Won’t allowing Judges to declare that the “value” of a home facing foreclosure is less then what was originally agreed upon by the ‘buyer’ and lender devalue other home in the area?
Or am I missing something?

Ya’all can take on the larger issue of the Mortgage thingie. But, here is my beef. Everytime Mr. Green President wants to sign a major bill, he has to fly somewhere to do it. This wastes gas, time and money. Not to mention all the pollution from the flying and the pep rally.

The man works from home. Why can’t he sign it there? If he really must make a grandstand play, look out the freaking window of the White House. There is a whole city out there full of the people the stimulus is earmarked for (not people with jobs) and regular folks losing their homes. It would be cheaper to do this stuff right in DC.

In my hood foreclosures are rare.

The bad news – Obama and his team of misfits do not know what they are doing. Again – Obama will make this problem worse.
A problem he actually had a hand in creating.
Until banks are able to be run like a REAL business then
it will get even worse than it is. Federal laws that are
designed to create FAIRNESS do not.

Is it fair to banks to force them to loan money to bad risks?

Is it fair to encourage people to take on risk they cannot afford?

Not all people can afford to own a home.

There are plenty of other options available for these people.

Renting a home or apartment should be encouraged for

some of these folks. Until you take the non-performing loans

out of the market, nothing will solve this crisis.

So, throwing more money after bad money will AGAIN

only prolong the suffering. Let people who have the means

and have saved money to buy these foreclosed homes.

Getting Fanny & Freddie involved is like asking a

sex offender to baby sit your children.

This is not the time to preach fiscal responsibility. Moral responsibility is more important. There are millions out of work and losing their homes. It would be wrong for Uncle Sam to look the other way. Trillions are needed and should be provided quickly. Let those that harbor alien ideologies day dream while formerly unemployed workers fill pot holes and paint school room walls. America will rise up again but until it does our work force must be kept busy.

is this “the right trade,” precisely?

It merely rewards the foolhardy, the incompetent, and the criminal by seizing both the current assets of the innocent and the future growth of everyone.

When combined with the other bailouts and “stimuli,” it will distort markets for a generation.

Great deal! Yeah, right . . .

So, this is equivalent to giving 1 million mortgage holders $275,000 EACH!. Or 2 million mortgagees $137,500 each. Looked at in these terms, this is very expensive. (i>Or 5 milllion people getting $55,000 each. How many bad mortgages held by legal US Citizens are there?

And no, I won’t be one of the 5 million.

The questions found in the letter from Cantor and Boehner to Obama include:

• What will your plan do for the over 90 percent of homeowners who are playing and paying by the rules?

• Does your plan compensate banks for bad mortgages they should have never made in the first place?

• Will individuals who misrepresented their income or assets on their original mortgage application be eligible to get the taxpayer funded assistance under your plan?

• Will you require mortgage servicers to verify income and other eligibility standards before modifying mortgages?

• What will you do to prevent the same mortgages that receive assistance and are modified from going into default three, six or eight months later?

• How do you intend to move forward in the drafting of the legislation and who will author it?

Most of this money goes to those who should have never been allowed to buy a house in the first place.

This racism, bigotry and get whitey. Obama learned well from Rev Wright.

Those that played by the rules, get the shaft.

What is the rational thing to do as an investor? Eat losses to the tune of 40%? I don’t see how the market will ever recover from this so it feels fruitless to maintain the “buy and hold” BS we swallowed up to now.

House prices are going to fall until they get to a market clearing level. Any “plan” that ignores this iron law is going to be counterproductive and/or a waste of money. Don’t fight the market kids, you won’t win. If you can’t afford your house . . . move out. Default, lose the home, and rent something until you can rebuild your savings and credit to the point where you can afford to own again. Tens of millions of Americans rent and millions move house every year, this is hardly some sort of economic death sentence. Clinging in futility to a home you can’t afford is a poor personal decision, and enabling Americans to do that kind of clinging is poor housing policy, Gosh, we can actually celebrate the return of housing affordability in this country. That’s a very positive side to this crack up.

If the principal risk of the high coupon bonds diminishes, because of a perception of increased solvency, why wouldn’t prices go UP, lowering yields because of the decreased risk. Is the refinancing risk priced that extravagantly?

Maybe Obama realizes that he will get the benefit of the doubt from his fawning devotees in the press while that anything Geitner says will actually be scrutinized?

The amount of people who were responsible and bought a home they could afford far outnumber the irresponsible ones, by a factor of about 10 to 1.

The people that were responsible and lived within their means are going to be ENRAGED at the 5-10% of Americans that racked up debt like drunken sailors are now going to get taxpayer dollars.

I would not want my name attached to this plan. Republicans have an overwhelming majority on their side with this issue.

The only reason why 10% default rates have resulted in asset values plummetting as they have is that the mark to market rule makes no sense when applied to illiquid assets.

I bought a home in 2005 for $1M after putting $200k down. The house is probably worth $700k today, which means I am $100k underwater.

According the mark to market, I am insolvent. If I was a bank, I could not loan out a cent even though I have no cash flow problems.

Isn’t the mark to market rule making the financial crisis 10 time worse than it would otherwise be?

This has gotten completely out of hand! I can not believe this! The only people who don’t get bailed out are the ones who are actually doing the right thing? No thank you I already got screwed for doing the right thing before Katrina and all my government could tell me was you had insurance so we can’t give you anything until we know what the insurance company is giving you. Meanwhile every frikkin person who didn’t do right was making out like a bandit. I was required to pay off my morgage and then I got screwed by the Road Home program because they didn’t take that into account and we got next to nothing from them.
So my question is who do I report the federal government to for raping my family? I have had enough!

I have heard it suggested that the fastest and cheapest way for the government to short circuit the economic crisis is to buy up surplus housing and bull doze it under. And that’s a shovel ready plan if there ever was one.

But seriously, instead of nationalizing banks and some peoples’ mortgages, I might find it agreeable for the government invest my tax dollars in nationizing real estate. Any private capital waiting to buy real estate at the bottom would be drawn in too. There is the graft magnet problem of managing all that real estate while waiting for the time in which it can be sold for a profit. But…

http://cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=43697

“It may not be a popular position to take,” said Grammer, “but I honestly believe that the bill is fraught with the idea that those who did the most damage to our country – from the bottom up and the top down – are the ones that are actually going to get the most rewards.”

Trying to prop up house prices in any form will never work (period end of story). Buyers don’t care what your deal is with the government, they are going to pay market value at the time the house is on the market. I fthe investor house is for sale at 60% of recent value and the current occupant owes 80% he is still under water on his house no matter what the rate is.

The best thing to do is for the government to get out of the way and let the market self correct as quickly as possible. The government should only be involved by making sure a “reasonable” level of financing is available to qualified buyers.

A good analogy is that; it snows on the mountains in the Rockies, melts into the Colo River, and as headed to the ocean it is stopped by Hoover Dam. No matter how you slow the water it is still going to go through the Dam, albeit at a slower rate it IS going to get to the ocean. The government needs to get out of the way, allow the water to flow down hill and to get to the ocean so it can snow again on the mountain.

Ok, I’m playing catch up, I lost my job Jan. 16 and worked hard to find a new job. Started yesterday, Feb17, so have been busy today.

WTF, does this latest socialist proposal by the domestic terrorist-in-chief have to be approved by Congress?

The proposal has to be stopped. This socialist concept is piling on the pork spending bill. People have to be held responsible for stupid.

It’s time to take back America before we lose all.

Haven’t heard much about that lately!