HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and other key players offer insight on housing recovery efforts

Posted by Annalisa Burgos | June 19, 2009

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m in Washington, D.C., for a conference of the National Association of Real Estate Editors and got to hear from some of the key players in the federal government’s housing recovery efforts, including Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart and some of the congressional representatives on the banking and housing committees. We heard a lot about the Obama administration’s refinance and loan modification programs as well as the massive overhaul of the financial regulatory system.

Some of the notable stats from Thursday’s speakers:

–40% of those displaced by the foreclosure crisis are renters.
–16 mortgage servicers are participating in the federal government’s loan mod program. They handle about 80% of all mortgages.
–So far, 200,000 loan mod offers have been made under the federal program.
–Potential source of real estate growth is the rental market in college towns. That’s because each coming year, we’ll see a record number of high school graduates.
–Another potential demographic shift is the growing population of non-traditional households (”traditional” meaning a married couple with children).

Check out this video of HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan talking about the mission of Obama’s proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a new watchdog agency that would protect consumers from the kind of predatory lending practices that got us into the current mortgage mess and foreclosure crisis. 

YouTube Preview Image

4 Comments

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and other key players offer insight on housing recovery efforts

June 19th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

[...] Original post by FrontDoor Unlocked – HGTV’s FrontDoor Real Estate Blog [...]

Steve

June 19th, 2009 at 11:18 pm

Yes you will protect future borrowers. But what are the rest of us going to do? Don’t you think you should go back and rescind the current predatory loans. Why not prosecute for existing laws.

U.S. Code Title 18 Chapter 47 Section 1005,1006,1010, and 1014 Any broker, lender, or anyone employed by a financial institution will face up to 1 million, 30 years imprisonment, or both. A homeowner can’t be prosecuted for lying. They don’t have the employee power to enforce a loan. They lied again.
Look it up.
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/18/parts/i/chapters/47/toc.html

If a homeowner did lie about their debts then that would be a future financial mistake for them. But you had my bank statements. You had my taxes from my acountant. You had my credit report. How would’ve it been possible to lie about the income? The ball was in your court. If I go to the doctor, is it my responsibility to question their advice and search medical journals. If I needed a heart transplant and wounded up with a liver transplant would I be able to sue. Or would it be my fault for signing the papers. Or was it my fault for lying about my symptoms?
I guess brokers are explaining no one has a fidicuary duty to anyone. It’s business. With so many foreclosures to date are they saying everyone lied? Everyone was doing it so it okay to ignore the law.

Title 12 Chaper 29 Section 2803 (6) Loan application must be on file for 4 years. Show me where I lied!

Title 12 Chapter 27 Section 2607 “Special Information Booklet” I never got one. Did you? If this were a prosecuting law, and it is, don’t you think a signature would be required stating I recieved one.

We have laws. It just seems that everytime there’s a crisis we ignore them and let the criminals get away.

Exercise the law. Face the fines or rescind my loan.

John Henry

June 20th, 2009 at 11:18 am

I have a friend who was successful with a loan modification at http://www.carrotpeel.com

He said this reduced his payment through a rate reduction and extended term. However, there was no talk of a principle reduction. Does anyone know how that aspect works? I have heard of people getting their principle reduced but does it show up later at the sale of the property?

curious in DC

June 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 am

Could you please ask HUD what a loan modification “Offer” is??

does this mean the loan was, in fact, modified? Is the borrower making lower payments with the written approval of the servicer?

If not, then HUD’s use of these numbers is a fraud to cover for the fact that few if any loans have been actually modified.