Don’t Expect Quick Action on Mortgages
Want government help to get out of a bad credit mortgage? Don’t look for Congress to come through for you anytime soon.
Lawmakers have lots of ideas and plans — as well as hearings to share their concerns and assess blame — but there’s no consensus.
The only thing everyone has agreed on is that something must be done.
“We may have as many as 1-3 million people who could lose their homes, not because they lost their jobs, not because the economy collapsed, but because they got bad deals on mortgages,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.
House and Senate lawmakers are working on different plan to help Americans out of the bad credit mortgage crisis, none of which seems ready for a prime-time signing by President Bush.
Dodd acknowledged as much last week as he urged the White House to take action, despite all the mortgage-related legislation his committee has planned for the fall.
“Those matters will take a little more time,” Dodd said.
Time may be running out.
Financial markets in the U.S. and around the globe have been shaken by fears about spreading credit problems that started with home mortgages.
It began with rising defaults in subprime (bad credit) mortgages — home loans made to people with weak credit histories.
Rising delinquencies have jolted global credit markets because big hedge funds and other investors poured lots of money into subprime mortgages because of their higher returns and now face the prospect that they will not be repaid.
The House and Senate are working on different tracks but the plan furthest down the road is in the Senate, where senators will vote in September on the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development spending bill.
Inside that bill is $100 million earmarked for nonprofit housing groups to help homeowners in mortgage refinancing.
Many mortgages are no long held at banks, so people don’t know where to go when they start getting in trouble, senators said.
Follow the link to continue reading this Associated Press piece on governmental action on mortgages …