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 11/22/09 the Ty Irby RePage is ranked at 1,568 with 100 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 Mobile, AL

Latitude: 30.679523 -- Longitude: -88.10328

Other Area Cities: Bay Minette Daphne Chickasaw Prichard Saraland Theodore Mobile

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

To see random photos for other cities Click Here.

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

The settlement, then called by the French name "Fort Louis de lá Mobile", was first established in 1702, at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff on the Mobile River, as the first capital of the French colony of Louisiana. Following a series of floods, the town was relocated downriver to its present location near the head of Mobile Bay in 1711 and named Fort Conde. The capital of Louisiana was moved to Biloxi in 1720 and to New Orleans in 1723 and Mobile was relegated to the role of frontier town and trading post. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the French and Indian War. The treaty ceded Mobile to Great Britain and under British rule the colony flourished. The British renamed the city Fort Charlotte, after the English Queen, and reenergized the port. Major exports included timber, naval stores, indigo, hides, rice, pecans and cattle. -- Source: Wikipedia.com

Alabama 2000 Census Population Profile Map

	Mobile	Alabama	United States
Population	198,915	4,447,100	281,421,906
Median age	34.3	35.8	35.3
Median age for Male	32.3	34.4	34
Median age for Female	36.1	37.2	36.5
Households	78,480	1,737,080	105,480,101
Household population	192,735	4,332,380	273,643,273
Average household size	2.46	2.49	2.59
Families	50,764	1,215,968	71,787,347
Average family size	3.09	3.01	3.14
Housing units	86,187	1,963,711	115,904,641
Occupied units	78,480	1,737,080	105,480,101
Vacant units	7,707	226,631	10,424,540

Visit US Census