Mortgage giant offers relief in Virginia to buyers on brink

I suppose you have no college tuitions to pay, no elderly parents needing financial assistance & ins. that pays all costs of treatment, including multiple surgeries, if you or yours have the misfortune to fall ill or suffer major injuries caused by a serious accident. I suppose you have ins. that replaces your entire income, if injured & unable to work, due to said injuries. If you have all these things in place, good for you. Yet you should understand every one's situations is different. I personally know 10 families affected by foreclosures. Not 1 was living above their means. None of them had ARMs or any other type shyster loans. They're all solid middle class, educated people who were earning over 150,000/yr. 1 may be surprised at how quickly a lifetime of savings is gone when 1 is confronted by the cost of major illnesses, in middle age, while being downsized & unable to sell your home due to the downturn in the economy.

I applied for one of their mortgages (Country Wide) in 2004. I asked for a 30 year fixed. They told me that is what I got in the paperwork they asked me to sign. Upon further review of the paperwork, I found a sentence blended into a paragraph which stated something to the effect of...at year 2 your rate will adjust to 3 points over the Lipor average....I looked into this and found my rates by year 5 would be just about double the rate offered (which was about even with the going 30 yr. conventional rate) ...finally once I confronted them about this....they said "we regret we cannot provide you a loan based on the rates you requested" ...so they blame the consumers???
...During this home buying process I have concluded from the Agent to the Apraiser, to the Lender....they are ALL Crooks! The industry needs a complete overhaul and strict oversight that allows consumers to sue the crooks when they Dupe us....fair is fair :)

speculation. You provide zero facts. Folks that have lost their jobs/income have nothing to do with the greedy that bought above their means. The majority of those defaulting are employed but their payments are now to high to make....sayz them!

I had the opportunity to purchase a nice new home above the one I'm 4 years from owning but declined because I'm fiscal responsible. Yes my investments and funds have declined but I have the reserve and resolve to stay the course.

I will never have compassion for the greedy. As I wrote previously, they signed a legal document. Ignorance is not a defense that holds up in any court.

Go ahead and help them out but first they need to file Chap. 11 so they can't go down the street and finance that nice new 60" flat screen.

I see the term "Homeowner" being used to describe people that are about to loose their home. I personally find it odd that people pride themselves for being "homeowners" when they have huge mortgages. Often times the mortgages are for 100% of the value or more. Some aren't even paying all the interest and go further in debt each month. None of these people are homeowners. They all are renting from the bank. No one who is in danger of loosing their home to foreclosure is a homeowner. Some craigslist Realtor challenged me the other day. I said I'm a renter, and I save a bunch of money. He said no, at the end of the month after I've paid my rent I have nothing to show for it. I simply replied, I have extra savings in the bank that otherwise would have gone to interest on a property loan on a place that most likely would be declining in value. In 2002, working at NASA, I didn't really make enough money to buy anything. Credit standards still existed then. So yea, you're not a homeowner unless you own your crib. Quit abusing the word, especially Realtors.

It is a sad day when you read comments from people who have no compassion. Escpecially when they seem educated, but yet ignorant. Just wait.... you are next. Do your reasearch..... the prime rate folks who refinanced their homes are next on the chopping block. Home values have fallen, lose your job, try to refinance? Good luck. The problem should have been fixed a long time ago. Do your research and I bet you will start losing sleep at night. The economy sucks world wide. I will certainly bet most of you had investments tied into these fraudulent banks.Lost most of your portfolio? Regulations were not passed by the folks we voted into office and look what we all have now. The Ford Plant closed, Military bases are closing and some are moving. What do you think would happen to Hampton Roads if a couple more are closed or moved? Your businesses will close, your bills will become late, you will lose your income, and kaboom.... you are in the same situation all the Poor Folks who have lost their home or about to. Sleep good tonight .... I would love to meet one of you for a face to face. Shame on you.

Are we suppose to bow down and thank Countrywide for fixing what they help create? Oh, please. Until all the predatory lenders are held criminally accountable, the rest of us will continue to pay. We should not let speculators profit either.

I also hope Secretary Paulson gets what he deserves for his irresposible actions and inactions, not just fade out of the picture by his replacement.

the problem is just too massive! People who were greedy will get help, People who lost their jobs will get help, People who naively thought homeownership was just the mortgage payment will get help. The point is yes it will get alot of people angry, but too many people and businesses messed up as a whole that the ones who played by the rules, worked hard, saved and lived within their means, will have to chop it up for the 'greater good' of the economy.

We have entire industries, run by crooks and morons, and when they ge t themselves in trouble, MY taxes, without my consideration, go to pay for the executives who stole these companies blind, or whose stupidity caused bankruptcy all bail out with multimillion dollar options. Now on top of the government, who I am used to having run over me, I find out that my bank is going to reward the consumer end for stupid behavior. I think that I will begin to be a crook, not be responsible for anything I do, buy a house I can't afford and let the rest of you suckers pay for it. Why in the world would I want to do what I am supposed to do? It's like the Ant and the Grasshopper fable, but somebody on drugs rewrote it with an ending that favored the grasshopper. WTFO?

"Maybe if they weren’t so seemingly oblivious to what the negative impact a slew of foreclosures will likely have on the market value of their own home, they might change their tune."

Oblivious? Virginia ranks 10th in the foreclosure race, what is your definition of a "slew"?

A close friend and his wife have their big house up for sale. The wife has gotten not just one but two jobs to help pay bills. He has changed his career too. They had enjoyed a quite lavish life as a result of real estate investing which they have admitted would not have been possible any other way but they realize the party is over. They are not bitter. They are proactive and thankful for what they were able to do.
I talk to many homeowners who are having difficulty paying their mortgage, second mortgage, or credit cards. Most of the time, it is a combination of issues and not solely the interest rate adjustments. Many cases are divorces which tend to increase during hard economic times. Some cases are health related or estate issues. I believe the bulk of the new cases will be due to job loss.
Of course, we all feel compassion for those who suffer unforeseeable circumstances. I find it hard to feel that same compassion for someone who has obtained a second mortgage or equity line to pay off consumer debt and then has to come out of pocket at closing time. In this case, they have already spent their equity.
In the end, the blame does not fall on the loan officer or the real est

Those who received sub-prime= irresponsible and naïve.

Those who decided on ARMS= greedy, irresponsible and naïve.

I have no compassion for either group. I did things responsibly, like many of the other posters here, and bought within my means with a decent credit score.

Rewarding bad decisions is NOT the way to help these people....they are just prolonging the inevitable.

As to level of culpability, the situation of each homeowner at risk is likely unique. But based on some of the comments below, it seems that a lot of people believe all of those on the brink of foreclosure are either greedy, irresponsible, naïve, or a combination of all three. They apparently would prefer that no relief be offered to any of them. Such a Scrooge like attitude is itself naïve and simplistic. Maybe if they weren’t so seemingly oblivious to what the negative impact a slew of foreclosures will likely have on the market value of their own home, they might change their tune.

Pilot, when are you going to stop moderating me? I keep getting an advertisement for a local seminar by Robert Kiosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. The man has already been shown to be a fraud (the story is a lie, people looked into it and figured out who the neighbors were). It's the type of people that follow that guy who have helped drive the speculation in Real Estate, which helped drive the last bubble (housing) over the top.

could probably unite on is....where is the bailout money that we're being forced to support. Bush, a Rep, wanted it. Obama, a Dem, wants it. Who do you know, personally, that has benifited. Since the first one is a done deal...let's demand results on the personal level.

Those of us who continued to live within our means over the past few years are really in a pickle.

I would have loved to have moved to a nicer area and a bigger house...but, we have been on one income while my husband was in school for the past few years, and my gut told me that there was bound to be a crash sooner or later. So we are waiting until we have two incomes again to be safe.

However, I know people in similar situations to ours who decided they wanted their "good life" up front; they are already in their bigger houses and nicer areas, and in the poo with their mortgages.

Does it rankle? Yes, it does. However, I am also well aware that with so many people facing foreclosure (not all of them because of trying to keep up with the Joneses...many are just regular people in modest homes hit by hard economic times) our economy and our house values are at risk letting these people fall on their faces.

I have to believe that the greater good is most important.

I fully agree the people who bought house way above what they knew they could actually afford should not get hand outs. But what about those who bought within their means and happened to get fired and have an extremly hard time finding a new job. (which is a reflection of our economy) What do we do to help those people? Or are some of you high and mighties not willing to help them either. I bet that half of the people not wanting to help anytbody would not be able to survive more than a year if a job was lost, or if one of your sources of income became ill and had to go on disability.

Yes, a lot of people did wrong but lets not punish the ones who were doing right to begin with.

And maybe with the feds helping they need to also reward some of the people who have been able to stay current on their payments.

"Only going to get worse
Submitted by marks57720 on Mon, 01/12/2009 at 10:21 pm.
This will only get worse under the Obama administration...handouts will increase and the hard working populace will have to pay for it..."

An you know this how? Does that "hard working populace" include the 2.6 million who've lost their jobs under Bush in 08?

I know of people with advanced degrees who lived at or beneath their "means", who fell victim to the economic collapse of recent times. A major illness, loss of employment at middle age, combined with college tuitions of children, cost of care for elderly parents, etc, has sunk many a middle class family's finances & negatively affected it's credit rating. My wife & I know we are blessed or lucky, depending on 1's perspective, to have maintained our standard of living. We have seen many of our former co-workers & neighbors, all good people, get hit exceptionally hard. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Some of us need to be reminded of this. 1 never knows what each day may bring.

Will government require that lenders refinance to lower rates for people who aren't in foreclosure trouble, or will they have to stop making payments for a few months to qualify?

What about the people who have been responsible enough to deal with their finances?? It appears to me that what we are teaching people here is to not worry about the consequences because there will be none. Instead of investigating the bank fraud they are ignoring it and just modifying the loans. This is a symptom of a bigger cultural problem in this country. We do not need to hand out trophies to every kid on our soccer teams and we do not need to be rewarding failure. I recognize that the lenders (more importantly the mortgage brokers touting lies)are partly to blame. But if it sounds too good to be true it is. I see this as a big smack in the face of the other 90% of the people out there who are responsible enough and have the common sense to know what they are getting into. Of course no-one is calling for the congressional people to be removed who caused these lax underwriting standards.

This country is spiraling out of control and this is a perfect demonstration. How this housing mortgage crisis is handled will determine the future. Being a portfolio manager, we will never put money in the housing markets again as all contactual law and procedures have been thrown o