Effect of the Obama Foreclosure Bailout Plan on Homeowners

by vic on January 14, 2010

Some people believe that so far, the results of the Obama Foreclosure Bailout initiative have been unconvincing in its goal of providing assistance to homeowners  in the face of more and more layoffs and the continuing slump in home prices. Foreclosure news just continues to dominate in this eroding economy. However, another group of people argue that the President’s initiative has several positive results with regards to the situation of the homeowners and the housing market.  Specifically, some claim that the Obama Foreclosure Bailout strategy is the reason for the slight drop in foreclosure rates and the slow down in the decline in home prices in some states.  However, many people have observed that only a small fraction of the borrowers who should have been qualified for the loan modifications have actually been allowed to benefit from the plan.

It is important to point out here that the heart of the President’s initiative is to transfer some of the funds that have been set aside by US Congress to save the distressed financial services industry to the program for reducing foreclosures. Getting help with foreclosure remains a high priority for many people. The three key objectives of the Obama Foreclosure Bailout  program are the provision of more loan modifications, new home loans, and loan refinancing.  The first portion of the plan is designed to help homeowners who are underwater to obtain refinancing for their home loans to make their monthly payments more affordable.  To qualify under this plan of the Obama Foreclosure Bailout initiative, the part of the loan of the homeowner that is still unpaid should not be more than 105 percent of the property’s present value.  The second portion of the government’s plan has to do with using loan modifications to place a maximum limit on the monthly payments, specifically 31 percent of the borrower’s monthly salary.  The Obama Foreclosure Bailout program has also set aside 0 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage the approval of more new home loans.

Some people have pointed out critically that the Obama Foreclosure Bailout initiative has not taken into account acceptable economic principles.  However, members of the federal government continue to defend the plan and have been reporting on developments regarding the program’s accomplishments. Note: when researching foreclosure information online, be sure to search for forecloser as well as it is a very common miss spelling. To demonstrate, the Housing and Urban Development and the Treasury Departments have declared that the program has attained a milestone even before its projected date of accomplishment.  Specifically, they pointed out that there are now more than 500,000 approved home loan modifications almost one month before schedule.  Therefore, it is too early to point out that the Obama Foreclosure Bailout plan is a failure in its goal of assisting homeowners who are in danger in foreclosure.