Comments on: It’s tough to modify your way out of a hole

By: sandy

sandy — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:03:32 +0000

from an insider: modified mortgages are going delinquent at astounding rates and being remodified. some folks who have 3% rates after first mod are demanding 1% rates and not paying until they are in f/c so that they will get it. some people seem to have entitlement issues and some simply just should be renters.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:34:43 +0000

James..In the first place why would anyone believe anything the FED has to say. They found “securitization is not an important factor in stopping loan servicers from cutting deals”. The ONLY way that conclusion could be reached is securitization was never part of what was studied.\

watch?v=sXJpr7Yfp4E

By: kris

kris — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:10:25 +0000

About 2 years ago, a check I sent to my bank for a mortgage payment was misapplied to someone elses account. I found out when I received a “your payment is late, therefore we are beginning foreclosure” letter. By the time I called the bank, they had found the error and fixed it so I was no longer in foreclosure. (Although the fact I was once is foreclosure STILL shows up on my credit profile, even though I have repeatedly disputed it.) I wonder if I am in the 30% of homeowners who resolved their foreclosure without intervention?

By: What are you talking about?!?

What are you talking about?!? — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:04:27 +0000

The fed should NOT be giving these people ridiculously low 3% interest rates!

I agree on taxing the profits on houses that get bailed out, but the government I know will increase taxes on everyone, not just the ones who had the help, because otherwise it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask for money back…

We need to forget all this fair and equal crap. you do not have a RIGHT to a house, you do not have RIGHTS to healthcare, you do not have a RIGHT to a car, you do not have a RIGHT to internet, or tv or anything like that.

If you want those things, work for them. produce something useful or fill a role that society actually NEEDS, and you will be compensated for it.

That’s how the world works, and if Obama continues to mess with that, we will have more problems. Why should I work hard when the next guy gets the same stuff for doing nothing?

By: jason

jason — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:53:34 +0000

Had the government not bailed out the banks, the biggest banks would have gone bankrupt, sold the mortgage securities for pennies on the dollar to smaller, better-run banks, and these banks would have had financial incentive to renegotiate with the borrowers. They could cut the payments in half and still make a good profit. This is what should have happened, but instead the government helped the banks at the expense of the borrowers. And now most people would be against the government equally helping out the borrowers. A shame.

By: Edmond Dantès

Edmond Dantès — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:11:20 +0000

It looks to me like the solution is already in your article:

“more people should become renters”

And banks should become landlords. Question: Why don’t they?

PS. Funny comment on the size of the blog’s. If it were my picture I would switch to a low resolution. I am sure you don’t want the whole world counting the remaining hairs on top of your head.

By: Bob Foster

Bob Foster — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:20:06 +0000

I am not an economist (I took two required courses in college and hated them both), so I’ll have to accept the conclusions of the Boston Federal Reserve. I doubt that they would say “people must lose their homes, so now we must move on before we make the situation any worse” if they didn’t mean it. That’s not really what anyone wants to hear, is it? It sounds so heartless, so very Republican.

The reality here in the US seems to be there’s going to be much more pain ahead for many, many families. One odd fact not truly appreciated by most outside observers is that the foreclosure crisis is not evenly spread throughout the country. I happen to live in a region that’s hardly been affected at all by the credit crisis. Oh, home sales have slowed a bit, but there hasn’t been a wave of foreclosures here. My region never had the hyper house inflation seen in FL, CA, NV, etc.

Of more concern to me is this notion of a “jobless recovery.” Can anyone please explain to me just what the h*ll that means? Who/what is recovering? How can there be a recovery without jobs? How can people afford to buy homes without jobs? How is the value of the stock market supposed to rise if people are unemployed? How do you a buy a car without a steady paycheck? How do you do anything without a job? I don’t profess to have any answers about how the USA digs itself out of this deep hole (ever hear of the decline and fall of a nation anyone?), but I smell a rat whenever I hear someone talk about a jobless recovery. Something doesn’t add up.

By: Aatos

Aatos — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:30:49 +0000

The Federal government should be refinancing mortgages at about 3%, directly to home owners. Government should be loaning the banks’ and corporations’ money back to the citizens at sub market interest rates, instead of the other way around.

By: Luiz A.P.Almeida

Luiz A.P.Almeida — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:58:03 +0000

What Federal Government should do is acting more efficiently now and helping Main Street and middle class instead of Wall Street.
Unemployment rate is increasing, same as deliquency home loans and foreclosures. There is no sign of improvement at medium term.

Federal Government should take a bolder and heterodox action, coming with funds to help all homeowners to make up the difference between the market value and their mortgage value. This way Federal Government should force the banks to renegotiate all the loans, of course taking advantage that home loans mortgage are still low.
After this renegotiation, the homeowners and middle class will feel and see, immediately, money left on their pockets and will be able to return to consum and hopefully learning from previous mistakes, should start to save again.
There is no doubt that, in the long run, the price of houses will appreciate again. If the homeowners intend to sell it with profit, the Federal Government should tax properly to recoup the money disbursed before to stabilize the market.

By: yr

yr — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 15:29:33 +0000

James,
You need to replace your portrait image by a smaller file. Currently the image weighs almost 2 megabytes, and takes several seconds to load in the page.