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Massachusetts Foreclosure Listings - Hang on for a Bit
The Economic Recovery Act of 2008 consists of the Hope for Homeowners Act which will take effect on the 1st of October this year. The bill will let home owners who qualify avoid foreclosures by refinancing their existing mortgages into the ones insured by the Federal Housing Authority.
Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee along with Maxine Waters, the chairwoman for the Community Opportunity Sub-committee asked lenders and servicers to wait until the Hope for Homeowners Act comes into play, before they decide to continue with their foreclosure proceedings.
Barney Frank said that if a little patience could be shown further worsening of the Massachusetts foreclosure listings could be avoided. He also said that he was hopeful that among all the people who would qualify for the program no one would have to face foreclosure proceedings before the 1st of October. Saying that the lending industry had the power to do so, he asked them to show restraint until then.
Waters spoke on similar lines saying that since she’d emphasized on the servicing of mortgages since the onset of the mortgage crisis, she too supported Barney Frank’s appeal to display patience. She said she would hate to see home owners anywhere in the country losing their homes only because of the October 1st deadline.
For home owners to qualify for the FHA refinancing program, over 31% of the home owners monthly earnings would need to go towards making payments on their mortgage as of the 1st of March, 2008. Besides this, other qualifications that the FHA program has outlined would also need to be met. Borrowers would also have to agree to the condition that, if the property was to increase in value in the future, then the government would receive part of the appreciated value. Around 400,000 people are expected to avoid their homes being foreclosed due to the bill.
Barney Frank also spoke of advocating for the servicing and mortgage industry being restructured if at this point of time they did not forbear and prevent foreclosures aggressively.
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