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 Berlin, MD

Latitude: 38.331075 -- Longitude: -75.21395

Other Area Cities: Berlin Ocean City St Martin West Ocean City Salisbury

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The town of Berlin had its start around the 1790s, part of the Burley Plantation, a 300-acre land grant dating back to 1677. The name Berlin is believed to be derived from a contraction of "Burleigh Inn", a tavern located at the crossroads of the Philadelphia Post Road (now South Main Street) and Sinepuxent Road (Tripoli Street). This may be why the correct pronunciation of the town's name is BURL-un, not BER-LIN, nor ber-LIN. Unfortunately, many people are moving to the area and consistently mispronounce its name. Almost always local people, born and raised there, will pronounce it correctly. Berlin incorporated as a town in 1868. In the early 21st century, Berlin was known as a rest stop for travelers on their way to the coastal resort of Ocean City as well as a stop for tourists who enjoyed hunting and fishing on the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Maryland 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Berlin	Maryland	United States
Population	3,491	5,296,486	281,421,906
Median age	38.3	36	35.3
Median age for Male	35.5	34.9	34
Median age for Female	40.3	37	36.5
Households	1,347	1,980,859	105,480,101
Household population	3,307	5,162,430	273,643,273
Average household size	2.46	2.61	2.59
Families	881	1,359,318	71,787,347
Average family size	3.01	3.13	3.14
Housing units	1,427	2,145,283	115,904,641
Occupied units	1,347	1,980,859	105,480,101
Vacant units	80	164,424	10,424,540

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