Source:
Huffington Post with new linkIn a fact sheet accompanying the administration's April 28, 2009, announcement the administration noted:
Second liens contribute to the number of American homeowners unable to afford their housing payments. Even where a first mortgage payment may be affordable, the addition of a second mortgage payment can increase monthly payments beyond affordable levels. In addition, second mortgages often complicate or prevent modification or refinancing of a first mortgage.
The Second Lien Program will help create a sustainably affordable mortgage payment for millions of homeowners who qualify for a first mortgage modification, yet still face challenges in affording their monthly payments because of a second mortgage.
Compounding the problem is that more than 11 million homeowners owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth, putting them "underwater." For underwater homeowners, reducing the principal owed on the mortgage is more important than interest-rate cuts, because it gives homeowners back their equity in the house and incentivizes them to stick with the mortgage.
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/05/obama-plan-to-modify-seco_n_487474.html
On Monday another discussion concerning helping consumers of these predatory loans was flipped again. First saying they were going to be helped and then saying otherswise- At a background briefing Monday afternoon, a senior Treasury Department official indicated that the department is headed in the direction of writing down mortgage principal more often -- the one thing underwater borrowers need the most. Market observers and consumer advocates have long been calling for such a shift.
But hours later, Treasury spokesman Andrew Wiliams e-mailed the Huffington Post: "Treasury is NOT poised to roll out a major principal write-down program. As the
said, we are looking at a number of tweaks to existing programs to help reach more borrowers."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/treasury-getting-more-com_n_491012.html
I wonder if there will be any way to convince these banks to pass on the help they recieved from the tax payers?