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 Lansing, MI

Latitude: 42.717585 -- Longitude: -84.554916

Other Area Cities: Lansing Forest Hills East Lansing Grand Ledge Haslett Holt Okemos Mason

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Lansing is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan, and is located mostly in Ingham County. A small portion of the city extends into Eaton County, and a small portion containing Capital City Airport extends into adjacent Clinton County. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 119,128. The Lansing metropolitan area is remarkable in that despite being a relatively small city it is an important center for manufacturing, educational, cultural, and governmental institutions, including three medical schools, two law schools, a Big Ten Conference university (Michigan State), the state capitol, the Supreme Court, an appellate court, a federal court, the Michigan State Library and Historical Center, and headquarters of four national insurance companies. Lansing is the only U.S. state capital that is not also a county seat. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Michigan 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Lansing	Michigan	United States
Population	119,128	9,938,444	281,421,906
Median age	31.4	35.5	35.3
Median age for Male	30.2	34.3	34
Median age for Female	32.6	36.6	36.5
Households	49,505	3,785,661	105,480,101
Household population	118,256	9,688,555	273,643,273
Average household size	2.39	2.56	2.59
Families	28,373	2,575,699	71,787,347
Average family size	3.08	3.1	3.14
Housing units	53,159	4,234,279	115,904,641
Occupied units	49,505	3,785,661	105,480,101
Vacant units	3,654	448,618	10,424,540

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