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 Coralville, IA

Latitude: 41.688215 -- Longitude: -91.586764

Other Area Cities: Iowa City Coralville

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Coralville incorporated as a city in 1873. The city's name came from the coral samples that were found in limestone along the Iowa River by a Harvard University zoologist. In its early days Coralville was home to several mills that were powered by a dam along the Iowa River, but all of the mills had closed by 1900. After World War II Coralville began to grow as many University of Iowa students began to make their homes there. It had only 433 people in 1940, but by 1970 Coralville's population had jumped to 6,130.[1] The construction of Interstate 80 in the 1960s brought several motels, fast-food restaurants, and gas stations to Coralville. By the mid-1960's, the independent school district of Coralville was annexed by the Iowa City Community School District. Junior and senior high school students rode buses into Iowa City. Elementary (K-6) students attended Central Elementary School. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Iowa 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Coralville	Iowa	United States
Population	15,123	2,926,324	281,421,906
Median age	29.8	36.6	35.3
Median age for Male	29.8	35.2	34
Median age for Female	29.8	38	36.5
Households	6,467	1,149,276	105,480,101
Household population	14,264	2,822,155	273,643,273
Average household size	2.21	2.46	2.59
Families	3,319	769,684	71,787,347
Average family size	2.96	3	3.14
Housing units	6,754	1,232,511	115,904,641
Occupied units	6,467	1,149,276	105,480,101
Vacant units	287	83,235	10,424,540

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