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 North Miami Beach, FL

Latitude: 25.930171 -- Longitude: -80.16978

Other Area Cities: North Miami Beach Aventura Biscayne Gardens Carol Hialeah Miami Miami Beach North Miami Hollywood Opa-Locka Pinewood Park Sunny Isles Beach Uleta Ives Estates

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Attractions in vicinity of North Miami Beach include a line of popular ocean beaches. Haulover Park, operated by Miami-Dade County Parks and Recreation, has a well known clothing optional beach. North Miami Beach also has an authentic Medieval Spanish monastery. This stone building around a patio, the cloisters of the Monastery of St. Bernard de Clairvaux, was built in Sacramenia, Segovia, Spain in the 12th century. It was purchased by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s, dismantled and shipped to the United States, and reassembled after Hearst's death in North Miami Beach in the 1950s. It is a tourism attraction and a popular spot for weddings. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Florida 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	North Miami Beach	Florida	United States
Population	40,786	15,982,378	281,421,906
Median age	34.5	38.7	35.3
Median age for Male	32.8	37.3	34
Median age for Female	35.9	40.1	36.5
Households	13,987	6,337,929	105,480,101
Household population	40,360	15,593,433	273,643,273
Average household size	2.89	2.46	2.59
Families	9,803	4,210,760	71,787,347
Average family size	3.44	2.98	3.14
Housing units	15,350	7,302,947	115,904,641
Occupied units	13,987	6,337,929	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,363	965,018	10,424,540

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