Hope for Homeowners FHA Loans Not Working

Posted on November 11, 2008 by admin 
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FHA launched the Hope for Homeowners loan plan launched Oct. 1 and initially HUD had projected that this program would help as many as 400,000 struggling borrowers avoid foreclosure over the next few years.  But fewer than 100 homeowners applied to the program in October, and the Federal Housing Administration now projects that just 13,300 will be helped in its first year. An FHA official told a mortgage industry conference recently that one large mortgage lender had reported that in a group of 23,000 troubled borrowers only 1,200 would actually be eligible for this new FHA loan program.   Hope for Homeowners is designed to allow borrowers who are behind on their payments to refinance into more affordable loans that are insured by the FHA. The idea is to reduce the mortgage balance and, if necessary, the interest rate to cut the monthly payment by 30 percent and to restore the borrower’s equity in the home. When the property is sold, half of any increase in its value goes to the government.  But lenders, mortgage investors and borrowers all see drawbacks in the FHA home loan plan and have been slow to embrace it, industry and government sources say.   In some cases, the interested parties are waiting, hoping that other potential foreclosure-prevention options, among them a proposal promoted by FDIC. Chairman Sheila Bair, will be more attractive.   The initial reaction suggests that the FHA Hope for Homeowners Loan Program could be just the latest in a series of government and industry efforts that have failed to stem the rising tide of foreclosures.

“None of them have worked very well, and we’re all pretty disappointed,” said fair-housing advocate John Taylor, president of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.   The experience has implications for foreclosure-prevention proposals said to be under discussion by the Treasury Department and the White House, including the Bair plan, which would use $50 billion from the $700 billion financial bailout to provide government backing for modified mortgages.  The Bush administration is also reportedly considering a proposal by the mortgage industry to split home loan losses with the government, costing taxpayers about $50 billion.   White House and Treasury officials didn’t respond to requests for comment.   For FHA mortgage lenders who originated the troubled loans, and the investors in mortgage securities who now own most of them, a major downside to the Hope for Homeowners program is that they must record a big loss on each mortgage loan refinanced through the program.   For a borrower to participate, the owner of the existing loan – usually investors in mortgage-backed securities – must agree to accept as repayment the proceeds of the borrower’s replacement loan, which isn’t to exceed 90 percent of the value of the home.   > Read the Complete Loan Article (Written By E. Scott Reckard)

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2 Responses to “Hope for Homeowners FHA Loans Not Working”

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  2. FHA's Hope for Homeowners Loan Revised - Will it Stop Foreclosures? | FHA Mortgage Lending Blog on November 20th, 2008 5:13 pm

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