Word: home
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...eligible for permanent modifications by the end of the year, according to the Treasury Department, but some 20% of them haven't provided any of the documentation necessary to complete the process, and twice as many have parts of their paperwork missing. (Read "Q&A: The Outlook for Home Foreclosures...
...problem the Administration is out to tackle is related to the structure of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The first three months of a mortgage rewrite are something of a probation period- and very few homeowners are making it out of that trial. More than 650,000 borrowers have been placed in trial modifications, but as of September, fewer than 2,000 had become permanent. (See pictures of the faces behind the foreclosures...
...recent analysis by the credit bureau Experian and the consultancy Oliver Wyman, nearly 600,000 borrowers might have intentionally defaulted on their mortgages in 2008, twice as many as the year before. The social norm that in previous eras would have prevented people from simply walking away from their homes seems to be eroding - but HAMP puts a low priority on reducing the overall amount a person owes. In fact, among permanent modifications, the average loan amount as compared to home price (the so-called loan-to-value ratio) has increased...
...wouldn't be in a position to keep their houses even with a modification. Emily Jones, a manager at Neighborhood Housing Services in Boise, Idaho, says about half of all people who walk into her housing-counseling agency fall into that camp. "The goal isn't to keep the home in every situation," she says. "The goal is to avoid foreclosure, and in a lot of situations, it's not in the client's best interest to try to keep the home and only postpone the inevitable." (Read "FHA: Housing's Safety Net Begins to Fray...
...work to help these people has been incredibly slow to get off the ground. Back in May, the Treasury Department announced that it would issue guidelines on how lenders might speed up dealing with borrowers who simply want to hand back the deed to their house or sell their home for less than is owed on the mortgage (a so-called short sale). Distressed homeowners and housing counselors have long complained about short sales being scuttled by lenders that take too long to respond to a potential buyer's offer. The plan to beef up the process for these sales...