House Votes to End HAMP
The House voted Tuesday to end the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), the Obama administration’s flagship program for foreclosure aid.
HAMP provides federal money to help banks modify mortgages for borrowers who are behind on their payments.
“To many struggling Americans seeking permanent mortgage relief, HAMP offered little more than false hope,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “More home owners have been kicked out of the program than have received permanent relief.”
The program has faced criticism that it hasn’t done enough to help struggling borrowers and is costly to taxpayers.
The House voted 252 to 170 to end any new funding for HAMP. The bill will now go before the Senate.
In recent weeks, President Obama has threatened to veto any bill that tries to end the administration’s foreclosure aid programs. House Republicans already have passed three other bills to stop funding of smaller programs, which are aimed at helping families, those who have lost their jobs, and neighborhoods dealing with foreclosure.
Despite being a mostly Republican led fight to end HAMP, Democrats have also urged government officials that HAMP needs to help more home owners.
“Yes, the HAMP program has a lot of problems,” says Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on the House floor. “But, the absence of any program leaves home owners worse off.”
Source: “House Votes to Kill Obama Mortgage Plan,” CNNMoney.com (March 29, 2011)
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HAMP Modifications Rising
The U.S. Treasury and Department of Housing and Urban Development released a monthly “housing scorecard” Monday and declared that housing is on the mend. The report, though, also showed more loan modifications canceled than approved.
More than 340,000 households had received long-term reductions in mortgage payments under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) by the end of May and are making on-time payments. More than 429,696 trials had been canceled, up from 277,640 in April. About 468,000 households were still in a trial phase, with 190,000 stuck there for at least six months because banks are moving slowly.
Source: Associated Press, Alan Zibel (06/21/2010)
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Survey Shows Frustration With HAMP
Real estate practitioners mostly gave the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) a thumbs-down, according to a report from Market Pulse Survey for Homes & Land.
Only 10 percent of the respondents — 51 percent of whom had been in the business for at least 10 years — believed the administration’s program had done any good. Sixty-five percent said they didn’t think the program was working; and the remaining 25 percent weren’t sure.
“Clearly respondents to our survey don’t believe this program is helping to reduce foreclosures,” says Eric Adair, business development analyst for Homes & Land.
Source: Inman News (03/03/2010)
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Treasury Proposes Plan to Help Borrowers
The U.S. Treasury Department is considering a plan to improve the chance that distressed home owners will get help from federal programs.
Among other things, Treasury proposes to give borrowers 30 days to respond when they are denied a loan modification under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). During that time, the lender couldn’t auction off the property or even put it up for sale.
The proposal would demand that lenders consider all requests and even contact all borrowers who are 60 days delinquent to determine if they qualify for HAMP. Their contact efforts would have to include multiple telephone and written notices. Lenders would also be required to certify in writing that the borrower isn’t eligible.
Lenders say these guidelines would further slow the foreclosure process past the year that it takes now.
A Treasury spokesperson says the guidelines are only in the proposal stage and haven’t been approved.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, James R. Hagerty, and Associated Press, Alan Zibel (02/22/2010
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