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 Manhattan, KS

Latitude: 39.190142 -- Longitude: -96.586818

Other Area Cities: Salina Manhattan

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Manhattan is located at 39°11'25?N, 96°35'13?W (39.190142, -96.586818)GR1, or about 50 miles (80km) west of Topeka on the Kansas River. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 38.9 km² (15.0 mi²). 38.9 km² (15.0 mi²) of it is land and 0.07% is water. Manhattan is located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas. Tuttle Creek Reservoir is a lake located 5 miles (8km) north of Manhattan. While the dam which forms the lake was built by the Army Corps of Engineers primarily for flood control, the lake is now a state park, which offers many recreational opportunities. The Konza Prairie, a tallgrass prairie preserve owned by The Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University, is south of town. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Kansas 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Manhattan	Kansas	United States
Population	44,831	2,688,418	281,421,906
Median age	23.5	35.2	35.3
Median age for Male	23.4	33.7	34
Median age for Female	23.7	36.5	36.5
Households	16,949	1,037,891	105,480,101
Household population	39,037	2,606,468	273,643,273
Average household size	2.3	2.51	2.59
Families	8,259	701,547	71,787,347
Average family size	2.89	3.07	3.14
Housing units	17,690	1,131,200	115,904,641
Occupied units	16,949	1,037,891	105,480,101
Vacant units	741	93,309	10,424,540

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