Digital News Report - Governor Mitt Romney was in Nevada campaigning for the Republican spot for the Presidential race. During an interview with a local newspaper, he suggested that the Obama Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) caused the housing market to recover slower than it could have. He said that the foreclosures should have occurred all at once; that way the investors could buy the homes, fix the properties up, and then rent them out again.
Romney said during the interview that was videotaped by the Las Vegas Review Journal, “Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.” He continued to explain his reasoning, “Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up, and let it turn around and come back up.” He then pointed out, “The Obama administration has slow walked the foreclosure process — that has long existed, and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhead.”
Romney’s comments on the housing crisis may have been a bit too simple for such a complicated mess as the housing crisis. The lenders have been putting many foreclosures on hold because of inaccurate record keeping and robosigning of loan and foreclosure documents. Some lenders have also been wrongly foreclosing on homeowners who have paid their mortgages on time. That is why some of the foreclosed properties were put on hold.
The glut of foreclosed homes on the market has caused lower real estate prices. This is great for homebuyers looking to buy affordable housing. However, homebuyers are having a difficult time securing lending for purchasing a new home even though mortgage interest rates are at historical lows.
The Home Affordable Modification Program was designed to help struggling homeowners reduce their monthly mortgage payments. The participating lenders in the program work with the homeowner to reduce their payments by offering mortgage loan principal forgiveness, lower interest rates, and extended loan term repayments. Since HAMP was started in 2009 it has helped 657,044 homeowners to achieve a permanent mortgage loan modification.
By: Tim Edwards
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