Michigan tries to slow foreclosures

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Michigan tries to slow foreclosures
Rate spike spurs bids for moratorium, extended credit options
Mark Hornbeck / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING -- Scrambling to do something about Michigan's rampant home foreclosure problem before the holidays, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and lawmakers are working on a flurry of bills to ease the squeeze on cash-strapped homeowners.

Various measures would place a moratorium on foreclosures, require advance notice and give those who can't meet their monthly payments some breathing room to refinance. The key bills being considered would require mortgage lenders to give 45 days' notice in advance of a home being placed in foreclosure and mandate that the lender report to the state. There is no such time frame set in law now. A bill in the Senate would require 90 days' notice.

Using that information, the state banking regulator would determine whether a subprime loan should be extended for 30 days, giving the lender and borrower a window to work out a new payment plan. That legislation passed the Democratic House last month and is supported by Granholm, but faces an uncertain fate in the Republican Senate.

"I'm fairly confident something will get done on this very soon. Everybody agrees that the mortgage foreclosure process in this state doesn't work well in the economic situation we're in," said John Llewellyn, chief lobbyist for the Michigan Bankers Association. "But if you don't have the economic capability to live in your house, then you're in trouble. That won't change."

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081202/BIZ/812020350/1001

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Please take a look at the tax foreclosure list for Wayne County: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x245430

[snappyturtle]

1. I don't know why this isn't being addressed NOW at the national level! nt

[tclambert]

2. Because the Bushites don't believe in helping the little people

They always want to inject money at the top, give it directly to the corporations who were deceived and defrauded by those millions of scheming poor people who tricked the moneylenders into giving them mortgages they wouldn't be able to pay for. Then those deadbeats wipe the dust off their feet, walking away from their homes, leaving the poor banks in possession of more houses than they can sell for a healthy markup. Why, if it weren't for George Bush's Treasury department riding in to the rescue, running their printing presses overtime, and borrowing from the Chinese, to give the financial institutions free money, the corporations might have trouble turning a profit.

The Bush administration would never consider rewarding those petty borrowers who were too greedy or too short-sighted to realize they couldn't make the payments down the road on those high-tech space age mortgage instruments, especially after a million of them lose their jobs. If they gave money to little people, those ungrateful wretches might make their loan payments, stave off foreclosure, stop the glut on the housing market, keep housing prices up, maybe spend a little besides or buy a car that would stimulate the whole economy from the bottom up. Why, it might lead to general prosperity. And the financial institutions would have to settle for making their regularly expected interest on the loans. It would rob them of the excuse to raid the public treasury directly.

Now do you understand?

[snappyturtle]

3. I know. Sorry...it was a rhetorical question. nt

[tclambert]

5. Well, then consider my response a rhetorical answer.

Ooh, I just blew my own mind. I have felt extra sarcastic today is the real reason I felt compelled to comment. 'Cause I knew you knew what you knew.

[FriendlyReminder]

4. Maybe part of the deal should be to sell of the MANSIONS that the Corp. Execs

live in order to help the little guy just try and keep up.

[Vidar]

6. Unfortunatel, Granholm is not very popular because she's still

cleaning up the mess left by the Republican gangster who preceded her. However, I am very glad to have her for my governor.