The White House program designed to prevent foreclosures by paying banks to alter loans voluntarily isn’t doing nearly enough to keep struggling borrowers in their homes, several powerful Democrats charged Wednesday. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, and Richard Durbin (Ill.), the Senate’s No. 2 More…
Earlier today, the Treasury Department revealed that the administration’s anti-foreclosure program — which encourages banks to alter mortgages voluntarily — has enrolled roughly 360,000 struggling homeowners in trial modifications.
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is hardly impressed.
The upper-chamber’s second-ranking Democrat issued a statement just hours later More…
The percentage of homeowners either in foreclosure or late on a mortgage payment topped 13 percent nationwide in the second quarter of 2009, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today. The figure is the highest since the MBA began keeping records 37 years ago.
And the trouble is expected More…
Even as the Obama administration is pushing mortgage servicers to modify more loans to keep folks in their homes, RealtyTrac released its monthly report today revealing more than 360,000 foreclosure filings in July — up 7 percent from June and 32 percent from a year ago.
The numbers More…
As Congress jousts over the effectiveness of the stimulus package to stir economic activity, it’s worth noting that homeowners — whose troubles are at the root of the economic crisis — continue to struggle. Nearly one-fourth (23 percent) of mortgage-paying homeowners nationwide now owe more on their homes More…
A top Democrat on Monday warned the nation’s banks that, unless they get more aggressive in modifying mortgages to prevent foreclosure, Congress will renew previous efforts to empower families to keep their homes through bankruptcy. But Sen. Richard Durbin (Ill.), the upper-chamber’s second ranking Democrat, also gave the banks three More…
In the latest issue of The New Yorker, James Surowiecki weighs in on something TWI wrote about recently: The need for a new — and bolder — foreclosure strategy. Foreclosures continue to outpace loan modifications, even as the Obama administration presses the lending industry to do More…
Because servicers in the lending industry can make more money collecting delinquency fees on mortgages than by modifying loans, guess which road they are taking? The New York Times says today that the longer borrowers remain behind on their payments, the more money servicers collect, even after the home More…
As voluntary mortgage modifications have failed to keep pace with foreclosures, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that it might be time to bring back the stick of bankruptcy reform. That proposal, which would empower homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy, was More…
Roughly three months after Senate lawmakers killed legislation empowering homeowners to escape foreclosure through bankruptcy, some upper-chamber Democrats are looking to revive the corpse. They hope to pressure the White House into spending valuable political capital on a cause fallen by the wayside.
Up to now, More…
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