The Home Front

FDIC Chief Sheila Bair on Her New Anti-Foreclosure Plan

By Luke Mullins

Posted: November 17, 2008

FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair discussed the details of her new plan to prevent foreclosures during an interview with NPR last week.

Listen to the interview here.

Home Value

Mr. Mullins

you hit the hammer right on the nail. I totally agree with your comments. it appears that the Big Wigs has placing band-aides on a trubling Housing market.Most of their H.R programs don't work for homeowner like myself who are considered "underwater"

I wrote to my congressman and Congresswoman herr in Antioch, Ca, and they're just pass the buck.

sometimes thing that written on paper dont always work. the government bailed out the big guys ( The banks) and now the Banks dont want to help.

I even read that they would give 4.5 interest rates 30 years fixed to first time home buyers with good credit.

Wow, how about extending those offers to those like myself who are facing diffricuties in refinacing.

It take someone like yourself Mr. Mulllins who really see the Big Picture to run for State Housing Office.

someone who really have the solution and not just a papper fix.

Thank You

ken

ken of @ Jan 11, 2009 14:23:25 PM

The FDIC and Sheila Bair

About 10,000 indymac depositors who lost 50% of their funds have been chasing the elusive Ms. Bair with no results for months now . Every other depositor was kept whole, insurance limits were raised and the EDIE calculator throws [or at least tries to] all of the burden onto the depositor, rather than on the institution who handed out mis-information. There is plenty of pushback from the FDIC to resist changing its communications requirements on member institutions to substantiate our view that the FDIC is controlled by lobbyists and big banks; it protects depositors unfairly, it is an unsupervised agency - or an agency supervised by congressional reps and senators also controlled by lobbyists. We are just average folks who lost funds where others did not, and ms. Bair has been hiding out for months now with no apparent concern at all.

www.fdicbusinessalert.com

and the indymac depositor blog on google

fran of CA @ Dec 16, 2008 15:00:53 PM

Stabilize Housing and consumer confidence will return

I want to further Ms. Biar's idea of helping the homeowner. Don't the big-wigs in Washington understand that the entire economy's recovery rests in the hands of homeowners? Personally, I don't think anyone is thinking logically. If the people's tax money is going to bail out Wall Street, why is the idea of people's tax money going to bail out Main Street so unpopular?

Let's do Housing 101. I buy a house. I can afford my mortgage. I feel good about my future and my home. My house goes up in value. I feel richer. I can buy things. The economy depends on my consumer spending.

The Problem: My home now starts to lose value because others around me are losing their homes to foreclosure, putting downward pressure on my home value. I feel dispair and I feel poorer. I begin to cut spending. I try to refinance but I now owe more than what my home is worth today. I'm stuck. I try contacting my lender for help. "Sorry, your payments are up to date, we cannot help you until you are nearing foreclosure".

The Solution: Allow Mortgage Insurance to cover up to 125% of the value of the home in order to allow those that are currently upside-down to refinance their current mortgage(s) into a fixed 30-year 4.5%-5.5% loan. The borrower would continue to pay the mortgage insurance premium, but this scenario would allow payments to be reduced, keeping the homeowner in his/her home without fear of foreclosure.

The current modification programs really get the borrower into deeper debt, as most are turned into "interest-only" or 40-year-loans after the borrower provides documentation that he/she is on the verge of foreclosure. The arguement that borrower's must sacrifice their credit in order to get help is truly ridiculous. Let's use our heads. Asking people to become irresponsible in order to be helped is as asinine.

Let the government show the little guy that it really does care. The consumer confidence issue will NOT go away until government starts focusing on Main Street. Right now, the only help out there is for the banks and the auto industry. People, if I cannot afford my house, what difference does it make that Ford makes a hybrid! I won't be able buy it anyway, particularly since my credit will be bad.

Elizabeth Cooper-Garcia of FL @ Dec 11, 2008 10:36:24 AM

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The Home Front

The Home Front

Associate Editor Luke Mullins tracks the treacherous housing market and explains how to unload a five-bedroom McMansion or even find that dream home.

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