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 Cedar Rapids, IA

Latitude: 41.9831 -- Longitude: -91.668529

Other Area Cities: Marion Cedar Rapids

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Cedar Rapids is the second largest city in Iowa after Des Moines. It is the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, United States. The population was 120,758 at the 2000 census. The city is named after the Cedar River. Cedar Rapids has been residence to famous figures, including American artist Grant Wood, the Wright Brothers, journalist and historian William L. Shirer, writer and photographer Carl Van Vechten, and Dr. Alexander Lippisch. See also Notable natives on this page. A unique attribute of Cedar Rapids is that its city hall and county courthouse are located on Mays Island, an island on the Cedar River running through the city. Paris, France and Osaka, Japan are believed to be the only other cities in the world to have their municipal buildings located on an island in a river. Cedar Rapids is known as the City of Five Seasons, where the fifth season is "a time to enjoy." The symbol of the five seasons is the Tree of Five Seasons sculpture in downtown Cedar Rapids. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Iowa 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Cedar Rapids	Iowa	United States
Population	120,758	2,926,324	281,421,906
Median age	34.7	36.6	35.3
Median age for Male	33.5	35.2	34
Median age for Female	35.9	38	36.5
Households	49,820	1,149,276	105,480,101
Household population	117,389	2,822,155	273,643,273
Average household size	2.36	2.46	2.59
Families	30,824	769,684	71,787,347
Average family size	2.96	3	3.14
Housing units	52,240	1,232,511	115,904,641
Occupied units	49,820	1,149,276	105,480,101
Vacant units	2,420	83,235	10,424,540

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