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New protections for mortgage holders
The front of a boarded up building in Cleveland, Ohio.
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TEXT OF STORY
Steve Chiotakis: Yeah, there're some signs the economy is on the mend. But you wouldn't know it from the number of mortgage holders falling behind on monthly payments. The Obama administration is expected to announce plans today to help protect them from foreclosure. Marketplace's Alisa Roth reports.
Alisa Roth: The new plans will make changes to the current program, Making Home Affordable. That program encourages lenders to modify mortgage payments for borrowers who are having a hard time.
The borrowers pay reduced payments for a trial period, and after that the servicers are supposed to make new payments permanent. But very few of the modifications have actually been made permanent. So the new plans being announced today are supposed to push lenders to make that happen.
The government will start tracking lenders activities on a daily basis. It'll also force those servicers to give details about their plans to modify more loans. At the same time, the administration will also stop paying cash incentives to those servicers-until the reduced payments are made permanent.
In New York, I'm Alisa Roth for Marketplace.
Thanks for covering this story, however I would love a more in depth report/investigation into the banks illegal behavior by not "playing by the rules" of the Obama plan.
I've been going through the modification process since April of 2008 and still do not have a final answer or documents from my lender. The past 6 months have felt like a helpless game of cat & mouse. I hope the latest plan revisions call attention to the issues and finally start to help honest individuals in need.
