On February 18th 2009 United States President, Barack Obama, introduced a seventy-five billion dollar program to help stabilize the American Housing market. The Homeowners Affordability and Stability plan was put into place to help nine million U.S. Homeowners avoid defaulting on their home mortgage loans.
The plan was funded mostly by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act and supplemented by two hundred billion dollars from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What the plan would do, is basically reduce a homeowner’s mortgage payment to 31% of the gross household income. This was done by offering banks incentives to reduce the payments to 38% and then the American government subsidized the rest to get it to 31%. The plan also involved forgiving mortgage balances and incentives for lenders to make the loans current, so people would not lose their homes.
But, how did we get into this mess? The price of real estate and housing was climbing at an astounding rate through 2006. It got to a point where the market could no longer sustain the prices. Like a bubble that grows ever larger, the surface (credit) could no longer hold the pressure (rising prices). As a result in 2007 the bottom fell out of the market as banks began calling their loans and found that there was no money there. This caused many banks to close and forced the largest government bailout in American history.
This credit crunch and deflation of the housing bubble didn’t just affect housing and banks. The American economy was plunged into deep recession with unemployment skyrocketing and other sectors of business needing to rely on the government to get out of financial trouble and to stay afloat.
Was it the right thing to do? Some believe that President Obama has saved the American homeowner. Others, however, believe that the Mortgage relief program has extended the recession by not allowing the housing market to reach it’s natural bottom and rebound on it’s own. We have averted catastrophe now, but where will it lead us down the road. The two schools of thought on Obama’s plans for financial restoration have divided the country right down the middle. The 2012 election showed just how divided the nation is. The Democrats won the election with the narrowest of margins and the Republicans actually obtaining the popular vote.
Only time will tell if the Obama Mortgage relief plan will work. There are many resources online to discover more about this plan and the qualifications if you yourself are struggling with mortgage payments.
To Learn more about the Obama Mortgage Relief Plan, please visit basicmortgagefacts.com where you can learn more about this and otherHome Mortgage related topics.