit counseling and work out an affordable payment plan. Getting the debt current and then paid off will bring your score up eventually. If you ignore the payments or never catch up your score will always be low. Don’t be in fear of the “almighty” credit score, just concentrate on getting your finances back on track to the best of your ability. Good luck to you.
Comment by Former Underwriter — February 19, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
I had a similar problem when my son supposedly took over my mortgage payments, but never made a payment. My property managers Osita Iroku and Paul Olweny of BH Property management helped me rescue the house by negotiating a new payment plan EVEN THOUGH I WAS FIVE MONTHS BEHIND! Never give up! and seek professional help!
Comment by Florence — February 20, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
“Just yesterday, Countrywide Financial Corp. announced that it was partnering with the community advocate group, ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) to expand relief for its borrowers who are facing foreclosure.”
What’s interesting is that I read yesterday (2/20) that Countrywide’s foreclosures are up 92% over the previous month.
Does not sound to me like they are working on “expanding relief for its borrowers…”.
Credit card companies are facing the same problem faced by the mortgage industry, they securitized the debt and there is no longer a market for the securities. Delinquent payments stand at almost 50% yet they, like the mortgage lenders and owners of the mortgage paper are not willing to work with the public.
At every level of credit collection today, there is NO personal connection. The collectors are given a script which does not allow for any type of workout. Many years ago, my first job in finance was as a collector for an auto finance company. My territory averaged about 10 repo’s a month. I reduced that figure to an average of 4 by working with people. By doing this, I kept loans on the books, decreased losses for the company and kept an income stream coming in. Pretty basic I thought then and still do today.
Instead of politicians and legislators trying to solve our economic problems maybe we should employ college economics professors or better yet, maybe me, I seem to have a workable solution.
There is nothing to gain by forcing people out of homes and cars and nothing to be gained by lowering the “almighty” credit score for those truly wanting to pay. As I always said in my credit management career, communicate with me and I will work with you, tell me your situation and I will work within it.
My philosophy must have worked then, I was promoted to District Credit Manager for 2 divisions of a very large international company.
Comment by Larry Rubinoff — February 21, 2008 @ 4:34 pm