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.

As of 11/21/09 the John Tringali RePage is ranked at 2,386 with 65 points.
The monthly top RePage owner will receive a cash prize. Help this agent by bookmarking this site and posting it to blogs and other Web pages and encourage others to visit.

Local Information for Arlington, MA

Latitude: 42.417896 -- Longitude: -71.165722

Other Area Cities: Arlington Belmont Boston Chelsea Everett Malden Medford Melrose Revere Somerville Winthrop Brookline Cambridge Lexington Newton Reading Stoneham Waltham Wayland Woburn

Enter our Photo Sweepstakes and Win $200 for your Arlington photos!

To see random photos for other cities Click Here.

Submit your photos of Arlington and become eligible to win $200. Click Here for details.

The Town of Arlington was originally settled by European colonists in 1635 as a village within the boundary of Cambridge, Massachusetts under the name Menotomy, an Algonquian word, the meaning of which has been lost. Prior to changing the name to Arlington in 1867, the area, including part of what is now Belmont, was incorporated in 1807 as West Cambridge. In 1867 the name "Arlington" was chosen in honor of those buried in Arlington National Cemetery. The Massachusett tribe, part of the Algonquian group of Native Americans, lived around the Mystic Lakes and Alewife Brook. By the time Europeans arrived, the local Indians had been devastated by disease; also, the tribal chief, Nanepashemet, had been killed by a rival tribe in about 1618. Nanepashemet's widow, known to history only as "Squaw Sachem", sold the land of her tribe to the colonists for ten pounds, with provisions that she could remain on her homestead land around the Mystic Lakes and continue hunting and farming. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Massachusetts 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Arlington	Massachusetts	United States
Population	42,389	6,349,097	281,421,906
Median age	39.5	36.5	35.3
Median age for Male	37.8	35.4	34
Median age for Female	41	37.7	36.5
Households	19,011	2,443,580	105,480,101
Household population	42,216	6,127,881	273,643,273
Average household size	2.22	2.51	2.59
Families	10,779	1,576,696	71,787,347
Average family size	2.91	3.11	3.14
Housing units	19,411	2,621,989	115,904,641
Occupied units	19,011	2,443,580	105,480,101
Vacant units	400	178,409	10,424,540

Visit US Census