Mortgage Mod Update: Readers Help Us Report
Thank you, ProPublica readers.
Last Friday we told you about our plan to track struggling American homeowners applying for help through Making Home Affordable, President Obama’s $75 billion foreclosure relief plan.
In just a week, we’ve received about three dozen responses from you folks. We hope to feature some of these people in coming stories.
Many who reached out to us had questions about how the Obama plan affects them. Let’s attempt to clarify some of the confusion.
First off, there are two distinct plans–one for loan modifications, the other for mortgage refinancing.
Homeowners still able to make their monthly payments, but looking for a better interest rate, might want to check out the refinance program. There are eligibility requirements for refinancing, including that your loan has to be owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
For those struggling to keep up with payments or already in foreclosure, modification is probably the right route.
Of course, being underwater is not enough to qualify. There are several requirements; the main one hinging on how much of your income is spent on mortgage-related payments. See here for Obama’s eligibility quiz.
You also need to check if your loan servicer is participating in the program. So far, 11 have signed up, including Countrywide and some of the nation’s largest banks. Servicers have until the end of the year to join.
If you are applying for a loan modification through the government’s plan, we want your story. Also feel free to forward this request on to family, friends and neighbors.
Sign up below and we’ll be in touch with you.
Foreclosure Crisis: Banks and Government Fail Homeowners
Banks and the government have fallen short in helping homeowners in danger of foreclosure.
The Story So Far
Systemic failures at the country’s banks and mortgage servicers have exacerbated the most severe foreclosure crisis since the Great Depression, and government efforts to limit the damage have fallen short. ProPublica created an unrivaled database of homeowners who have faced foreclosure, opened a Facebook page to encourage homeowners to share their stories, wrote profiles of some of them, and incorporated their experiences into our reporting. We also provided a comprehensive rundown of the numbers behind the crisis.
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