Bill to Protect Homeowners Against Loan Modification Scams Clears Committee
SACRAMENTO – The Senate Judiciary Committee today passed a measure by Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) that will protect California borrowers who are struggling in today´s troubled housing market.
The bill, SB 94, authored by Sen. Calderon, will prevent a person or a business from charging an upfront fee to a borrower for helping negotiate a loan modification on that borrower´s behalf. Such services are free of charge from non-profit housing counselors. Read more
Ocwen Financial exec on loan modifications
Ocwen Financial, one of the country’s largest subprime loan servicers, has taken a beating in recent years from homeowners and community groups for alleged predatory lending and aggressive foreclosing on borrowers who have fallen behind.
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, continues to stage protest rallies in front of the company’s West Palm Beach headquarters, demanding foreclosure freezes and a hold on evictions while more liberal loan modification are worked out.
But Ocwen claims it runs one of the most efficient and innovative loan servicing companies in the country and got in on the front end of the foreclosure problem before it ballooned into a crisis that tipped the economy into recession.
So far, Ocwen claims to have saved some 90,000 homes from foreclosure and boasts one of the lowest redefault rates of any servicer in the country, meaning that after a modification, more of the loans it manages stay current. It also claims to be able to finish the loan modification process in about 21 days.
Read more from the Miami Herald
Ocwen begins loan modifications under Treasury plan
Ocwen Financial Corp., a servicer of subprime mortgages, is among the first mortgage servicers to begin modifying loans under the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Home Affordable Modification Program.
The program, unveiled last month, allows at-risk borrowers to reduce their monthly mortgage payments in an effort to keep them from losing their homes. It creates a $75 billion loan modification program that would allow “responsible homeowners” to refinance to interest rates as low as 2 percent. Read more
Modifying loans may not stem foreclosures: Boston Fed
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Unemployment is a bigger reason for missed mortgage payments than high interest rates, according to a study from the Boston Federal Reserve that raises questions about President Barack Obama’s plan to stem foreclosures by modifying loans.
Borrowers are more likely to default on their payments because they have lost their jobs or because the price of their homes has plummeted than because of tough terms on their mortgages, the study found.
Loan modifications are not necessarily a better deal for investors either, wrote Boston Fed economists Christopher Read more
Who is a responsible homeowner?
This gives homeowners some insight on the Obama program called Making Home Affordable .
I know there will be two very different reactions on this blog:
A. Great! Do I qualify?
B. Darn�a give-away to someone who doesn�t deserve it. Read more
