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 Leawood, KS

Latitude: 38.920802 -- Longitude: -94.622118

Other Area Cities: Monticello Olathe Overland Park Prairie Village Lenexa Mission Mission Hills Shawnee Mission Leawood

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As of the census of 2000, there were 27,656 people, 9,841 households, and 8,118 families residing in the city. The population density was 708.1/km² (1,833.4/mi²). There were 10,129 housing units at an average density of 259.3/km² (671.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 95.19% White, 1.46% African American, 0.14% Native American, 2.18% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.25% from other races, and 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.30% of the population. There were 9,841 households out of which 41.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 76.0% were married couples living together, 5.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.5% were non-families. 15.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.81 and the average family size was 3.14. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Kansas 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Leawood	Kansas	United States
Population	27,656	2,688,418	281,421,906
Median age	41.3	35.2	35.3
Median age for Male	41.1	33.7	34
Median age for Female	41.4	36.5	36.5
Households	9,841	1,037,891	105,480,101
Household population	27,611	2,606,468	273,643,273
Average household size	2.81	2.51	2.59
Families	8,119	701,547	71,787,347
Average family size	3.14	3.07	3.14
Housing units	10,129	1,131,200	115,904,641
Occupied units	9,841	1,037,891	105,480,101
Vacant units	288	93,309	10,424,540

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