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 Plymouth, MI

Latitude: 42.372636 -- Longitude: -83.46852

Other Area Cities: Plymouth Canton Northville Novi Redford Livonia Farmington Hills West Bloomfield Ann Arbor Beverly Hills Dearborn Dearborn Heights Farmington Garden City Inkster Oak Park South Lyon Southfield Walled Lake Westland Whitmore Lake Wixom Ypsilanti

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The first settlers to come to what is now known as Plymouth, Michigan, were Keziah (Benjamin) and William Starkweather. Farmers from Ct., they purchased 240 acres of land from the United States Government on March 11, 1825, for $1.25 an acre. Mr. and Ms Starkweather came from Preston, CT., where the Starkweather family had lived at least as early as 1694, according to a land gift record in which Captain John Masons gave land to Robert Starkweather, Williams GG Grandfather. William, ninth born of 11 siblings, and his wife Keziah brought their first born son Albert to the area, and built the first home in Plymouth, at the South West Corner of Main Street and Ann Arbor Trail. The first home was a rustic lean to, and was later replaced by a log cabin which has since been lost to time. William's eldest Son Albert died at age 20 while attending the newly formed University of Michigan as a Sophomore. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Michigan 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Plymouth	Michigan	United States
Population	9,022	9,938,444	281,421,906
Median age	37.9	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	36	34.3	34
Median age for Female	39.9	36.6	36.5
Households	4,322	3,785,661	105,480,101
Household population	8,820	9,688,555	273,643,273
Average household size	2.04	2.56	2.59
Families	2,276	2,575,699	71,787,347
Average family size	2.81	3.1	3.14
Housing units	4,498	4,234,279	115,904,641
Occupied units	4,322	3,785,661	105,480,101
Vacant units	176	448,618	10,424,540

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