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Where is help for the Homeowner's

By
Real Estate Agent with Domain Realty.com, LLC

I am a Realtor in Southwest Florida.  I believe that this country needs to focus its attention at the root cause of the problem...the housing market. So with the backing of the federal government, is it not possible for banks to reduce interest rates across the board for a person's primary residence to say 4.5% and have it amortized over say 40 or 50 years? Might not this give the average homeowner the needed break and keep them in their homes. Might not the homeowner then have some financial relief and begin to put that money back into the economy? Might not they go out to a dinner, a movie, or purchase new appliances, do some home repair or purchase a car? Might not that lessen unemployment, create some new jobs and in a small way spur the economy? Might not this help to stabilize the housing market, lessen foreclosures and lower inventory?

I do a lot of BPO's for banks and have been listing foreclosures. In doing this process I am seeing homes being sold at a foreclosed price of about .50 on the dollar.  Homes that once sold for $800,000 are being sold in foreclosure at $418,000.  I cannot help but become confused over all the taxpayers dollars that we collectively are spending on TARP, money being given to banks and other various financial institutions as well as the r, with little or no accountability.  I have seen business pick-up over the last few weeks thanks in part to the drop in the interest rates.  But I cannot help but question why some of the monies that the banks received is not being used to help the homeowners.  If the banks are willing to take .50 on the dollar in a foreclosure sale, why do they not pass this onto the homeowner thus keeping the homeowner in their home. My assumption, is the reason the banks will not re-negotiate the loan with the homeowner is because it benefits the bank to allow it to go into foreclosure as then they can write off the debt and of course it becomes a write off. 

So in essense out tax dollars are being used to bail out these financial institutions with nothing in return.  What is going on in this Country?