WOSU presents a panel discussion with financial experts on the community impact of the current mortgage crisis and early prevention. WOSU Public Affairs Director Mike Thompson moderates. Panelists include Denise Gastesi, Foreclosure Intervention Specialist, Franklin County Treasurer’s Office; Jung Kim, Community Research Partners; and Linda Cook, Statewide Legal Services Foreclosure Project Manager, Ohio Poverty Law Center.
I’ve been kept busy posting statistics from the Columbus Research Partners, stories from our WOSU newsroom, facts provided by our many partners, and advice from local experts about foreclosures and mortgages.
Now I’m asking for your help.
A mortgage crisis is an intensely personal matter, but, as we’ve shown, it spills over into family dynamics and effects both the community and entire city. Coping with a crisis isn’t easy, but through shared knowledge you can help others, and maybe yourself.
If you have a story to tell about a foreclosure or mortgage crisis, whether it’s yours or someone else’s, I’d like to hear it. No story is too big or too small. If you’re not sure whether you want it made public, we can discuss how best to present it - by not naming names or addresses.
Star by letting me know if you’re interested in contributing, and we’ll go from there. I’d love to hear from you.
Pace of Mortgage Loan Modifications Under Obama Plan Painstakingly Slow by Sam Hendren, WOSU Reporter
(2009-08-24)
LISTEN TO THIS STORY BELOW:
The number of U.S. households on the verge of losing their homes rose 7 percent from June to July in part because the foreclosure crisis continues to outpace government efforts to limit the damage. There seems to be an abundance of help at every turn, but are banks modifying loans as fast as they possibly can?
Banks in the U.S. are working to resolve the overwhelming mortgage foreclosure crisis. But the scope of the problem is staggering. Faith Schwartz works for Hope Now, an agency that helps people avoid foreclosure. Schwartz says millions of Americans are in trouble with their mortgages.
“Just to give you a sense of the numbers, 3.1 million loans are past due over 60 days,” Schwartz says. “That’s a lot of loans.”
The Obama administration has weighed in with its own plan for assistance. While it might not have the alliteration of Cash for Clunkers, the administration’s Making Home Affordable plan is designed to help homeowners in arrears. But Cindy Flaherty of the Ohio Housing Finance Agency says the pace of loan modifications is painstakingly slow.
“Right now I would say that it is much slower than anybody had hoped,” Flaherty says. “We are still working with borrowers who called us when the program first started and they have yet to get a modification back from the servicer or lender that they’re working with. In other cases we are starting to see some results and it does depend on a number of factors.”
Flaherty says it might be as simple as a bank lacking enough employees to slog through piles of paperwork. But she wonders aloud if banks are purposefully slowing down the process.
“I would like to give the servicers the benefit of the doubt and say that they are trying,” Flaherty says. “And I don’t think that’s true across the board though we have too many examples of counselors being treated rudely; of packages being repeatedly mislaid; ‘will you fax it again.’ You have to wonder if there isn’t another motive in those cases to slow down the process.”
Ohio Bankers League lobbyist Mike Adelman says that he believes banks are doing the best that they can.
“To the best of my knowledge banks and thrifts are working hard every day with customers to keep them in their homes, certainly if you have a willing and able borrower the lender will want to try and work out a deal so that the property’s being maintained, so the taxes are being paid,” Adelman says. “It’s a win-win situation for everybody involved.”
The U.S. Treasury Department said earlier this month that more than 400,000 modification offers have been extended and that more than 230,000 trial modifications have already begun. At that pace, according to Treasury, it will take the next three years to help three million to four million clients.
J.P. Morgan Chase, with large-scale operations in Columbus, is among the largest loan servicers in the country. The company says since 2007, it’s helped prevent some 600,000 foreclosures. Chase says it’s already modified 117,000 loans under the Obama plan.
At the Ohio Housing Finance Agency Cindy Flaherty says the key for borrowers is perseverance. She says that as more banks add staff and as updated loan rules are written into banking guidelines, more work outs and loan modifications will occur.
Approximately two out of three middle class families are at high risk of sustaining or losing their economic security. Too often, parents are being forced to make difficult decisions that affect their children’s well-being. In response to these rec…ent changes in family economics, Sesame Street has produced a primetime special, “Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times.” This hour-long special, hosted by Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo, aims to help families with children, ages two to eight, experiencing difficult economic circumstances by offering strategies and tips that can lead to positive outcomes for their children’s physical and emotional well-being during this tough economic climate.
The special will air on WOSU on September 9, 2009 at 8PM.
WOSU presents a panel discussion with financial experts on the community impact of the current mortgage crisis and early prevention. WOSU Public Affairs Director Mike Thompson moderates. Panelists include Denise Gastesi, Foreclosure Intervention Specialist, Franklin County Treasurer’s Office; Jung Kim, Community Research Partners; and Linda Cook, Statewide Legal Services Foreclosure Project Manager, Ohio Poverty Law Center.
Tape Date: August 13, 2009 at the Battelle Studio at WOSU@COSI.
This airs Thursday 8/27/09 at 10pm on WOSU TV/HD
This show repeats: 9/4, 9/11, 9/18 & 9/25 at 8pm on WOSU Plus
COLUMBUS, OH - Muirfield Village surrounds Muirfield Golf Club - the championship golf course that hosts the Memorial Tournament every year. The average home costs just over $450,000. Most lawns are green. The landscaping is meticulous. But, some properties are unkempt.
“Overgrown grass, all the plants, trees, everything is overgrown and dying.”
Muirfield resident Jennifer Miller is describing lawn of a foreclosed home on Memorial Drive. On the Franklin County Sheriff’s website, the house is appraised at $600,000. Miller says the owners relocated for a new job and were unable to sell the house. Since then, people have broken in multiple times.
“So police have been out here several times to kind of make sure everything’s under control. Because for the neighbors - obviously there are children that live in this area and they don’t want that kind of thing going on,” says Miller.
At least one of the subdivision’s foreclosures was the result of a money laundering scam. Muirfield resident John Warner says authorities should have noticed immediately when a house on Quin Abbey Court sold for much more than it was worth.
“The house sat empty for two years for sale for a million bucks. All the sudden, it sold for $1.6 million. That’s a little surprise, isn’t it?” says Warner.
The people associated with that and other suspicious sales were eventually indicted. The house will be rehabbed by what Warner describes as a “reputable” real estate agent. But he says the house has suffered from years of neglect.
“There are mold problems, the electricity went off, the basement flooded, they had to rip everything out. You know, when that happens, you get mold throughout the house, it goes up inside the walls and everything else. So, they’ve really got their hands full,” says Warner.
Community Research Partners says — out of 620 homes –Muirfield Village had nine foreclosure filings last year. That works out to about 1 in every 69 homes. That may not seem like much, but RealtyTrac - a website that tracks home foreclosures — says the July average in Ohio was 1 in every 460 homes.
Jung Kim is the Data Services Director at Community Research Partners, or CRP. Kim says Sheriff Sales - when a house gets sold at public auction - make up a higher percentage of Columbus suburban home sales than people might think.
“Fifteen percent of housing sales are sheriff sales. So even in those areas where people might think, ‘Oh, you know, this is not a problem here,’ - and it’s not as big a problem as in low income neighborhoods - it’s still very present,” says Kim.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development - or HUD - certifies Foreclosure Counselors to help homeowners save their houses. Denise Gastesi is a Foreclosure Intervention Specialist at the Franklin County Treasurer’s Office. Gastesi says sometimes upper-income homeowners are hesitant to use those services.
“And I think in the suburbs sometimes they’re even more reluctant to seek help because they think that, ‘Well, I’m not low-income, I don’t need to go to one of those agencies.” And it’s important for them to know that HUD-certified just means that they’re not one of the scam artists out there,” says Gastesi.
CRP reports there have been 28 foreclosure filings in Muirfield Village in the past three years - just under 5% of homes in the development.
Eve Searls, a foreclosure specialist with the Columbus Housing Partnership, talks about the importance of seeking professional counselors - which offer free services - when facing a mortgage crisis.
Adnan Mirza, a foreclosure specialist with the Columbus Housing Partnership, talks about the ripple effects of a mortgage crisis, including the emotional effects.
Anastasia Snyder, an Associate Professor at Ohio State, talks about why the mortgage crisis is so difficult to deal with from a family perspective. here. she talks about how to get through a crisis by maintaining routines and normalcy - as much as possible.
Anastasia Snyder, an Associate Professor at Ohio State, talks about why the mortgage crisis is so difficult to deal with from a family perspective. Here, she explains both good and poor coping skills.
Pace of Mortgage Loan Modifications Under Obama Plan Painstakingly Slow
Approximately two out of three middle class families are at high risk of sustaining or losing their economic security. Too often, parents are being forced to make difficult decisions that affect their children’s well-being. In response to these rec…ent changes in family economics, Sesame Street has produced a primetime special, “Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times.” This hour-long special, hosted by Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo, aims to help families with children, ages two to eight, experiencing difficult economic circumstances by offering strategies and tips that can lead to positive outcomes for their children’s physical and emotional well-being during this tough economic climate.
