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 Durham, NC

Latitude: 35.988644 -- Longitude: -78.907167

Other Area Cities: Durham Chapel Hill Hillsborough

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Durham is a city in Durham County, North Carolina, United States. It is the county seat of Durham CountyGR6, the home of Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Durham Technical Community College, and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. It is also a cornerstone of the Research Triangle region of North Carolina. The 2004 Durham-Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Area population was: 451,212 as July 1, 2004 The US Office of Management and Budget defines Durham as a part of the Raleigh-Durham-Cary Combined Statistical Area, with a population of 1,509,560 as July 1, 2005. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

North Carolina 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Durham	North Carolina	United States
Population	187,035	8,049,313	281,421,906
Median age	31	35.3	35.3
Median age for Male	29.9	33.8	34
Median age for Female	32.3	36.7	36.5
Households	74,981	3,132,013	105,480,101
Household population	177,662	7,795,432	273,643,273
Average household size	2.37	2.49	2.59
Families	43,558	2,158,869	71,787,347
Average family size	3.01	2.98	3.14
Housing units	80,797	3,523,944	115,904,641
Occupied units	74,981	3,132,013	105,480,101
Vacant units	5,816	391,931	10,424,540

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