ESOP: WATT NOMINATION A GOOD SIGN, BUT HOMEOWNERS NEED RELIEF NOW

For Immediate Release                                                         
May 2, 2013                                                                   

Contact:
Deonna Kirkpatrick
(216) 361-0718
dkirkpatrick@esop-cleveland.org

Watt Nomination a Good Sign, But Homeowners Need Relief Now

CLEVELAND, OH – President Obama’s nomination of Congressman Mel Watt for Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is a welcome sign of the administration’s commitment to dealing with the lingering devastation of the housing crisis.  Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People urges the Senate to move quickly to confirm Representative Watt. While this nomination moves through the Senate we also ask the White House to immediately name a new Acting Director to help homeowners who continue to struggle with underwater mortgages and a sluggish housing recovery.

While national trends for the housing market are on the rise, in Ohio there were more than 70,000 new foreclosure filings last year.  According to RealtyTrac Ohio has had more than 10,000 new foreclosure filings in both February and March of this year. Families are still suffering and there is still much work to be done.  This crisis calls for American ingenuity and leadership. It’s time to use all the options available to protect homeownership, help families stabilize their finances, and rebuild American communities.



The current Acting Director Edward DeMarco has repeatedly declined to use all of the effective options available to help homeowners recover from the housing crisis. He has refused to allow mortgage principal correction despite his own agency’s evidence that a principal correction program would keep families in their homes while saving taxpayers money.

ESOP is optimistic that Representative Watt will show real leadership to help keep families in their homes, ensure fair lending and servicing practices, boost the housing recovery and chart a course for the appropriate role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in housing finance.

Every day that DeMarco remains in his position the FHFA puts more families at risk of foreclosure and delays the housing recovery.  If DeMarco won’t act then we call on the Senate and the White House to act quickly to replace him with someone who will.

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ESOP is a HUD-approved foreclosure prevention counseling agency. We have eight offices across Ohio to help urban, suburban and rural homeowners. ESOP has been on the frontlines of the predatory lending and foreclosure epidemic since 1999, combining community organizing, foreclosure prevention and advocacy.  

WHO IS BUYING FORECLOSED HOMES AND WHY IT'S A PROBLEM

"Who's Buying Foreclosed Homes and Why It's a Problem

by Nate Berg (October 13, 2011)

 

 

Foreclosed homes tend to be problems for cities. They sit there, empty, unkempt, just asking for someone to break in. What they need and what governments at basically every level want is someone to buy them. Own them. Love them. Live in them.

 

 

So when a foreclosed property gets sold, the problem’s solved, right? Well, not exactly. According to a new study published in the Journal of Planning Education and Research, property sales don’t lead to solutions because often the people buying foreclosed properties from banks are also investors looking to resell the property. But these predominantly small-time investors typically have fewer resources to spend on maintaining their homes as they sit on the market and wait for new buyers.

 

 

“A lot of them are being sold to an investor and staying vacant,” says Dan Immergluck, an urban planning professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the author of the study. “You have the same problem as before.”

 

READ THE ENTIRE HERE

NOTE:  A COMPANY CALLED CORELOGIC IS LISTED ON THE  PROPERTY TAX RECORDS [WHERE THE PERSON WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING TAXES IS LISTED] OF MILLIONS OF HOMES THROUGHOUT COUNTIES IN OHIO AND ACROSS THE UNITED STATES.  WHO IS CORELOGIC?  WHAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN  MAPLE HEIGHTS GOVERNMENT AND CORELOGIC? CLICK NUMBERS BELOW FOR SOME  INFORMATION

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Update on Corelogic:
The Illogic of CoreLogic, August 26, 2012