From KETC’s Facing the Mortgage Crisis special on July 15, 2008: What are some ways that agencies and churches can help out? There is the St. Louis Alliance for the Preservation of Home Ownership which is comprised of five agencies that would appreciate any help from non-profits to educate the public about the mortgage crisis.
Duration : 0:1:34
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B41ME20091205
More than one-quarter of homeowners receiving help under a U.S. government foreclosure prevention plan are behind on their new mortgage payments, a Treasury Department survey has found.
U.S. | Housing Market
Some 650,000 borrowers are participating in the trial phase of the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program, a $75 billion taxpayer-financed program launched this year.
Most home loan modifications result in lower monthly payments, although some lead to reduced principal on mortgages.
Trial modifications were initially for three months, but the Treasury added 60 days, effectively making them last five months.
Homeowners must submit more detailed documentation before they can have their loan modifications made permanent.
A Treasury Department survey of large mortgage servicers found “over 73 percent of borrowers are current in their trial plan payments,” Assistant Treasury Secretary Herbert Allison told a congressional oversight panel.
That leaves about 27 percent who are delinquent on the payments.
Allison provided written answers to questions raised at an October hearing before the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government’s foreclosure prevention plan and other financial rescue efforts.
Duration : 0:2:34
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Saint Paul City Attorney John Choi describes using the threat of class action legal action through demand letters to start negotiation with mortgage companies to be more proactive in foreclosures.
Duration : 0:9:28
Florida Chief Financial and 2010 gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink was in Orlando Monday pushing her Florida Housing Help plan.
Duration : 0:2:5
From KETC’s Facing the Mortgage Crisis special on July 15, 2008: If you can no longer pay your adjustable rate mortgage, is it possible to call your lender and change your payments? Yes, definitely call your lender. There is no reason to allow an adjustable rate mortgage to go beyond your ability to pay.
Duration : 0:1:5
First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Assistance and Federal Government Home Loan Program with Low Down Payment on FHA Mortgages. Buy Bank Foreclosed Homes at a Discount. Go To http://RealEstateMarketingThisWeek.com
Part 2 (Excerpt)
The median income family can afford twice the median priced home; prices drop over 50%
And now I mentioned Dan Havey is back in the studio with us, Dan has done a lot of great things in the mortgage industry. He left us about a year and a half ago, is that right Dan?
Yes, I left the mortgage industry in October of 2007. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.
As you know I came originally from Wisconsin, where I got a degree in Business Finance and I came out here in 1989 and started working with my brother selling real estate owned-REO, bank owned properties for Fannie Mae, Countrywide, and the Resolution Trust Corporation-RTC which was the government entity that was put in charge of disposing of all the real estate owned by the 1800 S&Ls that had failed. I did that until about 1995 when I moved into the mortgage industry and there for 12 years I worked predominately with bankruptcy attorneys helping their clients get out of bankruptcy and foreclosure. I left the mortgage industry in October of 2007. Now I am working predominately in the arena of marketing for real estate and mortgage companies, helping out companies, just like Im here helping out Michael today, to get people to realize that right now actually is a really good time to buy.
There are a couple of points I want to make and it was something that Michael had said earlier. The first one was that 4% interest rate. Originally Obama said a couple of weeks ago, when he rolled out the mortgage plan, that they were going to take the $200 billion and use it to buy mortgage backed securities, well the article I was reading today said it appears that plan may have changed. Instead of buying the mortgage backs they were actually buying the stock of Fannie and Freddie to help support the company and keep these companies going under. I dont quite understand why being how they own them now.
Well youve got to hand it to the government they have really done a heck of a job helping Fannie Mae out, for instance today the stock is up to $0.41. Wow, doing so well, I remember when it was $150 or so, where it was at the top of the market.
Today, right now is definitely the best time even if rates dont get down to the 4% point. The beauty of it and were going to talk more about this in a later segment, is that we have seen a 51% decline in home values from the peak of the market. So you dont have to have the absolute greatest interest rate in order to be able to buy a house today. The median home price right now is $130,000 in Maricopa County, it was $264,000 just two years ago.
So the median home price is $130,000? We are going to talk a little bit about what a person has to make to actually qualify for that. Well it is definitely well within the means of a median income family. Right now a median income family makes about $64,000 in the state of Arizona according to the US Census Bureau and HUD. I ran some numbers today, I think at 6% interest and at that rate they can buy a $280,000 house. So you can buy twice the median home price if you are making just what the median income family would be in the state of Arizona. So the median household income buys double the median priced house in Maricopa County. That is correct, at 6% interest.
And the reality of it is interest rates are not even that high right now. So for people to be waiting for that perfect interest rate of 4% it doesnt really matter if it gets here or not because right now is such an incredibly fabulous time to be buying a house. There are so many foreclosures out there on the market right now, there are so many short sales out there on the market right now, and the point you made earlier is very important, that people have to get in and get prequalified, know exactly what they can buy. Now in many cases you are going to need a down payment, so get with your mortgage broker, get with Velocity Financial and start working on that program of getting those funds together for the down payment as well.
Dan Havey we talked in the past about whats available for financing these days, interesting to give little pat on the back for Velocity Financial is one of less than 15% of all of the lenders in the state of Arizona that are qualified to do FHA financed homes. Now FHA financing, people used to think it was only for first time home buyers, thats no longer the case. The FHA loan which only requires 3.5% down payment it doesnt matter if you have owned a home before and in many cases you can own another home now so long as your new purchase is going to be your primary residence you can utilize FHA financing and put only 3.5% down.
Duration : 0:6:42
A report from the fourth quarter of 2008 shows that a growing number of homeowners are seeking lower mortgage payments through loan modification programs and mortgage refinancing.
In an effort to stabilize the housing market and help millions of American homeowners reduce their monthly mortgage payments, the federal government has launched “Making Home Affordable.” A new effort with Freddie Mac, this program offers some of the most aggressive refinancing and loan workout opportunities for financially strapped borrowers to date.
The program also warns those looking to cut their mortgage payments to beware of foreclosure “rescue” firms. These firms charge fees, but fail to provide solutions. To avoid scams, experts advise troubled borrowers to make sure they are dealing with a reputable organization by calling your loan servicer and HUD-certified housing counselor.
Produced for Freddie Mac
Duration : 0:3:30
This video is from the show Open House on CNN. Homeowners in trouble facing short sale or foreclosure should be careful when answering to unsolicited mail, phone calls or emails. A HUD representative and a legal services representatives explain what homeowners should watch out for and what to do.
More info at:
sccrealestateuncensored.com/2007/foreclosure-scam/
micasamidinero.com/2007/foreclosure-fraude/
Duration : 0:4:9
Home Loan Modifications Negotiated by Licensed Attorneys. Real Estate & Mortgage Laws and Guidelines are Complex. Beware of the Banks Loss Mitigation Department. Go To http://RealEstateMarketingThisWeek.com
Part 1 (Excerpt)
Why you should use a licensed attorney to negotiate your loan modification
Dan Havey thanks for taking the time to be with us tonight. Thank you Michael for having me and you are absolutely right 2008 for many people was a very tough year. Tough year for pretty much everybody that I know, how many banks have we lost in 2008? Hopefully the bleeding is gone; hopefully there arent too many more banks to fail. Quite a few banks have picked up some of the slack, but the reality of it is so many people have been faced with such hardships, we have solutions that we are maybe going to talk about today that they can look forward to, to make 2009 a great year.
Definitely that is what we are doing here with your organization at Velocity Financial and with the Modification Hotline and with many of the other things I am working on right now to help people out. When I first got into this business it was back in the late 80s, I moved here from Wisconsin after getting a degree in finance and I started selling repos for Fannie Mae, Countrywide, and the RTC. The Resolution Trust Corporation was responsible for getting rid of all the real estate owned by the over 1,800 S&Ls that failed. So I cut my teeth selling those reposed properties and got to know a lot about the laws and worked with a lot of attorneys and then in the mid 90s I moved into the mortgage business, and I immediately started there working with bankruptcy attorneys for the most part.
I was helping people get out of their bankruptcies, chapter 13 bankruptcies, to avoid bankruptcies, to stop foreclosures and I did that up until the fall of 2007 and at that point the market really changed for me as we know most of the subprime financing went away. Some people might look at me and say, my god you gave people subprime loans, well if you are in a chapter 13 bankruptcy and your payment to the trustee is $1,500 a month and I can get you out of bankruptcy and reduce your total monthly outlay by $1,200, your mortgage payment would go up a little bit, I think this is a really good use of a subprime loan. And I certainly never had any complaints from anyone when I got them out of bankruptcy or I stopped their foreclosure and saved their home.
So late last year I moved out of the mortgage business for a while but I never really left it because it is pretty much what I have done my entire adult life. Over 20-25 years I have been involved with real estate, mortgages and finance and I worked for a while for about 6 months last year on a model for an idea that we came up with of being able to accurately predict the top and bottom of all real estate markets and we perfected it for Arizona and most of California. It worked really well to the point that we could actually predict the bottom of the market 6 months in advance and then after the bottoms hit all across the country we kind of stopped working on it.
It is one of the things I am going to start working on again over the next few months. The title of the book is Real Estates Future and you can go to my website at http://realestatesfuture.com and get a copy of that if you want to, it is not available yet but just put in your information and I am going to give away a whole bunch of free copies of it.
The reason why I went through this entire story is because a few months ago Michael and Velocity Financial came to me and said he was going to do loan modifications and I had been approached by other people and I had seen a bunch of garbage on the internet and the thing that he said to me that sold me was, You know Dan, you have to understand, were using attorneys to negotiate these loan modifications.
And that is, I didnt mean to interrupt but that is the key; that is one of the reasons it took us so long to get in. Even though Velocity Financial was at the very beginning of this mad craze, heck you cant drive down the street without seeing a sign that says loan mod, kind of like back in 2006 in the heyday of the mortgage business where you couldnt drive down the street and see a sign that said, if your mortgage payment is more than 1% you are paying too much. Well now everybody is jumping into the loan modification game and it is dangerous.
And that is exactly it, it is every unemployed loan officer has gotten into the loan modification game and I guess I am guilty of the exact same thing. It is just after having 20 years experience of working with attorneys, I know what they are capable of doing, I know how they can go in and negotiate and the biggest thing is they are there to protect the home owner, to protect the consumer, to protect their client because they have a fiduciary responsibility to that client…
Duration : 0:6:29
From KETC, LIVING ST. LOUIS Producer Anne-Marie Berger visits the United Way’s 2-1-1 information and referral helpline. Designed to provide help to people looking for access to resources on topics such as food pantry referrals, utility bill questions, employment assistance and mortgage problems, the call center is staffed by trained operators who refer calls to the resources available closest to where the caller lives. The call center is also available by calling 1-800-427-4626.
Duration : 0:3:33