Posts Tagged Home Loan Modification
Back to the Drawing Board for Home Loan Modifications – Loan Modification Help Center
A growing recognition that the Obama Administration’s Home Affordability and Stability Program (HASP) is not working in its current design has fingers pointed all over Washington D.C. trying to place blame on mortgage servicers, investors and the administration itself. At hearings this week in Washington, comments ranged from encouraging to total frustration as expressed by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) who said, “It’s just hard to explain to the working families in America how it is we could move so fast with extraordinarily complicated deals with the huge financial institutions, and we are moving so incredibly slowly, mired in paperwork, in rules, in talking to banks back home.”
With predictions for 3.5 million foreclosures by the end of this year and 9 million by the end of 2012, the fact that the program has initiated less than 150,000 loan modifications as it enters its fifth month has industry experts trying to figure out what went wrong and what can done to fix it. While there isn’t yet a full spectrum solution to the issue, the problems of the program have become well defined. They include:
Home Loan Modification Program May Be Helping Subprime Lenders
Subprime lenders who fueled the U.S. housing crisis may be reaping benefits from the Obama administration’s Home Loan Modification program, according to a report from the Center for Public Integrity (CPI).
The $75-billion program, dubbed Making Home Affordable, grants taxpayer subsidies to lenders who successfully lower monthly payments for troubled borrowers. However, the study shows, 21 of the top 25 participating lenders were involved in subprime loans, which led to the housing collapse in the first place.
CPI executive director Bill Buzenberg says that much of the money is simply going back to the same companies that started the problem. According to the report, three of the biggest lenders – Countrywide, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase – are eligible for several billion dollars in aid under the program.