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 Westfield, NJ

Latitude: 40.649869 -- Longitude: -74.343183

Other Area Cities: Westfield Basking Ridge Nutley Berkeley Heights Carteret Chatham Clark Cranford East Hanover Edison Elizabeth Fanwood Florham Park Gillette Hillside Linden Livingston Madison Middlesex Mountainside Piscataway Plainfield Rahway Roselle Roselle Park Scotch Plains South Plainfield South Amboy Springfield Summit Union Short Hills Maplewood North Plainfield

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As of the census of 2000, there were 29,644 people, 10,622 households, and 8,178 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,700.7/km² (4,403.1/mi²). There were 10,819 housing units at an average density of 620.7/km² (1,607.0/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 89.98% White, 3.88% African American, 0.09% Native American, 4.08% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.62% from other races, and 1.33% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.82% of the population. There were 10,622 households out of which 40.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 68.0% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.0% were non-families. 19.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.77 and the average family size was 3.20. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

New Jersey 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Westfield	New Jersey	United States
Population	29,644	8,414,350	281,421,906
Median age	38.6	36.7	35.3
Median age for Male	37.6	35.5	34
Median age for Female	39.4	38	36.5
Households	10,622	3,064,645	105,480,101
Household population	29,377	8,219,529	273,643,273
Average household size	2.77	2.68	2.59
Families	8,181	2,154,539	71,787,347
Average family size	3.2	3.21	3.14
Housing units	10,819	3,310,275	115,904,641
Occupied units	10,622	3,064,645	105,480,101
Vacant units	197	245,630	10,424,540

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