Washington Post reports:
The Obama administration plans to overhaul how it’s tackling the foreclosure crisis, in part by requiring lenders to temporarily slash or eliminate monthly mortgage payments for many borrowers who are unemployed, senior officials said Thursday.
Banks and other lenders would have to reduce the payments to no more than 31 percent of a borrower’s income, which would typically be their unemployment insurance, for up to six months. In some cases, administration officials said, a lender could allow a borrower to make no payments at all.
I resent this. I have always worked two to three jobs in order to pay my bills on time. Many of the jobs that I have taken were less than choice, but I did it. I have NEVER lived above my means.
March 25, 2010 at 7:23 pm
well, and what of people who are unemployed but who are not eligible for unemployment?
in a family business, an employer is not allowed to pay unemployment in exchange for unemployment coverage of family members because of the possibility that they might be fired just to get the money from unemployment.
and if one has worked 2 (or more) part time jobs, one is also not eligible for unemployment, because employers are not made to cover part time employees against unemployment.
this bill would do nothing to help either. if being unemployed and needy is the criteria, why should it not extend to family businesses and part time workers?
March 25, 2010 at 7:37 pm
They didn’t think about this Nom. Just like everything else that they propose. Worthless.
March 26, 2010 at 4:14 am
obama will most certainly make carter look good as a president. Does obama plan on using the tanning tax to pay for everything?
March 26, 2010 at 6:23 am
The tanning tax is laughable.
March 26, 2010 at 10:31 am
Senator John Boehner is unhappy with the tax…..feels like he may need get a second job…in order to cover his tanning habits….He looks great…maybe … all of us should join a tanning club…support Obam the Man in his lastest venture…
March 26, 2010 at 10:45 am
There is always spray on Jimmy. Of course that will be taxed as well.
March 26, 2010 at 10:47 am
I will keep my Casper the ghost white skin tone, thank you very much.
March 26, 2010 at 4:35 am
Well I do see a positive in this bill. It keeps people in their homes and keeps more homes from foreclosing. If a home forecloses in your neighborhood, it lowers the value of your home. If many homes foreclose in your neighborhood, it can cause even more problems like a rise in crime and blight as houses sit empty. The problem I see is that it is short term. What’s the job market looking like lately? How many of those people will be employed in the near future and when they are will they make even close to the salary that they did originally? I think it would make more sense to give tax breaks to the people who are still employed. Go after the banks that are refusing to refinance loans. If the working/middle class who still have jobs have money, they can spend that money which is what creates jobs. JMO.
March 26, 2010 at 6:30 am
I read something yesterday that stated that many who had restructured their mortgages are failing again. imust, too many people live way beyond their means. I have seen homes around my mom’s home sit for over 18mo without anyone in them. They are still trying to sell them for too much. I think that banks would want to rent the homes out instead. Well, they might if they weren’t being entitled to bailouts courtesy of the taxpayer. Many of the homes were second homes purchased by people from out of state. I realize that it is not the same everywhere else, but the banks should begin to rent out the houses. There is a shortage here. The blight has already begun. Broken windows, trashed and empty.
March 26, 2010 at 5:13 am
mcnorman are the banks deferring payments or making the payment for the customer?
March 26, 2010 at 7:03 am
Deferring as the principal balloons. The principal has become overwhelming. Suggested is to lower the monthly payments. I do believe that if they can instill proper measures for those that truly need help, this would be a helping hand in this sinking economy. Anyone can lose a job, but I have trouble with the next statement. “their main residence.” How about getting rid of the other residences?
Why not let the owner sell the home for less than what the bank says? We know that home prices were inflated greatly.
This would certainly help those in urgent need.
March 26, 2010 at 5:24 am
This is the story I commented about last night-
This just infuriates me- IMHO a lot of these homes are seriously over priced- and that is a subject I could rant on and on about- it was greed on the part of both buyer and seller.
We always tried to live within our means- then hubby was injured at work and his company screwed him big time- that too is a long story.
Let us just say that our credit rating is screwed, we have used all our savings except his 401k which got destroyed in the crash and we live month to month now.
Our income is less than half of what it was and we struggle on- but because we are not behind on our mortgage payments we qualify for nothing.
We went from middle class to working poor- and if we ever retire- we can live in the woods I guess.
March 26, 2010 at 7:06 am
I understand PMM. Yes, the prices of the homes went through the roof. I am in very similar circumstances except that I am still working one job. I don’t have savings. I don’t have a 401k. I have a tiny home in a blight ridden neighborhood.
I’ll be living down the road next to the cactus.
March 26, 2010 at 7:50 am
I am going to get one of those senior passes for the national parks and live in those. Eat bark and berries.
March 26, 2010 at 9:04 am
Mi casa es su casa. I have animals though.
March 26, 2010 at 12:53 pm
I am in a similar situation, though at the end of April, I will be jobless.
My house was reevaluated in 2008 before everything tanked as being worth 40,000 more than I paid for it in 2002. But a combination of repairs needed and the economic tank, have really made my house worth about 40,000 less than I paid for it.
Because I put all my extra income into paying it off ahead of time, and they have inflated it’s value to something it is not worth, I have positive equity.
So I will not be eligible for any of the freaking bailouts.
Yet, I am far poorer with no retirement and no savings and a low income, than many/ most? of the people who will be bailed out. to say i am pissed at being taxed to pay for others’ bailouts falls far short of the mark.
March 26, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Come to the desert, I will be living at cactus 404 Nom while I toil in the fields to pay for others. I know that this hits home with you hardest. My only saving grace is that my neighborhood looks so crapped out that they cannot inflate the value of my home anymore than where it sits now. I’m okay with that. I have a modest home and lovely neighbors that share everything. They are all old and cannot keep up image presentation on their homes. No biggy.
March 26, 2010 at 5:25 am
imustprotest makes a good point, to keep the owners home from foreclosing will at least keep the property values in the neighborhood from going into the tank.
Not to mention, just because someone can’t make a payment because of a loss of job, doesn’t mean they were irresponsible in any way when they bought their home to begin with. How can anyone who bought a home 20 years ago, had been making their payments on time and regularly, know that our economy was going to tank and unemployment was going to go to 10% or higher?
It’s not like they are being forgiven their debt, just being allowed to stop or have their payments cut until they are able to secure another job.
But, as imustprotest said, how long will the banks be able to sit on these mortgages with the job market being so unstable. There are many people who will never be able to go back to their jobs. For instance, someone who is in their mid to late 50′s will less likely be hired because his income scale is higher due to his/her experience. A company is more likely to higher someone with less experience and offer them a much lower salary. I’m seeing this with teachers. The union decides on the salary scale and the schools are dumping more experienced teachers and hiring teachers that are just out of college and on the lower end of the pay scale. And when those teacher are looking for jobs elsewhere…they are passed over.
It’s a mess out there…a big fat mess and we can thank Obama for all those bank bailouts and sitting on his hands while the economy continued to tank.
March 26, 2010 at 7:08 am
See my comment to DE.
March 26, 2010 at 5:31 am
Nunly- I have that exact issue- though I am not working now because of the back issue- it is almost impossible to even get an interview now- my experience and accomplishments on my resume are a dead give-away that I am older and that gives them a clue about my salary history.
Yup- they want young and dumb – it’s a lot cheaper that way.
March 26, 2010 at 6:33 am
PMM- I’m so sorry to hear that.
What really worries me is that there are many brilliant minds that are being tossed to the side and all their experience and knowledge is going with them, it will be lost.
March 26, 2010 at 7:49 am
Not to worry- the restaurant industry is going down the tubes anyway- which is what caused my back injury anyway- less people doing more work.
Until I get cleared to go back to work I am not even going to worry about it- but I can just imagine trying to explain THIS hiatus on my resume! LMAO!
One more reason for them not to hire me-
But back to this thread- do folks realize that if the bank forgives part of the loan- that forgiven portion is treated by the IRS as income? On which they have to pay taxes?
March 26, 2010 at 9:04 am
I don’t think that they think that far along PMM. Our country seems to have gotten used to short term memory. Look at Timmy Geithner.
March 26, 2010 at 8:24 am
Just a very brief note here on what looks like is going to be a very lazy Friday, the US economy is being destroyed on purpose. It is a well-devised plan to idle as much of the workforce as possible, while also increasing US government debt at an astonishing pace. The MSM is playing along because of their incestuous involvement with the corporate oligarchy and of course the banks…
The bottom line is that people are falling for these stunts which glorify unemployment, or at least lend (pardon the pun) credence to it. This era is simply a replay of the downfall of other countries, which was insidiously engineered by profiteers…
March 26, 2010 at 9:05 am
Absolutely.
March 26, 2010 at 9:43 am
I agree.
the US economy is being destroyed on purpose
March 26, 2010 at 9:49 am
Hmmm…The Book of Revelation:
The Red Horse: When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a huge sword.
The Black Horse: When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
Sounding kinda scary, eh???
Of course, it goes on, but I think I’m depressed enough for the moment.
March 26, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Which is why we hang on to the ten acres for dear life! Though I really really need to get the underground hide-out hole finished.
March 26, 2010 at 1:39 pm
That is great, 10 acres will yield a nice crop of food.
March 26, 2010 at 8:30 am
[...] want to link back over to McNorman today, who is kind of over their scratching their head wondering why it is that those of us who [...]