Guest NewsBot Posted March 29, 2008 Posted March 29, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders are racing to push through an array of election-year housing measures that already have stirred up much political wrangling and the White House is examining its own plan to further help homeowners caught in the mortgage meltdown.... By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Read the full story. Quote
Guest NewsBot Posted March 29, 2008 Posted March 29, 2008 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congressional leaders are racing to push through an array of election-year housing measures that already have stirred up much political wrangling and the White House is examining its own plan to further help homeowners caught in the mortgage meltdown.... By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Read the full story. Quote
Old Salt Posted March 29, 2008 Posted March 29, 2008 This one sounds pretty reasonable to me: A broader housing overhaul proposed by Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, faces an uncertain road. Frank and Dodd want the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era agency that insures mortgages, to guarantee $300 billion to $400 billion in refinanced loans to troubled borrowers. Lenders would first have to agree to take a loss on the mortgages; borrowers would have to show they could afford to make payments on the new loans.The lenders have to take a hit for making a stupid loan, and the borrower has to prove (s)he can repay the debt before the loan is guaranteed. No debt defaulted, no cost to the taxpayer. Quote
Old Salt Posted March 29, 2008 Posted March 29, 2008 This one sounds pretty reasonable to me: A broader housing overhaul proposed by Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, faces an uncertain road. Frank and Dodd want the Federal Housing Administration, the Depression-era agency that insures mortgages, to guarantee $300 billion to $400 billion in refinanced loans to troubled borrowers. Lenders would first have to agree to take a loss on the mortgages; borrowers would have to show they could afford to make payments on the new loans.The lenders have to take a hit for making a stupid loan, and the borrower has to prove (s)he can repay the debt before the loan is guaranteed. No debt defaulted, no cost to the taxpayer. Quote
ImWithStupid Posted March 29, 2008 Posted March 29, 2008 This one sounds pretty reasonable to me: And that's why there is no way this plan will make it through the US Congress. It contains and requires way too much common sense and personal responsibility. Quote
ImWithStupid Posted March 29, 2008 Posted March 29, 2008 This one sounds pretty reasonable to me: And that's why there is no way this plan will make it through the US Congress. It contains and requires way too much common sense and personal responsibility. Quote
hugo Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 Actually, I have some problems with the program. It undermines the free market and will temporarily maintain artificially high housing prices. It does put public money at risk as the article states. It will not be the first time the feds have stepped in to aid bankers who gambled and lost. Banker, just like casino players, need to pay when their gamble does not pay off. I am betting the taxpayer would end up getting stuck with 5 to 10% of the 300 to 400 billion guaranteed mortgages. In 1983 I bought a home for 49K, three years later it was worth 33K. No one bailed me out. I sold it in 1996 for 59K. Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
hugo Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 Actually, I have some problems with the program. It undermines the free market and will temporarily maintain artificially high housing prices. It does put public money at risk as the article states. It will not be the first time the feds have stepped in to aid bankers who gambled and lost. Banker, just like casino players, need to pay when their gamble does not pay off. I am betting the taxpayer would end up getting stuck with 5 to 10% of the 300 to 400 billion guaranteed mortgages. In 1983 I bought a home for 49K, three years later it was worth 33K. No one bailed me out. I sold it in 1996 for 59K. Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
Old Salt Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 I bought a house somewhere around '79 or '80. When I got divorced in '82, the judge ordered the house sold and proceeds split. The house was on the market for a year and I ended up getting just what I paid for it (thank God). If I had lost money, I don't know if I could have kept my head above water. I do agree that the government shouldn't keep house prices artificially high. I was just thinking that Frank's plan was the best of what's been put out, with the least cost to the taxpayer (unfortunately I think there will be a bailout). Quote
Old Salt Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 I bought a house somewhere around '79 or '80. When I got divorced in '82, the judge ordered the house sold and proceeds split. The house was on the market for a year and I ended up getting just what I paid for it (thank God). If I had lost money, I don't know if I could have kept my head above water. I do agree that the government shouldn't keep house prices artificially high. I was just thinking that Frank's plan was the best of what's been put out, with the least cost to the taxpayer (unfortunately I think there will be a bailout). Quote
hugo Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 delete double post Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
hugo Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 delete double post Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
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