Help for Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

November 20, 2008

Everyone seems to agree that flooding the market with empty, foreclosed homes does not help neighborhoods maintain stability – either as a way of living, or regarding the value of homes. Empty homes do nothing for a neighborhood.

Recently some organizations are taking tentative steps to allow homeowners who are defaulting on their mortgage to remain in their homes –at least for the time being.

Fannie and Freddie Mac have announced that they are freezing foreclosure sales until after the new year while they review strategies and the future of their organizations. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. recently announced foreclosure-prevention programs that aim to reduce interest rates, extend repayment schedules and, in the case of Citigroup, reduce loan amounts, to help borrowers keep their homes. But the programs have focused primarily on loans wholly owned by those companies because they feel they have more authority to rework those mortgages.

HSBC is also making more options available to more people. For example, it is contacting customers before their adjustable-rate loans reset to higher rates and freezing the current rate or allowing the borrower to pay a rate below what the new rate would be. The bank also is lowering fixed rates for selected borrowers. All this in an effort to stave of foreclosures.

One way of stabilizing markets where supply exceeds demand is to regulate supply. That way the people who can buy homes can buy from sellers who can’t afford to stay in their current home. But, amazingly enough, new home construction is still going on – even in saturated markets. Merrill Lynch economist David Rosenberg suggests, only half-jokingly, that the Treasury should impose a moratorium on home building. "It sounds like lunacy, but we have to destroy the housing capital stock to help put a floor under the market," he said.

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Local Information for Reading, PA

Latitude: 40.341692 -- Longitude: -75.926301

Other Area Cities: Reading Wyomissing Birdsboro

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Reading (IPA:/'r?d??/) is the county seat of Berks County, Pennsylvania and the center of the Greater Reading Area. In the 2000 census, the city had a population of 81,207, making it the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Erie, and the sixth largest municipality after Upper Darby Township. Overlooking the city on Mount Penn is Reading's symbol, a Japanese pagoda visible from everywhere in town and referred to familiarly as "the Pagoda". Duryea Drive, which ascends Mount Penn in a series of sharp bends, was a testing place for early automobiles. The city lent its name to the now-defunct Reading Railroad, which brought anthracite coal from the Pennsylvania Coal Regions. The railroad is one of the four railroad properties in the classic English-language version of the Monopoly board game. Reading was one of the first localities where outlet shopping became a tourist industry. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Pennsylvania 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Reading	Pennsylvania	United States
Population	81,207	12,281,054	281,421,906
Median age	30.6	38	35.3
Median age for Male	29.3	36.5	34
Median age for Female	31.9	39.4	36.5
Households	30,113	4,777,003	105,480,101
Household population	79,082	11,847,753	273,643,273
Average household size	2.63	2.48	2.59
Families	18,423	3,208,388	71,787,347
Average family size	3.33	3.04	3.14
Housing units	34,314	5,249,750	115,904,641
Occupied units	30,113	4,777,003	105,480,101
Vacant units	4,201	472,747	10,424,540

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