March 2009

  • New Regulations for Loan Modification and Refinance

    According to the Treasury, as many as six million families are expected to face foreclosure in the next several years, with millions more struggling to stay current on their payments, and with Friday’s news that unemployment has spiked to 8.1 percent with job loss topping four million since the recession began in December 2007. So with this, the Obama Administration’s Making Home Affordable program was announced this week along with the possibility that it could help three million to four million families avoid foreclosure, and it is expected to cost $75 billion over the next several years. The announcement comes only weeks after the administration announced its Homeowner Affordability and Stability plan that would offer up to $200 billion to support low mortgage rates by “strengthening confidence” in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage finance companies — monies that were made available through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act. more

  • Finally Touching That Third Rail?

    Rail travel is romanticized so much in our nation’s culture — be it in song, film, or political theater — that it’s easy to forget that we forgot about it a long time ago. We were critical here on Rooflines…

  • Making a Profit on the Shards of a Glass Bubble

    You’ve got to give the money-makers credit: when their giant, festering wound of an enterprise was pried open, cleansed with salt and rubbing alcohol, what did they do? They invested in pieces of the scars even before the healing began.…

  • “Ethical Lenders” Employ a Tried and True Method: Long-term, Fixed-rate Loans

    This report from ABC News focuses on Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, a nonprofit and part of a growing list of organizations that embrace the identity of “ethical lender,” working with low-income borrowers amid an unnerving financial crisis. What’s so…

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    Sprawl’s share of US housing starts has declined dramatically, says EPA

    A new report from the US Environmental Protection Agency documents a dramatic shift in the pattern of new development in the nation over the past two decades: Central cities and counties are now claiming a much larger share of overall…

  • MacArthur Foundation Announces Multi-State Affordable Housing Preservation Effort

    The following was released Thursday by the MacArthur Foundation. Seizing the opportunity to make needed long-term investments in the face of a weak economy, 12 states and cities are launching innovative projects to preserve more than 70,000 affordable rental homes. The new projects will assist military families in Maryland, seniors in rural Iowa and Vermont, low-wage workers in Florida and Oregon, and people who have been homeless in Los Angeles. They will promote energy efficiency in Pennsylvania, save distressed buildings in Minnesota, improve management of rental housing in Washington State, and ensure that rental homes are available in gentrifying areas near public transit in Denver. With the stock of affordable rental housing disappearing at an alarming rate, MacArthur’s $32.5 million investment — $9.5 million in grants and an additional $23 million in low-interest loans — will leverage more than $147 million in other funding. The news was welcomed today by federal, state, and local housing officials across the country. more

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