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 Bend, OR

Latitude: 44.056434 -- Longitude: -121.308085

Other Area Cities: Bend Redmond

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Bend is a city in Deschutes County, Oregon, United States. The name Bend was derived from "Farewell Bend," the designation used by early pioneers to refer to the location along the Deschutes River where the town eventually was platted, one of the few fordable points along the river. It is the principal city of the Bend, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 52,029 at the 2000 census, though it has grown to over 65,000 as of 2005.[1] Bend is located on the edge of the Ponderosa pine forest on the west as it transitions into the high desert plateau, characterized by junipers, sagebrush, bitter-brush, and little water. Originally a logging town, Bend has become identified as a jump-off point for multiple outdoor sports; such as mountain biking, fishing, hiking, camping, rock climbing, skiing, and golf. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Oregon 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Bend	Oregon	United States
Population	52,029	3,421,399	281,421,906
Median age	34.8	36.3	35.3
Median age for Male	33.4	35.1	34
Median age for Female	36.2	37.5	36.5
Households	21,062	1,333,723	105,480,101
Household population	51,018	3,343,908	273,643,273
Average household size	2.42	2.51	2.59
Families	13,396	877,671	71,787,347
Average family size	2.92	3.02	3.14
Housing units	22,507	1,452,709	115,904,641
Occupied units	21,062	1,333,723	105,480,101
Vacant units	1,445	118,986	10,424,540

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