"Is Obama’s Mortgage Modification Program Actually Helping Anyone?"

[WhiskeyGirl]

Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the government’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, will present some of his conclusions at a hearing on Thursday morning that will also give the administration an opportunity to rebut many of those criticisms—and to make the broader case that the Home Affordable Modification Program has helped to press the industry to develop standards that will ultimately result in better loan modifications.

Mr. Barofsky’s report, released Tuesday, argues that the loan modification effort “risks helping few” and risks “merely spreading out the foreclosure crisis over the course of several years” for everyone else, “at significant taxpayer expense and even at the expense of those borrowers who continued to struggle to make modified, but still unaffordable, mortgage payments for months more before succumbing to foreclosure anyway.”

Ouch. Mr. Barofsky is particularly critical of an issue that’s been raised here before: how Treasury counts its modifications. The report says that Treasury needs to address the “confusion that its own statements have caused with respect to its goals and expectations” and “must unambiguously and prominently disclose its goals and estimates…of how many homeowners will actually be helped through permanent modifications.”

More here - http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/03/25/is-obamas-mortgage-modification-program-actually-helping-anyone/

The Obama program doesn't really help anyone...it's a jobs program!!!

Why modify loans? 

How much could have been saved of taxpayer money if IndyMac just paid off the loans and avoided the middleman created by OneWest?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Helping kill the middle class

Bank of America is going to forgive up to 30 percent of some customers’ total mortgage balance . “The homeowners must be at least 60 days delinquent on their loans and owe more than 120 percent of their homes' value. The plan is part of an agreement the Charlotte, NC-based bank reached 18 months ago with state attorneys general to settle charges over high-risk loans made by Countrywide Financial Corp.” As many as 45,000 BofA customers in 43 states and the District of Columbia could be eligible and it could reduce overall principle by some $3 billion.

Good news? Not if you are among the BofA customers who have not been delinquent on their payments.

Meanwhile, the guy who’s supposed to watch how TARP money is being spent says the Obama administration’s mortgage relief effort is a failure .

So taxpayers who are faithfully keeping up their payments, even as they struggle to pay all their other expenses, are paying for a program to help those in foreclosure, which isn’t actually helping anyone get out of foreclosure. And then private financial institutions are baling out others who can’t make their mortgage payments because state attorneys general sued them.

http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/capitol/helping_kill_the_middle_class_JkBHsMFkdGZ19JZW9iyXhK

I'm not sure how IndyMac fits in, but it seems like government is paying them some kind of massive bonus to foreclose on struggling Americans.

[WhiskeyGirl]

TARP 'Meaningless'

Then there's TARP. Remember the $700 billion "Troubled Asset Relief Program" -- billed by Congress and the White House to provide some relief for the troubled housing market that triggered the recession?

Well, now TARP Inspector General Neil Barofsky is calling the program "meaningless."

"I don't think this program could be viewed as a success unless it helps a meaningful number of people, so they can stay in their homes," Barofsky told ABC News.

Last year the Obama administration said its program would help as many as 4 million homeowners facing foreclosure. However, only about 170,000 have received help. Almost 7 million homeowners are currently behind on their mortgage payments.

more here - http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/finance/2010/March/Mortgage-Mess-Hard-Times-Persist-in-Housing-Market/

[Edward]

The poor have already lost there homes.

If it helps anyone at this point it will help the upper middle class and upper class..

Just in time for them.

jmho