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hamp: Foreclosures Are Coming, Millions of Them - 01/26/11 10:19 PM
 
In an interview today on Fox Business, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general to the Troubled Assets Relief Program said that foreclosures are coming, millions of them.  The TARP “watchdog” indicated that the government’s foreclosure relief program, HAMP isn’t working; and it now seems obvious to most that it was never expected to work.  Citing uncooperative lenders and servicers, and an unwillingness from Treasury to pressure compliance, Barofsky once again pointed out how the Administration’s promises to help millions of homeowners avoid foreclosure have been a dismal failure.  With the potential for as many as 13 million foreclosures during this … (23 comments)

hamp: HAMP: August Progress Report - 09/22/10 10:25 PM
The government has released the HAMP August Progress Report covering activity through August 31st and the results fall far below both expectations and commitment. To date there have been 448,937 permanent modifications approved, with 663, 538 trial modifications cancelled.
 
And while those receiving a permanent modification have benefitted, there are a couple of potentially troubling facts:
● The median back-end debt-to-income ratio after modification is 63%, a 14.5% improvement for those borrowers, but still far too high to be sustainable.
● The number of trials reported since the July report is 26,628, an indication that the program is winding … (12 comments)

hamp: A Helping Hand To Unemployed Homeowners - 07/24/10 04:17 PM
While the recent Banking Reform Bill was touted as a means to prevent future financial crises, a little-known amendment offers a helping hand to unemployed homeowners. With HAMP and other foreclosure relief efforts intended to help working homeowners, they offered little to the millions of unemployed who fail to qualify for a loan modification.
 
The new program will be administered by HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and while the details are yet to be announced, the bill includes as much as $1 billion to be used to help those without jobs make their monthly mortgage payments. And … (12 comments)

hamp: HAMP Has Seen New Trial Modifications Drop 90 percent Since September - 07/20/10 08:55 PM
The Home Affordable Modification Program, HAMP, has seen new trial modifications drop 90 percent since September, an indication that the beleaguered foreclosure rescue program is reaching the limits of its usefulness. Often criticized for not saving the promised millions from foreclosure, HAMP’s latest report indicates significant declines in the number of new homeowners accepted into the program and a dramatic increase in the number of trial modifications that have been rejected.
 
In reality, it’s always been impossible for the administration to keep 7 to 9 million families from losing their homes; and the emotions and finances of millions of homeowners … (18 comments)

hamp: Strategic Defaults Will Eventually Crush HAMP - 07/07/10 09:51 PM
Strategic defaults will eventually crush HAMP, the administration’s homeowner rescue plan, as a new study reveals that the average participant is underwater by more than 50 percent. An article in the Huffington Post provides details of a June 24 report released by the Government Accountability Office.
 
With more underwater homeowners aware that It Will Take Years For Home Prices To Return to previous values, strategic defaults will continue to rise. Studies have shown that as home values reach 50 percent or more in negative equity, such as many of those participating in HAMP, the owners are much more likely to … (51 comments)

hamp: Forget Modification And Move Ahead With Foreclosure - 06/28/10 08:39 AM
Since its inception, the Home Affordable Modification Program has been criticized as too little, too late; and the criticisms have come from all sides of the political spectrum. Put simply, HAMP doesn’t work, never could have, and should be abandoned. It’s time to forget modification and move ahead with foreclosure. Foreclosures will happen anyway; only the pain will be extended over a much longer period, like the current oil slick threatening the entire Gulf coast. Unless we can create a magical formula that will provide jobs and restore the assets of struggling homeowners, avoiding millions more foreclosures and a double dip … (16 comments)

hamp: HAMP Encourages Making A Graceful Exit - 06/26/10 12:46 PM
In a video entitled, Your Graceful Exit, the government is taking steps to encourage struggling homeowners to take action.  I suspect they are motivated by the sheer numbers of delinquent mortgages and are aware that the economy will not recover until the housing market is stabilized.
Unfortunately for homeowners, producing a video is far less effective than actually taking steps to "save" 7 to 9 million homes from foreclosure.  With HAMP considered a dismal failure by most, and with no relief on the horizon, struggling homeowners should just grab some popcorn and be content that their government has taken time … (2 comments)

hamp: TARP Watchdog Exposes HAMP Failure As Yet Another Homeowner Rescue Effort Is Announced - 03/26/10 03:16 PM
Little more than a year ago President Obama announced the Home Affordability and Stability Plan in a commitment to save 7 – 9 million homeowners from foreclosure. Under the program, several initiatives were established to accomplish his goal. One of them, The Home Affordable Modification Program or HAMP, begun in March 2009 with initial funding of $75 billion, was intended to help those homeowners in default or at imminent risk of default, by modifying their existing mortgages. Such modifications might involve a lowering of the owner’s mortgage interest rate, extending the terms of their loan, or both.
 
Now, one year … (16 comments)

hamp: HAMP Unlikely To Save The Promised Millions From Foreclosure - 03/12/10 07:15 PM
A Recent article on Calculated Risk seems to point out that the government’s much touted HAMP loan modification plan will fall far short of meeting its goal of saving millions from foreclosure. The article references an update on the government Making Home Affordable website that lists the following points:
 
● There have been 170,000 permanent modifications granted to homeowners.
● An additional 91,800 permanent modifications have been approved by servicers and are pending borrower acceptance.
● More than 1.3 million homeowners have received offers for trial modification.
● Only 32% of the trial modifications begun at least 3 months ago … (12 comments)

hamp: Yet Another Revamp Of HAMP - 01/22/10 09:46 AM
In yet another revamp of HAMP, the administration’s program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, Treasury is weighing some new options. An article in today’s NY Times reports on some of the methods under consideration.
 
One of the stumbling blocks that many seeking foreclosure relief regularly report is the problem of supplying documents to their lender; lenders claim homeowners fail to respond to requests for documents, and borrowers claim their lender is losing the documents. Additionally, some at Treasury seems to fear that many of the “liar loans,” those made without full documentation, may have been made fraudulently. In an effort … (2 comments)

hamp: Foreclosure Victims Have No Hope And Their Only Change Is Their Address - 12/03/09 09:23 AM
When the current administration came into power it promised “Hope and Change,” and struggling homeowners, devastated by the rising unemployment and the collapse of the housing market, eagerly awaited the changes that would save them from foreclosure. The previous administration’s Hope for Homeowners had proved more hopeless than hopeful, and the promised relief had never materialized.
 
But January had ushered in a new attitude, and new team that would look out for Main Street, not Wall Street; and hopes ran high. February’s announcement that 7 – 9 million homeowners would be saved from foreclosure let struggling homeowners know that help … (18 comments)

hamp: Loan Modifications Are Not Working And The Government Doesn’t Get It - 11/30/09 03:08 PM
The Treasury Department has announced yet another effort in its attempt to modify the mortgages of those facing foreclosure. Hoping to convert many of the trial modifications to permanent status, the Government plans to apply pressure to lenders that have been slow to respond. Requiring lenders to report the status of their modification efforts, the Treasury Department intends to make public those lenders who fail to show progress.
 
Wow! This is big news. Now the government is going to point out the “bad guys,” as if we didn’t already know. If that’s the teeth in this “new” incentive, those expecting … (15 comments)

 

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