Smart Borrower Blog

Archive for March, 2009

Top Dem Says Two-Thirds of Lenders Are On Board with Treasury Plan

According to Senate Democrat Charles Schumer Wednesday, two-thirds of the country’s mortgage servicers are willing to cooperate with the terms of the recently-released Treasury Department plans to prevent foreclosures nationwide. “Two-thirds of servicers are the large banks that are part of the [Troubled Asset Relief Program],” Schumer said. “They’ve already agreed they are going to refinance now that they are no longer worried about getting sued.” Schumer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, reportedly got the two-thirds statistic from Housing and Urban Department (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan. The largest mortgage servicers in the country like Bank of America Corp.,... more »

Obama Commits $75 Billion to Fight Foreclosure Crisis

U.S. President Barack Obama unveiled his plan Wednesday to heal prop up the drooping national housing market, pledging $75 billion of government funds to fight high foreclosure rates. In a speech at high school just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, the President laid out a four-point plan for restoring the health of the mortgage sector. He said that his administration will: 1.Allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Modify Mortgages Currently, the government-sponsored mortgage companies, that own or guarantee a large portion of the nation’s home loans, are restricted from modifying "upside-down" mortgages and those that are more than 80 percent... more »