Details of President Obama’s plan to help struggling homeowners was announced today. This plan was announced a few weeks ago as the Making Home Affordable initiative. From the details which were announced today this plan helps two types of homeowners  and applies only to primary homes. This means you can not expect any help on [...]

President Obama was in the Phoenix area today to announce details of the Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan. I guess the White House considers this area to be near ground zero of the housing bust and hence the area to be most hurting due to the housing downturn.
The plan is to help those who are [...]

Last week Fannie Mae announced that the Streamlined Modification Program (SMP) would now be available to borrowers. This program is part of an ongoing effort by the GSE to prevent foreclosures. Borrowers of course need to meet certain requirements to participate in the program.
Tammy over at the Arizona Mortgage Team blog has done a nice [...]

Last week we sold a bunch of things on Craigslist. One person who came to purchase the last baby gate was one who had to move to a new house all of a sudden. This move was because the landlord was foreclosing and by default her life was going to have to change as well. [...]

A foreclosure break for the holidays. Freddie is announcing a suspension to all foreclosure activity from the day before Thanksgiving to January 9, 2009. Here is what Freddie has on its website:
McLean, VA – Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) today announced it has ordered its national network of mortgage servicers and foreclosure attorneys to suspend all [...]

The Wall Street Journal has a great article today titled “Housing Pain Gauge: Nearly 1 in 6 Owners ‘Under Water’ “. It’ an overview of the current state of housing in the country. It’s not pretty.
The relentless slide in home prices has left nearly one in six U.S. homeowners owing more on a mortgage than [...]

A few weeks ago it was widely reported that a Congresswoman from California was having mortgage trouble. Today we find out that Ed McMahon is talking about foreclosing on his house. This from Yahoo! News:
Ed McMahon talks about possible home foreclosure
Ed McMahon on home foreclosure: `If you spend more money than you make, you know [...]

Whether you foreclose, do a short sale or go through a deed in lieu of foreclosure your credit is shot. The extent to which your score falls may differ, but to any future creditor it is all the same. Not only that but when you apply for credit in a few years, its really important [...]

I guess even folks in Congress are close to foreclosure on their homes. I really shouldn’t be surprised though. The guys on the Hill are so used to spending other people’s money like it grows on trees and I’m sure that mentality is bound to sink into their own personal finances at some point [...]

A few weeks ago I started a weekly series on the mortgage market attempting to cover important elements from news items to blog posts. Regular readers know I slacked off on this promise after week one. However, I must say I did have good intentions. Inertia is the main issue here and converting [...]