Santa Monica Property Blog

OBAMA + MCCAIN SHARE THEIR VIEWS ON HOUSING

September 18, 2008 on 10:05 pm | In Fascinating Information, Federal Government, Market Trends, Problem, Problem Solving, Uncategorized |

Obama + McCain duke it out over housing

We were poking around online, reading a feature on CBS news, and we found this segment of a feature highlighting Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama sharing their views of the mortgage crisis. We thought the info was worth sharing with you. As big media reports:

A record four million Americans are either behind on their mortgage payments or facing foreclosure. With home values dropping, many are wondering where the candidates stand on the housing crisis.

Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama both support a new federal housing program, beginning in October, which could help as many as 400,000 families. It encourages lenders to swap their customers’ risky home loans for new 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, backed by the government.

2008 nominees are

“This will not be a windfall for borrowers,” Obama said on May 27. “They’re going to have to share any capital gains as the housing market stabilizes and their property values start going up again.”

And that’s something else both candidates agree on: No help for spectators or risk takers.

On April 10, 2008, McCain said: “It is not the responsibility of the American public to spare them from the consequences of their own bad judgment.”

Overall, McCain favors less government intervention. He does support bolstering community groups that provide mortgage assistance. He also wants a specific government task force to investigate fraud in the mortgage-lending industry.

“If there were individuals or firms that defrauded innocent homeowners … they must answer for their conduct in a court of law,” McCain said.

While McCain supports the recent government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he says he wants to downsize and eventually privatize them.

He’s called for: “More oversight, more transparency, more of everything. And frankly, a dramatic reduction in what they do.”

Obama also supports the bailout and calls for more regulation.

“If you expect the federal government to step in and to provide support if something goes wrong, then you’re going to have to follow by our rules,” he said on Sept. 8.

The rest of Obama’s at least $10 billion housing plan calls for a larger government role than McCain’s. He wants low-income homeowners to get a 10 percent mortgage tax credit, new criminal penalties for those convicted of fraud, a mortgage-rating system to educate homebuyers about their mortgage options and the creation of a foreclosure-prevention fund.

“If the government can bail out investment banks on Wall Street, then we can extend a hand to folks who are struggling on Main Street,” he said on May 27.

Obama also wants to change bankruptcy laws to allow judges to modify a homeowner’s mortgage payments.

The Impact

Obama’s plan may have helped Deanne O’Rear. She declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy, but soon found out it wouldn’t save her house.

“How big of a difference would it make for you if the bankruptcy courts could help refinance the terms of your mortgage?” Tracy asked.

“It would make all the difference in the world,” O’Rear said.

Obama McCain spending cartoon

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The whole story @
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/09/16/eveningnews/main4453682.shtml?mpid=1732

CBS logo

15 Comments »

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It’s nice that Obama wants to give low-income homeowners to get a 10 percent mortgage tax credit, while he proposes to nearly double the capital gains tax to 28%.
He’s got some good ideas, but his attitude is très tax the rich.

Comment by Bug Vulture — September 18, 2008 #
Play.de a European online gaming site has just released their latest online game. It pits McCain against Obama in the boxing ring. For added fun Hillary Clinton is the ring-girl resplendent in a Stars and Stripes bikini!

Maybe a boxing match in real life between McCain and Obama would be a great way to select the next president. It certainly sounds a lot more entertaining than the mudslinging that we now face before the November elections.

You can try this fabulous time wasting game at http://obama.play.de/us. I wonder how many thousands of non productive work time hours will be consumed by this pastime? I have no doubt that systems administrators everywhere are busily changing their network setup to block access.

Comment by Simon Barrett — September 18, 2008 #
Excellent Blog. I’ve been reading along and just wanted to say hi. I will be reading more of your posts in the future.

- Jason.

Comment by Jason Elder — September 18, 2008 #
The continuing downturn in housing-related industries combined with budget-related layoffs of state workers in August to produce another downturn in California’s employment. From July to August, seasonally adjusted, the state lost -7,700 nonfarm jobs, marking six consecutive months of monthly declines. This followed on the heels of the revised June-July decline of -15,000 jobs from the original estimated decline of -14,900 jobs. The largest declines from July occurred in manufacturing (-7,800 jobs), government (-6,000 jobs), administrative and support services (-4,800 jobs), and leisure and hospitality (-3,500 jobs).

Over the year to August, the state lost -72,700 jobs. Looking at the details, the largest losses over the year came in construction (-79,200 jobs), retail trade (-30,900), finance & insurance (-30,000 jobs), and manufacturing (-28,800 jobs). On the plus side, health services added 37,300 jobs, government added 26,300 jobs, and professional, scientific & technical services were up by 13,400 jobs.

Comment by LAEDC — September 23, 2008 #
Sheriff Thomas J. Dart is suspending foreclosure evictions in Cook County, which includes the city of Chicago.

The county had been on track to reach a record number of evictions, many because of mortgage foreclosures.

Many good tenants are suffering because building owners have fallen behind on their mortgage payments. He told CNN, “These poor people are seeing everything they own put out on the street. … They’ve paid their bills, paid them on time. Here we are with a battering ram at the front door going to throw them out. It’s gotten insane.”

Mortgage companies are supposed to identify a building’s occupants before asking for an eviction, but sheriff’s deputies routinely find that the mortgage companies have not done so, Dart said.

“This is an example where the banking industry has not done any of the work they should do. It’s a piece of paper to them,” Dart said.
“These mortgage companies … don’t care who’s in the building,” Dart said Wednesday. “They simply want their money and don’t care who gets hurt along the way.

“On top of it all, they want taxpayers to fund their investigative work for them. We’re not going to do their jobs for them anymore. We’re just not going to evict innocent tenants. It stops today.”

Comment by Sheriff Thomas J. Dart — October 13, 2008 #
The great pop vs. soda controversy
http://popvssoda.com:2998/

Comment by koslen — October 18, 2008 #
This one is making the rounds now.

3 people sent it to me overnight…thanks…

http://www.palinaspresident.com/

be sure to mouse around and click everywhere, some things need repeat clicking ….Keep clicking
the door several times…………….really funny.

Comment by rsumm90328 — October 21, 2008 #
Fidelity National Financial Inc. has called off its plan to acquire troubled rival LandAmerica Financial Group Inc.

Fidelity announced an agreement on Nov. 7 to acquire LandAmerica in an all stock deal valued at $128 million.

Based on their 2007 market share, the combined companies might have controlled about 45 percent of the U.S. title insurance business. By comparison, the nation’s biggest title insurer, First American Corp., had a 30 percent market share last year.

Comment by Inman News — November 22, 2008 #
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 14, 2009) — The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) today released its Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending January 9, 2009. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, was 1324.8, an increase of 15.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from 1143.8 one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index increased 95.7 percent compared with the previous week and was up 52.4 percent compared with the same week one year earlier.
The Refinance Index increased 25.6 percent to 7414.1 from 5904.5 the previous week and the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 14.1 percent to 295.8 from 344.2 one week earlier. The Refinance Index is at its highest level since the week ending June 27, 2003, when it was 8599.1.

The seasonally adjusted Conventional Purchase Index decreased 10.3 percent while the Government Purchase Index (largely FHA) decreased 21.8 percent.

The four week moving average for the seasonally adjusted Market Index is up 10.8 percent. The four week moving average is up 0.8 percent for the seasonally adjusted Purchase Index, while this average is up 13.8 percent for the Refinance Index.

The refinance share of mortgage activity increased to 85.3 percent of total applications from 79.8 percent the previous week. The adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM) share of activity increased to 1.1 percent from 0.9 percent of total applications from the previous week.

The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.89 percent from 5.07 percent, with points increasing to 1.20 from 1.16 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value (LTV) ratio loans. The contract rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages is the lowest recorded in the survey. The previous low was 4.99 percent for the week ending June 13, 2003.

The average contract interest rate for 15-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased to 4.63 percent from 4.67 percent, with points decreasing to 1.14 from 1.16 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

The average contract interest rate for one-year ARMs decreased to 5.89 percent from 5.90 percent, with points decreasing to 0.11 from 0.31 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent LTV loans.

Comment by MortgageBankers.org — January 15, 2009 #
The Real Estate Board of New York, the largest trade group in New York City, reported today that the average sales price for cooperatives, condominiums and single-family to three-family homes across the five boroughs dipped 10 percent in the fourth quarter compared to the same quarter last year.

Comment by Inman News — January 22, 2009 #
The $819 billion tax-and-spending bill
is one of the largest single stimulus packages in history, almost equal to the entire cost of annual federal spending under Congress’s discretion. A parallel Senate measure, which is expected to come to a vote next week, is now valued at nearly $900 billion.

The plan provides $5 billion for the construction and repair of public housing. Democrats say this will reduce a backlog of such projects and will mostly be distributed according to existing formulas. But Rep. Jerry Lewis (R., Calif.) depicts it as a quiet reversal of a 30-year trend of the government extracting itself from public housing construction.

The whole story @ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123315486943524321.html

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Comment by Moomonnarut — March 7, 2009 #
The Government’s Plan to Help Homeowners!

The government recently released the Making Home Affordable Refinance Plan, a multi-step program to help American homeowners. At Quicken Loans, our goal is to make sure your mortgage fits your financial situation. Depending on your situation, you will fall into one of three scenarios:

1. You owe less on your mortgage than what your home is currently worth.
This means that you may qualify for today’s already low mortgage rates!
2. You owe more on your mortgage than what your home is currently worth.
You may qualify for the government’s new Making Home Affordable Refinance Plan.
3. You are struggling to make your mortgage payments and/or face imminent
foreclosure on your home.
You may qualify for a loan modification through your servicer.

Use our online tool to find out if the Plan makes sense for you.

Comment by Quicken Loans — March 19, 2009 #
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