The Washington Independent

Posts Tagged cramdown

The White House on the Foreclosure Crisis

By | 10.11.10 | 2:12 pm

Here is David Axelrod (PDF), speaking with CBS’s Bob Shieffer this weekend:

BOB SHIEFFER: Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse now we find that this sloppy paperwork by the lenders may have made some of these foreclosures now that are being contemplated invalid. Some of the

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Cramdown Coming?

By | 08.05.10 | 4:00 pm

The Home Affordable Modification Program — designed to reduce homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments and to keep them in their homes — has been an abysmal failure. Back in January, my colleague Mary Kane reported that the program showed signs of falling far short of its goals. It has continued More…

Aid to the Unemployed Facing Foreclosure: Too Little, Too Late?

By | 06.24.10 | 6:00 am

Sandra Monroe-Olcott of the Montclare neighborhood of Chicago is in the same position as hundreds of thousands of Americans. She lost her job on April 1, 2008. She applied for unemployment insurance — $804 every two weeks — and immediately started searching for another position. Her husband, now 74, had More…

House Republicans Target Strategic Defaulters

By | 06.10.10 | 5:45 pm

HuffPo’s Ryan Grim reports that House Republicans have introduced a motion to penalize strategic defaulters — underwater homeowners who simply stop paying their mortgages — by barring them from obtaining Federal Housing Administration-backed loans in the future. Grim explains the Republican maneuver:

The GOP offered its provision as

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House Oversight Panel to Examine Foreclosure Prevention Efforts

By | 03.19.10 | 2:48 pm

A few weeks back, it was the House Oversight Committee’s domestic subpanel that examined the effectiveness of the White House programs designed to curb foreclosures. (They weren’t pleased.) Now, the full committee will have a crack.

Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Oversight panel, just announced a More…

Servicers, White House Point Fingers as Foreclosure Plan Fails

By | 01.04.10 | 6:00 am

Only a year ago, hopes were high that a big push by the government to stop foreclosures would be a great success, living up to its billing as “Help for America’s Homeowners.”

Last January started out with a foreclosure moratorium, allowing time for the More…

Here’s Why Loan Mods Don’t Work: Borrowers End Up With Higher Payments

By | 09.16.09 | 8:58 am

Ever wonder why loan modifications haven’t become the silver bullet that would solve the foreclosure crisis? Via Patrick.net, USA Today explains in simple terms a phenomenon TWI also has noted, when it comes to loan mods: Borrowers who can’t afford their mortgages and go looking for relief More…

Financial Services Industry Wastes No Time Fighting Cramdown

By | 09.11.09 | 9:18 am

This should come as no surprise: Even the mere mention of the possibility of bringing back cramdown legislation prompted the Mortgage Bankers Association to spring into action. Here’s the group’s rapid response to comments this week from several powerful Democrats, who who threatened to renew efforts to allow More…

Mortgage Servicers Bought Loans Blindly

By | 09.10.09 | 4:40 pm

Here’s a fascinating exchange between Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Financial Services subpanel on housing, and Mary Coffin, executive vice president of Wells Fargo‘s mortgage servicing division, during yesterday’s hearing to examine how effectively the administration’s voluntary mortgage modification program is preventing foreclosures. (More…

Treasury Says Cramdown Is Still Off the Table, Even Though Loan Modifications Aren’t Working

By | 09.10.09 | 11:37 am

As Mike pointed out today, the slow pace of loan modification progress has prompted some lawmakers to once again call for mortgage cramdown legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify loans and keep borrowers in their homes.

But the Obama administration is signaling clearly that while it may More…