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 11/23/09 the Lorraine Abrams RePage is ranked at 227 with 1,550 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 Woodland Hills, CA

Latitude: 38.674054 -- Longitude: -121.772498

Other Area Cities: Sherman Oaks Woodland Hills Encino Thousand Oaks Calabasas Hidden Hills Tarzana Topanga West Hills

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

To see random photos for other cities Click Here.

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

Victor Girard Kleinberger (later known as simply Victor Girard) bought 2,886 acres (12 km²) in the area and founded Girard in 1922. He sought to attract residents and businesses by developing the land, advertising in newspapers, and planting 120,000 trees. Although much of his development provided a dubious facade of economic activity in Girard (local lore has it that in order to attract development he erected false store fronts on Ventura Boulevard, for which he spent time in jail), the Girard Golf Course completed in 1925 continues to operate today as the Woodland Hills Country Club, and his scheme was successful in attracting interest in the community. The town suffered through the Great Depression yet survived. In 1941, the community was renamed Woodland Hills, an appropriate name owing to all the trees that Girard had planted years earlier. Harry Warner came along in the 1940s and bought 1,100 acres (4.5 km²) in the area for a horse ranch. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

California 2000 Census Population Profile Map

Census data is not available for this city
Visit US Census