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Eight million people are at risk of losing their homes because Wall Street abandoned responsible lending practices to gain short-term profits. The housing crisis is not just a problem for families facing foreclosure - it's a problem for every homeowner in America. As long as foreclosures persist, home values will keep going down, and everyone loses.

We need your help. Have you been affected by the housing meltdown? Foreclosed on? Underwater? Record your story, or the story of a friend, family member, or neighbor, and send it to us. You can also add your written story along with a photo for the map. Then, watch the video stories of the families, mothers, fathers, and children who have lost, or are losing the place they call home.

Tag Archive for 'wall street'

Bank of America Still Screwing Troubled Mortgage Borrowers

Published
by
ZP Heller
on May 14, 2009
in Content
. Comments

If you think Bank of America is curbing their predatory practicies now that they’ve ousted Ken Lewis as chairman, think again.  Check out this ad I came across:

SHORT SALE!

Have You Had Difficulty Negotiating A Short Sale With Your Lender?

To approve a Short sale of your primary home, did the Lender make you sign a note or letter stating you must repay the difference between your loan and the sale amount, even if you never refinanced your home?

Did the Lender force you into Foreclosure and Bankruptcy?

We are a group of individuals (not attorneys) concerned with the way certain Banks have treated troubled borrowers and are investigating their practices, especially in light of the billions of dollars banks have received in TARP Monies. Some of these ill-advised business practices may even be illegal under California law, and costing taxpayers millions of dollars.

This is not a solicitation of business. We want to hear from you. Confidentiality assured.

Please call 1-866-981-8781 and leave a confidential message. Thank you.

What prompted this ad is that Bank of America has apparently been screwing over troubled mortgage borrowers who are attempting to negotiate short sales on their homes.  Borrowers who can’t afford to keep their homes have to work out a deal with their bank, selling short on their home at whatever the market value is currently in order to avoid foreclosure altogether.  Bank of America, however, is forcing these troubled borrowers to sign deficiency letters, meaning the borrower has to repay the difference between the sale price and the remainder of the existing loan on the property, which could easily force borrowers into bankruptcy.

What’s odd is that banks get far less in foreclosure than in short sales, so it would be in their best interest to work something out.  What’s more, Bank of America recently announced it was easing its policy on short sales, requiring 5 percent of short sale proceeds instead of 10 percent.  But this ad makes it sound like Bank of America is still having it both ways with troubled borrowers.

In California, Bank of America’s predatory behavior might be violating the law, since they are refusing to bless a short sale if the borrower does not sign a deficiency letter, even when the borrower’s home has not been refinanced.  If you know anyone, particularly in California, who has had difficulty negotiating a short sale, urge them to call 1-866-981-8781 and leave a confidential message.  Bank of America has already taken tens of billions in our taxpayer money through the bailout; we can’t allow them to continue screwing homeowners at every turn.

“There Has To be Some Justice For Main Street.”

Published
by
Christy Hardin Smith
on February 18, 2009
in Content
. Comments

The folks at Brave New Films talked to Rep. Marcy Kaptur and economist Dean Baker about the TARP, Wall Street and regular folks. As Rep. Kaptur said, somewhere in the economic mess, “there has to be some justice for Main Street.”

Dean Baker lays things out on the table:

Certainly I can understand people being very upset at being forced out of their home. The government doesn’t appear to be anything to help homeowners, they’ve gone to great lengths to help banks — the banks that got us into this, and very often under false pretenses. As Rep. Kaptur has said, representations that were made to Congress before the passage of the TARP were not accurate, were not honest.

Most importantly…I’ll just mention that the Federal Reserve board had the authority to directly buy commercial paper from non-financial companies. The reason why this is important was it was argued before they passed the TARP, that the economy was shutting down because…other companies couldn’t get the money they needed to meet their payrolls and pay their bills.

Well, it turned out that the Fed always had the authority to simply buy their commercial paper so that they would have that money. And they began doing that only after Congress approved the TARP.

So this is really dishonest on the part of the Fed. And this is the sort of behavior that you could certainly understand people being outraged about: that we’re helping the banks, but not the people who are losing their homes.

Continue reading ‘“There Has To be Some Justice For Main Street.”’