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 Newport, RI

Latitude: 41.488002 -- Longitude: -71.312622

Other Area Cities: Newport Jamestown Middletown Narragansett Pier Kingston North Kingstown Portsmouth Tiverton

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Newport is a city in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Providence. It is the home of the United States Naval War College, the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and a major United States Navy training center. The city is the seat of Newport County. Newport was founded in 1639 by William Coddington, John Clarke, and others, who left Portsmouth, Rhode Island after a political fallout with Anne Hutchinson and her followers. Newport soon grew to become the most important port in colonial Rhode Island. A public school was established in 1640. In the mid 1600s, a group of Jews fleeing the inquisition in Spain and Portugal were allowed to settle in Newport. The Newport congregation is the second oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. At the same time, a large number of Quakers settled in Newport. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Rhode Island 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Newport	Rhode Island	United States
Population	26,475	1,048,319	281,421,906
Median age	34.9	36.7	35.3
Median age for Male	34	35.4	34
Median age for Female	35.9	38	36.5
Households	11,566	408,424	105,480,101
Household population	24,393	1,009,503	273,643,273
Average household size	2.11	2.47	2.59
Families	5,646	265,398	71,787,347
Average family size	2.86	3.07	3.14
Housing units	13,226	439,837	115,904,641
Occupied units	11,566	408,424	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,660	31,413	10,424,540

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