Tuesday, July 30, 2013

A City Invokes Seizure Laws to Save Homes - NYTimes.com

A City Invokes Seizure Laws to Save Homes - NYTimes.com
Given that the federal government won't do anything meaningful to help underwater home owners, one city is doing something:

"Richmond is offering to buy both current and delinquent loans. To defend against the charge that irresponsible homeowners who used their homes as A.T.M.’s are being helped at the expense of investors, the first pool of 626 loans does not include any homes with large second mortgages, said Steven M. Gluckstern, the chairman of Mortgage Resolution Partners. The city is offering to buy the loans at what it considers the fair market value. In a hypothetical example, a home mortgaged for $400,000 is now worth $200,000. The city plans to buy the loan for $160,000, or about 80 percent of the value of the home, a discount that factors in the risk of default. Then, the city would write down the debt to $190,000 and allow the homeowner to refinance at the new amount, probably through a government program. The $30,000 difference goes to the city, the investors who put up the money to buy the loan, closing costs and M.R.P. The homeowner would go from owing twice what the home is worth to having $10,000 in equity."

1 comment:

IC_deLight said...

How is this supposed to work?

The home is security for the loan but does not represent the value of the loan. I don't see this working very well