By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy NewspapersPosted on Saturday, March 29, 2008
WASHINGTON — In the nearly four months since Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson challenged mortgage lenders to modify distressed home loans voluntarily to ease record numbers of foreclosures, it remains difficult to gauge the program's success.
At the time of its creation, Hope Now sought to modify up to 1.2 million adjustable-rate mortgages issued to sub-prime borrowers, those with the weakest credit. In a statement March 3 on its Web site, operated by mortgage-industry players, Hope Now said that more than 1 million homeowners had received loan workouts since last July.
That just muddied the waters. It included a period well before Hope Now began, and didn't distinguish among one-month payment deferrals, temporary freezes on adjustable rates and modifications into fixed-rate loans.
"The big question is how many real loan modifications are happening, and I don't think they know," said Kurt Eggert, a professor at the Chapman University School of Law in Orange, Calif., and a member of a Federal Reserve consumer advisory board. "How can you say you are on top of the problem if you don't know how broadly the 'best solution' is being applied?"
To read this entire story, please visit: http://www.paradigmshiftpr.com/media/placements/strugglinghomeowner.htm
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