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 Mesa, AZ

Latitude: 33.411199 -- Longitude: -111.746438

Other Area Cities: Chandler Apache Junction Mesa Gilbert Scottsdale Tempe Higley Paradise Valley

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Mesa is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona and part of the Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale Metropolitan Area. It is the third-largest city in Arizona, after Phoenix and Tucson. Mesa is one of the United States' fastest-growing cities, and currently ranks as the 41st-largest. In 2005 the mid-decade Census survey estimated the city's population to be 448,096. Though a suburban city, Mesa actually has a larger population than better-known cities such as St. Louis, Missouri, Miami, Florida and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Despite its large population, Mesa has a decidedly bedroom-community, sprawl-like character. Its downtown is minimal, and there are very few buildings in Mesa with more than two stories. Nevertheless, the recently completed Mesa Arts Center may help invigorate downtown Mesa. The city is also home to many gated retirement communities, which may explain the large percentage of senior citizens in the population. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Arizona 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Mesa	Arizona	United States
Population	396,375	5,130,632	281,421,906
Median age	32	34.2	35.3
Median age for Male	30.7	32.9	34
Median age for Female	33.6	35.5	36.5
Households	146,643	1,901,327	105,480,101
Household population	392,426	5,020,782	273,643,273
Average household size	2.68	2.64	2.59
Families	99,856	1,287,367	71,787,347
Average family size	3.2	3.18	3.14
Housing units	175,701	2,189,189	115,904,641
Occupied units	146,643	1,901,327	105,480,101
Vacant units	29,058	287,862	10,424,540

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